5o8 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
The practical question — what should be the size of 
the brood-nest of stocks — admits only of an empirical 
answer, as the strength of the colony, the character 
of the district, the season, and the part of it to which 
the question refers, are all concerned in its deter- 
mination. 
The ground is covered by the double statement that 
the brood-chamber should be as large as the queen 
can be got to fill in anticipation of the great in- 
gathering, and as small as it can be made (so that 
swarming is not induced) when the bees raised in it 
will no longer pay for their upbringing. No nectar 
flow from any single source is long enough continued 
to forbid a contraction of the brood-chamber at the 
time the surplus receptacles into which it is to be 
stored are put on the hive. If, however, a second 
source, such as heather after clover, is in anticipation, 
the reduction of the brood-chamber would then be 
premature. This reduction is a perfectly normal pro- 
cess, and is brought about in the home of the wild 
bee by incoming honey, at the very time we are 
recommending its adoption ; but by adding crates or 
extracting we prevent the honey from extending 
downwards, so as to greatly limit the queen ; other 
means are therefore necessary. 
Large hives with deep frames can have the brood- 
chamber reduced by dummies, but the top area is 
lessened, and supers are not worked so freely where 
brood is not beneath. Making the frames shallower 
increases the supering surface ; aiid if the queen be 
confined by excluder to the bottom box, this will 
be packed with brood while all the honey is placed 
