21 
ing the colonies, if necessary, to secure this; and, when the honey yield 
begins, to supply sets of sections with these combs having cells deep 
enough for the bees to begin storing in as soon as any honey is col- 
lected. Earlier work in the sections is secured, and this, as is well 
known, is an important point in the prevention of swarming. Mr. 
Samuel Simmins, of England, has long contended for this use of 
partially drawn combs, and though it forms a 
feature of his systein for the prevention of 
swarming it has been too often overlooked. 
Manufacturers of comb foundation are now 
endeavoring to meet this want by placing on 
the market foundation with an extremely thin 
septum, or base, and comparatively high side 
walls, which the bees thin down at once, using 
the extra wax to deepen the cells. Ge ON hones cena 
If the brood apartment has been much con- in pound section—size 43 by 
tracted when the supers were added, the queen ee 
may go into the sections and deposit eggs unless prevented by the inser- 
tion of a queen excluder (fig. 13). This, merely a sheet of zine with per- 
forations which permit workers, but not the queen, to pass, is placed 
between the brood apartment and the supers. The great inconvenience 
of having brood in some of the sections is thereby prevented. When 
the honey in the sections has been nearly 
capped over, the super may be lifted up and 
another added between it and the brood 
apartment. Or, should the strength of the 
colony not be sufficient or the harvest not 
abundant enough to warrant the giving of 
somuch space, the sections which are com- 
pletely finished may be removed and the 
partly finished ones used as ‘bait sections” 
to encourage work in another set of sections 
on this hive or in new supers elsewhere. 
The objections to the removal of sections 
one *y one, and brushing the bees from 
them, are (1) the time it takes, and (2) the 
zaz—- danger that the bees when disturbed, and 
Reg rie alte zine queen-ex- esnecially if smoked, will bite open the ecap- 
; ping and begin the removal of the honey, 
thus injuring the appearance of the completed sections. 
A recent valuable invention, the bee escape (fig. 3), the use of 
which is explained on page 8, when placed between the super and 
the brood nest, permits the bees then above the escape to go down 
into the brood apartment, but does not permit their reentering the 
super. If inserted twelve to twenty-four hours before the sections 









