66 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



ber for prolific queens and removes this at the opening of the 

 crop, leaving in the lower brood-chamber the best brood-combs. 

 In some way, the queen should be accommodated during the 

 heavy breeding season, and especially at the opening of the crop. 

 As an outcome of the first proposition, there must be ample 

 room for stores. Some beginners are astonished to see old prac- 

 titioners, like Dr. Miller, giving their bees as many as three 

 supers at one time, on a strong colony. But if the queen is very 

 prolific, and has been breeding plentifully as nature dictates, 

 her colony may be able to work in each of two or three supers 

 as strongly as they would work in one. 



2. The use of comb foundation in full sheets in the supers 

 when working for comb honey, or of fully built combs in extract- 

 ing supers, has also a great deal of influence, upon the prevention 

 of swarming. True, full combs are much more efficient in this, 

 but comb foundation aids greatly. There are days when the 

 crop is so heavy that all the available cells are at once filled 

 with nectar. If the bees have to build combs and thus find them- 

 selves crowded for room to deposit their loads, swarming may 

 ensue. But with full sheets of foundation in every section, the 

 work of comb building is much simplified and the necessity 

 of producing sufficient wax reduced. Of course, it is understood 

 that the supers have been supplied to the bees before they found 

 themselves crowded for space, for if the swarming impulse is 

 once gained, it is next to impossible to overcome it by any man- 

 ipulations whatever. 



3. It will be entirely useless to expect the bees to remain 

 contented and fill the supers, if the ventilation of the hive is 

 inadequate to the requirements of the enlarged population. 

 All observers have noticed the great tax imposed upon them by 

 the simultaneous increase of heat and discomfort brought about 

 by a summer temperature and a daily addition of some 2,000 

 or 3,000 or more hatching bees to the population of powerful 

 colonies. Yet many beekeepers do not think of enlarging the 

 means of ventilation. Thousands of colonies are compelled to 

 leave a large part of their population idle, hanging on the out- 

 side of the hive for davs and sometimes for weeks, because they 



