Mar. 24, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



225 



to the T super is, a great many people don't know how to use 

 them ! 



Pres. York — There is a book published on that subject 1 



Dr. Miller — Many. 



HONEY CROP OF THE UNITED STATES FOR I9O3. 



"Is the general honey crop of the United States for 1903 

 above the average?" 



Mr. France — Possibly I have had through the correspond- 

 ence of the members of the National an opportunity to learn 

 of that, and I will say it is below an average, take the United 

 States as a whole. 



Mr. Abbott— Right. 



CLOSED-END FRAMES. 



"What are the good points in a closed-end frame?" 



■Pres. York — How many use the closed-end frame, or have 

 used them? [Eight.] 



Mr. Wilcox — One good point is, the space would be prop- 

 erly spaced while the combs were being filled. After the 

 combs are filled I don't care for them any more. 



Mr. Abbott — They didn't have any good points is the 

 reason I quit using them. 



Dr. Miller — They are fixed distances, and they are 

 warmer ; but I v/ouldn't have them. 



Mr. Wheeler — I wouldn't have anything else. That's just 

 the difference. 



Mr. Wilcox — You ought to know the good points. 



Mr. Wheeler — When you want to shake bees out, stick 

 the end of your hive against the ground and you don't knock 

 your frames all out of true. 



Dr. Miller — You are not talking about the closed-end. It 

 may be closed-end and hanging too. 



Mr. Wheeler — I am talking about the closed-end and 

 hanging. 



Mr. Muth — I suppose that is another one of the articles 

 that was made for the wings of some of the people. Every 

 man I sold those closed-end hives to has thrown them away. 

 They don't like them. Too much paraphernalia connected 

 with them. I tried them a couple of years and don't want 

 them. 



Mr. Wheeler — I am glad of it. I can produce honey and 

 beat the other fellows because I have shorter cuts. We can 

 produce honey cheaper with that hive than with any other. 



REVERSIBLE FRAMES. 



"What is to be gained by the use of reversible frames?" 



Pres. York — How many use reversible frames, or have 

 used them? [Seven.] 



Mr. Baldridge — I have used them but don't use them now. 



Mr. Wilcox — I have now perhaps several thousand of 

 them in use. They are made of the pattern described by Mr. 

 Heddon. They are reversible. I can't say that I would advise 

 everybody to start with them, because it costs a little more 

 to start with. If a comb breaks loose, or in handling falls to 

 the bottom-bar, you can reverse it, and it will sit on its bot- 

 tom again and the bees will build the spaces full. That's one 

 of the advantages. Sometimes they do break that way. An- 

 other advantage, that wedge-shaped piece on each end ex- 

 tending below the center some two inches leaves the space 

 between the end of the frame and the end of the hive tapering 

 narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, and I find it as 

 Mr. Heddon said, that the bees would never build brace- 

 combs behind the lower end of the brood-frame while the 

 top may come as close as a quarter of an inch. I think that 

 is a little advantage in moving out on the hive. That is only, 

 however, peculiar to the one form of reversible frame and 

 not to the principle. 



Mr. Wheeler — Do you mean to say that that is the Hed- 

 don reversible hive? 



Mr. Wilcox — Heddon reversible frame ; hanging Lang- 

 stroth. Heddon was the inventor. 



WHITENING COLORED HONEY-VINEGAR. 



"How can you make colored honey-vinegar white?" 



Mr. Muth — The only thing to make white honey-vinegar 

 is to use white honey from the beginning. 



Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Meredith has one way of making 

 vinegar white. He puts horse-radish in it! 



Mr. Meredith — The distilled vinegar is white vinegar, 

 but in the process of manufacture it is all a wine color, and 

 it is reduced to its whiteness by some process, and there 

 might be somebody here who has had experience in making 

 honey-vinegar. If so, I would like to know it. 



Dr. Miller — Follow up what is in the British Bee Journal. 

 They make dark honey white by means of electrical machines 

 and using ozone? I should think that would be expensive, 

 but they say it isn't. First, to make the dark honey light 

 you put the lightning through your vinegar and make it white. 

