FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 91 



and you will see at least three places where the capping is 

 slightly elevated, because of the splints beneath. 



BROOD TO THE TOP-BAR. 



Incidentally your attention may be called to this 

 comb as a fine specimen of one well filled with brood. It 

 is literally iillcd. all the cells, sealed and unsealed, contain- 

 ing brood. It shows that there is no necessity for shal- 

 low frames to have brood clear to the top-bar. At the 

 time when it is desired to get bees to start work in sec- 

 tions, the brood will be up so high in the combs that bees 

 will start in the sections just as promptly with standard 

 frames as with those that are shallower. After the bees 

 have been at work storing for some time, the brood in the 

 standard frame will not be as near the top-bar as in a 

 shallow frame, but that will be no hindrance to the con- 

 iiiiuance of storing in supers. 



For a long tin:e it puzzled me to understand why 

 others should say that in a Langstroth frame a space of 

 one or two inches would be left under the top-bar where 

 no brood would be reared, while in my hives, in the 

 height of brood-rearing, frame after frame would be 

 filled with brood clear to the top-bar. It was urged that 

 the trouble arose because the frame was too deep. Fi- 

 nally it was suggested that horizontal wiring allowed 

 enough saggiing so that the upper cells were stretched 

 just enough so they would not be used for brood. In my 

 frames, with forndation-splints, there was no chance for 

 stretching, and so the row of cells next to the top-bar 

 and bottom-bar could alike be used by the cjueen. 



Even if brood were not reared in the upper part of a 

 Langstroth frame. I should still prefer that depth for 

 comb honey, whatever might be true as to extracted 

 honey. At one time I had two hives with shallow frames, 

 and the amount of pollen in sections filled over those 

 shallow frames was greater than in all the other thou- 

 sands of sections filled over the Langstroth frames. 



Please do not understand that all my combs look like 

 the four in Figs. 32 and 33. ]\Iany of them do, but more 



