742 



AMERICAN BEE fOURNAL, 



Nov. 21, 14< 1. 



extracted honey was taken from old 

 combs. There was also honey there 

 taken from new combs. It has not 

 taken the first premium because of its 

 lack of color. Now, I will admit that 

 you can wash old combs and get color 

 from them, but it is not honey. Honey 

 doesn't take on color. You can lay it 

 down in the dirt and it will still be 

 white. 



Mr. Wilcox — I would like to ask you 

 if your first extracting^ is not a little 

 darker in color than the next honey- 

 flow. 



Mr. Betsinger — I would say, no, sir. 

 The honey taken the second time is no 

 whiter than the first, but the season in 

 this State is not long- enough to get 

 honey from any one blossom; you 

 would have to extract every day to get 

 the same quality; our flowers vary 

 from day to day. 



Mr. McEvoy — I have been 18 years 

 an inspector in the Province of On- 

 tario, and I think very few men have 

 more thoroughly tested the quality of 

 old and new combs, and my experience 

 has been that the old combs do give it 

 a shade of color. You will get, per- 

 haps, a little better color of honey from 

 one colony than another. 



Mr. Betsinger — Do you mean to say 

 that one colony gets whiter honey than 

 the other from the same field? 



Mr. McEvoy — I would not say the 

 same field. 



Mr. Davidson — I would like to add 

 my experience to that of Mr. McEvoy. 

 I have been in the extracted-honey 

 business a good deal, and while I do 

 not know that honey will takeon color, 

 I do know that honey taken at the 

 same time stored in light and dark 

 combs will have different colors. I 

 have tested it in our extracting in 

 Texas. The bees store the honey in 

 the brood-combs sometimes, and I have 

 to separate those combs and keep them 

 separate from my regular extracting- 

 combs in order to keep from coloring 

 the whole lot of honey. I know it is 

 gathered at the same time and by the 

 same colony. 



"Jamaica" — My opinion is that the 

 comb has a lot to do with the color of 

 the honey, because down our way all 

 our honey is pure white. I have known 

 the same honej' to be stored in dark or 

 old combs and it brings out a dark 

 honey with a very inferior flavor. 



A Member — It occurs to me that per- 

 haps there may be a double meaning. 

 Mr. Betsinger may refer to old combs 

 that have been used a number of years 

 for extracting, and some one else may 

 refer to combs that have been used in 

 the brood-chamber recently and then 

 put into the hive and honey extracted 

 from them. In that case my experi- 

 ence would be that the honey is some- 

 what colored. 



W. L. Coggshall — Mr. Davidson, in 

 talking of that matter, said he got more 

 or less bee-bread in the honey, which 

 made it a little bit colored. Mine is 

 almost all buckwheat honey, and, of 

 course, you couldn't see much differ- 

 ence there. I think there is hardly 

 enough difference to make it worth 

 while to bother with. 



Dr. Mason — This is an important 

 matter. Some of you produce dark 

 honey only, and that is all, and your 

 opinion isn't worth much. It is only a 

 few years since, that I advocated this 

 matter that it did color, and I was 

 laughed at; and no longer ago than 



two years, in the Philadelphia conven- 

 tion, when I spoke of this. President 

 Whitcomb said, " Do you believe that 

 honey dissolves the wax?" Mrs. Har- 

 rison recently said something on this 

 subject in one of the bee-papers, "When 

 you want nice, light honey get nice, 

 new combs." Now, I have had a good 

 deal of experience in this line, and this 

 year I have been more thoroughly con- 

 vinced of it than ever. I have combs 

 that had been used as brood-combs for 

 years, and that had not been used as 

 brood-combs for several years past, and 

 I put them in supers with combs that 

 were never used for brood-rearing: I 

 uncapped the old and the new and ex- 

 tracted, the old combs in one extractor 

 and the new ones in another extractor 

 — and the co or was so different that 

 you wouldn't believe it was the same 

 honey. Now, I am so thoroughly con- 

 vinced of this that, although I have 

 about six full extracting combs to the 

 colony, I am going to destroy every 

 one of them and put new ones in place 

 of them, so that I can have honey not 

 colored by old combs. 



Mr. Betsinger — I may be behind the 

 times, but I am not behind in long 

 years of experience. I have extracted, 

 of course, more or less honey from old 

 and new combs, and I would not give 

 a snap of my finger for the difference 

 between old and new combs. 



Mr. McEvoy — I don't wish to be un- 

 derstood as saying that using old 

 combs is going to give you a dark-col- 

 ored honey. I would use it several 

 times before I would think it suffi- 

 ciently washed out. 



