THOUSAN'D AXSXAERS 229 



pen that the upper starter will not be fastened securely its entire 

 length, although this would not be noticed in ordinary handling. 

 If such a section be put next the hive under another super, the 

 bees will cluster upon it and drag it down. If it be put on top the 

 bees will very gradually occupy that super, and will fasten the 

 starter securely before any special weight be put upon it. In most 

 cases the top super will not have much done in it, but will be 

 ready to be put down as the lowest one, and a fresh empty super 

 will be put on top. When the flow is on the wane some care must 

 be taken not to have too many unfinished sections, and then the 

 empty super is not put below, but if the bees need more room they 

 can work up into the super on top. 



Q. When there is a good honey-flow, and two supers full of 

 honey, would it be best to take the two supers off and put on the 

 third on top of the two, so as to give the honey a better chance 

 to ripen? 



A. With a good flow on, it will probably never happen that it 

 will be good practice to take off the two supers that are on, and 

 leave the colony with one emptj- super. For the bees should 

 always have at least plenty, if not abundance, of room, and so a 

 third super should always be given before the first two are ready 

 to be taken off. In my own apiary, a good flow being on, a super 

 is not often taken off before three or four supers are on, and in a 

 few cases there may be as many as seven or eight on. When the 

 first two are pretty well filled, a third super is given below them, 

 and likely enough another on top. All this referring to a bee- 

 keeper running for section honey. \\'ith extracted honej- all may 

 be left on until the close of each particular flow, if not to the close 

 ot the entire season, or the honey may be extracted whenever it 

 is ripe. The third super" is generally given below, a queen-ex- 

 cluder being used. But E. D. Townsend, a verj- successful bee- 

 keeper, gives the empty super above, dispensing with the excluder. 

 He says the combs filled with honey act as an excluder to keep the 

 queen from going up into the empty super. 



Q. How high do you tier up? I am using the Townsend way 

 by putting an extracted comb on each side, and sections in the cen- 

 ter, and on some hives I use shallow extracting-frames filled with 

 comb. I find these were one-half to three-fourths filled with honey 

 by June 16, and have put supers filled with sections under the 

 partly-filled ones. 



A. In a very poor season there will be no tiering up. In a 

 good season, after the season has fairly advanced, there will be 



