88 Advanced Bcc Culture 



dust nor mice can get at them. I have given supers full of these partly 

 drawn combs to colonies (one super to a colony) arrd had these combs 

 filled and capped, and ready to come off, just as other colonies supplied 

 with sections containing foundation only were only making their first 

 start in the supers. In this case a super of partly drawn combs was 

 worth as much as a case of finished honey. There is, however, a still 

 better method of managing this part of the business. It is that of 

 putting on an extracting-super first ; and when this is filled and removed, 

 the bees are always ready to go to work in the sections iniincdiatcly. 

 For this purpose, shallow supers are preferable ; those containing frames 

 half the depth of the regular brood-frame being the size that is usually 

 employed for this purpose. The greatest objection to the use of the 

 full-sized combs is that it requires so much honey to fill a super of them 

 that it would materially reduce the crop of comb honey. The use of a 

 shallow extracting-super removes this objection. Again, the beginning 

 of the white-honey flow is sometimes mixed with an earlier, darker flow, 

 and the taking of the first of the white flow in the extracted form insures 

 the perfect whiteness of all honej' stored in the sections. Still further, 

 these half-depth extracting-supers can be used to full}- as great advantage 

 at the end of the harvest as at the beginning — perhaps to greater ad- 

 \antage. As the time approaches for the close of the harvest, instead 

 of giving more sections simply set on top of the sections one t)f these 

 half-depth extracting-supers. If more honey comes in than is needed 

 to fill and complete the sections already on the hive, it will "overflow," 

 so to speak, into the extracting-super that is on top ; thus the honev that 

 would otherwise go to the making of a lot of unfinished sections is 

 secured in the extracted form. Getting extracted honev at the opening 

 and closing of the season, as just explained, certainly has some ver\' 

 decided advantages. It leads the bees to begin work promptly in the 

 supers at the opening of the season, keeps all "mixed" honey out of 

 the sections, and practically does away with unfinished sections at the 

 end of the season. 



\Mien the first case of sections placed on the hive at the beginning 

 of the harvest is partly finished, it is raised, and another case placed 

 hclwcen that and the hive. At what stage of completion the sections 

 sliould be when a second case is added depends upon how cro\\ded the 

 bees are and the rate at which honev is coming- in. I usually add an- 

 otlier super when the sections in the one next the hive are from one-half 

 to two-thirds completed. I have not found it profitable to tier up 

 sections more than three supers in height. .Vs a rule, the upper super 

 is ready for removal before it is necessary to add a fourth. If it is 

 not, and honey is coming in rapidly, I would transfer it, bees and all, 

 to some other colony having a less number of cases rather than tier 



