5o6 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
of practical value, in that it prevents any disturbance 
of the frames in tiering up, and also gives most help- 
ful control over the size of the brood-nest, the matter 
next to be considered. 
It would be easy to give a long catalogue of dis- 
tinguished honey-producers, who all declare in favour 
of small brood-chambers when comb honey is the 
object. In the early part of the season the queen 
should receive every encouragement to deposit eggs, 
for the great spring laying is the foundation of all 
surplus; but, as the summer advances, and the 
duration of the yield is measured by five or even six 
weeks (the date depending upon the flora and latitude), 
the production of large breadths of brood is fatal to 
high results. Let us imagine that the brooding, 
feeding, and sealing of a single bee, from the egg 
upwards, costs as much to the colony as storing four 
cells with honey — an estimate which careful attention 
to this problem has shown me to be moderate, even 
for ordinary yields. Then the production of ilb. of 
bees, i.e., 2 lb. nearly of larvae (see page 20 , Vol. I.), 
will reduce the honey stored by i61b. ; if the comb has 
to be built, by probably 81b. It is because a bee 
in a fair yield is able to requite the colony with many 
times its cost that a large population means surplus, 
but if the I lb. aforesaid is produced at the end of the 
honey yield, the expenditure has been made without 
a possibility of return. The supposition that tremen- 
dous laying on the part of the queen is requisite 
right down to grey autumn, is most shallow — late 
breeding, where heather is in prospect, is feasible 
enough ; but the queen may, and should, by a limi- 
