64 



ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



before they are ready for eg'gs, and the bees fill the combs at once 

 with honey, when, from some perversity of bee-nature, work, in 

 many instances, comes almost to a stand still. Having filled the 

 body of the hive, the bees seem disinclined to make a start in the 

 sections. Where bees commence storing their surplus, there they 

 seem inclined to contintie to store it; and let the bees once get the 

 start of the queen by clogging the brood nest with honey, and that 

 colony becomes practically worthless for the production of comb 

 honey. 



Bees Secreting Wax and Building Ccmb. 

 The advantage of full sheets of foundation over starters, or vice 

 versa, was not so apparent, and, until the close of the season, an 

 equal number of swarms were hived alternately upon full sheets of 

 foundation and upon starters. Enough was proved the first season 

 to show that, so far as surplus was concerned, nothing was gained 

 by using foundation in the brood nest, except for starters, when 

 hiving swarms. I have since continued to experiment, year after 

 year, by hiving swarms alternately upon foundation and upon start- 

 ers only, in the brood nest, weighing both surplus and brood nests 

 at the end of the season, and the evidence has been in favor of empty 

 frames every time. Occasionally I have hived a swarm'upon drawn 



