FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 133 



thing in the business were fully settled and we knew beforehand 

 just exactly the right step to take in any given case, but there 

 wouldn't be nearly the fun in it. 



BROOD AND POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 



It may be asked why it is that I have so little trouble with 

 queens laying in sections, while some others are much troubled 

 in that way. Possibly the thickness of top-bars may have some- 

 thing to do with it, but very likely it may be that the amount 

 of foundation in sections has a bearing on the case. Some use 

 small starters in sections, while my sections are filled as full as 

 possible with foundation. When drone-comb is absent from the 

 brood-nest, there seems such a desperate desire for drone-brood 

 that I have known the queen to leave the brood-nest and fill with 

 eggs a patch of drone-comb two or three frames distant from 

 the brood-nest. On the same principle she would go up into 

 the sections if drone-eomb were there, and nearly always when 

 I find brood in the sections it is drone-brood. With small start- 

 ers in sections there is plenty of chance for building drone- 

 eomb, but when the sections are full of worker foundation there 

 is no chance for it, hence no special temptation for the queen to 

 go above unless very much crowded for room. 



Of course, when brood enters the sections, pollen is likely 

 to follow. Perhaps a more common cause of pollen in sections 

 is the shallowness of brood-frames. Against this, an excluder 

 is powerless to help. I had a little experience with frames 

 shallower than the Langstroth, and had more pollen over one 

 hive with the shallower frames than over fifty of the others. 



PREPARING SUPERS OP SECTIONS. 



This work is done in the winter, or at least so early in 

 spring that it will not interfere with other work, but as an 

 understanding of it may help just a little toward understanding 

 some of the summer work, I will talk about it here. 



CLEANING SUPERS AND T TINS. 



The propolis is scraped from the supers by means of the 

 hatchet already mentioned. Cleaning T tins is another matter. 



