12 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 



bar in a super better than in a brood-chamber with an opening 

 at the bottom front, and here again temperature plays its part. 



Knowing the relation of temperature to working in wax, it 

 can readily be seen how a colony, with plenty of hive room may 

 be crowded for brood-room and acquire the urge. 



Caging the queen gives more room, but brings on the urge 

 and may result in swarming. Removal of the brood and sub- 

 stituting foundation or drawn comb gives laying room to the 

 queen. These are good examples of destrutive beekeeping. How 

 much better the colony could get ahead had they hives so con- 

 structed and protected from outside weather conditions that 

 they could evaporate the water from their honey and store it 

 away from the brood-nest. 



Shaking the bees gives ample room, but that is artincal 

 swarming. 



Removing the water from the nectar and giving the bees an 

 opportunity to store this ripened nectar in fewer cells makes 

 more room, and when this can be accomplished soon after the 

 bees' last trip to the field, it shortens their hours of work, adds 

 to their comfort and perhaps lengthening their lives. 



It is just as necessary for the economy of their domestic 

 arrangement that they have room sufficient and warm enough 

 to ripen the honey, as for storage of ripened honey and brood. 



BROOD - FRAMES 



Brood-frames cannot be ignored in constructive beekeeping, 

 because they have so close a relation to room in the hive. The 

 nearer the number of worker cells in all the frames approach 

 the maximum, the more room the hive contains. Frames not 

 filled to the bottom-bar and frames containing drone comb ; will, 

 together with other conditions, make just enough difference in 

 hive room to bring on the urge. The ten-frame hive, under 

 these conditions, has but little more room than eight full frames. 

 The size of a hive, no matter what its dimensions, is expressed 

 in the number of worker cells it contains. A hive with but from 

 40,000 to 50,000 worker cells must not be thought of as a 

 standard hive, even though it has ten standard frames. 



