AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 117 



place. The free ventilation of a hive containing a strong 

 colony is not so easily secured in the height of the honey 

 season, even under the best conditions, that we can afford 

 to take liberties with it; and when the ventilating-space 

 between the lower and upper boxes is more than half cut off 

 by a queen-excluder, the interior becomes almost unbear- 

 able on hot days. The results under such circumstances 

 are that a very large force of bees that should be out work- 

 ing are employed fanning, both inside and out, and often a 

 considerable part of the colony will be hanging outside the 

 hive in enforced idleness until it is ready to swarm. 



Another evil caused by queen-excluders, and tending to 

 the same end — swarming — is that during a brisk honey-flow 

 the bees will not readily travel through them to deposit 

 their loads of surplus honey in the supers, but do store 

 large quantities in the breeding-combs, and thus block the 

 breeding-space. This is bad enough at any time, but the 

 evil is accentuated when it occurs in the latter part of the 

 season. A good queen gets the credit of laying from two to 

 three thousand eggs per day : supposing she is blocked for 

 a few days, and loses the opportunity of laying, say, from 

 fifteen hundred to two thousand eggs each day, the colony 

 would quickly dwindle down, especially as the average life 

 of the bee in the honey season is only about six weeks. 



For my part I care not where the queen lays — the more 

 bees the more honev. If she lays in some of the super 

 combs it can be readily rectified now and again by putting 

 the brood below, and side combs of honey from the lower 

 box above ; some of the emerging brood also may be placed 

 at the side of the upper box to give plenty of room laelow. 

 I have seen excluders on in the latter part of the season, 

 the queens idle for want of room, and very little brood in 

 the hives, just at a time when it is of very great importance 

 that there should be plenty of young bees emerging." 



ADDITIONAL TOP BOXES. 



When the main honey flow has fairly set in and the 

 colonies are in good condition, one surplus honey super, 

 as a rule, will not be sufficient to work the hives to the 

 best advantage. A second one should be put on before 

 the first becomes overcrowded, and before queen cells 

 are started. While doing this see that any frames of 

 brood or eggs above are shifted below, and all combs 

 devoid of brood below are placed above. When 

 putting on extra supers, alwavs set them immediately 



