FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 275 



In spite of the better fall feed, some colonies in eight-frame 

 hives might be short of stores before the white-honey harvest. 

 To meet such cases, combs filled with sealed honey are kept in 

 reserve from the previous fall. These reserve combs are valu- 

 able for another purpose. Left to themselves the bees would 

 have very little honey in the hives at the opening of the honey- 

 harvest, and all vacancies in the brood-chamber must be filled 

 before honey goes into the supers. Now if we have reserve 

 combs on hand from the previous fall, so as to have the brood- 

 chamber entirely filled with brood and honey at the opening of 

 the harvest, then there is nothing left for the bees to do but to 

 tote the first honey up-stairs, instead of waiting for the brood- 

 chamber to be filled. You may ask what is gained by merely 

 swapping last year's honey for honey in the sections. There 

 would be nothing gained if the honey in the reserve combs were 

 white-clover honey. But it is fall honey; and for every pound 

 of fall honey we put in the brood-chamber we get back a pound 

 of white honey in sections. 



So I like to have one or two reserve combs on hand for each 

 colony in the spring. These reserve combs may be obtained by 

 taking them in the fall from colonies that are over-heavy, giving 

 in place of them empty combs to be again filled, or upper stories 

 may be given filled with combs. 



NUCLEI IN FALL. 



When the time for rearing queens is over, the nuclei will be 

 in various conditions. Some will be weak, some strong, some 

 queenless. Here will be a nucleus hive containing three strong 

 nuclei with a good laying queen in each nucleus. Nothing is 

 to be done in such a case but to leave the three nuclei as they 

 are, to be carried into the cellar without any further prepara- 

 tion, unless it be to give some honey if it be needed. In the case 

 of the middle nucleus, that wiU mean exchanging their comb for 

 one as much as two-thirds or three-quarters full of honey. In 

 the nuclei at the sides of the hive, the heaviest frames of honey 

 will be toward the center of the hive. This will encourage the 

 bees to cluster in that direction, thus concentrating the warmth 

 of the three nuclei. 



