The Production of Comb-Honey 
313 
Manipulation of the bees. 
In the successful production of comb-honey, the skill of 
the beekeeper is more exercised than in any other branch of 
beekeeping. From this statement the inference should not 
be made that the producers of comb-honey are, as a class, 
better beekeepers than those who extract their honey, for 
there are many beekeepers who put sections on their colonies 
and yet fail to get the maximum returns and lose the best 
of the crop. It is true, however, that much of our knowledge 
of the best methods of handling bees has come from the 
work of the exceptional comb-honey producers. 
It is useless to expect a weak colony to work well in sec¬ 
tions and it is therefore first of all necessary for the comb- 
honey producer to see that each colony has an abundance 
of workers at the beginning of the honey-flow, as described 
in an earlier chapter. In the building up of the apiary in 
preparation for the honey-flow, it is often impossible to get 
all colonies up to the standard and it is a quite common 
practice to utilize the weaker colonies for extracted-honey 
production or to take frames of brood from the weaker 
colonies to build up those of nearly full strength (p. 259), 
thereby practically abandoning the weakest colonies for 
honey-production. 
Keeping bees in proper condition. 
If a colony is of maximum strength when the honey-flow 
begins, it is ready for the harvest. Every hive should be 
packed with brood and honey and should have an abundance 
of young bees. If the colony has previously occupied two 
stories, as many of them should if properly manipulated, 
they are reduced to one story and any extra frames of brood 
are used to build up colonies that need them. This crowd¬ 
ing of the brood-nest, so essential to the highest success, 
is, however, just the condition favorable for swarming, and 
unless care is exercised the efforts of the beekeeper are 
rendered less effective. If the colony casts a swarm the 
working force is reduced and the two parts are not able 
