SWARMING AND DEPRIVING SYSTEMS. 51 
smallest of the advantages being that it gives to an 
old stock the change to a younger queen. 
We have therefore to observe the natural instinct 
of these little animals, and at the proper season to 
provide them with such an occasional addition of 
storing room as will enable them uninterruptedly to 
go on constructing fresh combs—by the workmanship 
of the natural indoor labourers—to be filled with 
honey, unmixed with brood or other substances. This 
temporary receptacle, though in communication with 
the stock-hive, can at pleasure, in the way which will 
hereafter be described, be detached from it, without 
injury to the bees; these returning to their original 
habitation, in which the mother bee ought exclusively 
to carry on the work of breeding. The honey 
obtained by this act of deprivation is always supposed 
to be in excess of what is required for the wants of the 
family, and almost invariably pure in quality. Various 
have been the contrivances for effecting the separation 
of the storing and breeding departments in a hive. 
The bees, when pressed for room, will extend their 
operations almost in any direction, whether the 
accommodation is given above (which is termed stori- 
fying), at the bottom (nadiring), or collaterally. 
Equally indifferent are they to the material of the 
temporary receptacle. A second hive, box, or glass, 
placed over the stock, is termed a duplet, or more com- 
monly a super; by which general name, as we pro- 
ceed, any kind of storing vessel so placed will be 
designated. A productive season sometimes admits of 
a second super (usually introduced between the first 
and the stock), called in such case a triplet. An 
E 2 
