SPABE COMBS 169 



SPARE COMBS. 



HOW TO STORE THEM. 



Generally, the lioney flow ceases as the end of March 

 approaches with cool nights. This is not, of course, a 

 hard and fast rule. At odd times one may experience a 

 warm, dry winter, with a continuance of honey; the bees 

 breed strongly, and it is impracticable to remove the 

 supers. This is exceptional. In normal seasons clean up 

 the last of the extracting towards the end of the month 

 mentioned above. With this method of working, return 

 the empty combs to the hive as fast as they are extracted. 

 (The apiarist should not work this way if any disease is 

 present or suspected). If the honey flow has finished, 

 the bees quickly "lick" the combs dry. 



When the nights are cold, combs should be left on 

 the hives for a day or two ; the apiarist will then have no 

 difficulty in removing the entire super almost devoid of 

 bees. Some bee-farmers prefer to allow the bees access 

 to the wet combs, which have been piled in supers about 

 the apiary, thus permitting the bees to ' ' rob ' ' the combs 

 dry. The upset occasioned by the exposure, combined 

 with the tearing of the combs, to say nothing of the 

 danger of transmitting and distributing disease over the 

 whole of the apiary, is sufficient to show the disadvan- 

 tages of getting combs cleaned up in this manner. 



When the dry combs are removed from the hives, 

 simply stack them in supers to a height of six or seven 

 feet, along the cool (southern) wall of the honey-house. 

 Under each pile of supers place one of the wire screens, 

 used for travelling bees, and another one on top. They 

 may remain thus, undisturbed, until required in the 

 following spring. The screens effectively exclude mice 

 and rats, etc., and the apiarist will rarely find any combs 

 damaged by moths, when supers are protected in this 

 way. 



Should the conditions be such as to preclude re- 

 turning the combs for the bees to clean up, just stack 



