458 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ November 24 1887. 
i§r 
Plli/i 
BEE-KEEPER. 
PRACTICAL BEE-KEEPING.—No. 23. 
One of the most important matters in connection with 
the practical management of an apiary still remains for 
our consideration. True, the systems and some of the 
principles of supering have been considered at various 
times by many writers of vast experience, and in former 
papers of the present series more than a passing allusion 
has been made to the best method of obtaining a large 
surplus either of comb or extracted honey. All the care 
and attention bestowed on stocks are with a view to pre¬ 
paring them for the honey flow; it is therefore most 
desirable for every bee-keeper to know in what way he 
may obtain most surely—taking one year with another— 
the largest possible saleable surplus from each of his 
stocks. 
In my opinion, based upon considerable experience, 
the tiering system, or some modification of that system, 
should he adopted in all cases and under all circumstances. 
Whether we desire to prevent the issue of a swarm or not, 
the tiering system is the one which should be adopted if 
we desire to obtain the largest possible surplus in the 
most saleable form. In some localities where the honey 
flow is brief, in some seasons when the weather is un¬ 
favourable, the usual tiering method must be considerably 
modified to suit the season and other circumstances, but 
the principle underlying the system should still be fol¬ 
lowed. 
This principle is that bees work better in a super 
gradually enlarged than in a large space provided from 
the first. Most bee-keepers are aware that bees are 
often unwilling to commence operations in a large super 
with a capacity for holding 100 lbs. of honey, and yet 
may easily be induced to store a greater weight if space 
is given by adding fresh supers as the bees become 
crowded. The old plan was to place a super on a stock 
and leave it there until every cell was sealed. By this 
the bee-keeper did his utmost to jeopardise his harvest; 
but as honey was readily saleable at that time at a some¬ 
what large sum per pound the loss was not so severely 
felt as it would be in the present year, when the bee¬ 
keeper has to combat low prices by increased production. 
The loss occasioned by placing a small or even a good 
sized super on a stock and leaving it there till finished is 
easily accounted for by the fact that honey must be left 
unsealed until a sufficient evaporation process has been 
completed. Every cell in the super being filled and no 
additional room afforded, the empty cells in the body 
hive would next be filled, then the cells from which the 
young bees emerge, until at last the queen is crowded out, 
the prospect for the year ruined, and the stock itself 
destroyed. 
Again, it is a mistake to place too small a super on 
any stock. If a stock is ready to work in supers at all it 
will commence in one of moderate size as soon as in a 
small confined space, which must rapidly be filled to over¬ 
crowding with the eager bees. A super body of ten 
standard frames, a rack of twenty-one 1-lb. sections, or 
any divisible super of some 20 lbs. capacity may be used; 
every bee can then at once commence work, and the bee¬ 
keeper will be ready to give increased space when it is 
required. Many bee-keepers who are decided in their 
opinion that the tiering system is by far the best and 
most profitable under ordinary circumstances, split upon 
the rock as to whether the second super should be placed 
above or under the first and partially filled super. With 
all due deference to the opinion of those who differ from 
me my experience is that—ea r ly in the season and when 
there is a fair prospect of a continued honey flow—it is 
to the manifest advantage of the bee-keeper to place the 
second and following super between the brood nest and 
the earlier placed super or supers. By so arranging the 
supers a vacant space is left between the brood nest and 
the partially filled super, and this space the bees will 
use every endeavour to fill with comb. But it may be 
said that by so placing the supers there is a risk that 
the supers may not be completely filled. This risk may, 
however, with care be minimised. In my own experience 
the loss from this cause has been so trifling that it lias 
never in any single year been greater than the loss which 
would be experienced by a bee-keeper following the 
method approved by many of placing the second and 
subsequent supers on the top of the one already in posi¬ 
tion. But even if in occasional seasons a considerable 
loss was experienced owing to the incompleteness and im¬ 
perfect sealing over of the supers, the loss so occasioned 
will be far more than compensated fcr by the increased 
yield of honey in other years. 
Another advantage—and to many bee-keepers a con¬ 
siderable one—is gained by placing one super beneath the 
other; so that the top supers, even if not completed quite 
so rapidly, are at any rate in less danger of being damaged 
by the heat of the hive and the constant travel of the bees 
over the comb. Now at a busy time of the year it is a 
considerable point gained if a labourer, or farmer, or 
other person who is engaged in apicultural pursuits 
—which when the honey flow is at its height demands his 
attention—is able to delay the removal of his supers 
without fear of their suffering in quality by being alloved 
to remain on the hive. In the case of supers of comb 
required for extracting purposes this argument will not 
apply, because the purity of the cappings is not material; 
but a super body may therefore he left on the hive in any 
position until the whole of the super bodies are ready for 
removal, and the bee-keeper has time to spare to pass 
the combs through the extractor, and the quality of the 
honey will by the delay in the removal of the supers be 
considerably improved. Whichever system the bee-keeper 
elects to pursue, he must give sufficient room and not 
too much. Taking into consideration the strength of his 
stocks, the flora of the district, the weather, and the 
prospective length of the honey flow, he must determine 
whether it will be to his advantage to place a third, fourth, 
or fifth tin upon his stocks, or whether by doing so he 
will endanger his chance of setting his earlier placed super 
completely sealed and finished. These are points which 
the discretion of the individual can alone decide. No 
hard-and-fast line can be drawn, but most bee-keepers 
can easily determine the amount of super space which 
the bees will probably require. Supers, especially early 
in the season, can hardly be kept too warm. During the 
cold nights of early summer many supers are entirely 
deserted by the bees, simply because sufficient care has 
not been taken to wrap the super up warmly in suitable 
coverings. As the season advances and the heat increases 
in intensity the coverings may gradually be lessened, hut 
great care must be exercised, or the bees will be driven 
from their work. If possible the covering should be lighter 
during the heat of the day and heavier at night. Too 
high a temperature will give the bees an inclination to 
swarm, too low a temperature will drive them from the 
