142 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



hand just exactly the right step to take in any given case, but 

 there wouldn't be nearly the fun in it. 



BROOD AND POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 



It may be asked why it is that I have so little trouble with 

 queens laying in sections, while some others are much troubled 

 in that way. Possibly the thickness of top-bars may have some- 

 thing to do with it, but very likely it may be that the amount of 

 foundation in sections has a bearing on the case. Some use 

 small starters in sections, while my sections are filled as full as 

 possible with foundation. When drone-comb is absent from the 

 brood-nest, there seems to be such a desperate desire for drone- 

 brood that I have known the queen to leave the brood-nest and 

 fill with eggs a patch of drone-comb two or three frames dis- 

 tant from the brood-nest. On the same principle she would 

 go up into the sections if drone-comb were there, and nearly 

 always when I find brood in the sections it is drone-brood. With 

 small starters in sections there is plenty of chance for building 

 drone-comb, but when the sections are full of worker founda- 

 tion there is no chance for it, hence no special temptation for 

 the queen to go above unless very much crowded for room. 



Of course, when brood enters the sections, pollen is likely 

 to follow. Perhaps a more common cause of pollen in sections 

 is the shallowness of brood-frames. Against this, an excluder 

 is powerless to help. I had a little experience with frames 

 shallower than the Langstroth, and had more pollen over oTtie 

 hive with the shallower frames than over fifty of the others. 



PREPARING SUPERS OP SECTIONS. 



This work is done in the winter, or at least so early in 

 spring that it will not interfere with other work, but as an 

 understanding of it may help just a little toward understanding 

 some of the summer work, I will talk about it here. 



CLEANING SUPERS AND T TINS. 



The propolis is scraped from the supers by means of the 

 hatchet already mentioned, Cleaning T tins is another matter. 



