444 HONEY PR0Dt7CTI0N. 



to fill. The second ease should not be added until the firsfi 

 is half filled. The outside sections, being the last filled, may 

 not be sealed at all, unless the bees are somewhat crowded for 

 room. To remedy this, many bee-keepers are in the habit of 

 "tiering out," instead of "tiering up;" that is, they put the 

 empty or unfinished sections in the middle of the super, re- 

 moving all that are filled, or placing them on the outside. This 

 is an increase of labor, but some hold that it pays. 



There is quite a difference in localities and seasons, as to the 

 time of adding supers. Much depends on the yield of honey. 

 Each Apiarist must judge of the probabilities, not only of 

 ordinary seasons, but of extraordinary seasons as well and this 

 knowledge can be gained only by practice. To show what 

 may be expected in a good location, we will quote a passage 

 from Dr. Miller's "Forty Years Among the Bees": 



' ' On the whole, there is a mixture of judgment and guess- 

 work as to putting on supers after the first. Perhaps the near- 

 est to a general rule in the matter is to give a second super 

 when the first is half filled. If, however, honey seems to be 

 coming in slowly, or if the colony is not strong, and the bees 

 seem to have plenty of room in the super, no second super is 

 given, although the one already there may be filled with honey. 

 On the other hand, if honey seems to be coming with a rush, 

 and the bees seem crowded for room, a second super may be 

 given, although there is very little honey in the first. These 

 same conditions continued, a third super may be given when 

 the second is only fairly started and the first not half full, 

 and before the first super is ready to take off there may be 

 four or five supers on the hive. In the year 1897 — a remark- 

 ably prosperous year — there were at one time in the "Wilson 

 apiary an average of four supers to each colony, some colonies 

 with less than four and some with more, and not a finished 

 super in the lot. The supers were all well filled with bees, and 

 although I took some chances as to unfinished work, I feel 

 pretty sure that if I had allowed less room it would have 

 been at a loss. But that was a very exceptional case." 



Instead of removing the filled sections from the center of 



