52 ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 
work during the day; but, not so. It seemed to act as a stimulus to still 
greater activity when they could go to the flowers. Then I felt I had 
solved the problem of producing comb honey from extracted. There were 
no more partly filled sections to bother with; no more travel-stained 
sections to sell at a reduced price, but every one nicely filled out clear 
to the wood, and well capped. 
I then found I had at my control for about 60 days as rich a harvest 
for the colonies I ran for comb honey as I could desire, and with not 
a break of even a day it was a pleasure to see those sections filled with 
choice comb honey. 
I don’t think it possible to feed thick extracted honey to bees for 
the purpose of producing comb honey so as to derive any profit from it 
after the honey-producing season is over. I think that nearly all those 
that have ever tried it, and went only so far along this line, have given 
it up in disgust. But when I took up this line of the business I went 
much further than any I had ever heard of, and made it a success. 
The day is coming when the comb-honey producer will find it as 
I have stated above. He will have complete control of his harvest for 
comb honey simply by keeping a few more colonies and running them 
wholly for extracted honey to help his comb-honey colonies along during 
those natural changes of the atmosphere which frequently cause the 
flowers to stop secreting nectar several days at a time. Then the bees 
stop working in their sections, their combs turn yellow, and, if the 
honey-dearth lasts many days, as it sometimes does, it requires a good 
harvest to start them at work again in their sections, and then those 
sections will never sell for the highest market price. This can all be 
prevented when there is a good feeder under every hive, and tanks full 
of extracted honey. 
I repeat that, in order to produce comb honey from extracted at 
any profit, it must be done during hot weather while the bees are gath- 
ering nectar from the flowers, and the honey, before it is fed, must be 
thinned with boiling water to about the consistency of nectar. To feed 
thick extracted honey out of season to produce comb honey is a waste 
of both time and honey; and the small amount of comb honey that is 
produced is likely to granulate and become unsalable. 
This is one of those leading subjects which should receive our at- 
tention until our markets are free from so much unsalable honey as 
we often see. With the knowledge and appliances for producing honey 
we now have, no man is excusable for putting a poor article on the 
market; and it is a duty we owe to ourselves and each other to con- 
demn this practice wherever we see it. I can not see how locality 
can make much difference in this matter; but I can readily see that, 
if honey is thinned to the consistency of nectar with boiling water, it 
will have a tendency to prevent its granulating; and if fed to bees in 
this condition during the season when it is natural for them to build 
comb and are gathering nectar from the flowers, a short slim harvest can 
