136 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



frames well filled with brood when a super is given. The 

 season may be such that it will not be possible to have as 

 many as 8 brood in each hive. A colony strong enough 

 to have 6 frames well filled with brood is likely to be in 

 condition for good super-work, but the work will be better 

 if it has 7 or 8. On the other hand the season and the 

 early condition of the bees may be such that when each 

 •colony is brought up or down to its 8 frames of brood, a 

 considerable surplus of brood may be left. 



DISPOSAL OF EXTRA BROOD. 



Circumstances will decide what shall be done with 

 this extra brood. It may be needed for building up nuclei, 

 or for new colonies. It may be piled up temporarily in 

 piles of three, four, or five stories each, to be used later 

 in any manner desired. It does not take three times as 

 many bees to care for the brood in three stories as it does 

 to care for the brood in one story. If two or three stories 

 ■of brood with adhering bees are piled up, in two or three 

 weeks there will be enough bees there so that when re- 

 duced to one story it will be all right for super-work. 

 Or, it may be left just as it is, and allowed to store in 

 combs for the next spring's use. 



BURR-COMBS. 



At the time of putting on supers, it is desirable that 

 there shall be as Httle inducement as possible toward the 

 building of burr-combs between top-bars and supers. A 

 very strong inducement of that kind consists in the pres- 

 ence of any beginnings of such combs already there. 

 Formerly I had a space of }i of an inch over top-bars^ 

 and if a super of sections were placed directly on the hive^ 

 burr-combs in abundance would be built. 



HEDDOX HOXEY-BOARD. 



In such conditions the Heddon slat-honey-board 

 (Fig. 6) was a boon. Between the top-bars and the 



