Honey in the Comb

Carl Everest Killion was born September 2nd 1899 in a log cabin several miles from the community of Diamond, Indiana. He became interested in bees and covered bridges at an early age recalling his first taste of honey at age six and weathering a severe thunderstorm
under the protection of a newly built covered bridge. He was reared through the great depression and due to the times was unable to obtain a high school education. His father sustained their family employed in the coal mines, where Carl himself would later work.

Carl's 1966 book "The Covered Bridge" relayed some of the key events of his child hood and how he came to have a fondness for covered bridges and bees. Carl's father not enamored with bees and was not agreeable to spend hard earned dollars for beekeeping adventures. Carl's work allowed him access to wooden apple crates which he scavenged and formed into bee frames and boxes, but finding wild bee swarms proved much harder. His first set of bees came from a bee tree that he and his friends were able to acquire and by season's end Carl had established fifteen hives. His family later moved to Paris, Illinois, where he continued
his interest in bees and beekeeping. He became a founding member of the state's beekeeping society and later the state's apiary inspector and bee expert. He met and married Elizabeth Hayes and began a family, but unable to make an adequate living at that time with just beekeeping he stayed with mining until 1935 when a mine accident caused him to re-think mine labor.

His interest in bees began with observation of local beekeepers and their efforts in capturing wild bees and continued throughout the years discussing, collaborating, teaching and legislating with beekeeping colleagues. A 1951 summary of his own beekeeping experiences are found in this book, "Honey in the Comb", originally self-published by Killion and Son's
Apiaries. He was a close friend of Charles Dadant.

Carl passed away June 1st 1979.

I. Comb Honey ...................................................... 1
II. Choosing a Location ........................................... 7
Outapiaries ................................................................. 9
Honey Plants and Bee Pasture ..................................... 10
III. Comb Honey Equipment ................................... 15
The Hive ................................................................... 15
The Bottom Board ...................................................... 19
The Hive Cover .......................................................... 22
Brood Frames ............................................................ 23
Our Ventilated T Super ............................................... 26
Separators ................................................................ 31
Sections for Comb Honey ............................................ 31
Folding Sections ........................................................ 36
Foundation for Sections .............................................. 38
Cutting Box ............................................................... 41
Fastening Foundation in Sections ................................. 47
Filling the Super ........................................................ 50
Painting Sections With Paraffin .................................... 51
Bait Sections ............................................................. 53
IV. Colony Management ........................................ 55
Spring Management ................................................... 55
Pollen Supplements .................................................... 56
Selection of Breeding Stock ......................................... 58
Swarm Control and Requeening ................................... 61
Dipping Queen Cells ................................................... 73
Clipping Queens......................................................... 74
The Honeyflow........................................................... 75
Super manipulation .................................................... 77
Preparation of Bees for Winter ..................................... 79
Cleaning of Bee Equipment ......................................... 88
V. Care and Storage of Comb Honey ....................... 93
Removing Moisture From Comb Honey ......................... 95
VI. Marketing Comb Honey .................................. 103
Preparation for Market .............................................. 103
Grading and Weighing Comb Honey ............................ 107
Marketing ................................................................ 120
VII. Bulk Comb Honey ......................................... 123
VIII. Beekeeping Records ..................................... 133
IX. The Future for Comb Honey ............................ 135
Index ................................................................. 137
About the Author ................................................. 141