434 HONEY PRODUCTION. 
The mat (352), and cloth (353), are removed and the 
upper story is placed immediately over the frames (fig. 68). 
760. One great advantage of this style of supers, lies in 
the facility, with which the bees can reach the upper story 
from any ‘comb, or from any part of a comb, either to de- 
posit their honey or for ventilation, during hot weather. 
Bees show their preference for these large receptacles very 
decidedly. For comparison, let two or three broad frames 
(299)—filled with sections which are of more difficult venti- 
lation and access — be placed in the center of one of these 
supers with some extracting frames on each side, all equally 
filled with strips of foundation (674), and the small sec- 
tions (722) will be filled last almost in every instance, even 
although placed nearest to the center of the brood-nest. 
Mr. Langstroth was the first to call the attention of Apia- 
rists to the loss incurred by compelling bees to store the 
surplus honey in small receptacles. The bee-keeper cannot 
afford to sell honey stored in small sections, except at a 
considerable advance over its value in large frames. 
761. Colonies, which do not have the breeding apart- 
ment nearly full of brood, honey and pollen, need not be 
supplied with supers (757), till they show a marked prog- 
ress. After the opening of the honey crop, which is very 
easily noticed by the greater activity of the bees and the 
whitening of the upper cells of their combs, a regular inspec- 
tion of their progress is necessary. The season is short, 
but the daily yield is sometimes enormous. 
762 Mr. A. Braun stated, in the Bienenzeitung, Sep- 
tember, 1854, that he had a mammoth hive furnished with 
combs containing at least 184,230 cells,* and placed on a 
platform scale, that its weight might readily be ascertained 
* Such a hive would hold about three bushels. Mr. Wildman says that ‘‘a 
clergyman set a well stocked hive of bees on a tub turned bottom up, after 
having made a hole through the bottom, and took from the tub four hundred 
and twenty pounds of honey.’’ 
