30 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
really the most important operation of all in the 
bee-keeper’s work of stimulating his stocks for 
the coming season. Here in the centre of each 
comb you see the young brood; but all the cells 
above and around it are full of honey, still sealed 
over and untouched by the bees. The stock is 
behind time. The queen must be roused at once 
to her responsibilities, and here is one very simple 
and effective way of doing it.’’ 
He took the knife, deftly shaved off the cap- 
pings from the honey-cells of each comb, and as 
quickly returned the frames, dripping with honey, 
to the brood-nest. In a few seconds the hive was 
comfortably packed down again, and he was 
looking round for the next languid stock. 
“All these slow, backward colonies,’ said the 
bee-master, as he puffed away with his smoker, 
“will have to be treated after the same fashion. 
The work must be smartly done, or you will chill 
the brood; but, in uncapping the stores like this, 
right in the centre of the brood-nest, the effect 
on the stock is magical. The whole hive reeks 
with the smell of honey, and such evidence of 
prosperity is irresistible. To-morrow, if you come 
this way, you will see all these timorous bee-folk 
as busy as any in the garden.” 
