selves
beyond the possibility of becoming anything. It takes a thousand
hammer-blows to drive home a truth or a useful idea.

If comb honey is your specialty observe the national grading and packing
rules. They are printed in all bee papers and magazines, and have been
given all possible publication to reach you.

To obtain fancy comb honey your sections must have been made over strong
colonies in No. 1 white, new sections with extra thin top and bottom
starters. After the honey flow is over in your locality (which you can
detect by the tendency of bees to rob and be cross) remove your comb
honey at once. By leaving it on, travel stained and propolis spotted
sections will result. The snow white finish of the comb will be
discolored, the wood will assume that "used and handled" appearance
which is not attractive to the buyer. The sections must be graded fancy,
No. 1 and No. 2. Every section must be scraped around the edges and all
propolis removed. Some bee-keepers even polish the wood of the section
until it looks as clean as if it just came from the factory.

After cleaning and grading put up your honey into standard shipping
cases. Do not ship it in the super where it was raised nor in a soap
box. If shipped to a distant market by freight or express, eight
shipping cases must be packed together into one honey crate provided
with handles. The tendency of late is to put up each comb in a separate
paper box with transparent front to keep the honey free from flies and
finger-marks. This practice deserves universal adoption.

If you produce extracted honey you may leave your honey with bees for a
week or two after the honey flow is over. Extracting should be done in
hot weather, during August or early part of September. A modern hand or
power extractor is an absolute necessity. There are still a few old
timers who "butcher" their bees late in the fall, and render the honey
by the "hand mash and sheet strain" method, but they are only relics of
a poetical past and going fast.

Honey to be extracted must be well capped over. If extracted too thin it
will ferment and get sour. If left with bees too long it will be too
thick and hard to extract. Extracting ought to be done in a bee-tight
room to keep out robber bees. Extracted supers may be returned to the
bees in the evening or piled up at a distance in a safe place for bees
to clean out. Extracted honey must be left to stand in a settling tank
for about a week, or until