72 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



tion or previously drawn out comb obtained perhaps from the sea- 

 son before. Having a young queen of the current year's raising, 

 the building of worker comb in below when only starters have been 

 used, is assured. If an old queen be retained full sheets in wired 

 frames should be used. If the nights are at all chilly it is well to 

 have a quilt above the supers held tightly down, with papers be- 

 tween it and the cover, for the double purpose of retaining the heat 

 of the bees for building operations and to prevent the bees from 

 soiling the tops of the sections by daubing propolis over them. Nice 

 clean sections add much to the salable quality of comb honey. 



In supering the old colonies it is well to do so before there is 

 much honey stored in below. As soon as the bees begin to whiten 

 the combs of the brood chamber the supers may be put on. If one 

 has a honey extractor available the brood frames may be carefully 

 extracted, care being taken to turn them slowly in the extractor 

 and longer than when no brood is in the combs. The queen will 

 then get the frames below filled with brood if they are extracted at 

 the right time when the outer cells are emerging and eggs are be- 

 ing deposited in the inner cells. The bees will then be forced into 

 the super to store their honey. If the brood chamber gets clogged 

 with honey it not only discourages the bees from crawling over the 

 sealed honey to store above but crowds the queen and is likely to 

 cause the colony to cease work and encourages swarming. When 

 the bees begin to seal the honey in the super a second super may ^e 

 put in place on the hive, elevating the first and putting the second 

 below it. When the first is ready to be removed, the bee escape 

 board previously described should be inserted taking care not to 

 smoke or excite the bees lest they bite into the capped honey. 



Comb honey should never be stored in a cold or damp place 

 Honey is deliquescent and if subjected to a damp atmosphere will 

 gather moisture and bursting the cappings the honey will begin to 

 run and then sour and ferment. Under the proper conditions comb 

 honey, however, may be kept indefinitely. 



Probably more honey in proportion to the number of colonies 

 may be obtained when the apiary is run for extracted honey. This 

 is due to two reasons, namely, first, there are many colonies which 

 would not store honey in a super because of their insufficient 

 strength, and, second, the combs for extracting are already built 

 or at any rate are built but once in the season after which they are 



