284 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



In spite of the better fall feed, some colonies in eight- 

 frame hives might be short of stores before the white-honey 

 harvest. To meet such cases, combs filled with sealed honey 

 are kept in reserve from the previous fall. These reserve 

 combs are valuable for another purpose. Left to themselves 

 the bees would have very little honey in the hives at the open- 

 ing of the honey-harvest, and all vacancies in the brood- 

 chamber must be filled before honey goes into the supers. 

 Now if we have reserve combs on hand from the previous fall, 

 so as to have the brood-chamber entirely flUed with brood and 

 honey at the opening of the harvest, then there is nothing left 

 for the bees to do but to tote the first honey upstairs, instead 

 of waiting for the brood-chamber to be filled. You may ask 

 what is gained by merely swapping last year's honey for 

 honey in the sections. There would be nothing gained if the 

 honey in the reserve combs were white-clover honey. But it 

 is fall honey ; and -for every pound of fall honey we put in 

 the brood-chamber we get back a pound of white honey in 

 sections. 



So I like to have one or two reserve combs on hand for 

 each colony in the spring. These reserve combs may be ob- 

 tained by taking them in the fall from colonies that are over- 

 heavy, giving in place of them empty combs to be again filled, 

 or upper stories may be given filled with combs. 



NUCLEI IN FALL. 



When the time for rearing queens is over, the nuclei will 

 be in various conditions. Some will be weak, some strong, 

 some queenless. Here will be a nucleus hive containing three 

 strong nuclei with a good laying queen in each nucleus. Noth- 

 ing is to be done in such a case but to leave the three nuclei 

 as they are, to be carried into the cellar without any further 

 preparation, unless it be to give some honey if it be needed. 

 In the case of the middle nucleus, that will mean exchanging 

 their comb for one as much as two-thirds or three- quarters 

 full of honey. In the nuclei at the sides of the hive, the heaviest 

 frames of honey will be toward the center of the hive. This 

 will encourage the bees to cluster in that direction, thus con- 

 centrating the warmth of the three nuclei. 



