132 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



to care for the brood in one story. If two or three stories 

 of brood with adhering bees are piled up, in two or three 

 weeks there will be enough bees there so that when re- 

 duced to one story it will be all right for super-work. 

 Or, it may be left just as it is, and allowed to store in 

 combs for the next spring's use. 



BURR-COMBS. 



At the time of putting on supers, it is desirable that 

 there shall be as little inducement as possible toward the 

 building of burr-combs between top-bars and supers. A 

 very strong inducement of that kind consists in the pres- 

 ence of any beginnings of such combs already there. 

 Formerly I had a space of }i of an inch over top-bars, 

 and if a super of sections were placed directly on the hive, 

 burr-combs in abundance would be built. 



HEDDON HONEY-BOARD. 



In such conditions the Heddon slat-honey-board 

 (Fig. 6) was a boon. Between the top-bars and the honey- 

 board was a mass of burr-combs filled with honey, mak- 

 ing a disagreeably dauby, sticky, dripping mess when the 

 honey-board was removed ; but the space between the 

 honey-board and the bottoms of the sections was left beau- 

 tifully free from burr-combs, so the section bottoms were 

 left clean. This \\hile everything was new ; for if the 

 honey-boards were put on a second year without cleaning 

 there would be the beginnings of burr-combs between 

 honey-board and sections, or more than the beginnings if 

 the honey-boards had gone more than one year without 

 cleaning. So at some time before putting on the honey- 

 boards they were carefully cleaned. But cleaning the 

 honey-boards was not enough. The tops of the frames 

 had to be cleaned as well, and this cleaning was done with 



