410 HONET PRODUCTION. 



720. We have not the space to describe the different 

 evolutions, through which the production of comb honey 

 has passed since box-hive times ; production in large frames, 

 in glass boxes, in tumblers, etc. 



Honey in large frames does not sell well, and cannot be 

 safely transported. Were it not for this, its production in 

 this way would be advisable. The experienced bee-keeper 

 well knows that bees will make more honey in a large box, 

 than in several small ones whose united capacity is the 

 same. In small boxes, they cannot so well maintain their 

 animal heat in cool weather and cannot ventilate so readily 

 in hot weather.* 



The bees have another important and natural objection 

 to the small receptacles, mentioned by a noted Apiarist, as 

 will be seen farther (741). Practically, there is more 

 labor for the bees in smaU receptacles, as the joints and 

 corners of the combs require more time and more wax. 



721. But to produce salable comb honey, we have no 

 choice. We must produce it in as small a receptacle as 

 possible. The Adair section boxes, which we used as early 

 as 1868, marked the first progressive step, so far as we 

 know. 



These sections forming a case by the overlapping of their 

 top and bottom bars, and furnished with glass at each end, 

 were much admired, and we sold several tons of honey, in 

 this shape, in St. Louis, at the now fabulous prices of from 

 25 to 28 cents per pound. 



722. But the one and two pound sections, as now made, 

 have been universally adopted of late years. 



The one pound sections sell best, but, at the difference oi 

 only one cent per pound, we would prefer to use the two 

 pound sections. 



•In the exceedingly hot season of 1878, the colonies that were provided with 

 glass boxes yielded on an average, less than one-fourth of the average yielded 

 by others. 



