The Production of Comb-Honey 313 



Manipulation of the bees. 



In the successful production of comb-honey, the skill of 

 the beekeeper is more exercised than in any other branch of 

 beekeeping. From this statement the inference should not 

 be made that the producers of comb-honey are, as a class, 

 better beekeepers than those who extract their honey, for 

 there are many beekeepers who put sections on their colonies 

 and yet fail to get the maximum returns and lose the best 

 of the crop. It is true, however, that much of our knowledge 

 of the best methods of handling bees has come from the 

 work of the exceptional comb-honey producers. 



It is useless to expect a weak colony to work well in sec- 

 tions and it is therefore first of all necessary for the comb- 

 honey producer to see that each colony has an abundance 

 of workers at the beginning of the honey-flow, as described 

 in an earlier chapter. In the building up of the apiary in 

 preparation for the honey-flow, it is often impossible to get 

 all colonies up to the standard and it is a quite common 

 practice to utilize the weaker colonies for extracted-honey 

 production or to take frames of brood from the weaker 

 colonies to build up those of nearly full strength (p. 259), 

 thereby practically abandoning the weakest colonies for 

 honey-production. 



Keeping bees in proper condition. 



If a colony is of maximum strength when the honey-flow 

 begins, it is ready for the harvest. * Every hive should be 

 packed with brood and honey and should have an abundance 

 of young bees. If the colony has previously occupied two 

 stories, as many of them should if properly manipulated, 

 they are reduced to one story and any extra frames of brood 

 are used to build up colonies that need them. This crowd- 

 ing of the brood-nest, so essential to the highest success, 

 is, however, just the condition favorable for swarming, and 

 unless care is exercised the efforts of the beekeeper are 

 rendered less effective. If the colony casts a swarm the 

 working force is reduced and the two parts are not able 



