ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 153 



When using this plan care must be taken to see that the 

 queen is in the lower story when raising this shallow extracting 

 super to place the comb honey super under it. It will usually 

 be advisable to use a queen excluder (Fig. 77) under the supers 

 to prevent the queen going above until the shallow combs are 

 removed. 



Essentials of Success. — The one big factor in getting a yield 

 of honey, next to plenty of nectar in the fields, is to have big 

 colonies of bees with the hive fairly running over with the honey 



Fig. 77. — Ventilated bee escape and queen excluders, 



gathering force. One strong colony at the beginning of the 

 harvest is likely to store as much surplus as three or four of 

 moderate strength and as much as a dozen that are weak when 

 the harvest opens. From the time the honey is removed in the 

 fall until the supers are placed on the hive for the next crop every 

 move of the bee-keeper is made with a view of bringing the 

 colonies to the next harvest with multitudes of bees. 



Plenty of first quality stores and a large cluster of young 

 bees insures good wintering, with proper care. The colony that 

 comes through the winter with bees enough to cover four or more 

 frames is the one that will build up quickly in the spring. Weak 

 colonies are very slow in building up and the apiarist who does 



