138 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



is brought up or down to its 8 frames of brood, a considerable 

 surplus of brood may be left. 



DISPOSAL OP EXTBA BEOOD. 



Circumstances will decide what shall be done with this 

 extra brood. It may be needed for building up nuclei, or for 

 new colonies. It may be piled up temporarily in piles of three, 

 four, or five stories each, to be used later in any manner desired. 

 It does not take three times as many bees to care for the brood 

 in three stories as it does 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 reduced to one story it will be all right for sujJer- 

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

 combs for the next spring's use, or for extracting. 



BURR-COMBS. 



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

 shall be as little inducement as possible toVard the building of 

 burr-combs between top-bars and supers. A very strong in- 

 ducement of that kind consists in the presence of any begin- 

 nings of such combs already there. Formerly I had a space of 

 % of an inch over top-bars, and if a super of sections were 

 placed directly on the hive, burr-combs in abundance would be 

 buiit. 



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, making a disagreeably 

 dauby, sticky, dripping mess when the honey-board was re- 

 moved; but the space between the honey -board and the bot- 

 toms of the sections was left beautifully free from burr-combs, 

 so the section bottoms were left clean. This while everything 

 was new ; for if honey-boards were put on a second year with- 

 out cleaning there would be the beginnings of burr-combs be- 

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



