41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, AUGUST 15, 1901, 



No, 33, 



I ^ Editorial. ^ I 



Shipping Comb Honey. — As the list 

 of readers of the American Bee Journal is 

 constantly increasing by the addition of new 

 and inexperienced bee-keepers, it seems 

 almost necessary to mention some things at 

 least annually. One of the "things " is that 

 of preparing comb honey for shipment. 



All comb honey should be put up iwe think) 

 either in 12 or 34 pound single-tier cases, the 

 former showing three sections through the 

 3-inoh glass front, and the latter showing four. 



After placing the sections in the cases with 

 a follower back of the last row, and news- 

 paper crowded in back of the follower, to act 

 as a cushion, then put say a dozen of the 12- 

 pound cases, or nine of the 34-pound, into a 

 large crate. First, however, there should be 

 several inches of straw put in the bottom 

 of the crate to act as springs or cushion 

 under the cases of honey, to insure safe hand- 

 ling. 



It is best, also, to have say 1x3 inch boards 

 nailed edgewise along the top of each side of 

 the crate, and extending six or eight inches 

 beyond the ends, to be used as handles by 

 two men to enable them to carry it between 

 them when loading or unloading. 



Some firms send out the following direc- 

 tions to shippers of honey: 



1 . Put your name on the crate. Xu name 

 on rases. 



2. Put a caution card on each crate. 



3. Put the gross weight, tare, and net 

 weight on the front of glass side of each case 

 before packing the honey in crates. 



4. Put the total weight of all cases on the 

 upper side of the crate, so this can be found 

 without opening the crate. 



.'). Mark each case with the grade. 



I'l. Mark each crate with the grade. 



r. Put only one grade in a case. 



s. Put only one grade in a crate,if possible. 



Comb honey put up as above, should go 

 safely anywhere with almost any kind of 

 handling. It pays to prepare it properly, for 

 it iirofiteth the bee-keeper nothing to produce 

 a lot of nice comb honey and then have it 

 brof<en and smashed in shipping, on account 

 of careless or inadetiuate preparation for 

 safe transportation. 



The Building of Drone-Comb.— The 



editor of the Bee-Keepers' Review deserves 

 thanks for calling attention loan error in these 

 columns which should not have occurred. 

 He says; 



Drone-comb is seldom built by a newly- 

 hived swarm for the purpose <if rearing 



drones. As a rule, such comb is used for 

 store-comb the first season. I mention this 

 as I see an editorial in the American Bee 

 Journal in which one objection urged against 

 the use of starters in the brood-nest is that 

 drone-comb is built, and. " as fast as it is 

 built it will be more or less filled with 

 drone-brood— generally more— and that brood 

 is a waste." If frames furnished with starters 

 are placed in the brood-nest of a colony just 

 before it is ready to swarm, these frames will 

 almost surely be filled with drone-comb, and 

 the cells filled with drone-brood ; but when a 

 swarm is hived upon starters, no drone-comb 

 will be built so long as the queen keeps pace 

 with the comb-builders; but let the queen 

 get behind, or go back to fill the cells from 

 which the bees are hatching in the center of 

 the brood-nest, and comb is then built to 

 store honey in, it is quite likely to be store or 

 drone comb; but it is very seldom that it will 

 be filled with drone-brood' at the time that it 

 is built. By sorting over the combs in the 

 fall the drone-comb can be taken out and 

 used after that in the supers. Contrary to 

 the belief of some, I believe that, under such 

 conditions, combs are built at a profit even if 

 they are to be melted into wax. 



Mr. Hutchinson isquite right in saying that 

 drone-comb when built by a swarm will not at 

 once be filled with brood. The question, 

 aside from that, whether it is advisable to 

 allow such comb to be built, afterward to be 

 cut out by the bee-keeper, is an open one. 

 For one who has plenty of time for the work, 

 and who will do it. the plan may be all right. 

