224 
COMB HONEY 
its thickness so that when one of these just- 
right-sized sheets of foundation is laid on 
(he block, the foundation will be perfectly 
entered in the section. With the Van 
Deusen wax tube shown on a previous 
page the sheet is then secured to all four 
sides by the stream of hot wax. 
Probably the nicest plan—the one that 
furnishes the most perfect comb honey, is 
the scheme of having the section-blanks 
grooved about % inch wide and half the 
depth of the section on a medial line run¬ 
ning from end to end of the blank as 
shown. Squares of comb foundation cut 
slightly larger than the inside surface of 
the section are slipped into the groove be¬ 
fore the section is folded. The founda¬ 
tion should not be cut so large that, the 
sheet would buckle after the section is 
folded. 
Neither melted wax nor hot plate—in 
fact, no heat of any kind—is needed to 
hold the sheet in place. The work of in¬ 
serting the sheet is quickly and neatly 
done, and at the same time the foundation 
can expand slightly in the groove while 
being drawn out, provided the sheet is not 
cut too large in the first place. 
It should be mentioned that there is one 
difficulty—that of cutting the sheets of ex¬ 
actly the right size. If one has never used 
this method, he should cut two or three 
trial sheets and try them out first. When 
the sheet is cut right for the inside of the 
folded section there should be a slight 
amount of end and side play to allow for 
a slight expansion that necessarily takes 
place when the sheet is drawn out. When 
the right size has been determined on, a 
wooden form should be made as sliown in 
Fig-s. 1, 2, !1, so as to cut the sheets exactly 
right. 
Experience shows that when the sheet of 
foundation fills the section a much more 
perfect comb honey is produced than when 
there is a large sheet and a small one at 
the bottom, and certainly better than when 
a starter is used and fastened at the top 
only. If the right methods of production 
are employed, when these full sheets are 
used, the combs will be even, well filled 
out, without an open corner. Some strains 
of bees, if crowded for room, will some¬ 
times run the filled cells of honey clear 
to the wood, without leaving any so- 
called “pop-holes,” or, more exactly speak¬ 
ing, a line of unsealed cells next to the 
wood on the sides and bottom. 
The best arrangement for cutting the 
foundation is the miter-box. This device 
can be quickly made by almost any one, 
the construction being plain from the illus- 
strations. The box should be placed on a 
table with the saw-cuts down as in Fig. 1, 
and from five to twenty sheets of founda¬ 
tion laid in, care to be taken to see that 
the ends are even. Then the cleated board 
should be put on top of the sheets of foun¬ 
dation, and the box turned over so that 
it rests on the cleats, as shown in Fig. 2. 
For cutting, a keen-edged butcher-knife 
should be used. It need not be hot, if kept 
well lubricated with soapy water. The 
knife should be held at an angle as shown, 
and moved rapidly but lightly back and 
forth, cutting only on the drawing stroke. 
If the saw-cuts are carefully spaced and 
the whole box put together in a square 
workmanlike manner, the sheets can be 
quickly and accurately cut. 
COMB HONEY. —While all honey in the 
comb is what may be called “comb honey,” 
yet the term as ordinarily used refei’s to 
small squares of comb, built into frames of 
wood technically called section honey-boxes, 
or “sections” for short; therefore all ref¬ 
erences to comb honey, whether in the mar¬ 
ket quotations or in the ordinary literature 
relating to bees, are understood to apply to 
the article built in sections. 
More recently little chunks of sealed 
comb honey about an inch and a half 
square are being put up in paraffin paper, 
and the whole slipped into a neat little 
carton. This is what is called the “indi¬ 
vidual comb-honey service,” and may be 
found in some of our best restaurants, 
hotels, and dining-cars. 
In the southern States there is another 
article called chunk or “bulk comb honey.” 
The combs are built usually in shallow ex- 
tracting-frames, and cut out in various¬ 
sized chunks of a size that will fit tin buck¬ 
ets or glass jars. The spaces between the 
coxnbs and 'around them are filled with a 
good quality of extracted honey. They are 
sealed or covered with the ordinary covei' 
of the tin bucket. Bulk comb honey is pro¬ 
duced very largely, particularly in the 
