96 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



all I'iglil SO lai' ms the buil(ling-ii|) (it the colony is coneeriierL 

 But no houey will be put in the supers so long as there are 

 empty cells in the brood-chamber, and it is better to have 

 enough honey left in the brood-chamber so that the first white 

 honey shall go straight into the supers. 



SURPLUS COMBS OF HONEY. 



Nothing- is better than to have plenty of full combs of 

 sealed honey saved over from the previous year, with which to 

 supply any colony that may need them. If I were as good a 

 beekeeper as I ought to be, there would always be enough of 

 these so that nothing else would be needed to take their place. 

 But I am not as good a beekeeper as I ought to be, and while 

 some years I may have all the extra combs of honey that can 

 be used, at other times they may run short, even to not having 

 enough to supply the pinching wants of colonies just taken 

 from the cellar. There may, however, be some combs at least 

 partly filled that have been taken from colonies that died in 

 winter, or from the uniting of colonies in spring, and these may 

 supplement the number of combs saved up from the previous 

 year. 



FEEDING SECTIONS OF COJIB HONEY. 



When the combs of honey are all gone, the next best thing 

 is to give sections in wide frames. This seems like an extrava- 

 gant thing to do ; but if the sections contain dark or objection- 

 able honey, and if they can be cleaned out and used for baits, 

 there is no very great extravagance about it. I have given 

 sections by sliding them under the bottom-bars, a thing very 

 easily done with bottom-boards two inches deep, but such 

 sections are ruined for use as baits, and all you can do with the 

 empty comb in them is to melt it into wax. 



FEEDING TO PILL COMBS. 



If neither combs of sealed honey nor suitable sections are 

 to be' had, then feeding with Miller feeders is in order. But 

 colonies that need feeding in spring are not always very strong, 



