272 A Modern Bee-Farm 
will have so much room below, where most needed, that 
she will not trouble to shift her quarters; and the outer 
combs will be so long occupied with brood that the workers 
will not get into the habit of storing there to begin with. 
See also the “Control of Swarming by Combined Swarm- 
ing and Doubling.” 
Double Brood-chambers. 
Where the stock has been developed to fill two or more 
stock chambers before the honey-flow, these may be left 
when working for extracted honey. — 
Old Combs or New. 
Many bee-keepers who however produce extracted honey 
only in limited quantities, appear to prefer white combs for 
extracting ; such as have never been used for breeding. 
They claim that the honey is cleaner and lighter in color ; 
But this is simply a theory which cannot be supported by 
sound practice. Now, new combs have little to support 
their delicate construction, and when these are emptied and 
stored away the wax rapidly deteriorates, losing its oily 
nature, so that a wasteful process of renewal is repeatedly 
necessary. 
Tough breeding combs are less likely to break in the 
extractor, the stored honey leaves the cells more readily ; 
while it is absolutely as clean and beautiful in colour as that 
from the whitest combs. I have had it so very white from 
my dark breeding combs in the surplus chamber, that it has 
been as light and clean as sparkling water, and was mistaken 
for sugar syrup; and too at a period when no feeding had 
taken place for many weeks, and the light honey was being 
brought in by the hundredweights. When we consider that 
all cells are well cleansed and polished by the bees of 
healthy stocks before being used as receptacles for honey ; 
and as it is self-evident that the tough combs will keep in 
