132 MONEY IN BEES IN AUSTRALASIA 



enough to enable the bees to build a little comb, but to 

 give a super would double the size of the hive at a time 

 when the bees would be unable to keep it warm. When 

 this happens, it is a good practice to give a frame of 

 foundation in the centre of the brood-nest. 



The yard may not be visited again for a fortnight; 

 this is a matter of judgment. On the next trip the frames 

 of foundation will have become frames of brood. Perhaps 

 the whole eight frames will contain larvae in various 

 stages, so the colonies at this time will probably be able 

 to stand a super of extracting-combs. In a normal season 

 the queen may be laying so freely that the centre combs 

 in the super are a card of solid brood. Should it happen 

 that some of the colonies are inclined to be backward, take 

 these combs containing brood, and place them in the 

 supers of the weaker hives ; this had better be deferred 

 until the brood begins to hatch. 



Some of the hives at this time may show signs of 

 swarming, in which case, substitute a body of foundation 

 for the brood-nest; place a queen-excluder over the foun- 

 dation, on this a super of empty combs and on top of all 

 the brood-nest. Make sure the queen is down on the 

 foundation. The point to secure is plenty of room. To 

 control swarming at an out-yard, give the bees heaps of 

 it. Young queens, bred from non-swarming strains, 

 should be the principal objective, and clipped queens the 

 invariable rule. The top storey of brood may be profitably 

 used to raise young queens, and to make nuclei. The 

 conditions existing in a hive treated in this way nearly 

 approximate those of a supersedure colony, and the 

 queens reared are very good indeed. 



A WASTE OP TIME TO HUNT FOR QUEEN-CELLS. 



Of course it is practically impossible to go through 

 the season without swarms, and this, in spite of the best 

 management. However, make no effort to go through all 

 the brood-combs, seeking embryo queen-cells; (at the 

 best, their destruction is not a cure for swarming; it only 



