ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 65 



combs, but the loss has always been so great, that it seems like folly 

 to repeat it. 



When full sheets of foundation are used in the brood nest, and 

 the brood nest is so contracted that some of the bees must enter the 

 sections; and the sections are filled with drawn comb, or partly 

 drawn comb, the honey must, from necessity, be stored in the 

 supers until the foundation in the brood frames can be drawn out; 

 and even then, having commenced work in the sections, the bees will 

 not desert them. But there is only one queen furnishing eggs while 

 hundreds of busy, eager workers are pulling away, with might and 

 main, drawing the foundation out into comb; and the time eventually 

 comes when there are thousands of empty cells in the brood nest. 

 Now, Nature has no greater abhorrence of a vacuum than has a bee 

 of an empty cell during a flow of honey; so, while the general orders 

 are "upstairs with the honey," no cells in the brood nest are left 

 empty very long. Especially is this true with a deep brood nest and 

 yellow Italians. 



If a swarm is hived upon starters only, the first step is, neces- 

 sarily, the building of comb. If a super filled with drawn, or partly 

 drawn comb ( «o/ foundation) is placed over the hive, the bees will 

 begin storing honey in the combs in the super at the same time that 

 comb building is begun below. A queen-excluder must be used to 

 keep the queen out of the supers, then she will be ready with her 

 eggs the moment a few cells are partly finished in the brood nest; 

 and, if the latter has been properly contracted, she will easily keep 

 pace with the comb building. The result is that nearly all of the 

 honey goes into the supers, where it is stored in the most market- 

 able shape, while the combs in the brood nest are filled almost 

 entirely with brood. When bees are hived upon empty frames, a 

 small brood nest is imperatively necessary, otherwise large quanti- 

 ties of honey will be stored therein; and when bees build comb to 

 store honey, particularly if the yield is good, they usually build 

 drone comb. So long as the queen keeps pace with the comb build- 

 ers, worker comb is usually built, but if the brood nest is so large 

 that the bees begin hatching from its center before the bees have 

 filled it with comb, and the queen returns to re-fill the cells being 

 vacated by the hatching bees, the comb builders are quite likely to 

 change from worker to drone comb. 



No fairer question could be asked than: What are the advantages 

 of this system ? In the first place, the cost of the foundation is 

 saved; but, although this is a great saving, it comes about incident- 

 ally, as the non-use of foundation is only a means to an end, and that 

 is the profitable securing of the greatest'possible amount "of honey.in 



