ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 55 
It looks nice to go into your storehouse at the close of the season 
and see several tons of choice comb honey with hardly a section that 
is not of the finest quality; and to see the clamps all empty, with no 
partly filled sections lying around is another thing which shows there 
has been some skill used in producing that crop of honey. 
Some of you may think that this implies lots of work, which I will 
admit, and so does: every thing connected with the successful manage- 
ment of bees. I know many let them take care of themselves, and 
appear to be satisfied with whatever they can get; but I never should 
like to run a business in that way. 
In the above I have called your attention to the three worst troubles 
in producing comb honey, and I have also given you a practical way 
of overcoming them. 
About twenty-six years ago I sold nearly three tons of comb honey 
that was produced in this way to a dealer for two cents a pound above 
the market price, on account of its fine appearance. It is the same 
in producing comb honey that it is with extracted. You must adopt 
methods whereby you can combine a fine quality with a large quantity, 
and then you are on a straight road to success. If I should ever again 
return to the production of comb honey the above method is the one I 
should most decidedly adopt. 
When I was running my bees for comb honey we had no practical 
feeders as we have now, whereby honey can easily be fed to our comb- 
honey-producing colonies; neither did we realize how easy it is to have 
an abundance of choice young queens early in the season to supersede 
our old queens with. Had I known then as I do now how easily these 
two important factors can be acquired I would not have changed from 
comb honey to extracted as I did; for I am sure there is more money 
in producing a choice grade of comb honey, as I have described, than 
there is in producing extracted honey. 
May, 1906. 
COMB VS. EXTRACTED HONEY. 
COMB HONEY REQUIRES A RAPID HONEY-FLOW; MORE EXPENSIVE FIXTURES, MORE 
LABOR TO PRODUCE; SWARMING CONTROLLED MORE EASILY IN 
COLONIES RUN FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 
Frequently I receive letters from different parties wishing to know 
which is the more profitable to produce—comb or extracted honey. 
This, in some respects, is a rather hard question to answer, for much 
depends not only on the location and season, but also on the man and 
his methods. Rather than produce extracted honey as some do I should 
prefer comb honey. 
There are many localities where the surplus is gathered so slowly, 
even in good seasons, that it is almost impossible to produce a nice 
quality of comb honey. Then there are many seasons, even in good 
