304 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEn , 



drawing the foundation out into comb, and 

 the time eventually comes when there are 

 thousands of empty cells in the brood nest. 

 Now nature has no greater abhorrence of a 

 vacuum than has a bee of an empty cell 

 during a flood of honey; and although the 

 general orders are 'up stairs with the hon- 

 ey, ' no cells in the brood nest are left em- 

 pty very long. Especially is this true with a 

 deep brood-nest and yellow Italians. 



If a swarm is hived upon frames with 

 starters only, the first step is, necessarily, 

 the building of comb. Now, if a super fill- 

 ed with drawn, or partly drawn, comb ( noi 

 foundation ) is placed over the hive, the 

 bees will begin storing honey in the 

 combs at the same time that comb building 

 ing is begun below. A queen excluder 

 must be used to keep the queen out of the 

 supers, then she will be ready with her etrgs 

 the moment a few cells are partly finished 

 in the brood nest, and, if the latter has been 

 properly contracted, she will easily keep 

 pace with the comb building. The result is 

 that nearly all of the honey goes into the 

 supers, where it is stored in the most mar- 

 ketable shape, and the combs in the brood 

 nest are filled almost entirely with brood. 

 When bees are hived upon empty frames, a 

 small brood nest is imperatively necessary, 

 otherwise large quantities of honey will be 

 stored therei'1, and when bees build comb 

 to store honey, particularly if the yield is 

 good, they usually build drone comb. They 

 probably do this because storage can thus be 

 secured with the least expenditure of time, 

 labor and material. So long as the queen 

 keeps pace with the comb builders, worker 

 comb is usually built, but if the brood nest 

 is so large that bees begin hatching from its 

 center before the the bees have filled it with 

 comb, and the queen returns to re fill the 

 cells being vacated by the hatching bees, 

 the comb builders are quite likely to change 

 from worker to drone comb. 



No fairer questton oould be asked than: 

 What are the advantages of this system? 

 In reply I will say that, in the first place, the 

 foundation is saved; but although this is a 

 great saving, it comes about incidedtally, ns 

 the non-use of foundation is only a means to 

 an end, and that is the profitable securing 

 of the greatest possible amount of honey in 

 the most marketable shape; leaving the 



brood combs. I think I am safe in saying 

 that I have had thousands of combs built 

 under this management, and I think at least 

 eighty per cent, of them were as perfect as 

 it would be possible to secure by the use of 

 foundation. A much larger percentage 

 were perfect when I was using the Langs- 

 troth frame, and contracted to only 

 five frames. This made the top ofthe brood 

 nest, where the bees commenced their 

 combs, so small that the bees completely 

 covered it. All of the combs were com- 

 menced at the same time, grew all together, 

 and were completed at about the same time. 

 As a rule, they were as nearly perfect as 

 possible, at least so far as straightness was 

 cor c rned. When I came to using the new 

 Heddon hive more extesnively, I discovered 

 that the greater surface at the top allowed 

 room for the starting of more combs, that 

 the outside combs would not always be 

 started so soon as the center ones, and this 

 sometimes resulted in a slight bulging of the 

 combs. Perhaps the outer comb would be a 

 trifle thinner and used largely for storage. 

 The comb next to it would bend out slight- 

 ly to match the lack of thickness in the out- 

 side comb. As the frames in the new Hed- 

 don hive are placed nearer together than 

 one and one-half inches (the natural dis- 

 tance at which the bees place their combs 

 apart) I have sometimes thought the bees, 

 in their efforts to get the combs wider 

 apart (one and one-half inches from center 

 to center) bulged or built the comb of one 

 frame slightly into the space that rightfully 

 belonged to the adjoining comb, and then 

 this adjoining comb must needs be built 

 into the ppace belonging to the next comb 

 and so on. When full sheets of foundation 

 are used, the bees are, of course, compelled 

 to build their combs where the foundation 

 is placed. 



Sometimes drone comb would be built, 

 even in spite of contracted brood nests. 

 Usually this was the result of old queens. 

 But then, we can't always have young 

 queens, hence I can only repeat that this 

 method gives most excellent results in the 

 way of surplus, but cannot be depended 

 upon to furnish perfect brood combs. So 

 well pleased was I with this system that 

 four years ago, 1 wrote and published a 

 .little book in which rhis method was de- 



brood neat so free from honey ttiat no ex- ,*iJ.;Scribed in detail. Three thousand copies 

 tracting is needed when the time comes for "cV wore sold, the methods advised were largely 

 feeding suear for winter stores. Those who ;^ tried, and were freely discussed in the jour- 

 forany reason do not wish to use sugar, Tnals, all succeeded in getting good crops of 

 may still take advantasre of this system by i|^honey, but some failed in getting perfect 



IS may be l>ut^ 



•vest draws to|| 



another caseif, 



y with nf>»r\\''fiu 



putting the unfinished sections back on the 

 hives in time for the honey to be carried 

 down and stored in the brood nest for win 

 ter. Or a case of brood combs may be put 

 on over the sections as the harvest 

 a close, instead of puttinsr on 

 of sections. Thi'j will do away 

 all unfinished sections and the case of filled 

 brood combs can be given the colony at the 

 end of th« season in place of its empty 

 comh«. By either plan, the number of 

 finished sections is increased. 



The objection to this plan is that it can-' 

 not be depended upon to produce perfect 



i brood combs. Some keep watch of the 

 .brood combs while they are being built, 

 'cutting out crooked or drone comb, and 

 using it in the sections. I cannot think 

 ' favorat)ly of such work. ^Vhtn I hive a 

 swarm, I wish that to be the end of the 

 matter. No opening of brood nests, and 

 puttering with imperfect combs during the 

 hurlv t>urly of swarming time would he de- 

 sirable for me. But Ido think favorat)ly of 

 a plan advi=ed by Mr. H. K. Boardman, 

 that of contracting the brood nest when 

 hiving a swarm, and then uniting the swarm 

 with the parent colony at the end of the 



