236 
COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 
two sets of combs must be sorted, and it is 
sometimes necessary in this sorting- to leave 
some of the combs which have a rim of 
sealed honey in the upper portion, these 
being combs from the upper hive-body. 
The plan is an excellent one, however, and 
may be used even with the 10-frame hive. 
To bring’ about similar results with less 
labor some comb-honey producers who use 
the 10-frame hive have provided a shallow 
extracting- super for each colony. These 
shallow extraeting'-supers contain the extra 
stores needed for safety during- the spring-, 
thus permitting the standard brood-cham¬ 
ber to be used almost entirely for brood. 
They are taken off at the beginning of the 
honey flow- when the comb-honey supers 
are given. In this way, the objectionable 
barrier of honey at the top of the hive is 
removed; and the comb-honey supers are 
placed down adjacent to the brood, which 
is a great advantage in stimulating the 
bees to expand their work into the supers 
and in reducing the tendency to swarm. 
This principle has been recommended by 
several extensive beekeepers even when ex¬ 
tracted honey is being produced. 
The shallow extracting-supers should be 
tiered up on weak colonies which are not 
being- used for comb-honey production, for 
they should be refilled with* honey as the 
small amount of brood which they usually 
contain emerges. After they have been 
filled with honey these food chambers are 
ready to be given back to the colonies after 
the crop of comb honey has been removed 
from the hives. 
The extra stores provided by either of 
these plans stimulate the bees to rear a 
large amount of brood during the spring, 
usually resulting in at least one standard 
brood-chamber being well filled with brood 
at the beginning of the honey flow and 
colonies, so strong that they begin work 
in the supers with a rush. 
Thus by using a separate chamber for 
honey and a brood-chamber slightly smaller 
than the capacity of good qiieens, the safe¬ 
ty of the colonies, so far as stores are con¬ 
cerned, is insured without laborious and 
expensive feeding which is too often not 
done when most needed; and, at the same 
time, the objectionable rim of honey at 
the top of the hive can be lifted off and 
the comb-honey supers placed upon a 
brood-chamber almost full of brood and 
practically free from honey. 
Where honey granulates readily the 
large surplus of stores may -sometimes be 
objectionable, but where honey granulates 
readily comb-honey production is not ad¬ 
visable anyway. Colonies so provisioned 
usually build up so strong in the spring 
that most of the extra honey may be used 
up and the combs in the food chamber a re 
refilled with honey from early sources. 
WHEX AND IIOW TO PUT ON SUPERS. 
If the colony is in one story and the bees 
begin to work well in the field, while the 
combs are whitened near the tops, and the 
frames fairly well filled with brood and 
honey, supers should be put on. 
The usual practice is to put the comb- 
honey super on at the start; but Italians 
especially are sometimes slow about enter¬ 
ing the sections unless the colony is quite 
strong. 
Two correspondents sent to Gleanings in 
Bee Culture their method of using extract- 
ing-combs to bait the bees above. One uses 
a whole super of shallow extracting-combs, 
and the other uses both sections and ex- 
tracting-eombs in the same super. Both 
are given here. The first mentioned writes: 
I have been, for-several years, very much 
interested in trying and comparing different 
methods of handling bees for honeycomb. 
I have been in the business for eight years, 
and have had fair success. For the first 
five years I tried a different method each 
year. Three years ago I tried an experiment 
that succeeded so well I have followed it up, 
and have in a measure overcome the two 
greatest difficulties that I had to contend 
with—loafing and swarming. We use the 
eight-frame dovetailed hives with section- 
holders for 414 x 414 sections. Our bees 
would always begin to loaf or hang out dn 
the front of the hives when -we put on the 
sections, and most of them would do but 
little in the sections until they had lost 
several days, and then would swarm, thus 
losing several days of the first alfalfa bloom. 
I had 60 colonies of Italians in my out- 
apiary, and in trying my experiment I tried 
to be fair. I took 30 supers of half-depth 
extracting-frames full of comb from the 
home apiary, and put them on 30 hives in 
the out-apiary at the same time that I put 
sections on the other 30 hives. In four or 
five days the extracting-combs were full of 
new honey, and the bees excited and busv 
at their work, while most of those having- 
sections were loafing, and some .had 
swarmed. 
