HINTS ON WORKING THE BEES _ 67 
Choked Brood-Nest.— When feeding the 
bees in spring it is necessary to spread the 
brood-nest from time to time by adding a frame 
of comb near the centre of it. This provides 
the queen with sufficient cells in which to lay 
her eggs. Should the brood-nest become 
choked with honey, feeding should be stopped 
and a frame or two of honey taken from the 
hive and extracted, or given to hives that are 
not so fortunately placed, filling up the space 
with empty combs. Should the stores of honey 
and pollen be plentiful, it is well to scratch the 
cappings from some of the cells, though care 
must be taken not to damage the cappings of 
the brood cells, which will usually be found in 
the centre of the frames. 
Should the hive be full of frames and bees 
and most of the cells along the top of the 
combs be covered with clean white cappings, 
a super may be introduced, the necessary 
sheet of queen-excluder being placed over 
the brood-nest. The super should be a warm 
one with no leaky joints and fit properly over 
the brood-chamber. In districts exposed to 
high winds the precaution should be taken of 
tacking a narrow strip of thin soft felt round 
the bottom edges of the super to make it per- 
fectly draught proof. 
