6o 



Advanced Bcc Culture 



so far as surplus was concerned, nothing was gained by using foun- 

 dation in the brood-nest, except for starters, when hiving swarms. I have 

 since continued to experiment, year after year, by hiving swarms aher- 

 nately upnn foundation and upon starters onl)-, in the brood-nest, weigh- 

 ing both surphis and brood-nests at the end of the season, and the 

 e-^-idence has been in favnr of empty frames every time. Occasionally 

 I have hived a swarm upon drawn combs, but the loss has ahvays 

 been so great that it seems like folly to repeat it. 



When full sheets of foundation are used in the brood-nest, and 

 the brood-nest is so contracted that some of the bees must enter the 

 sections, and the sections are filled with drawn comb, or partly drawn, 



Bees Secreting Wax and Building Comb. 



the hone\- must, from necessity, be stored in the supers until the foun- 

 dation in the brood-frames can be drawn out ; and even tlien, having 

 coinnienccd work in the sections, the bees will not desert them. But 

 there is onl_\' one queen furnishing eggs while liundreds of busy, eager 

 workers are pulling away, with might and main, drawing the founda- 

 tion out into comb ; and the time eventually comes when there are 

 thousands of empty cells in the brood-nest. Xow, Xature has no 



