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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 26, 1901. 



piation sufficient to help cover the costs of establishing a 

 department for the study of bee-keeping-, and the location 

 of an experimental apiary on the grounds. After some 

 discussion concerning the great need and usefulness of 

 such an establishment, and the great good that could be 

 accomplished, the motion was unanimously carried, and a 

 special committee appointed, composed of H. H. Hyde, Ct. 

 F. Davidson and R. C. Knowles, to invite Prof. Mally to 

 appear before the bee-keepers. Another committee to assist 

 Prof. Mally. and to go to Austin (Texas) before the legisla- 

 ture, was appointed, viz : G. F. Davidson, Louis SchoU, J. 

 M. Hagood, and E. J. Atchley. 



The regular subject under discussion was then resumed. 



Z. S. Weaver said that bee-keeping must be followed 

 altogether as a business. He does not encourage farmers 

 to keep bees, but how many would be here now as bee-keep- 

 ers if not started on their farms? It just depends whether 

 the bees or the farm is the thing one should follow, and of 

 course the one not the best paying is turned loose. Some 

 keep bees as a side-issue, become enthusiastic and succeed. 

 while others fail. If the farmers keep a few colonies of 

 bees for their own use it is all right ; otherwise it is'not. 



O. P. Hyde makes a whole business out of bee-keeping 

 and keeps bees for the dollars and cents there is in it ; he 

 has no objections at all to farmers keeping bees, for if he 

 had 100.000 pounds of honey at his home, not 1000 pounds 

 of it would be sold there, as all of his honey is shipped to 

 markets in North Texas. Just let farmers keeping bees go 

 on, and the matter will adjust itself some way in the 

 future. 



To this Mr. Atchley objected, as new ones coming in all 

 the time the matter could not adjust itself, but must be 

 done by the experienced bee-keepers discouraging the kind 

 who won't succeed. 



There were many who gave their opinions in regard to 

 this matter. Some discouraged farm bee-keeping, while 

 others proclaimed it all right. Some of our greatest apia- 

 rists started on the farm. But to keep bees, and a farm, too, 

 was not deemed practicable ; that either one should be fol- 

 lowed as a profession and not divide one's attention. Either 

 be a bee-keeper or a farmer ; they can not be made to har- 

 monize, as the bees need one's whole attention to make 

 them successful, and either the farm or the bees must be 

 neglected some time, especially in the spring. At the time 

 the bees need attention the farm needs it ; and as nobody 

 can be hired to attend to a business as one himself would, 

 something will be neglected. And what is the use of only 

 half attending to each, instead of following the one most 

 suitable ? There are many sections most excellent for bees 

 but not for farms; others just the reverse. Then, again, 

 there are men more fit for one than the other. This ought 

 to govern as to which line should be followed. 



The discussion ended, that if farmer bee-keepers would 

 keep bees in up-to-date ways, produce their honey by the 

 latest methods, putting it up for market rightly, and keep 

 informed in regard to the market price of honey, by read- 

 ing the bee papers and books to keep up with the times, 

 there will be no harm done. So it will be the duty of the 

 more experienced to teach them all this. Encourage such 

 as will succeed and will try to make a success at it. But 

 the others that can't be taught, won't read a bee-paper, 

 won't learn, and come in with their inferior stuff, to lump 

 it off at any old price, should be discouraged in any way 

 possible. Bees really belong on the farm as well as poultry, 

 hogs, cows, and such, and should be kept, but rightly kept[ 



PRODUCTION OF CHUNK COMB HONEY. 



This was next taken up, on which M. M. Faust gave 

 his method of production, and disposing thereof. He 

 wants the strongest colonies for producing all kinds of 

 honey, but more for bulk comb honey. He lets them get 

 strong and gives them more room, by adding half-depth 

 supers with shallow frames containing foundation starters 

 one-half inch wide. If the bees are slow to go up, he puts 

 on another half-depth super, putting up some frames of 

 brood from the brood-chamber below, and putting the shal- 

 low frames in their stead, until well started, when all is 

 readjusted. He used to produce about one-half extracted 

 and one-half of bulk comb, but the past season he has had 

 to buy extracted honey to fill up his comb-honey cans. Bv 

 giving all frames containing foundation he has had some 

 trouble by the queens depositing eggs in the supers. 



