ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 61 



necessary if the colony is to be worked for comb honey. But when 

 a colony completely fills its hive, and has its combs well-filled with 

 brood, I doubt if much is gained by contracting the brood nest. So 

 long as the combs are kept full of brood, the surplus will go into the 

 supers. If any of the combs of brood are taken away, they must be 

 cared for by other bees somewhere else, so nothing is gained. 



It is at the time of hiving a swarm that I have found contraction 

 of the brood nest advisable. Years ago some of the "big guns" in 

 apiculture were given to lamenting the swarming of bees, because, 

 they said, with the swarm went all hopes of surplus. As the busi- 

 ness was then conducted, the "big guns" were correct in many in- 

 stances. The swarm would be hived in a ten-frame hive, and no 

 supers put on until the hive was filled. If they had been put on they 

 would not have been occupied until the lower hive was filled; and by 

 the time this was accomplished it often happened that the white 

 honey harvest had passed. If the old colony did not swarm again 

 (usually it did), some return might be expected from that, unless 

 the season was nearly over. In most of our Northern States the 

 crop of white honey is gathered within six weeks, often within a 

 month. If a colony is in a condition to begin work in the supers at 

 the opening of the white honey harvest, and continues faithfully at 

 work without swarming, as I have already said, no contraction is 

 needed; but, suppose the harvest is half over, the bees are working 

 nicely in the supers, there may be one case of sections almost ready 

 to come oflE, another two-thirds finished, and a third in which the 

 work has only nicely commenced, now the colony swarms, what shall 

 be done ? By hiving the swarm in a contracted brood chamber upon 

 the old stand, transferringthe supers to the newly hived swarm, and 

 practicing the Heddon method of preventing after-swarming, work 

 will be resumed and continued in the supers without interruption, 

 and the surplus will be nearly as great as though no swarming had 

 taken place. 



When the brood nest is only one tier of frames, the only way 

 by which it can be contracted is by taking out some of the outside 

 combs, and filling the space thus left, by using "dummies." A 

 "dummy" is simply a brood frame with thin boards tacked upon 

 each side. It hangs in the hive and occupies space the same as a 

 comb, only it is a "dummy" just as its name indicates. A frame 

 wider than a brood frame may be used, and this will make the 

 "dummy" thicker. Don't have the "dummy" touch the sides of the 

 hive, then the bees cannot glue it fast. How thick a "dummy" 

 should be depends upon how many combs are to be removed. When 

 using the Langstroth frame I prefer to contract to five frames. 



