Preparation for Comb Honey. 287 
CHAPTER XIII. 
WorKING FoR Coms Honey. 
While extracted honey has so much to recommend it, 
and is rapidly growing in favor with American apiarists, 
still such reports as that of Dr. C. C. Miller, who in 1884 
increased his 174 colonies to’202, and took 16,000 pounds 
of comb honey in one-pound sections, which netted him 
very nearly $3,000, and that of Mr. Doolittle, who has 
secured nearly 100.pounds of comb honey per colony for a 
long series of years, may well lead us not to ignore this 
branch of our business. The showy horse, or the red short- 
horn, may not be intrinsically superior to the less attractive 
animals; but they will always win inthe market. So comb 
honey, in the beautiful one-pound sections, will always 
attract buyers and secure the highest price.- As more 
embark in the production of extracted honey, higher will 
be the price of the irresistible, incomparable comb honey. 
Well then may we study how to secure the most of this 
exquisite product of the bees, in a form that shall rival in 
attractiveness that of the product itself, for very likely the 
state of the market in some localities will make its pro- 
duction the most profitable feature of apiculture. 
POINTS TO CONSIDER. 
To secure abundance of comb honey the colonies must 
be very strong, and the brood-combs full of brood at the 
dawn of the honey harvest. The swarming fever must 
be kept at bay or cured, before the rapid storing com- 
mences, and the honey should be secured in the most attract- 
ive form. 
TO SECURE STRONG COLONIES. 
By feeding daily, whenever the bees are not storing, 
commencing as soon as the bees commence to store pollen, 
we shall almost certainly, if the bees have been well win- 
tered, secure this result. We should also use the division 
