The Townsend Bee Book 45 
lifting of full stories except at extracting-time. We put on the 
third story, when the second one is about two-thirds full, or at 
least before all the empty comb-room is used. However, no set 
rule can be given as to the proper time for putting on extra supers, 
as there is a difference in the colonies in this respect. Some bees 
will work in a few combs and begin to cap those started first, while 
those combs at the outside of the super will not be in use at all. 
In such a case it would be folly to put on another super as long as 
this condition continues. Other colonies will fill every available 
cell with honey before commencing to draw out the combs or to 
cap the cells. Such a colony will need more extra comb-room than 
the one first mentioned, for in the first case the bees seem to be 
more adapted to working wax and drawing out combs. It is well 
to humor these dispositions, and not compel the bees mentioned 
in the last case to draw out the combs to the full capacity of the 
space allowed. They should, instead, be given additional comb- 
room as they are able to use it, and they will store much more 
honey than if compelled against their will to draw out cells to the 
full depth at once. 
At extracting-time, if one wishes to make two grades of his 
extracted honey all of the partly filled and unsealed combs will be 
in the top stories if the plan just outlined is followed, and these 
can then be taken off and extracted by themselves. I believe this 
to be the ideal way, for the first-given supers are filled out more 
fully and capped more evenly than if they were lifted up and the 
empty one placed beneath them next to the brood-chamber. Then 
with this latter plan of lifting the full supers up and putting the 
empty supers next to the hive one is likely to give additional room 
faster than the bees really need it, with the result that the honey 
is capped over when the combs are thin, and even when some of 
the outside combs may not be entirely finished. 
Putting empty stories on top is probably the only practical 
way to manage when a queen-excluder is not used between the 
hive and the supers. If the extra supers are added intelligently 
when the season is near the end, by giving the colony only what 
storage room it will need, the queen will thus be crowded down 
into the hive below, leaving the supers nearly free from brood. 
In order to follow this method one should bear in mind that it is 
part of the system, in that the amount of brood in the upper story 
is to be curtailed toward the close of the season, as explained, and 
then the honey left on the hive a week or two after the close of the 
season, to allow it to cure thoroughly. Incidentally, the brood that 
