458 HONEY PRODUCTION. 



comb-honey producers, Mr. Manum, of Vermont, who sold 

 some 15 tons of comb-honey in 1885, acknowledged to us, that 

 with his management in the production of comb-honey, it was 

 nearly impossible to control swarming. 



ySG. The farmer, or merchant, who keeps only a few 

 hives, to produce honey for his own use, will find it much 

 preferable to produce extracted honey. With three colonies of 

 bees and an extractor, in a very ordinary location, from 150 

 to 300 lbs. of honey can be produced on an average, every 

 season. 



75'}'. Tor the production of extracted honey, we use half 

 stories or cases (fig. 204) with frames 6 inches deep, and of 

 the same length as the frames of the lower story. We have 

 also used full-story supers, but only on standard Langstroth 

 hives, and we decidedly prefer the half-story supers, for sev- 

 eral reasons, after having used both kinds on a large scale for 

 years. 



'758. The frames of the half -story supers are more easily 

 handled when full, and the combs are less apt to break down 

 from heat or handling. The half-story super is better suited 

 for the use of an average colony, and in cool weather is more 

 easily kept warm by the bees, than a full-story. Very strong 

 colonies, in extraordinary seasons, can be readily accommodated 

 with two and even three of these cases successively. 



With the full-story supers, the queen and the bees are more 

 apt to desert the lower stoiy altogether, in poor honey seasons, 

 and establish their brood-nest in the upper story, especially 

 when the combs of the lower or brood chamber are old, and 

 those above are new. The sole advantage of the full-story 

 super is that the frames in it are exactly of the same size as 

 those below, and can be interchanged with them if necessarj'; 

 but with large hives it will never be required to use upper story 

 combs for feeding, and even if the queen should breed in these 

 shallow cases, at times, she is soon crowded out of them by 

 the surplus honey. 



'759. The upper story frames are filled with comb founda- 



