BEES 



593 



enough for the bees to begin storing in 

 as soon as any honey is collected. Earlier 

 work in the sections is thus secured, and 

 this, as is well known, is an important 

 point in the prevention of swarming. 

 Samuel Simmins, of England, has long 

 contended for this use of partially drawn 

 combs, and though it forms a feature of 

 his system for the prevention of swarm- 

 ing it has been too often overlooked. 

 Comb foundation is now manufactured 

 with extra thin septum or base and with 

 the beginnings of the cells marked out 

 by somewhat thicker walls which the bees 

 immediately thin down, using the extra 

 wax in deepening the cells. This is not 

 artificial comb, but a thin sheet of wax 

 having the bases of the cells outlined on 

 it. Complete artificial combs have never 

 been used in a commercial way, although 

 there exists a widespread belief to this 

 effect, which is founded on extravagant 

 claims that have appeared from time to 

 time in newspaper articles. 



If the brood apartment has been much 

 contracted when the supers were added, 

 the queen may go into the sections and 

 deposit eggs unless prevented by the in- 

 sertion of a queen excluder (Fig. 7). 



Fig. 7. Perforated Zinc Queen Excluder. 



This, merely a sheet of zinc with perfo- 

 rations wiich permit workers, but not 

 the queen, to pass, is placed between the 

 brood apartment and the supers. The 

 great inconvenience of having brood in 

 some of the sections is thereby prevented. 

 When the honey in the sections has been 

 nearly capped over, the super may be 

 lifted up and another added between it 

 and the brood apartment. Or. should 



the strength of the colony not be suffi- 

 cient, or the harvest not abundant enough 

 to warrant the giving of so much space, 

 the sections which are completely fin- 

 ished may be removed and the partly 

 finished ones used as "bait sections" to 

 encourage work in another set of sections 

 on this hive or in new supers elsewhere. 

 The objections to the removal of sections 

 one by one, and brushing the bees from 

 them, are (1) the time it takes, and (2) 

 the danger that the bees when disturbed, 

 and especially if smoked, will bite open 

 the capping and begin the removal of 

 the honey, thus injuring the appearance 

 of the completed sections. 



A recent valuable invention, the bee 

 escape, when placed between the super 

 and the brood nest, permits the bees then 

 above the escape to go down into the 

 brood apartment, but does not permit 

 their re-entering the super. If inserted 

 12 to 24 hours before the sections are to 

 be removed, the latter will be found free 

 from bees at the time of removal, provid- 

 ed all brood has been kept out of the 

 supers. 



Grading and Shipping Comb Honey 



Before marketing the honey it should 

 be carefully graded, and all propolis 

 ("bee-glue"), if there be any, scraped 

 from the edges of the sections. In grad- 

 ing for the city markets the following 

 rules are, in the main, observed. They 

 were adopted by the North American 

 Bee Keepers' Association at its twenty- 

 third annual convention, held in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, in December, 1S92, and are 

 copied from the official report of that 

 meeting: 



Fancy. — All sections to be well filled; 

 combs straight, of even thickness, and 

 firmly attached to all four sides; both 

 wood and comb unsoiled by travel stain 

 or otherwise; all cells sealed except the 

 row of cells next to the wood. 



No. 1. — All sections well filled, but with 

 combs crooked or uneven, detached at the 

 bottom, or with but few cells unsealed; 

 both wood and comb unsoiled by travel 

 stain or otherwise. 



In addition to the above, honey is to 

 be classified, according to color, into light. 



