104 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



danger of getting too much honey in the hive. It is not 

 enough to have sufficient to last till the white clover har- 

 vest begins. To be sure, that might be all right so far as 

 the building up of the colony is concerned. But no honey 

 will be put in the supers so long as there are empty cells 

 in the brood-chamber, and it is better to have enough 

 honey left in the brood-chamber so that the first white 

 honey shall go straight into the supers. 



SURPLUS COMBS OF HOXEY. 



Nothing is l^etter than to have plenty of full combs 

 of sealed honey saved over from the previous year, with 

 which to supply any colony that may need them. If I 

 were as good a bee-keeper as I ought to be, there would 

 always be enough of these so that nothing else would be 

 needed to take their place. But I am not as good a bee- 

 keeper as I ought to be, and while some years I may have 

 all the extra combs of honey that can be used, at other 

 times they may run short, even to not having enough to 

 supply the pinching wants of colonies just taken from the 

 cellar. There may, however, be some combs at least 

 partly filled that have been taken from colonies that died 

 in winter, or from the uniting of colonies in spring, and 

 these may supplement the number of combs saved up 

 from the previous year. 



FEEDING SECTIONS OF HONEY. 



\\"hen the combs of honey are all gone, the next best 

 thing is to give sections in wide frames. This seems like 

 an extravagant thing to do ; but if the sections contain 

 dark or objectionable honey, and if they can be cleaned 

 out and used for baits, there is no very great extrava- 

 gance about it. I have given sections by sliding them 

 under the bottom-bars, a thing very easily done with bot- 

 tom-boards two inches deep, but such sections are ruined 

 for use as baits, and all you can do with the empty comb 

 in them is to melt it into wax. 



