420 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



the bees to be refilled, or if the honey flow is over, they can be re- 

 turned to the bees to be cleaned and then removed and stored until 

 needed again. This method is much to be preferred to mashing the 

 comb and straining out the honey, as was formerly done. 



The extracted honey is then strained and run into vessels. It is 

 advisable not to put it in bottles at once, but to let it settle in open 

 vessels for a time, so that it can be skimmed. Most honeys will gran- 

 ulate and become quite hard if exposed to changes of temperature, 

 and to liquefy granulated extracted honey it should be heated in a 

 water bath. Never heat honey directly over a stove or flame, as the 

 flavor is thereby injured. The honey should never be heated higher 

 than 160 F. unless it is necessary to sterilize it because of contam- 

 ination of disease. 



Extracted honey is put up in bottles or small tin cans for the 

 retail trade, and in 5-gallon square tin cans or barrels for the whole- 

 sale market. Great care must be exercised if barrels are used, as 

 honey will absorb moisture from the wood, if any is present, and 

 cause leakage. The tin package is much to be preferred in most 

 cases. In bottling honey for retail trade, it will well repay the bee 

 keeper or bottler to go to considerable expense and trouble to make 

 an attractive package, as the increased price obtained will more than 

 make it up. Honey should be heated to 160 F. and kept there for 

 a time before bottling and the bottle should be filled as full as possi- 

 ble and sealed hermetically. 



Comb Honey. Comb honey is honey as stored in the comb by 

 the bees, the size and shape being determined by the small wooden 

 sections provided by the bee keeper. Instead of having comb in 

 large frames in which to store surplus honey, the bees are compelled 

 to build comb in the sections and to store honey there. A full section 

 weighs about 1 pound; larger ones axe rarely used. By the use of 

 modern sections and foundation the comb honey now produced is a 

 truly beautiful, very'uniform product so uniform in fact that it is 

 often charged that it must be artificially manufactured. The pur- 

 chaser of a section of comb honey may be absolutely certain, how- 

 ever, that he is obtaining a product of the bees, for never has any- 

 one been able to imitate their work successfully. To show their 

 confidence in the purity of a comb honey, the National Bee Keepers' 

 Association offers $1,000 for a single pound of artificial comb filled 

 with an artificially prepared sirup. 



There are several different styles of sections now in use, the 

 usual sizes being 4 1 / 4 inches square and 4 inches by 5 inches. There 

 are also two methods of spacing, so that there will be room for the 

 passage of bees from the brood chamber into the sections and from 

 one super of sections to another. This is done either by cutting 

 bee ways in the sides of the sections and using plain flat separators 

 or by using no bee-way or plain sections and using fences separators 

 with cleats fastened on each side to provide the bee space. To de- 

 scribe all the different supers or bodies for holding sections would 

 be impossible in a bulletin of this size, and the reader must be re- 

 ferred to catalogues of dealers in bee-keeping supplies. Instead of 



