PRODUCING EXTRACTED HONEY 



trading super, pulling them a little apart from 

 each other so that the bees will have ample 

 space to cluster while storing their surplus 

 and working on the combs. 



I cannot tell why, though I know from 

 experience, that a colony likes to build a cer- 

 tain amount of comb, and this may have a 

 great deal to do with their desire to swarm, 

 as by swarming they have ample opportunity 

 to build new combs in their new homes, and 

 by spacing the frames apart it enables them to 

 satisfy this propensity by building the combs 

 in the super out to a point where they are 

 decidedly fat and bulky, thus holding swarm- 

 ing in restraint. 



When filled with honey these fat combs are 

 not an encumbrance when it comes to extract- 

 ing, but on the contrary they render their uncap- 

 ping particularly easy, as the capping knife can 

 be sunk deep into the comb, and when the honey 

 has drained from the cappings'that are thrown 

 into the uncapping boxes, it can be drawn off, 

 and a fine lot of wax thus secured each season. 



139 