 I don't know anything about it in practice, but they say it is 

 really an inexpensive process, but I very much doubt its be- 

 ing a success. 



Mr. Muth — In the large pork-packing establishments they 

 clarify lard. They use all kinds of refuse to make lard, and 

 they have fullers' earth that they clarify with. They put it 

 in the lard, and the darkness will all settle to the bottom. In 

 all the big establishments they clarify their products, and 

 make them white as snow. 



Mr. Meredith^At Aurora a process is used to a large 

 extent in packing-houses, where they use the refuse and the 

 putting on of this earth, and putting it through a press, brings 

 it back to the whiteness which it was before it became dirty. 

 It is done by means of a hydraulic press — pressed through 

 cotton with pressure of 250 to 500 pounds. It is simply a 

 matter of cleaning out the refuse and bringing it back to its 

 original color. 



Mr. Chapman — The packing-houses don't care to get the 

 fuller's earth out of the lard ! I presume in this case we 

 would like to get rid of the fuller's earth. 



PRODITCEr'S name and address on HONEY. 



"Is it advisable for producers of comb honey to put their 

 name and address on each section when shipping to a city 

 dealer?" 



Mr. Meredith — Yes, and no. As a producer I sell honey 

 and somewhat object to anybody — I would object to shipping 

 my honey to anybody that refused to have my name on it. I 

 ran short and my neighbor Jones had some. The people who 

 are buying my honey want Meredith's honey, and I had to 

 clean off Jones' name ; where I hadn't done so, they wanted 

 my name on the honey. 



Mr. Wilcox — The reason for putting it on there is to 

 advertise it. "That is the only reason, and we all wish to ad- 

 vertise our honey. The buyer who gets it may wish it to sell, 

 and may want his name on instead of yours, and he will have 

 to cut yours off. I am selling extracted honey and I some- 

 times run out and have to buy. I buy the best I can. I don't 

 like to buy the poorest. If the man I buy from, and I order 

 him to ship to you, and he has his name on there, you will 

 write right back to him for some more of just such honey, 

 and I would lose a customer. I would rather do without the 

 profit on that honey. I have lost a customer by allowing that 

 man to stamp his 'name on the package. I would lose a great 

 many sales rather than buy from a man who would stamp his 

 packages. 



Pres. York — He might have his name on the box. 

 Mr. Muth — I don't want anyone's honey with his name 

 over the sections. I will do that myself. We work hard to get 

 customers, and I am just as jealous of my business as I can 

 be, and if I develop a trade I don't want yoii to come in and 

 take my trade. I have spent a life-time for it. I don't want 

 a producer's name on every section. They can put it on the 

 end of the case if they want to, and if I see fit I can scratch 

 it off. Nine times out of ten it comes off, but when the name 

 is all over the sections I don't want it. A good many times 

 I feel like saying, "The honey is here subject to your order." 

 Mr. Horstmann— I don't think it is right for bee-keepers 

 to have their names on the sections. I don't think it is 

 honest. If I sell a case of honey to a dealer, that honey 

 belongs to that dealer, and I claim that my name has no 

 right on the sections. If I am an honest bee-keeper, and 

 want to be fair, I should leave my name off. I can stick 

 half a dozen, or a dozen cards in the box, and if he wants 

 to advertise me and my business he can do so; but I say, 

 Keep your names off the sections when you sell to the trade. 

 If I am selling honey to people in my own neighborhood, I 

 would put my name on the sections, and also when people 

 come to my house to buy honey. I should advertise my busi- 

 ness as much as I can, but I have no right to advertise my 

 business at the expense of somebody else. 



Mr. Kannenburg — It seems like that is trying to kill off 

 the middleman ! 



Mr. Meredith — I have sold to merchants who required 

 that my name be put on. 



Pres. York — They held you responsible for it then. 



Mr. Abbott — This means a little more, too. I think 



sometimes the names ought to be cut off of the honey. 



I hate to buy a thing with the company's name stamped 



