THE PRODL’CTION OF HONEY. 
509 
above at the disposal of the bee-keeper. A contracted 
chamber, thus filled, gives as much room for the exer- 
cise of the queen’s energies as a large one partly 
filled with honey, and overloaded with pollen. 
The question of the brood-chamber of the stock has 
some relation to that of swarms, which, however dis- 
couraged, cannot be ignored and overlooked ; and here, 
as in so many other cases, it is impossible to draw 
a hard-and-fast line to be ever followed. If the swarm 
be early, and the harvest lengthened, then it may be 
converted into a honey stock by the power of the 
bees it is able to raise, and a very restricted brood- 
chamber would be unwise, while every encouragement 
to egg-laying should be given ; but if it do not issue 
until the flow has already commenced, the swarm 
must be made a gatherer of surplus at once, or it 
will yield no profit during the current year beyond 
its own establishment. Suppose the swarm to issue 
from a stock working sections, then, without returning 
it, we may treat it as described (page 165), and, by 
giving it a very small brood-chamber, force it at once 
to continue the sections moved from the parent and 
placed over it, for the hive proper would not really 
hold all the bees. If we fill the hive with combs 
and cover down by excluder zinc, the queen, sur- 
rounded by a dense population, would lay rapidly, 
and soon a large part of the power of the swarm 
would be taken from super work, while others would 
store in the unoccupied cells. If, however, foundation 
were given, the conversion of this into comb would 
occupy some time, and so delay egg-laying and honey- 
storing below to the present advantage of the sections. 
