FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 141 



BROOD AND POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 



It may be asked why it is that I have so Uttle trouble 

 with queens laying in sections, while some others are 

 much troubled in that way. Possibly the thickness of top- 

 bars may have something to do with it, but very likely 

 it may be that the amount of foundation in sections has 

 a bearing on the case. Some use small starters in sec- 

 tions, while my sections are filled as full as possble with 

 foundation. When drone-comb is absent from the brood- 

 nest, there seems such a desperate desire for drone-brood 

 that I have known the queen to leave the brood-nest and 

 fill with eggs a patch of drone-comb two or three frames 

 distant from the brood-nest. On the same principle she 

 would go up into the sections if drone-comb were there, 

 and nearly always when I find brood in the sections it is 

 drone-brood. With small starters in sections there is 

 plenty of chance for building drone-comb, but when the 

 sections are full of worker foundation there is no chance 

 for it, hence no special temptation for the queen to go 

 above unless very much crowded for room. 



Of course, when brood enters the sections, pollen 

 is likely to follow. Perhaps a more common cause of 

 pollen in sections is the shallowness of brood-frames. 

 Against this, an excluder is powerless to help. I had a 

 little experience with frames shallower than the -ang- 

 stroth, and had more pollen over one hive with the shal- 

 lower frames than over fifty of the others. 



PREPARING SUPERS OF SECTIONS. 



This work is done in the winter, or at least so early 

 in spring that it will not interfere with other work, but as 

 an understanding of it may help just a little toward under- 

 standing some of the summer work, I will talk about it 

 here. 



CLEANING SUPERS AND T TINS. 



The propolis is scraped from the supers by means of 

 the hatchet alreadv mentioned. Cleaning T tins is an- 



