COMB HONEY. 413 
placing hives containing empty combs, whose bees died the 
preceding Winter, or empty supers, over it. The honey 
contained in the brood chamber, which is always placed 
above and behind the brood, safe from pilfering intruders, is 
now at the bottom, near the entrance. 
The cells are wrong side up (fig. 
172), and the most watery honey is 
in danger of leaking out. Hence an 
uproar in the hive, and the immediate 
Tesult is, that the bees promptly oc- 
cupy the upper story, and store in 
it all this ill-situated honey. The 
result is so radical, that ‘‘ reversing 
bee-keepers’’ admit that their bees 
have to be fed in the Fall, as too little 
honey is leftin the brood chamber for 
the hives to winter on.* In the box- 
hive times, the following was already 
the almost unanimous report of bee- 
keepers on the results of ‘‘ revers- 
ing.’’ The recruiting and feeding Fig. 172. 
for Winter of reversed colonies being De ee 
considered too costly and risky, 
the Apiaries were supplied every year with new colonies 
bought from bee-keepers whose business was to raise 
swarms to sell. 
“If you want the greatest quantity of honev, reverse your col- 
onies; but if reversing was practiced everywhere, we would 
diminish the number of our colonies, and would finally even 
*In reference to this, Mr. Shuck says: ‘‘ Thisis not necessarily true. Stop 
inverting, and the frames fill just the same as they do in any non-invertible 
hive, of course. I attach importance to the system in preparation for the har- 
vest, and getting the workers started right. After that, the hive may be used 
@s a non-inverter. If you practice inversion weekly, the whole gather is 
likely to be in the supers, and you will be obliged to feed for Winter. If you 
eease inverting about the middle of basswood, you will have surplus, and the 
bees will have Winter stores, provided the flowers yield honey.’’ 