 It should be understood that it is possible to 

 have all combs worker-combs without the use 

 of foundation at all, and there may be some 

 exceptional cases where labor and time are in 

 so much greater supply than money to buy 

 foundation that it may be economy to dis- 

 pense with the latter. Given a lot of combs 

 containing patches of drone-comb of greater 

 or less size, it is certainly paying work to cut 

 out all the drone-comb and replace it with 

 patches of worker-conih. It is well, however, 

 even for one who thinks it advisable to dis- 

 pense with foundation, to take .some pains to 

 limit the amount of drone-comb built. It is 

 usually practicable to do this by taking ad- 

 vantage of the fact that Mr. Hutchinson men- 

 tions, that so long as the laying of the queen 

 in a swarm keeps pace with the building of 

 comb there will be w drone-comb. Hive a 

 swarm on four or five frames, and little or no 

 drone-comb will be built until these are filled. 

 Then foundation or drawn combs may be 

 given to fill the hive, or. if only starters, the 

 drone-comb will be limited to these latter 

 combs. 



It is well to know, also, that nuclei or weak 

 colonies may be depended upon almost surely 

 to fill in holes with worker-comb, whereas if 

 a patch of drone-comli is cut out of a brood- 

 comb, and the comb ii'lurned to a full colony, 

 the hole will be most likely to be filled again 

 with drone-comb. Tlie age of the queen 

 makes a dilTerencc, tiit- older the queen the 



greater the inclination to build drone-comb, 

 even a very weak colony with an old queen 

 sometimes insisting on building drone-ccmib. 

 But when all the trouble and inconvenience 

 of mending combs are taken into account, the 

 number is very large to those who think it 

 cheaper in the long run to forestall the 

 actions of the bees by filling the frames with 

 worker foundation. 



Utilizing Cappings. — Efforts have been 

 made at different times to get bees to use 

 wax in building combs, the wax being 

 furnished by the liee-keeper. Success has not 

 always attended the efforts. E. Puffy now 

 reports in the French journal. Revue Inter- 

 nationale, that he has had excellent success. 

 He gives back cappings to the bees. The 

 secret of getting the bees to use them lies in 

 the honey between the layers of the cappings. 

 It is essential that the cappings be not 

 washed. Taken just as fliey come from the 

 uncapping-knife. they are packed into a ball 

 from the size of a walnut to the size of one's 

 head, and put in the hive beside the feeder. 

 Combs are then built out rapidly. 



The Honey Crop of 1901.— Editor 

 Root has been scanning- the field, and con- 

 cludes that bee-keepers need not be in haste 

 to dispose of their crop for fear of glut. Even 

 if the season were better than last year, there 

 were fewer bees to gather it this year, espe- 

 cially in Southern California, where probably 

 three-fourths of the bees have died through 

 neglect or starvation, their discouraged 

 owners thinking they could not afford to con- 

 tinue feeding them year after year. Else- 

 where in general there is a falling off in bees, 

 and he thinks prices should not fall below 

 those of last season. 



A significant fact is that the A. I. Root Co.. 

 which is one of the largest buyers of honey 

 in small lots, has had no more honey offered 

 this year than last. The well-informed bee- 

 keeper will be in no hurry to sell his honey 

 for less than it is worth. Editor Root says : 



Let me give one interesting fact in this 

 connection. The Root Co. finds it can buy 

 liouey. from those who do not read bee-iour- 

 nals, at a lower figure than from those who 

 take one or more and keep track of the mar- 

 ket. It is not inir rule to set prices. We ask 

 for a sample aiul the prices asked ; and it is a 

 fact that Ihe.t'fllow whothinks lie ran nut tiffonl 

 to take aliee-journal will sell his honey eiioin/h 

 lower in one srasuH to pay for all the bee-Joar- 

 nah for ten t/ears. 



And yet there are people who say that bee- 

 papers arc of no value to them ! Of course 

 not, if they ■ know it all," or are too lazy or 

 careless to read them and profit by the infor- 

 nuition whicli the papers furnish. 



