COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 
239 
For the local markets, the side extract- 
ing-combs can be cut out and sold for 
chunk honey at about the same price as 
that in the sections; so that there need be 
practically no loss; or when there is a call 
for liquid honey it can be extracted. 
The deep super, already described, with 
its 4x5 sections and section-holders, is 
well suited to carxy out the Townsend plan. 
Even the shallower supers using 
sections can be similarly arranged. 
Jay Smith of Vincennes, Ind., among 
many others who have been using the 
Townsend plan with good success, writes: 
I have been using Mr. Townsend’s plan of 
putting extracting-combs at the outside of 
the sections, and feel that in this Mr. Town¬ 
send has given the bee fraternity a most 
Valuable kink. In the engraving will be 
seen a super just set on the hive. The bees 
immediately took possession to clean it up. 
They will at once go to work and store hon¬ 
ey in the comb. The other picture shows 
the work as it progresses. The outside ex- 
tracting-frame is partly capped. The comb- 
honey section next to it has honey in it, 
while the third has work just commenced. 
After the bees begin in the center ones, 
they will push the work there a little faster, 
with the result that the entire super is 
finished at once and can be set aside for 
market without sorting. 
I anr running 80 colonies on this plan 
this year, and I have never had a single 
case of loafing, and the bees work with, all 
the energy they possess. When I read of 
some who let the hive-bodv get clogged with 
honey, and the bees cluster out, and they 
‘ ‘ shake ’ ’ energy into them, I thought the 
beekeeper was the one who needed shaking 
instead of the bees. With the above system 
I usually have about six per cent of swarms. 
This was the worst year for swarms I ever 
had, and the per cent of swarms was ten. 
BAIT SECTIONS. 
Some beekeepers, however, while admit¬ 
ting the excellence of the plans given for 
those who want part of their crop in ex¬ 
tracted honey, say that there is no need to 
use extracting-frames to start the bees at 
work in supers, since the same thing can 
be better accomplished by means of what 
are called “bait sections,” thus securing the 
entire crop in sections. 
A bait section is one which has been 
partly filled with honey, which honey is 
afterward emptied out by the bees, gener¬ 
ally in the fall. If is thus a section con¬ 
taining drawn comb, but having no honey 
in it, is to all intents and purposes an 
extracting-comb on a small scale. Bait 
sections thus prepared are kept over win¬ 
ter, to be used at the beginning of the next 
honey harvest. 
If a single bait section is put in the 
middle of the first super that is given to a 
colony, some claim that the bees will be¬ 
gin work in it as promptly as they will be¬ 
gin work in an extracting-comb. Others 
use more than a single bait in a super, but 
there may be no great advantage in this, 
and the number of baits should be limited 
as much as possible, for when a section is 
thus filled the second time it is not so 
beautiful as one filled the first time. A 
bait section is not needed in any super 
after the first. 
One serious objection to bait sections is 
their tendency to granulate early; and on 
account of this they should never be put 
into a shipping case with other sections of 
comb honey. They are never as nice, and 
should always be sold near home as soon as 
possible after they are taken off the hive. 
Some producers have made the serious 
mistake of putting their bait sections when 
completed in with other sections and send¬ 
ing them in one case to the city market. 
As these baits granulate very quickly, the 
city dealer is quick to discover it, and he 
will, therefore, conclude that the whole 
case is just as bad. 
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE BEES REFUSE TO 
ENTER THE SECTIONS. 
There have already been given some 
general suggestions that should enable the 
producer to get the bees up into the supers. 
One is, to give the bees a super of empty 
extracting-combs; and then when they 
have once started in them, place a super 
of sections, between it and the hive. An¬ 
other is, to use the extracting-combs as well 
as sections in the same super, a la Town¬ 
send ; and still another is, to use bait sec¬ 
tions. And still another is to run the colo¬ 
nies two-story during the breeding season, 
then remove the upper story, and put on 
a super of sections as explained else¬ 
where. When all of these devices fail, it 
may indicate that the weather is too cold, 
even tho there is plenty of bloom, or the 
colony not strong enough to go into the 
supers. If the weather is cool or chilly or 
the colony not strong enough, no amount 
