436 CONNECTICUT EXPERIME^fT STATION BULLETIN 20$. 



queen with it, and exchange places with the brood chamber, using 

 this as a brood chamber. Put on a super of section boxes inrnnedi- 

 ately and close the hive. A portion of the bees in the old brood 

 chamber should then be shaken in front of the new hive, leaving 

 only enough to properly take care of the brood, or, if no increase 

 is desired, all should be shaken out and the brood disposed of 

 among weak colonies. This old chamber of brood and some bees 

 having queen cells under way will soon mature a queen and later 

 become as good as ariy colony. 



Comb Honey. 



Much more labor and skill is required in the production of comb 

 honey than in extracted honey. In a great many locations some 

 form of contraction is necessary to secure good work in the super. 

 This is true of our own locality and sometime^ it is almost impos-; 

 sible to get the bees to go to work in the supers. To remove some 

 of the frames and replace them with yooden dummies invariably 

 results in poor filling of the outside sections and getting them 

 completed with the rest. For this reason all deep frame hives, if 

 not failures, at least are cltunsy. It will be seen, then, that it is 

 better to contract from the top, retaining in this way the whole 

 supering surface. With the sectional hive, removing all but one 

 unit reduces the capacity of the brood chamber to the desired 

 amount. This the queen will keep filled with brood, forcing the 

 honey into the super. This single unit, holding the equivalent of 

 about six and one quarter regular frames, is sufficient to maintain 

 the strength of the colony during the main honey flow, after which 

 another unit should be given for the bees to build up for winter. 

 Obviously it takes but a moment's time with this hive to provide , 

 a very large brood nest or to contract to a very small one. Units 

 shqxild never be taken away, however, without giving their equiv- 

 alent in supers, unless a swarm is desired. 



Usually during fruit bloom most colonies will require more 

 room. One unit of brood chamber filled with full sheets of founda- 

 tion is given. This will be drawn out and occupied with honey 

 and brood at the beginning of the clover flow. This is the imit, 

 with its bright, new combs, that should be used when the brood 

 chamber is reduced to. one unit. Fancy, white comb honey would 

 become more or less travel-stained if old brood combs were used 