Mr. Terrell — I wish to endorse what 

 Mr. McEvoy has said. The question 

 is whether it refers to old combs that 

 have been used for years for extracted 

 honey. This season I have taken 

 combs from old colonies, placed them 

 on top for extracting purposes, and the 

 first honey extracted was decidedly 

 colored, but as I kept on taking off the 

 honey, the last extracting there was 

 not very much difference between the 

 honey from the old combs and the new 

 ones. 



Mr. Benton — When the honey is first 

 gathered it is about three-quarters 

 water. Now, if pure water would take 

 on the coloring, why wouldn't three- 

 quarters water and one-quarter sugar? 



W. L. Coggshall — In sending some 

 bees down to Cuba I sent along some 

 combs, and I left from 10 to 12 pounds 

 of honey in each colony, and it took 

 them that whole season down there to 

 get that dark honey out of the colonies. 

 The bees kept carrying it up, and it 

 took but a very little dark honey to 

 color the white honey. 



F. J. Miller — If there is any person 

 who is doubtful about this, if he will 

 pour water into a comb and allow that 

 water to stand half an hour and then 

 pour it out, he will see a decided black 

 color; and if he refills that comb the 

 color will gradually grow lighter. I 

 have invariably found that I could not 

 make an exhibition article of honey 

 from those brood-combs. Commer- 

 cially speaking, it would not matter, 

 probably, but if you were doing it for 

 exhibition purposes it would make a 

 decided score against you. 



Mr. Wilcox — AH the arguments go to 

 show that the first extracting is darker 

 colored than the second, but they don't 

 show why, because that color comes 

 from the comb itself, or the accumula- 



tion of dust and dirt that may be in 

 that comb during the winter season. I 

 have supposed that it was an accumu- 

 lation of smoke or dirt which might 

 have gotten into the combs during the 

 winter. I don't know yet whether that 

 coloring is in the comb itself. I shall 

 be slow to destroy my old black combs. 

 I shall keep them and extract from 

 them. 



Mr. Betsinger — The gentlemen men- 

 tion their first extracting as being a 

 little colored. Honey isn't water; it is 

 an oil. You can not make a wash with 

 honey. 



Mr. McEvoy — Allow me to explain a 

 little. A member speaks about the 

 first extracting of honey. Now, with 

 me I work so as to have no honey ex- 

 tracted except clover, and the clover 

 from the white combs is a shade whiter 

 on the start than it is from the old 

 combs. 



Mr. Betsinger — If you were in a lo- 

 cality where you didn't have one drop 

 of honej' in the brood-chamber — none 

 at all to come up into the surplus cham- 

 ber — then I must say you are a happy 

 man to extract honey. 



Mr. McEvoy — I uncap between fruit, 

 plum and clover, and I convert the 

 honey into brood feed. Mr. Heise 

 knows the system I follow, and Mr. 

 Miller knows it. I think that I can 

 prove my case. 



Mr. Betsinger — Does any mustard 

 grow in that locality? 



Mr. McEvoy — I dare say you could 

 find some, but I myself don't know 

 where it is. 



N. L. Stevens, of New York — Is the 

 honey stored in those dark combs af- 

 fected any in flavor by storing in them? 



Dr. Mason — No, sir; it takes a fine 

 taste to tell it. No man who chews to- 

 bacco can tell the difference. 



SMOKING BEES WITH TOBACCO. 



" Is it detrimental to the bees to use 

 tobacco-smoke whenever necessary to 

 open hives?" 



Mr. McEvoy — I don't think it is nec- 

 essary ever to use tobacco-smoke. 



Mr. Benton — I would say, decidedly, 

 never use tobacco-smoke on them. 



Dr. Mason — I have a strain of bees 

 with which I don't think of using 

 smoke or veil. I take out the combs 

 and shake the bees off without ever 

 getting a sting. 



Mr. Benton — I think there are times 

 when some have claimed that tobacco- 

 smoke was useful in introducing 

 queens, but I should think that being 

 strong-scented and producing a strong 

 odor in the hive would probably con- 

 duce to the receiving of a queen, and I 

 do not think it is permanently detri- 

 mental to use tobacco-smoke on queens. 



Mr. Moore — Does tobacco-smoke 

 have a more detrimental effect in con- 

 quering very cross bees than just ordi- 

 nary smoke? 



Mr. Benton — I think if used on the 

 ordinary cross Italian bee it is a good 

 thing, but not on Cyprians. 



Dr. Mason — I have sometimes tried 

 it in introducing queens, and it has 

 seemed to be a help. 



Mr. Hershiser — I tried uniting colo- 

 nies of bees, or nuclei, to make the 

 colonies strong enough to winter, some 

 years ago, and gave them so much that 

 it made them sick, so that they drop- 

 ped dovs-n to the bottom of the hive; 

 but after they " came to " again they 