0. P. Hyde followed with a good paper on this same 

 subject. In its different phases, this subject would natur- 

 ally divide itself into these three parts, viz. : 



1. How to produce bulk comb honey. 



2. How much more bulk comb can be produced than one- 

 pound sections ? 



3. Why should we produce bulk comb honey ? 



On the first part, have all your bees in 10-frame dove- 

 tailed hives of standard size ; Italian bees, and rousing^ 

 colonies. Then when the flow begins, he puts on one 

 " Ideal ■' or 5:'4 -inch-deep super with 5'sinch-deep frames 

 filled with full sheets of extra-thin foundation. By using- 

 full sheets of this foundation the bees enter the super at 

 once, and it will not be detected in the honey. When the 

 first super is about half full, another is put under it, and so 

 he keeps on tiering-up. He gives plenty of room and some- 

 times has as many as four or five supers on his strongest 

 colonies. 



The above size of frame is preferred, as when one is 

 full, it will just make a complete layer in the five-gallon 

 eight-inch screw-top 60-pound cans, when cut in two in the 

 middle. The 4'4-inch frames are too shallow, requiring^ 

 strips of comb to be cut to fill up the space. 



The advantage of shallow frames over full-depth 

 frames is that more capped honey can be obtained. 



Secondly, he asserts that twice as much bulk-comb ran 

 be produced as one-pound sections, believing that he can 

 prove it. The bees enter open frames more quickly, work 

 harder, and almost fill two supers as quickly as one section 

 super. Also, the advantage of the extra amount of 

 extracted honey that goes in at comb-honey rate. 



Thirdly, the keeping of bees from the dollar-and-cent 

 stand-point, wanting all the honest dollars that are in it, 

 the bee-keeper must produce the kind of honey that sells 

 the quickest and gives the best returns. If his customers 

 were wholly or mostly for section honey, he would be forced 

 to produce that kind ; if bulk-comb, then that kind ; if 

 extracted, then it wonld be extracted. As it is the demand 

 that keeps us in the market, we must produce the kind 

 there is a demand for. 



He was once an advocate of section honey — the kind 

 that has a thin strip of wood around it, thinking it so 

 nice, and it could be sent to market just as the bees made 

 it. He is still an advocate of comb honey, but the kind 

 that is cut from the frames, placed in cans and that 

 delicious, sweet extracted poured all over it. Then you 

 have not only extracted on the inside, but on the outside of 

 the comb also, which makes it more desirable to the taste. 

 When he was for sections, the Northern brothers said he 

 was a practical apiarist, but now he is for bulk-comb, and 

 they say he has retrograded 30 years, which, however, does 

 not matter with him, as he is not for popularity, but for the 

 dollar. 



He also gave some figures and some idea of the 

 immense quantity of such bulk comb honey that is in 

 demand over only a small amount of other kinds. 



A question was asked in regard to keeping it over win- 

 ter, whether it would granulate, and if it could be taken 

 out in layers then. The answer was that this was the only 

 drawback that bulk comb honey had, but the demand for it 

 is so great that it can not be supplied, hence none is kept 

 over winter to become granulated. 



Mr. Davidson seriously criticized Mr. Hyde's paper, 

 saying that he did not want it to be understood 

 that the production of section honey should be as- 

 sailed in any way, and that the production of sections 

 should not be discouraged ; besides, the production of fine 

 section honey stands above all others, and is the highest 

 art of producing honey. He intimated that the reason 

 why others were not producing section honey was because 

 they did not know how ; and that the day will come when 

 more section honey will be produced than bulk comb, as it 

 is the more wealthy people, anyway, that eat the most honey. 

 All three grades are good, but fine section honey can not be 

 procured during slow flows, as it takes fast, rushing flows, 

 and a locality with such. There is just as much in dollars 

 and cents to be made with section honey as bulk-comb, and 

 the former should be encouraged. O. P. Hyde ended the 

 discussion by saying that he was not at all discouraging 

 the production of section honey ; that he is willing to pro- 

 duce only what is in greatest demand, and gives the great- 

 est profits. He is not pushing this, but it is his customers 

 that choose it, or demand it of him. 



Before adjournment, H. H. Hyde moved to appoint a 

 committee of three to judge the bee-keepers' exhibits, and 

 these were named : D. C. Milam, W. O. Victor, and Mrs. C 

 R. West. 



Adjourned for dinner, until 2:00 p.m. 

 (Continued ne.xt week.; 



