278 
Beekeeping 
ber, the remaining spaces being filled with frames containing 
full sheets of foundation. This prevents the storage of 
pollen in the supers and gives the queen a place to lay eggs 
at once, so that an excluder is not necessary. Swarms some¬ 
times desert a hive containing only foundation, but some 
empty comb or a comb containing some unsealed brood will 
prevent this. The placing of foundation next to full comb 
often results in an unusual extension of the side walls of the 
comb and a restriction of the building out of the foundation. 
Empty combs, or comb filled with honey or sealed brood, 
are also sometimes used. It is claimed by some that, just 
after swarming, bees secrete wax with a minimum expendi¬ 
ture of energy and with the least consumption of honey, and 
it is therefore believed that it is wasteful not to give the 
swarm an opportunity to secrete some wax in building comb. 
If the swarm is only moderately strong, the bees may confine 
their efforts chiefly to the brood-chamber, if empty combs 
are used. 
In extracted-honey production, these questions do not 
arise, for the beekeeper can use whatever is most convenient 
and, by giving plenty of room for storage, the colony will 
rarely swarm again. It therefore does not pay to use strips 
of foundation in the extracted-honey apiary. 
In comb-honey production, a swarm may be hived in the 
usual way and then in a day or two the brood-chamber may 
be temporarily contracted by substituting thick division 
boards for four or five of the frames (in a 10-frame hive), 
thus so reducing the room in the brood-chamber that the 
bees are driven to the supers. This method may be used 
during a honey-flow of white honey, which is preferable for 
comb-honey, and when there will probably be a later honey- 
flow of honey of a lower grade, which is good enough to use 
in building up the brood-chamber but not of fine enough 
quality for sections. If this contraction is practiced, and it 
is less frequent now than formerly, the contraction should 
be to about five frames, rather than a slight contraction to 
perhaps seven frames. 
