Comb Honey

by Geo. S. Demuth

Issued August 23, 1912.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

---

FARMERS' BULLETIN 503.

---

COMB HONEY.

BY

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]