112. When the bee escape is used in preference to shaking, the top hive body should be removed in three weeks from the day it was placed above the escape board. If the honey flow is not over then place it on one of the weaker colonies in the yard to be taken care of to prevent the destruction of the combs by wax moths and perhaps to have the combs filled with honey . If the main honey flow is over remove the comb honey supers and put this extra hive body in the position it occupied before any section supers were given.

113. When bees are shaken off combs, as is preferable, the extra body from each colony should be given to one of the colonies in the second group that are too weak for the production of comb honey. The brood these bodies contain will increase the strength of these weak colonies, the combs given to them will be properly taken care of, and in many cases, will be filled with honey. If necessary, three or four of these extra bodies may be given to each of the weaker colonies in the second group. If the honey flow is intense these colonies will build up rapidly, and they should be watched as carefully as comb honey colonies to provide adequate storage room and to control swarming.

114. Two section honey supers should usually be given at the beginning of the honey flow when the extra body is removed and the comb honey colonies are reduced to one body and the comb supers. The method of giving supers to these comb honey colonies has a very important effect upon the number of well finished sections they will produce. If the supers are improperly manipulated in adding them, the bees will be more likely to swarm than if given as described in paragraph No. 115, and your whole effort toward keeping the storing instinct of the bees dominant will be upset for some number of days. The principle involved is to add supers in such a way as to get as many as possible of the young bees (bees under two weeks old), as far away from the brood nest as possible.

115. Referring to figure 39, you will note that your bees will naturally start comb building in section super No. 1. Accordingly it will be well to reverse the position of supers 1 and 2 in a few days. The definite time when this is to be done depends upon the honey flow. The more intense the flow, the earlier this operation will be necessary. When the bees are well started in the two supers and are beginning to cap over some of the sections and if the honey flow is continuing strong, super No. 3 may be added. By referring to figure 40 you will note that super No. 3 is given next to the brood chamber. This is very important so that the part of the young bees devoting their time to the construction of comb in the sections in supers 1 and 2 may be removed as far as possible from the brood nest and others are enticed to come up from the brood chamber to build comb in No. 3. It will be necessary to examine all comb honey colonies at least every seven days during the honey flow, and oftener if the flow is quite intense. Much knowledge of the honey plants in your locality, and the time and continuation of their bloom, is of great importance to obtain the best results. Also the future conditions of the weather are of considerable importance in the production of comb honey, and it is frequently advisable to watch the reports of the U. S. Weather Bureau closely. Cold or rainy weather may sometimes entirely cut off the honey flow suddenly and cause many sections to be unfilled, especially if supers are given too rapidly. On the other hand, when conditions are favorable, if supers are not given fast enough, swarming conditions will be induced and your honey crop materially reduced. The same conditions apply in adding super No. 4 as applied in the case of super No. 3; but if in doubt as to whether the additional super is required at the examination, it is well to place this super on the hive, putting it on top of all, instead of next to the brood chamber. This type of manipulation is what Dr. Miller called putting on a "safety valve."

116. From time to time it is important to remove full supers. Experience will soon teach you to know when supers are full enough for removal without the necessity of your taking out any sections for examination. Bees usually start work in the center of a super and it is usually safe when the outside rows of sections are filled and capped, to assume that super is ready for removal. It is well to take section honey away from the bees as fast as the supers are properly filled, in order to prevent the bees from adding additional propolis or "bee glue" on the sections and to the surface of the comb. Otherwise they darken it by continuously passing over it, giving the sections an appearance unpleasant to the eye and known by beekeepers as "travel stain."

117. The bee escape is a most useful appliance to free the supers of the bees. To get the bees out of the full supers when other supers partly full are on the hive, the full supers are first set off for a minute or so and the others are set on the hive. The bee escape board with the bee escape in it is then placed squarely above on the top unfilled super and the full supers. Place above it an absolutely bee tight cover carefully adjusted on the top full super, 10 make entrance by bees into the full supers impossible. In 12 hours but few or no bees will be in the full supers, which should then be taken to the honey house. If more than a dozen or so bees are in the supers after 12 hours, examine the bee escape to see that it is not clogged up. This is important because if the bees remain in the supers very long they may start to uncap some of the fine sections of honey and very materially reduce their sale value. Therefore after 12 hours if the bees are not all out of the supers, if possible carry the supers to a bee tight room and set them by a window to which the bees will fly, to be liberated just before sundown. Be sure this is done so that no robber bees can gain entrance to the room. See figure No. 49.