362 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



in producing- comb honey. It is certainly 

 a most excellent thing to use for this pur- 

 pose, but I do not produce much comb 

 honey, and I use the shallow super in 

 producing nearly all my crop of extracted 

 honey. 



When 1 first thought of using the shallow 

 super, I balked at the idea of having two 

 sizes of frames in my apiary, and my de- 

 sire to have hives and supers interchang- 

 able was also an argument against their 

 use. These objections are still present, 

 but are not so inconvenient as 1 thought 

 they would be. 



I made a few supers and placed them 

 with foundation starters, upon some of 

 m.y weakest colonies. I tell you it was 

 a su prise to me whan 1 examined those 

 supers in a few days. The frames were 

 solid full or honey, and capped in a way 

 tiat would closely rival a fancy pound 

 section. 1 remember that one of those 

 weak colonies gave me nearly as much 

 honey that season as one of my strong 

 colonies supplied with deep combs. That. 

 and later experience, has converted me to 

 the use of shallow supers. 



It is a fact that a comparatively weak 

 colony will enter a shallow super as quick- 

 ly, and often miore so, than a strong col- 

 ony will enter a deep super; and will come 

 out with about an equal amount of sur- 

 plus. 



If a deep super is given a weak colony, 

 the bees will very often refuse to enter it 

 at all. I have repeatedly found a weak 

 colony occupying only a few frames on 

 one side of a deep super, and when taken 

 off at the close of the season the combs 

 were badly bulged and almost never fully 

 capped. As I said before, such colonies 

 invariably do good work in shallow supers. 



The addition of a shallow super is a 

 gradual enlargement, and does not 

 materially effect the heat of the colony. It 

 is, therefore, occupied by the bees much 

 more quickly than a deep super, and valu- 

 able time is saved. If a colony is strong 

 at fruit bloom, I add a shallow super of 

 combs, or foundation, allowing the queen 

 a ;;)-.., ) , f his often catches a surplus 



of fruit bloom honey, and the additional 

 brood room checks swarming. When the 

 main harvest is at hand, three different 

 things may be done with this super. 



1st.-— It may remain where it is. and a 

 super placed over it with an excluder be- 

 low. 



2nd. — The queen may be put below and 

 a super of combs or foundation placed 

 between the super and the hive. 



5rd. — Two supers may be taken from 

 two hives, and put together upon a new 

 stand. Either a laying queen or a queen 

 cell be given, and in a short time this will 

 be a strong colony. If such a colony in 

 two supers be wintered over, and it is de- 

 sirable to get the colony into a deep hive, 

 1 proceed as follows: At the opening of 

 the flow the colony is set to one side, and 

 a deep hive with one comb of brood, and 

 filled out with foundation, put in its place. 

 The bees and queen are brushed in front 

 of the new hive on the old stand, and the 

 old brood nest of two shallow supers put 

 on top of the new hive, over an excluder. 

 This stops swarming, and the supers will 

 catch the honey. 



In the above I have tried to point out 

 some of the advantages in using these 

 supers over weak colonies. 1 find 1 can 

 also secure more honey in shallow supers 

 from a strong colony than I can by the 

 use of deep supers. In using shallow su- 

 pers over weak colonies the addition of 

 one super is not great enough to lower 

 the temperature of the brood nest appre- 

 ciably, and the temperature of the super 

 is soon warm enough for the bees to work 

 in. The addition of a deep' super is not 

 only too large to warm quickly, but it 

 must lower the temperature of the brood 

 nest. Therefore, a lot of time is lost rais- 

 ing the temperature of both hive and su- 

 per. Now, this condition also exists when 

 a deep super is given to a strong colony, 

 and. although in a much smaller degree, 

 the time taken in bringing the temperature 

 to a workable height would have been 

 spent in drawing out comb in a shallow 

 super, if it had been supplied instead of a 

 deep one. 



