22 ARKANSAS EXPERIMENT STATION 



honey, at good prices, sometimes has but a ^^^^^^^^^^f.^^^^^e^ 

 demand, it is rather fragile for shipping and difficult to keep^ 

 On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that comb honey 

 is an article of luxury that appeals to certain people and in a 

 suitable locality and under the proper conditions the production 

 of it provides a very handsome income. 



Extracted Honey. This is the product that is removed 

 from the combs by means of a machine known as an extractor 

 The advantages of it over comb honey and some of the essential 

 manipulations have already been given in the preceding para- 

 graphs. For an extracting super an ordinary hive body may be 

 used, equipped with the regular frames, fitted with full sheets 

 of foundation and wired in the usual way. A shallow super 

 holding frames only 5% inches deep has some advantage over 

 the full sized hive body, because it is not so heavy and therefore 

 more easily handled. The shallow frames are fitted with full 

 sheets of foundation and wired like the full sized frames. It 

 insures straight combs and renders them strong enuf to with- 

 stand the extracting process. 



To prevent the queen from depositing eggs in the super a 

 queen excluder is placed between the brood chamber and the 

 super. Until recently, a sheet of perforated zinc was most 

 commonly used for this purpose, but it is now being rapidly dis- 

 placed by the wire-and-wood excluder (preferably 7-wire) which 

 allows the workers to pass thru more freely. If there is a 

 tendency for the bees to swarm, the use of the excluder is quite 

 a problem. In this case it will not be wise to use it immediately 

 before nor during a strong honey flow unless the beekeeper is 

 at the same time pursuing a method of swarm control which 

 involves the use of the excluder. During the last few weeks 

 of the honey flow the excluder should be used to rid the super 

 of brood. In this case the beekeeper must, of course, make sure 

 that the queen is below the excluder. 



The supers are placed on the hives in spring just before the 

 honey flow sets in, provided the colony is strong enuf to war- 

 rant the expectation of a surplus. Before the first super is en- 

 tirely filled, it should be raised and another one placed under- 

 neath it. This encourages the storing instinct, gives the bees 

 plenty of room, and discourages swarming. Supers should not 

 be removed from the hive until the honey is well ripened, which 

 means when all, or nearly all, of the honey has been sealed over. 



In removing the supers of honey the bees may be brushed 

 or shaken off, or the supers may be cleared of bees by introducing 

 a bee escape 24 hours before they are to be removed. The honey 

 may be extracted as soon as the supers have been taken off- it 

 will extract more readily if it is not allowed to cool 



Before putting the frames in the extractor, the combs are 



