60 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



Coiatractioini of tlie Bir®©id Mestc 



L^ pviHE brood nest is contracted to prevent the production of 

 brood at a time when the resulting bees would come upon 

 the stage of action at a time when there would be no honey 

 to gather — when the}' would be consumers instead of pro- 

 ducers. It is also contracted to compel the bees to store the 

 honey in the sections instead of in the brood nest. There are sev- 

 eral reasons why this is desirable. The honey from clover and 

 basswood is white, fine flavored, and brings a higher price than that 

 gathered later; hence it is more profitable to force this higher priced 

 honey into the sections, and allow the bees to fill the brood combs, 

 later in the season, with winter stores from such sources as yield 

 honey that brings a lower price. When it is desirable, either from 

 its cheapness, or from its superiority as a winter food, to use sugar 

 for winter stores, contraction of the brood nest can be so managed 

 as to leave the bees almost destitute of honey in the fall, which does 

 away with the trouble of extracting, and leaves nothing to be done 

 except to feed the bees. Such, in brief, are the advantages of con- 

 tracting the brood nest. Where the honey flow lasts nearly the 

 whole season, with no long periods of scarcity, and the quality of the 

 honey is uniform throughout the season, and no advantage is to be 

 found in substituting sugar for honey as winter stores, I see little 

 need of contracting the brood nest, and would advise that it be of such 

 size that an ordinarily prolific queen can keep the combs well-filled 

 with brood in the early part of the season; but where anjr of the first 

 mentioned conditions exist, the bee-keeper who neglects "contrac- 

 tion," is not employing all of the advantages that are available. 



As a rule I don't advise the contraction of the brood nest of an 

 established colony. If it does not pi'operly fill its hive, is too weak, 

 and the time for putting on sections has arrived, then contraction is 



