JUNE 1, 1912 



337 



T super containing two extracting-frames with wide end-bars, so that they take the same amount of 

 room as a section-holder. 



COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY PRODUCED 

 IN THE SAME SUPER 



Is the Production of Comb Honey without Separa- 

 tors Advisable? 



BY E. D. TOWNSBND 



Mr. E. D. 7'o(rn.sertrf.— There is one thing inregard 

 to the production of comb and extracted honey in 

 the same super that Is not quite clear to me. You 

 have referred to the regular dovetailed super with 

 4K X 4M^ X V/f, two-beeway sections K-aAplain separat- 

 ors. Now, then, my supers are all of the above-de- 

 scribed style, ten-frame size, with slotted separat- 

 ors. Can I use these in with the shallow frames, or 

 must I have the plain separators? 



Again, would it be safe for me to leave out the 

 separators and follower and springs, and space the 

 section-holders and shallow frames equally? 



The reason I mention this is that some of my cus- 

 tomers complain that the 1% section is too small: 

 1. 6., too much box for the honey it contains. What 

 would please me (if I could use it In the regular su- 

 per) would be the two-Inch section; then I could 

 make them hold 1 lb. of honey, or very near it. As 

 before stated, my supers are all regular, of ten- 

 frame size, and, with the separators and follower, 

 hold 28 1% sections. Mr. Mondeng, of Minneapolis, 

 tells me he produces nice marketable sections 

 without separators, and has no difficulty in getting 

 the bees to go into them; but I want the shallow 

 frames. 



Elroy, Wis. Chas. Sheldon. 



I can see no reason why a shallow ex- 

 tracting-frame will not interchange with 

 any section-holder in your ten-frame super. 

 The end-bars of the extracting-frame should 

 be made the same size as the end-bar of the 

 section-holder, and the top and bottom bar 

 but y& inch wide, so that the comb may 

 be uncapped more easily. The slotted sej)- 

 arator ought to work well with this combi- 

 nation. 



Good comb honey can be produced with- 



out separators, but it is not advisable in 

 your case. It is a fine art to produce nice 

 comb honey without separators, and it 

 would take you years to acquire the "knack" 

 of producing honey that would come any- 

 where near up to the standard of that pro- 

 duced between separators. 1 have seen a 

 few beekeepers who have acquired this 

 knack, but these were some of the older 

 ones who began before there was much done 

 along the line of separators. 



In arranging the super where no separators 

 are used, sections that are partly full of 

 comb from the previous season's use should 

 be grouped together, according to the 

 amount of work that has been done in them. 

 The sections that are nearly full of comb 

 should be put by themselves, and a super 

 filled with them. Those sections that are 

 only partly full or comb should be arranged 

 in supers containing combs of about the 

 same thickness. New sections containing 

 only foundation starters or full sheets, as 

 the case may be, should also be put in su- 

 pers by themselves. If one were to alternate 

 sections of drawn comb with those having 

 but foundation, the sections containing 

 drawn combs would be drawn out into great 

 thick combs, while those having nothing but 

 foundation would be very thin, some being 

 hardly touched, and therefore not market- 

 able. By keeping each kind of section by 

 itself, as explained above, very good work 

 can be expected without separators. 



One of the more important reasons for us- 

 ing sei)arators at the present time is that 

 the finished sections must all be about the 

 same size and finish, as they sell by the 



