42 COMB HONEY. 
supers already on the hive, while if it seems best to crowd the bees” 
somewhat the empty super is placed above those already on the 
hive. When the empty super is placed above the partly finished 
ones, the bees do not begin work therein unless they need the room. 
This practice is always desirable during a slow honey flow or toward 
the close of any honey flow, but when nectar is coming in rap- 
idly does not result in a rapid expansion of comb building sufficient to 
avoid a more or less crowded condition, which in turn causes a loss 
of honey and increases the probability of swarming. If each super 
is supplied with one or two extracting combs (p. 16), this disadvan- 
tage of the practice of placing the empty super on top largely disap- 
pears, since the extracting combs are immediately available for the 
storage of nectar. 
When the empty supers are placed under the partly filled ones, 
work in them is commenced promptly, but this may be at the expense 
of the nearly completed sections, which by this plan are moved 
farther from the brood chamber as each empty super is added. In 
Fic. 19.—Arrangement of supers. (Original.) 
the case of the super in which the honey Js being sealed this distance 
is an advantage in so far as the whiteness of the cappings is con- 
cerned, but it may retard the completion of the work. An arrange- 
ment of the supers that to some extent avoids this difficulty is as 
follows: Except toward the close of the season, place each newly 
added super next to the brood chamber and keep the one nearest 
completion just above it with all others arranged above these two, 
the one in which least progress has been made being on top (fig. 19). 
Thus super No. 1 is raised up and No. 2 placed beneath it. When 
No. 3 is given, it is placed next to the brood chamber, while above 
it is No. 1 with No. 2 on top. If No. 4 is given, it is placed next to 
the brood chamber with Nos. 1, 2, and 3 in order above it. By this 
arrangement, if conditions justify doing so, strong colonies may be 
induced to expand their surplus apartment with great rapidity, 
since as soon as the foundation is well drawn in each newly added 
503 
