Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/152

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HOW TO KEEP BEES

and the more perfectly it is ripened, the less liable it is to granulate. Extracted honey will candy much sooner than honey left in the comb. We have kept comb-honey more than a year without crystals appearing in it. The only way to prevent comb-honey from candying is to keep it in a temperature that does not fall below 60 degrees. After honey is candied in the comb, nothing can be done with it except to sell it at a lower price, or keep it to feed back to the bees. The latter is probably the most profitable way to dispose of it. Some people like comb-honey after it is granulated and the home-table may use a certain amount of it.

MAXIMS FOR PRODUCING COMB-HONEY

Keep the colonies strong.

The bees should be kept warm and well fed in the spring.

The bees must have wintered well.

The colony must have brood and plenty of honey in the brood-chambers at the beginning of the honey season.

Never let the honey in sections or supers be exposed in the apiary to incite robbery.

Keep the sections in a room in which the temperature never falls below 60°.

Fumigate the sections before they are stored if you are troubled with bee-moth.

Send the honey to market in as attractive form as possible. Make your product individual in appearance, and strive to create for it a special market.