242 
COMB HONEY. TO PRODUCE 
those having more than they need. In fact 
there comes a time during the latter part 
of the honey flow when it is better to have 
the colonies crowded a little for super 
room, but the difficulty is to know when 
this time has arrived. The bees will usu¬ 
ally stand a degree of crowding at this 
time which earlier in the season would 
have caused them to swarm or to loaf bad¬ 
ly. Any new supers that are given at this 
time should usually be placed on top of 
those already on the hive. 
The second step in preparation for the 
close of the season is that of reducing the 
number of supers on each hive to one or 
two as soon as possible, concentrating the 
unfinished sections in these supers. Some¬ 
times the bees are slow about sealing the 
honey, when it may be necessary to tier up 
the supers, four, five, or even six high, be¬ 
fore any of them are ready to be taken off. 
At other times they seal the honey more 
promptly, so it is not necessary to tier up 
more than three supers high. Usually the 
bees seal honey more promptly toward the 
latter part of the honey flow. 
As a rule it is not advisable to leave the 
supers on until all of the sections are fin¬ 
ished ; for the longer the honey is left on 
the hives, the more travel-stained it will 
become, and the more it will be soiled with 
propolis. This is especially true late in the 
honey flow. When most of the sections are 
finished the super should be taken off and 
the unfinished sections sorted out t<? give 
back to the bees for.completion. It is not 
safe to assume that a super is ready to be 
taken off by looking in at the top only. It 
is better to look in at the bottom also, for 
sometimes the sections of honey are sealed 
near the top and not sealed near the bot¬ 
tom. 
Let us suppose that, as the close of the 
season approaches, a colony has five supers, 
four of which are nearly filled, and work 
has just been started in the fifth, there be¬ 
ing enough unfinished sections scattered 
thru the four supers to fill one super. If 
these four supers are now taken off, the 
unfinished sections sorted out and assem¬ 
bled in one super which is put back on the 
hive, the work of finishing these sections 
will be carried on more rapidly, especially 
if the super of nearly finished sections is 
placed next to the brood-chamber, with the 
one in which but little work has been done 
on top. 
Of course these four supers would prob¬ 
ably not all be ready to be taken off at 
once, but by going over all the supers every 
four or five days at this time, taking off 
and sorting those nearest completion, the 
supers can soon be reduced to a single 
nearly finished one for each colony, with 
an empty or nearly empty one to act as a 
safety valve if more room is needed. If 
there are not enough supers, in which but 
little work has been done, to go around, an 
empty super should be given, pi’ovided 
there is still enough nectar coming in so 
that the bees will draw out the foundation,, 
for the nearly finished super is usually fin¬ 
ished more promptly if the bees are per¬ 
mitted to build comb in another super at 
the same time. 
If the beekeeper has guessed well, the 
lower one of these two supers should be 
nearly finished just before the honey flow 
entirely ceases and the upper one should 
have but little unsealed honey stored in it, 
yet the foundation should be well drawn out 
and some of the combs at least partly built. 
This super, if taken off promptly and the 
bees permitted to cleati Out the little honey 
it contains, is just right for the first super 
next year. It is not possible always to 
guess so well as this, and while some colo¬ 
nies may come out just right, others will 
store considerable honey in the top super, 
while still othei's will not complete the 
lower one, so a further but final sorting of 
sections becomes necessary. 
During the time this last super is being 
finished it is well to watch closely for colo¬ 
nies that are good finishers, as usually sev¬ 
eral colonies will be found in an apiary of 
sixty to eighty which do much better work 
at finishing than the others. These should 
lie marked to be used in the final work of 
finishing. 
The third step toward closing the season 
is that of removing all of the supers, doing 
this, if possible, before the honey flow en¬ 
tirely ceases and before the bees begin to 
varnish the cappings of the honey and the 
section boxes with propolis. The sections 
in the nearly finished supers should again 
be sorted and the unfinished ones given 
back to those colonies which were marked 
as the best finishers, This time, in assem- 
