240 
COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 
of ‘‘baiting” will get the bees above. The 
weather conditions must be right, and 
honey must be coming in at a fairly good 
pace, even if the colony is strong enough, 
before the bees will go above. But when 
they are once started they will keep it up 
as long as anything is coming in. 
If some colonies are storing in the 
supers, and others are not, it indicates that 
the weather conditions must be right; and 
the presumption is that the laggards are 
not strong enough to go above. If they 
have plenty of bees, it is sometimes advis¬ 
able to give a super from some other hive 
in which the bees have already started 
building comb and storing’ honey. In 
other cases, either bait or empty combs 
may be used on the sides. It is important 
that the bees in hot weather are not driven 
out of the supers by the direct rays of the 
sun. In some localities at least, shade 
must be provided, so that the bees will be 
protected during the middle hours of the 
day. See Apiary, and especially “Shade- 
boards.” 
If the bees of a strong colony hang out 
in front of the entrance, while the bees of 
other colonies are storing honey, perhaps 
enlarging the entrance or putting the hive 
up on four blocks, as shown and illustrated 
under Swarming, may serve the purpose 
of getting the bees inside at work in the 
supers. 
It sometimes happens that the brood-nest 
is not filled with brood and honey. Until 
that takes place, there will not be much 
work done in the supers unless the colony 
is very strong or honey coming in rapidly. 
TIERING UP. 
After work is begun in the first super, 
if no other supers are given until the 
combs are built out, it should be noted that 
the space within the super that can be oc¬ 
1 
=—=1 
fBS 
Fig. 1. — A prompt be¬ 
ginning in the first super 
is important. 
cupied by bees is 
being reduced as the 
combs are drawn 
out, until finally 
there is only about 
one-fourth of an 
inch left between 
the comb and the 
separator, so that 
most of the bees 
are crowded out 
and must go back into the brood-cham¬ 
ber. This is almost sure to cause the 
colony to work less vigorously. The same 
thing happens if the bees are driven from 
the super because it is too hot or because 
the hive is not well ventilated. If the col¬ 
ony is strong enough to draw out the foun¬ 
dation uniformly in all of the sections, 
and the honey How is promising, a second 
super should be given, even tho but little 
honey is stored in the first one. 
In order to induce additional comb- 
builders to go up into the supers, this sec¬ 
ond super may be placed below the first 
one. If conditions are favorable, the foun¬ 
dation in the second super will be drawn 
out within a few days and these shallow 
cells can be used for the evaporation of 
the incoming nectar. The bees apparently 
enjoy spreading out the raw nectar, a little 
in each cell, thus hastening its ripening by 
increasing the surface of the nectar ex¬ 
posed to the air. Before much honey has 
been stored in the second super it may in 
turn be raised up and a third super given. 
This operation may be repeated as often 
as necessary to keep the bees busy drawing 
out foundation and to attract more and 
more of the younger bees from the brood- 
chamber into the supers. In order to hasten 
the completion, of the first super that was 
given, it may be placed immediately above 
the super in which the bees are drawing out 
foundation, while the other supers are 
arranged above it in the order that they 
were put on the hive, the one in which the 
least work is done being placed on top. 
If it were possible to foretell the num¬ 
ber of supers that each colony would finish 
during the honey flow, it would be well to 
induce the bees to draw out the foundation 
and begin comb-building in that many su¬ 
pers as early in 
the honey flow as 
possible, then give 
an extra one to be 
placed on top as 
soon as the foun¬ 
dation is complete¬ 
ly drawn, the pur¬ 
pose of this extra 
super being to con¬ 
tain the overflow 
of nectar during 
Fig. 2.—Second super ,, „ 
placed below the first, the process oi rip- 
i 
2 — 
m 
