156 A Modern Bee-Farm 



between brood combs, except as described for spring work or when 

 a young queen presides over the colony, otherwise some drone 

 comb will be built ; and the production of useless drones shows 

 a great defect in management. 



Another plan, by which a large number of colonies can be 

 kept and much wax produced at little expense of labour, is to 

 place several chambers fitted up with starters under the brood 

 nest early in May. The bees will gradually work down, and the 

 production of brood will be regulated in accordance with the amount 

 of income, and no trouble with swarming will be experienced. 



^Vhere Swarms have been Hived upon Starters, 



I have avoided the building of drone combs by placing the frames 



rather less than i|-inch from centre to centre. This point appears 



to have been overlooked by many in America who have followed 



Doolittle, who for a long time stood almost alone in his endeavour 



to show that foundation was used in many cases at a loss. 



W. Z. Hutchinson took up Doolittle 's idea and has been the 



cause of the plan becoming more generally used; but not only 



does the complaint come that much drone comb is built, but also 



that 



Pollen is Stored in the Sections. 



The latter trouble also I learned to avoid when hiving swarms 

 upon full sheets of foundation in my endeavour to get the best 

 work started in the sections. Just as I hived swarms upon 

 foundation, I now put them upon starters, with the addition of 

 two combs of brood ; one with uncapped larvae, and the other 

 having brood hatching. Thus the bees have room to store the 

 pollen carried the first day or two, without spoiling the partly 

 finished sections when they happen to be removed from the old 

 stock to the swarm ; and what is of equal importance, there is 

 just sufficient brood to make up for wear and tear before a general 

 hatching would otherwise take place. Moreover the queen is 

 kept below without the useless and expensive addition of the 

 excluder zinc Mr. Hutchinson is obliged to use where starters 

 only are given under the sections. 



