COMB HONEY. 



ir 



COMB 110NEi\ 



this time the bees naturally go right on as 

 though the flow had not stopped. It is best 

 to give about six quarts of thinned-down 

 honey to each colony every other day. The 

 interval between the feeding allows the bees 

 time to remove the honey, which is first 

 placed directly in the brood-cells, to the su- 

 pers. No definite rule can be given for thin- 

 ning down the honey, since the density va- 

 ries so much. For average honey enough 

 water must be added so that the sjTiip will 

 be 7-5 per cent honey and 25 per cent water. 

 Very thick honey needs more water, while 

 thin honey needs less. 



It is necessary to have the brood-chamber 

 well occupied by brood, for bees never do 

 well in supers over brood-chambers contain- 

 ing much capped honey. The first requisite, 

 then, is a good queen, which will be able to 

 hold her own against any amount of feeding. 

 The brood-chamber must be contracted, 

 furthermore, so that the queen will be able 

 to keep every comb filled with brood. In 

 this connection, the sectional hive is very 

 convenient, for the reason that i ne section 

 may be i-emoved.thus contracting the brood 

 section and still allowing brood in the shal- 

 low frames to be under the entiie super. It 

 is quite important, however, to have the 

 combs in the brood-chamber as new as pos- 

 sible, for the bees are quite apt to carry up 

 bits of the comb to be used in capping cells 

 in the supers, and old dark comb will dis- 

 color the super-cappings to quite an extent. 



The thinned-down honey should be put in- 

 to the feeder just before sundown, so that 

 there may be no uproar that may be likely to 

 cause robbing. It is not desirable to have 

 more than two supers of sections on the 

 feeding colonies at a time. As soon as the 

 sections in the super next the brood-chamber 

 are nearly capped, this super should be 

 raised up and the upper one placed under it 

 next to the brood- chamber. Then as soon 

 as the top super is finished and capped solid 

 to the wood, it may be removed and an 

 empty super placed next the brood-chamber. 

 Of course it is not essential that combs be 

 built out and capped solid to the wood. The 

 coml)S all capped over, except the cells next 

 to the wood, would grade No. ] . 



WHAT TO DO WITH UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



Some prefer to dispose of unfinished sec- 

 tions by selling them around home for less 

 money, or using them exclusively for home 

 consumption. The honey, for eating pur- 

 poses, is practically just as good : and it is 

 the practice, in many bee-keepers" families, 

 to consume all such sections if they can, 



reserving out those that are marketable and 

 well finished, to be sold. 



Some bee-keepers consider them very val- 

 uable for baits ; that is, they place one of 

 these in the center of a super to bait the 

 bees above, as has already been explained. 

 Others place them in stacked-up supers a few 

 rods from the apiary. A very small entrance 

 at the bottom of the pile, large enough for one 

 or two bees to pass at a time, is provided. 

 By this slow method of robbing, the bees 

 will empty out the honey and cany it to the 

 hives much more cheaply than the bee- 

 keeper himself can afford to do it by means 

 of the extractor. While this slow robbing 

 may cause a little disturbance in the yard 

 at the time, it does no particular harm. But 

 mark this : Never give the bees a wide en- 

 trance at the bottom. It should be only 

 wide enough to allow one or two bees to 

 pass at a time. This is known as the Miller 

 plan, having been, we believe, originated by 

 Dr. C. C. Miller. Taking every thing into 

 consideration it is the safer one to follow ; 

 but where one is an expert bee-keeper, and 

 has a large lot of unfinished sections for the 

 bees to empty out, a plan originated by the 

 late B. Taylor is perhaps better. Dr. Miller, 

 who now uses the plan, thus speaks of it : 



For a number of years I have used the Taylor plan 

 at the close of every season. All sections that are less 

 than half filled are put in supers in the shop cellar, 

 and the door kept closed till the whole business is 

 over, and a// that are to be emptied are in the cellar. 

 The supers stand on end so as to be all open, or piled 

 in piles crossing each other. When no more are to be 

 taken into the cellar I open the door, and say to the 

 bees, "Go in." They go in, I assure you. The air is 

 black with bees at the door, and they do more or less 

 sailing about in the vicinity. Sometimes they do a lit- 

 tle tearing of the sections, but not much. There is too 

 large a surface for them to cover. Gradually they give 

 up the job as the supply ceases, but the supers are not 

 taken away till a week or two after the bees have stop- 

 ped working on them. They might as well be put in 

 the open air, onlj- they are safe from rain in the cellar. 

 Please remember that this is what I do at the end of 

 every harvest after the flow has stopped. 



As a matter of fact, I use the Taylor oftener than 

 the Miller plan. It depends on the number of sections 

 to be emptied in proportion to the number of bees. 

 Whether little or much is to be emptied, I am not 

 afraid of a rampage. I will set a super of sections on 

 top of a hive and let the bees rob it out, and there will 

 be no rampage. But I will be exceedingly careful not 

 to take away the super until all the honey is cleaned 

 out, and uu/il a/ least 24 hours after the bees have stop- 

 ped trying to find any more honey there. Take away 

 the super while the bees are at work at it, and whole- 

 sale destruction would follow. 



HOW TO PILE UP THE SUPERS OF COMB 



HONEY IN THE HONEY-HOUSE .AFTER 



TAKING OFF THE HIVES. 



It is a very good practice, after the supers 

 are taken off the hive, to pile them up cross- 



