EXTRACTOR. 



lyi 



EXHIBITS OF HONEY. 



ter cases. Colonies a little short are given 

 enough to furnish them from 2-5 to 30 lbs. of 

 stores all told. The bees are then left until 

 the hrst of June following. As his fall vis- 

 its are made some time in October, there is 

 a period of seven months when no one goes 

 near them. 



He says he has practiced fussing with bees 

 in the spring to equalize stores, and reduced 

 the brood-nest to a size that the bees can 

 readily occupy: but colonies so treated have 

 averaged no better than those that had no 

 care whatever. "When he next visits them 

 (in June) he gives each of the strong colonies 

 two ten-frame supers of empty extracting- 

 combs; but instead of putting ten combs in 

 a super he puts in eight, spacing them ai^ail; 

 equally to fill out the room. The bees are not 

 seen again until he makes a third trip (in 

 July). This is for the pur[ ose of extracting 

 all honey, as he does not wish his ba.>-swood 

 mixed with clover. Except for this he would 

 let them go entirely until the end uf the ."rea- 

 son for the final extracting, managing the 

 outyards with only three trips in a year. As 

 it is, he separates his clover from his bass- 

 wood by making a fourth trip. On his third 

 visit the combs are extracted of all clover, 

 and put back on the hives again. Last of 

 all, he makes one more (a fourthj trij». re- 

 moves all the filled combs, and extracts them 

 of the basswood. The bees are then left 

 until he puts tliem away for winter in the 

 fall, which will be the first trip of the next 

 year. 



His secret of success lies in the fact that 

 he is a skillful bee-keeper and has a large 

 number of drawn combs — enough to give 

 every .strong colony two extra supers. The 

 combs being spaced wide apart, eight frames 

 to till the ten-frame capacity, they are drawn 

 out thick and capped over. As the bees 

 have an abundance of room at all times, 

 there is little or no swarming : and such 

 swarming as there is does not amount to 

 much. In fact, Mr. Townsend argues it 

 does not pay to keep a man at the yard to 

 look after that, for he can buy more bees, if 

 he needs them, at $3.00 a colony, to make up 

 for any losses; and this will be far less cost 

 to him than to keep a man looking after the 

 swarms. 



In uncapping he runs the knife deep, 

 planing the combs down to a normal thick- 

 ness. This gives him a surplus of wax that 

 always finds a good market, and an extra 

 amount of honey in the cappings: but as 

 this drains off he gets all the honey, and 

 finally melts all the cappings up into wax. 



He thinks bees in the height of the honey- 

 flow are bound to build comb; and if no 

 provision is made they will stick in burr and 

 brace combs: when, if the frames are spac- 

 ed wide, their natural instincts for comb- 

 build ng can be satisfied, and the extra depth 

 of comb can be converted into wax. which is 

 as good as cash. 



Of cour.-e. when he makes his visits to the 

 yards he takes helpers along. Cheap help, 

 with a good manager, can do as much or 

 more work than expensive men without the 

 boss along. 



Another fact worth recording is that Mr. 

 Townsend gets two cents above the market 

 for his lioney. The fact that it is left on the 

 hives till after the season, where it can ripen 

 th/jvowjhhj. gives it a richness and quality 

 that the consiimeis demand and want more 

 of when they have tasted the first lot. 



EZHZEZTS OF HONEY — //w; th^y 

 may he used in Hit dtvtl'jjjratnt of the bee and 

 honey industry.— Oi late, very much indeed 

 has been accomjdished by the exhibits of 

 bees, honey, and apiarian implements at 

 State and county fairs. Several of the larg- 

 er societies have had very pretty buildings 

 erected on the fairgrounds for these displays, 

 and often the bee-keepers who meet at such 

 places have very interesting conventions. 



Such exhibits have a decidedly education- 

 al influence on the public. They show hov: 

 honey is produced : and not only that, but 

 that it can be produced by the ton and car- 

 load. On accoimt of newspaper yams, 

 there seems to be a general impression 

 among people that comb honey is manufac- 

 tured, and that the extracted article is adul- 

 terated w ith glucose. It is absolutely im- 

 possible to manufacture comb, fill it with 

 honey, and cap it over with appropriate ma- 

 chinery — just as impossible as it is to man- 

 ufacture eggs. We have had for several years 

 a standing offer of §10^XJ to any one who 

 would show where comb honey was manu- 

 ' factured. or even procure a singU manufac- 

 tured sample which could not be told from 

 the genuine. Although this offer has be^n 

 i published broadcast in the daily jjapers, no 

 ! one takes it up. We have also had the con- 

 1 ditions of this offer printed on a neat little 

 card, the same distributed by bee-keepers at 

 fairs and other honey-exhibits, so that, if 

 ! such a thing were possible, there would be a 

 bonanza for somebody. As to extracted 

 honey, there was a time when it was adul- 

 terated somewhat, but owing to the action of 

 Stat<; and national laws there is very little 

 of it now. See Honey Adulteeatiox. 



