CHAPTER VIII 



SURPLUS HONEY 



As the season advances it will be noticed that the bees 

 rapidly increase in numbers and activity, and a sharp 

 look-out should be kept, by an occasional peep beneath 

 the quilts, so as to prevent nver-crowding and con- 

 sequent preparations for swarming. To do this lift up 

 one by one the four corners of the quilts for a second, 

 so as to obtain a glance at the two outside frames. 

 Should these be thickly covered with bees, drive them 

 back with the smoker and add another frame to the 

 most crowded side of the brood nest, and continue so 

 to do until the full complement of ten frames is in the 

 hive. To give room about a week in advance of the 

 bees' requirements is one great step towards the 

 prevention of swarming. 



The brood nest being filled with combs, together 

 with a large and ever-increasing population of bees, it 

 soon becomes imperative to provide them with other 

 means of accommodation. This is done by giving 

 additional room over the brood nest, technically known 

 as " supering." 



The beekeeper should, by judicious stimulative feed- 

 ing, so calculate matters that this crowded state of 

 the brood nest should coincide with the honey flow. 

 This means that he must make himself acquainted with 

 the principal bee-forage of the district in which he 

 dwells. A moment's consideration will show that to 

 get a colony strong enough to take advantage of clover 



