Beginners nearly always start bee-keeping with supers with the 
section boxes, because of the expense of the extractor. Also with very 
few hives, extracting honey would be a trouble as well as an expense. 
Honey should never be taken from the bees until it is sealed over 
with wax. It is then called well- ripened honey. If taken before this, 
it is liable to be thin and watery and is called unripe honey. In this 
condition it is likely to ferment. Honey absorbs moisture, and should 
be kept in a warm dry place. Well-ripened honey exposed to dampness 
will become thin and watery. This absorption of moisture makes honey 
invaluable to the bakers. The cakes, cookies, and sweet crackers 
sold at the grocers do not become dry and stale as do those made 
with sugar alone. Biscuit companies buy honey by the ton In car- 
loads to use in their factories. Honey used in this way is always 
extracted honey. 
All pure honey is likely to granulate, particularly alfalfa and aster 
honey, but any pure honey subjected to heat and cold will nearly 
always granulate. In Switzerland, France and Italy, granulated 
honey is sold and eaten that way. Delicious as this honey is, it is 
not appreciated in this country as it ought to be, and in fact is hardly 
salable in some places. The large bottling concerns heat their honey 
to a certain temperature to make it less liable to granulation. When 
heated too much, honey loses some of its delicious flavor and delicate 
aroma. 
To many people, honey in the combs is the only genuine honey, 
the real thing, and no jar of extracted honey, however attractive it 
may be, ■ can take its place. Comb honey brings a higher price 
wholesale than extracted honey. Some of the disadvantages of comb 
honey are:— 
1. The bees swarm more frequently than when extracted honey is 
produced. 
2. Comb honey is difficult to handle and ship. 
3. Only certain localities are suited to the production of comb 
honey, that is, where fine white honey is produced and where the 
honey flow is heavy. 
These disadvantages apply to commercial honey production, for 
dark honey is just as good to eat, but is not as marketable as light 
honey. 
Honey is a natural sweet, "inverted" as chemists say, or partly 
predigested so that it can be assimilated by the most delicate. Those 
who cannot eat sugar, candy or syrups are able to digest honey and 
find it satisfies their craving for sweets. 
My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honey comb, which 
is sweet to thy taste. — Proverbs, 24-13. 
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