20 DADANT SYSTEM OP BEEKEEPING 



In a shallow frame, when she reaches the edge of the comb, 

 the queen finds wood instead of cells. This disturbs her and 

 often causes her to retrace her steps and go the opposite way. 

 Even only a cross bar, in a frame, will throw a queen out of 

 direction so thoroughly that she may put brood only on one 

 side of this bar. When she has to go from one story to another 

 she again loses a serious amount of time. When the season is 

 on for her active laying, she is fed so plentifully by the workers 

 that her eggs are produced and protrude from her abodmen, 

 whether she is able to lay them in cells or not. A good queen, 

 in a swarm, will often drop eggs in such number that they may 

 be noticed if the swarm is shaken upon a black cloth. A queen, 

 imprisoned in the hand, during the period of active laying, 

 will often leave eggs between our fingers. So if we would get 

 the best service out of a queen, we must put her in a hive which 

 will give her the greatest facility for finding cells without too 

 much search. This is to be found in a brood-chamber with 

 large combs, where the queen may lay for hours without being 

 turned away from her routine by obstructions of any kind. 



When we wonder why a queen lays a greater number of eggs, 

 in a brood-chamber with few combs of large size, than in two 

 or more shallow brood-chambers, superposed over one another, 

 with a bee-space between each of them, the explanation is found 

 in the above statement. The same thing explains why, when a 

 queen has once gone into an upper story to lay, she hesitates to 

 return. She is more likely to go up into a third than to come 

 back into the first. But when she has ample room, on a limited 

 number of combs, to satisfy her propensity to lay, she is much 

 more likely to be contented and there is more egg-laying, a larger 

 increase of population, with less swarming. 



This, then, is the explanation of the advantage which 

 we found in results, in those large brood-chambers, as com- 

 pared with shallow ones. 



Safety in Wintering 



The advantage of the large brood-chambers is not only 

 in securing larger families at the right time — a large force for 



