BEES 
enough for the bees to begin storing in 
as soon as any honey 1s collected Earlier 
work in the sections is thus secured, and 
this, as is well known, is an important 
point in the prevention of swarming. 
Samuel Simmins, ot England, has long 
contended for this use ot partially drawn 
combs, and though 1t forms a feature of 
his system for the prevention of swarm- 
ing it has been too often overlooked. 
Comb foundation is now manufactured 
with extra thin septum or base and with 
the beginnings of the cells marked out 
by somewhat thicker walls which the bees 
immediately thin down, using the extra 
wax in deepening the cells. This is not 
artificial comb, but a thin sheet of wax 
having the bases of the cells outlined on 
it. Complete artificial combs have never 
been used in a commercial way, although 
there exists a widespread belief to this 
effect, which is founded on extravagant 
claims that have appeared from time to 
time in newspaper articles. 
If the brood apartment has been much 
contracted when the supers were added, 
the queen may go into the sections and 
deposit eggs unless prevented by the in- 
sertion of a queen excluder (Fig. 7). 
Perforated Zine Queen Excluder. 
This, merely a sheet of zinc with perfo- 
rations which permit workers, but not 
the queen, to pass, is placed between the 
brood apartment and the supers. The 
great inconvenience of having brood in 
Some of the sections is thereby prevented. 
When the honey in the sections has been 
nearly capped over, the super may be 
lifted up and another added between it 
and the brood apartment. Or, should 
593 
the stiength of the colony not be suffi- 
cient, or the harvest not abundant enough 
to warrant the giving of so much space, 
the sections which are completely fin- 
ished may be removed and the partly 
finished ones used as bait sections” to 
encourage work in another set of sections 
on this hive or in new supers elsewhere. 
The objections to the removal of sections 
one by one, and brushing the bees from 
them, are (1) the time it takes, and (2) 
the danger that the bees when disturbed, 
and especially if smoked, will bite open 
the capping and begin the removal of 
the honey, thus injuring the appearance 
of the completed sections. 
A recent valuable invention, the bee 
escape, when placed between the super 
and the brood nest, permits the bees then 
above the escape to go down into the 
brood apartment, but does not permit 
their re-entering the super. If inserted 
12 to 24 hours before the sections are to 
be removed, the latter will be found free 
from bees at the time of removal, provid- 
ed all brood has been kept out of the 
supers. 
Grading and Shipping Comb Honey 
Before marketing the honey it should 
be carefully graded, and all propolis 
(“bee-glue’), if there be any, scraped 
from the edges of the sections. In grad- 
ing for the city markets the following 
rules are, in the main, observed. They 
were adopted by the North American 
Bee Keepers’ Association at its twenty- 
third annual convention, held in Wash- 
ington, D. C., in December, 1892, and are 
copied from the official report of that 
meeting: 
Fancy.—All sections to be well filled; 
combs straight, of even thickness, and 
firmly attached to all four sides; both 
wood and comb unsoiled by travel stain 
or otherwise; all cells sealed except the 
row of cells next to the wood. 
No. 1.—AIl] sections well filled, but with 
combs crooked or uneven, detached at the 
bottom, or with but few cells unsealed: 
both wood and comb unsoiled by travel 
stain or otherwise. 
In addition to the above, honey is to 
be classified, according to color, into light, 
