EXTRACTED HONEY - HONEY FLOW AND HARVEST Chap. XII. 
vacant cells below, the queen should be hunted up. If she is not already on 
one of the brood-combs in the lower story, she should be placed there and 
a queen-exeluder put on to confine her there. If the weather is warm and 
honey is being stored freely, a super of empty 
] combs may now be placed above the excluder, and 
— = the former second story placed on top, making the 
a BROOD hive three stories high. When combs of brood are 
left separated from the queen by an excluder, the 
bees frequently start queen-cells on them. These 
= = queen-cells should be torn down eight or nine days 
super | after separating the queen from the brood in the 
super. As the brood in these combs now above the 
” QUEEN queen-excluder emerges, the bees will store honey 
= BROOD in the cells thus vacated, and these combs now be- 
CHAMBER come extracting-combs. : 
PJ When the honey flow is on and the weather is 
very hot, the swarming tendency will be diminished 
Queen is put below ex- by moving the inner cover back a little, leaving 
ctuder eee pane ei a quarter-inch crack at the front of the hive, giv- 
“ing additional ventilation. To give still more ven- 
tilation, the supers may also be moved slightly back- 
ward or forward to give a bee-space, and the hive itself may be raised 
from the floor by inserting a small block at each front corner. When 
the hive is raised on blocks in this way, a little smoke should be blown 
in the opening at the side when beginning work at the hive; otherwise, 
the sentinel bees stationed along the crack to protect their home will 
be likely to dart out and sting. The beginner should be cautioned against 
giving such excessive ventilation except as a last resort in preventing 
swarming during very hot weather and when the honey fiow is on, for at 
other times there is danger of robbing. In the northern part of the 
United States, sufficient ventilation may usually be provided by leaving a 
crack at the rear, between the brood-chamber and first super. This is 
done by moving the first super forward about half an inch and piling the 
other supers squarely above the first one. 
One might suppose that, if all our directions have been carefully fol- 
lowed, no queen-cells would be started for swarming; but, in a few cases, 
queen-cells may be started in spite of all our care. For this reason colonies 
should be carefully examined every seven or eight days during the swarm- 
ing season. If, at any time, queen-cells are found that are not far ad- 
vanced, or if the swarming season is about over, the bees may be induced 
to give up swarming by simply destroying the queen-cells, supplying more 
supers, and giving the queen more room to lay by placing several combs 
of emerging brood in an upper story and replacing these with empty combs 
below. In some eases, even when this has been done, the bees persist in 
carrying out their own program as to swarming, and if left alone will 
swarm usually about the time the first of the queen-cells are sealed. If a 
colony is allowed to swarm in the natural way, its work is more or less 
interrupted just at the time the bees should be storing honey. Also, it 
is either necessary to drop one’s other work and hive them whenever they 
decide to swarm; or the bees, if the queen is not with them, will return to 
the hive and repeat the performance shortly, and, if the queen is with 
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