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 CHAPTER IX

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY

HOW TO MAKE COMB-HONEY

bee-keeper who sends to the market honey in the comb enfolded in an attractive carton, or with the section neatly glazed, has produced a work of art; for comb-honey as now marketed is an æsthetic production, and the bee-keeper is an artist as much as if he had painted a picture or had fashioned a jewel. To most people who have an apiary as a pleasurable adjunct to life in the country, the production of comb-honey is most attractive, while the production of extracted honey does not appeal to them at all. Just the word "honey" calls to the mind of most people a vision of amber sweetness set in white-walled, waxen cells.

The production of comb-honey is attended by more difficulties than is the production of extracted honey. The reason for this is largely because the bees work more readily in cells already made from which the honey has been extracted, than they do in sections where they must undertake all of the expense and labour of producing wax for the comb. More than this, honey may be extracted from the comb 106