278 Beekeeping 



her, the remaining spaces being filled with frames containing 

 full sheets of foundation. This prevents the storage of 

 pollen in the supers and gives the queen a place to lay eggs 

 at once, so that an excluder is not necessary. Swarms some- 

 times desert a hive containing only foundation, but some 

 empty comb or a comb containing some unsealed brood will 

 prevent this. The placing of foundation next to full comb 

 often results in an unusual extension of the side walls of the 

 comb and a restriction of the building out of the foundation. 



Empty combs, or comb filled with honey or sealed brood, 

 are also sometimes used. It is claimed by some that, just 

 after swarming, bees secrete wax with a minimum expendi- 

 ture of energy and with the least consumption of honey, and 

 it is therefore believed that it is wasteful not to give the 

 swarm an opportunity to secrete some wax in building comb. 

 If the swarm is only moderately strong, the bees may confine 

 their efforts chiefly to the brood-chamber, if empty combs 

 are used. 



In extracted-honey production, these questions do not 

 arise, for the beekeeper can use whatever is most convenient 

 and, by giving plenty of room for storage, the colony will 

 rarely swarm again. It therefore does not pay to use strips 

 of foundation in the extracted-honey apiary. 



In comb-honey production, a swarm may be hived in the 

 usual way and then in a day or two the brood-chamber may 

 be temporarily contracted by substituting thick division 

 boards for four or five of the frames (in a 10-frame hive), 

 thus so reducing the room in the brood-chamber that the 

 bees are driven to the supers. This method may be used 

 during a honey-flow of white honey, which is preferable for 

 comb-honey, and when there will probably be a later honey- 

 flow of honey of a lower grade, which is good enough to use 

 in building up the brood-chamber but not of fine enough 

 quality for sections. If this contraction is practiced, and it 

 is less frequent now than formerly, the contraction should 

 be to about five frames, rather than a slight contraction to 

 perhaps seven frames. 



