434 HONET PRODlCTrON. 



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 stj-le 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 bj- 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 

 ivhitening 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 busnels Mr. WUdman says that "a 

 clergyman set a well stocked hive of bees on a tnb turnea bottom np, after 

 having mad.- a hole through the bottom, and took from the tub four hundred 

 and twenty pouuds of honey." 



