76 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 



tractor will be a part of the work which has to 

 be done at this period, and this is a fruitful cause 

 of robbing. The supers of wet combs must be 

 placed on the hives at nightfall, and care taken to 

 see that no bees can effect an entrance from the 

 outside. The combs may be allowed to remain on 

 the hives for a week, at the expiration of which 

 they may be removed and stored away. 



y It is recommended that this "cleaning-up" of 

 wet combs should be entrusted to one or two 

 colonies, as by this means there is not so much 

 danger of distributing disease germs. The usual 

 method is to give the combs back to the colony 

 from which they were taken, but it must not be 

 forgotten that such combs have usually followed 

 others through the wet cages of an extractor. 

 Where the extracting is done by taking one colony 

 at a time, and cleaning the extractor for each, I 

 would allow each colony to clean its own combs, 

 but not otherwise. 



We are speaking now of an apiary in which 

 there is no known disease. It is only to such 

 apiaries that the above remarks apply. Where 

 any mild cases of foul-brood exist — a few infected 

 cells, say, here and there — the honey from such 

 stocks must be treated quite as a thing apart. In 

 such cases extract the honey from the healthy 

 colonies, and finish with the others, finally dis- 

 infecting the extractor. 



