COMB HONEY—HONEY FLOW AND HARVEST.—Chapter XIV. 
flow begins. Also, the bees will get into the habit of storing above, and 
so at the opening of the honey flow will more readily begin work in sec- 
tions when the comb-honey supers are put on. 
Beginning of the Honey Flow. 
When comb honey is being produced it will not do to put the super of 
sections on top of the second story, if a second story was given previous 
to the honey flow to supply more room for the queen. Neither will it do to 
put it between the two brood-chambers, for the bees in building comb in 
the sections would darken it with bits.of wax from the brood-combs above: 
so it is necessary to reduce the colony to one story during the honey flow 
for comb honey. In doing this most of the brood should be put into the 
brood-chamber that is left, choosing as far as possible the oldest brood, 
which can be distinguished by its emerging bees or by picking off a few 
cappings to note the age of the pupae. This older brood will soon emerge. 
giving the queen more room for eggs. The hive is then ready to receive the 
comb-honey super. Colonies that are quite strong may need two supers 
at this time. 
If there are three or four colonies to work with, the extra combs 
just removed, containing some honey and brood, after the bees have been 
shaken off, can be put back into the hive-bodies, which are then tiered un 
on top of one hive, choosing for this the weakest colony. If the season is 
favorable this colony should fill these combs with honey after the brood bas 
emerged, thus furnishing a large reserve of stores to be distributed to the 
other colonies after the comb-honey supers are taken off at the close of 
the season, thus again making them two stories high. 
Those who have but one colony will have to work out some other plan 
for disposing of. the extra combs of brood and honey, if the colony is 
occupying two stories at the beginning of the honey flow. One way to do 
this is to form a small colony from the extra combs of brood. This should 
not be attempted unless there are more combs of brood than will go into 
one brood-chamber. If the colony is quite strong there may be from two 
to five extra combs of brood. In such eases, these extra combs of brood, 
together with the adhering bees, should be put into another hive together 
with the combs which contain no brood, being sure that the queen is left 
in the main colony on the old stand. When making increase in this way. 
combs of emerging brood should be taken instead of combs of unsealed 
brood, in order to enable the little colony to build up without losing any un- 
developed brood by chilling. The entrance should be closed with grass to 
confine the bees in this little colony the first day, so that too many of them 
will not go back to their old home. : 
While this little colony can raise a queen, if some of the brood-combs 
contain recently hatched larvae or eggs from which to raise her, queens 
reared in small colonies usually are not so good as those reared in larger 
colonies; so it may be better to purchase a queen for this little colony. 
Use of Bait Sections. 
As already explained, it is more difficult in comb-honey production to 
get the bees to work in the supers than is the case when producing extracted 
honey. In order to get the bees started to work in the sections, the best 
85 
