COMB HONEY. 89 
Substitute a new hive section containing empty combs or foundation 
for the removed section. After a few days remove the supers, 
smoke the bees out of the upper section, remove it, and add it to the 
section that was removed before, which at the time of its removal 
was given the usual position beside the colony (fig. 17). 
(4) Use two hive bodies as a brood chamber throughout the year 
except during the honey flow. Have both as well filled with brood 
as possible previous to the flow. About 10 days before the honey 
flow is expected to begin, insert a queen-excluding honey board 
(fig. 2) between the two hive bodies. The queen is now confined to 
a single one of the hive bodies. After 10 days transfer the 
queen‘ to the other hive body placed on the old stand and put on 
the supers. Remove the hive body im which the queen has been 
confined to one side of the colony on the old stand and supply it with 
a ripe queen cell (in a protector) or a virgin queen. When the young 
queen begins to lay, exchange places with the two hive bodies so 
that the one containing the young queen now becomes the storing 
colony, giving it the supers and field bees. Shift the hive containing 
the old queen from one side to the other of the colony on the old 
stand about once a week, so that the entire flying force of both are 
at work in the hive with the supers (p. 31). At the close of the honey 
flow the old queen may be killed unless she is especially valuable and 
the two divisions may be reunited. The period of 10 days during 
which no eggs are laid in the hive body used by the storing colony at 
the beginning of the honey flow should delay swarming at least until 
the young queen begins to lay. When the other hive body with the 
young queen is substituted, it has had a similar period of no egg laying 
in addition to having a young laying queen, making a desirable 
combination. 
Mechanical devices——A number of mechanical devices have been 
described for shifting bees from one brood chamber to another. These 
permit the bees to leave the hive when going to the fields and are so 
arranged that the returning bees are led to enter the new brood 
chamber. This is accomplished by means of switches in the bottom 
board or by a chute or tube so attached that the entrance to the 
old brood chamber is closed, allowing exit only through the tube 
which opens near the entrance of the new brood chamber. In either 
case the hives are so arranged that the bees returning from the field 
readily enter the new brood chamber. The queen is found and 
together with a comb of brood and adhering bees is put into the 
new brood chamber, and the supers are transferred from the old to 
1 Tt is not necessary to find the queen, since the presence of unsealed brood indicates in which hive body 
she is confined. She may be transferred to the other hive body by shaking all the bees from the combs 
she is known to occupy in with the bees of the other hive body. In this case some bees are returned to 
the shaken combs (p. 38) before this brood is set aside, to prevent its being chilled. 
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