76 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
less regular ones, or if all are alike as regards regularity and in having 
worker cells only, but some contain considerable honey and little 
brood, these are to be removed and the empty space filled in with good 
worker combs. The removed combs should be placed in the top story, 
which, if the weather and the strength of the colony permit, is to be filled 
out with combs at once. The strongest colonies will, of course, begin 
work first, and can often spare partly filled combs to be placed in the top 
stories of less populous colonies, thus encouraging the latter to begin 
work in the upper stories. It is safe to say that in general more than twice 
the yield of honey can be obtained from colonies supplied during the 
whole honey flow, with all the completed combs they are able to utilize, 
than can be expected from colonies that have to build all of the combs 
for their surplus while storing. Completed combs not being available, 
comb foundation in full sheets should be employed. During the early 
part of the harvest this will be drawn out very quickly and aid greatly 
in securing the honey which otherwise might be lost for want of store 
combs as fast as might be needed. During a fair yield the foundation 
will pay for itself the first season in the extra amount of honey, and the 
combs, properly cared for, can be used year after year — indefinitely, in 
fact — for extracting. The best of them should be picked out constantly 
to replace less desirable ones that may be found in the brood apartment, 
or to give to new swarms destined to produce extracted honey. Some 
prefer for the surplus cases frames half the depth of ordinary brood 
frames, finding them easier to manipulate. 
Whenever the combs of a top story are nearly filled, and before they 
are completely sealed, it may be lifted up and another story, filled with 
empty combs, placed between it and the brood apartment, and this may 
be continued until the end of the honey flow, and all may be left on the 
hive during the warm weather. It would, of course, be easier to add 
the new stories successively at the top — that is, above the partially filled 
surplus stories — and this plan works well as long as the honey flow is 
abundant, but when put on just as the yield slackens, even if but little, 
or when the weather is cool, the bees may refuse to begin work in the 
new super unless it is placed between the partially filled ones and the 
brood apartment. Leaving the filled top stories on the hives for some 
time permits the more complete evaporation of the moisture contained 
in the newly gathered honey, and by marking the stories the honey 
from a certain source, when the yield has been sufficient to get the 
combs filled and sealed, can be extracted by itself. If the supply of 
combs is insufficient to hold the whole amount gathered, it must then be 
extracted as fast as sealed, lest the bees, lacking ready cells in which to 
deposit their surplus as fast as gathered, hang idly about, or if space 
for new combs exists, only slowly provide these, losing meanwhile much 
of the harvest. When sealed the honey will generally be found fairly 
ripened, though it may improve by being stored in open buckets or cans 
in a dry, warm room. 
