If the brood-chambers are crowded when the super is put on, the queen may go up into it and start brood. This rarely occurs with us, but in case it does a queen-excluding honey-board may be introduced between the super and the brood-chamber. Sometimes a colony seems unwilling to go into the super after it has been added, and the bees will hang on the outside of the hive and threaten to swarm, and through doubt and vacillation lose two or three of the precious days of the basswood harvest.
The usual reason why the bees will not go into the super is that they are not sufficiently crowded below; if they have room they prefer to store their honey in the brood cells rather than carry it to the upper story.
If a colony is strong and has plenty of brood and honey and is still obstinate, men of experience advise the taking of a frame of sections from a colony which is storing in the supers and putting bees and all in the midst of the unused super of the reluctant colony. We have never tried this because we were never obliged to. It sounds very practical and sensible, and it is practised by Mr. Root, and that is sufficient recommendation.
Our way of coaxing the bees into a super which they have sedulously ignored is to place in it some of the imperfect sections, which are not worth much in the market and which contain some capped honey and many empty cells. One section-holder filled in this way seems to encourage the reluctant colony to climb and to store as rapidly as possible.
