THE BEE-KEEPERS" REVIEW 267 



off the board and remove all but one of the queen cells now ready to 

 hatch. This is very quickly done as there is but one comb to look 

 over. From now on at any stas^e of the game, the combs and bees 

 over the board can be added to the lower hive, and no further 

 swarming will result if a honey flow is on, but if it is not it is risky 

 to add these young bees all at one time. Bearing this in mind I find 

 it is often best to make up another colony by uniting several of these 

 remnants or add them to some colony that is not quite up to the best 

 strength. I have often made quite an increase in this way. The old 

 queen must not be given back at this time if bees are added. 



The time it takes to perform this manipulation is only about 

 three minutes at each operation, and I can, with one good hand, go 

 over about one hundred and fifty colonies in a good day's work. 

 I have never had a failure with this method. 



How to Super Comb Honey Colonies. 



By WESLEY FOSTER. 



"^^ WO of the most common questions asked on the Colorado 

 \Sj Agricultural College Demonstration Train, when lectures on 

 bee-keeping were given were, 'A\"hen do you put on comb 

 honey supers?" and "When do you put on the second super?"' 



A colony must be populous to do any good in comb honey pro- 

 duction, and we desire to get the bees storing honey in the supers 

 before the brood chamber is so crowded with the honey that the 

 queen has no room to lay. I believe in the tisc of bait combs, even 

 though the honey stored in them is inferior to that built entirely 

 from starters. The baits may be rendered just as good for baits 

 and far better for quality of honev secured by scraping down the 

 comb to about half thickness. This will leave plenty of room in the 

 cells for the bees to store honey, but will make it necessary for 

 them to build new tops to the cells and the appearance will be 

 greatly improved. 



The section boxes should not be discolored enough to mater- 

 ially aft'ect the appearance of the finished product ; however, some- 

 thing ca nbe sacrificed for the sake of the advantage of the bait. 



Six is about the right numl^er of baits to use in the first supers. 

 All baits should go on in the first supers and none after that. 



If you have a local market or a market that will take off color 

 and off' finished honey at almost the price of the best you can use 

 all the baits possible. With careful handling one should not have 

 many baits, but in my experience I have rather more than I care 

 to use in the early supers. 



I find that it does not pay to put on supers until the main honey 



