THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



131 



honey would be much more whole- 

 some for his family who ate freely of 

 honey, — that it was his duty to fur- 

 nish them with tlie more wholesome 

 article, etc., etc. Next time I sent 

 him both kinds ; and still the next 

 time both kinds, but this time he said 

 "Nay, you have argued extracted 

 honey into us and now we want ex- 

 tracted honey." Again there will be 

 a few customers who must have the 

 best comb honey and are willing to 

 pay a high price for it, and of course 

 comb honey is just as profitable to 

 the producer as extracted if he can 

 get enough for it. 



The next reason why we should 

 not confine ourselves exclusively to 

 one kind is that the weather is often 

 unfavorable for the production of one 

 kind and favorable for the other, and 

 sometimes this is characteristic of the 

 whole season through. We all know 

 that a cool season is unfavorable for 

 the production of comb honey, and 

 the comb honey specialist who will 

 have nothing to do with extracted 

 honey often learns this to his sorrow 

 and cost. 



Another reason for the joint pro- 

 duction is that some colonies in an 

 apiary take so readily to the comb 

 honey and turn out so superb an ar- 

 ticle that it is really a pity to wasie 

 them on extracted honey. Others 

 can neither be cajoled nor coerced 

 into the sections but will gather and 

 store below like beavers, and by all 

 means let them do so. Of course 

 the old, professional, comb honey 

 codgers are joined to their idols, and 

 with their idols let them stay ; but 

 let beginners strike off in both di- 

 rections, produce both kinds. That 

 it is easier to produce extracted honey 

 goes without saying, and hence the 

 novice generally makes his debut diX\6. 

 his first grand achievement in that 

 direction. But he need not fear to 

 take a hand in on the other side. If 

 he but remember two or three funda- 

 mental principles he can produce 

 comb honey, and choice comb 



honey, and this is best secured by 

 putting the sections (only a few) im- 

 mediately over the brood-nest. Sec- 

 ond, contraction of brood chamber. 

 When your colony gets populous and 

 the honey is flowing crowd them up 

 and place your sections on and your 

 chance will be good for some nice 

 comb honey. If they take a notion 

 to swarm and leave your sections not 

 half full, never mind but follow them 

 up and beat them up and beat them 

 on their own game. If you have the 

 old queen clipped (and you ought) 

 cage her as she comes out, set 

 the old hive aside, place your new 

 hive with empty comb and a couple 

 of frames of brood on the old stand, 

 contract the brood chamber with di- 

 vision boards to rather small size, put 

 your caged queen inside, open the 

 parent colony and shake off nearly 

 all the bees left on the frames in front 

 of the new hive, put the case of half- 

 filled sections from the parent colony 

 on to the new colony and your work 

 is done, for by this time the swarm 

 may be returning to the new hive on 

 the old stand. At any rate they are 

 sure to return be the time more or less. 

 The parent colony you will of course 

 carry off to a new stand, make it 

 warm because of the scarcity of bees, 

 contract the entrance and they will 

 take care of themselves. You will thus 

 have the upper hand of those old 

 bees and half filled sections which 

 will now in all probability be soon full. 



Another and final reason for the 

 joint production is that no apiarist 

 can make a finished and effective 

 exhibit of his product either to cus- 

 tomers or at public expositions with- 

 out both kinds of honey. The sur- 

 passing beauty of white comb honey 

 nicely finished up in beautiful white 

 sections and tastefully exhibited, 

 never fails to attract the attention of 

 even the least aesthetic. 



Selby, Lentwx Co., Ont. 



