Part 1

Produced by Tom Cosmas compiled from images made available by The Internet Archive.

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis denoted as Italics and =Bold=.

Issued August 23, 1912.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

FARMERS' BULLETIN 503.

COMB HONEY.

GEO. S. DEMUTH.

Apicultural Assistant, Bureau of Entomology.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1912.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., April 16, 1912.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled "Comb Honey," by Geo. S. Demuth, apicultural assistant in this bureau.

In view of the increasing demand for the finest grade of comb honey and a decrease in the amount of comb honey produced, it seems timely to present to professional beekeepers an analysis of the best practice as well as to point out some essentials to the production of maximum crops of the best grade. I recommend the publication of this paper as a Farmers' Bulletin.

Respectfully, L. O. Howard, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau.

Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture.

CONTENTS.

Page

Introduction 5

Apparatus for comb-honey production 6 Shop and honey house 6 Hives 7 Sectional hives 10 Sections and supers 10 Bee way v. plain sections 10 Dimensions of sections 11 Supers 12 The method of support 12 Protection 13 Free communication within the super 14 The use of separators 15 Shallow extracting supers 16 Combination supers 16 Other apparatus 16 Preparing supers 17 Folding sections 17 Fastening foundation in sections 17 Manipulation of the bees 18 Securing workers for the honey flow 20 Building up the colony in the early spring 21 The production of gathering bees 22 Providing sufficient stores 23 Providing available brood-rearing space 23 Summary 24 Using available workers to best advantage during the honey flow 25 Swarming 26 Preventive measures 26 Control measures 27 Control of natural swarms 28 Using the removed brood to best advantage 29 What to use in the brood chamber when hiving swarms 32 Extreme contraction of the brood chamber when hiving swarms 33 Swarm control by manipulation 34 Taking the queen from the hive 35 Removing the brood from the hive 37 Separating the queen and brood within the hive 40 Manipulation of the supers 41 Caring for the crop 44 Removing the honey from the hives 44 Care of comb honey 45 Scraping propolis from sections 45 Grading comb honey 46 Packages for comb honey 46 Marketing 47

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

Fig. 1. A 10-frame hive with comb-honey super and perforated zinc queen excluder 8 2. Perforated zinc queen excluder 9 3. Beeway and plain sections, unfolded 10 4. Plain section in super, showing method of spacing 11 5. Beeway section in super, showing method of spacing 11 6. Square and oblong sections 12 7. The T super 13 8. Super with section holder for beeway sections 13 9. Super with section holder for square plain section 14 10. Super with section holder for oblong plain sections 14 11. Combination super with wide frames for oblong plain sections 15 12. Bee-escape board for removing bees from supers 17 13. Drone and queen trap on hive entrance 28 14. Colony before swarming; supers in place 29 15. Brood placed in hive turned 00 degrees from old entrance 29 16. Hive with brood turned back to 45 degrees from old entrance 30 17. Hive with brood turned parallel to old entrance 30 18. Hive with brood placed on other side of old entrance 31 19. Arrangement of supers 42 20. Shipping cases for comb honey 47

COMB HONEY.

=INTRODUCTION.=

The present tendency in beekeeping is decidedly toward the production of extracted honey rather than of comb honey. The recent activity among beekeepers toward specialization, which necessitates the establishing of out-apiaries, and the rapidly increasing demand for extracted honey are among the factors bringing about this condition. Enormous quantities of honey are now used for manufacturing purposes, and this demand is, of course, solely for extracted honey.