PRIMARY SWARM. 221 



tlie bees may follow the pattern, and build comb suitable only 

 for breeding a horde of useless consumers. 



433. Frames containing worker combs, from colonies that 

 have died in the previous Winter are very good, if the comb 

 is dry and clean. Combs of honey will do if the swarm is 

 hived on a propitious day, otherwise they will attract robbers 

 (664) and the presence of the latter will prevent the swarm 

 from entering the hive. For this reason, combs containing 

 honey should not be given to the swarm until the following 

 evening. 



434. In the absence of combs or comb-foundation start- 

 ers (674), the triangular comb-guide will greatly help to se- 

 cure straight combs, in the frames, but it cannot be depended 

 upon, in every case. Comb-foundation in full sheets or in 

 strips is so far superior, and is now in such general use, that 

 the triangular comb-guide (319, 334) is discarded by most 

 Apiarists. By the use of comb-foundation, crooked combs, — 

 the bane of the apiary— are no longer found, and every comb 

 hangs in its frame, as straight as a board. 



435. It is held by some writers that the giving of a hive 

 full of drawn combs to a natural swarm is more injurious 

 than beneficial, because the bees fill these combs at once with 

 honey; the queen having no room to lay, the swarm declines 

 in strength. Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson in his most excellent book, 

 "Advanced Bee-culture,'' says : "Occasionally I have hived a 

 swarm upon drawn combs, but the loss has always been so 

 great that it seems folly to repeat it." Such an occurrence 

 happens in a very good season with small hives. During a 

 heavy flow, the bees can fill the entire hive-body with honey 

 in less time than it would take them to build the combs and 

 the queen is thus deprived of room to lay. This same colony, 

 if hived upon empty frames would harvest just enough honey 

 in that length of time to build the combs and keep the brood 

 nourished. The profitable saving thus turns out as a loss, 

 since this extra amount of honey is in the way of the queen. 

 This does not prove the uselessness of combs, as some persons 



