THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



41 



It occurs to me just now that there is 

 another reason why my bees seem to act 

 iHfFerently than yours do when an escape- 

 board is inserted between the hive and 

 super. 



I have reference to the behavior of dif- 

 ferent strains of bees. A bee that is easi- 

 1}' irritated will, of necessity, act differ- 

 ently when a certain operation is being 

 performed, than one that has an easier 

 disposition. My bees are a mixture of 

 blacks, Italians and Carniolans, and are 

 not as amiable as one might wish. 



I can conceive that the Carniolans, 

 such as Prof. F. Benton told me about a 

 few daj's ago, bees that may be handled 

 a la Coggshall without any remonstrance 

 on their part, will not bite holes in the 

 cappings of their stores when treated care- 

 fully at the time of inserting the escape- 

 board. You see, Mr. Editor, the diflFer- 

 ence between us may be one of locality 

 and different strain of bees. 



Naples, X. Y. Dec. 22, 1899. 



R.\DING, PACKING AND 

 SHIPPING HONEY. THE 

 BENEFITS OF ORGANIZA- 

 TION. BY R. C. AIKIN. 



How to properly produce, grade, pack 

 and ship comb honey, is a very live 

 question. I start b^- saying, how to prop- 

 erly produce, be- 

 cause if the work 

 is not begun and 

 largely accom- 

 plished in the 

 work of produc- 

 ing, we never 

 can properly 

 grade and mar- 

 ket. 



Instructions as 



to how to get our 



product in nice 



shape is much discussed, both on the 



pages of our journals, and in our con- 



ventions; but while this is so, many do 

 not understand as they should. Very 

 many do not take the journals, and very 

 many more do not attend conventions. 

 P>en many who do take the journals are 

 not skilled in the science of apiculture. 

 The fact is that this science is so new 

 that it has scarcely gotten out of the 

 misty, experimental stage. The strides 

 have been very rapid the past 25 years or 

 more, so rapid that one could scarcely 

 keep pace with the advance. We are 

 now, however, getting to something like 

 a more firm basis, and if we could but get 

 such knowledge as we do possess of the 

 science, generally before the masses, the 

 industry would flourish. 



In the December issue of the Review, I 

 find an article touching this topic, written 

 by Mr. Mandelbaum of the S. T. Fish 

 company of Chicago. Mr. Mandelbaum 

 has told a lot of truth in that article, and 

 I wish to follow it up, and help to set our 

 apiarists right. I shall use Mr. Mandel- 

 baum's article as a text; and, while sup- 

 porting him in the main, must offer some 

 criticisms. We want to get at the truth 

 and weed out error, and to do so I shall 

 discuss this topic as set forth in the head- 

 ing of this article. I know that a discus- 

 sion of production properly comes first, 

 yet at the risk of getting the cart before 

 the horse I will begin a little farther 

 along, where the honey is found in the 

 honey house. 



1 1 has never been my fortune to visit 

 the great honey handling houses in the 

 cities, nor to visit many of our large pro- 

 ducers, but I have been a careful reader 

 of our leading journals, and a practical 

 apiarist for over 25 years. I have produ- 

 ced and sold many car loads of honey, 

 both comb and extracted. I visited the 

 worhl's fair at Chicago in 1893 and saw 

 the honey exhibits there, and altogether 

 I believe I know pretty nearly what the 

 trade demands, and wherein producers 

 fail. Those who have read my writings 

 the past few years, know that I have la- 

 mented the way our product has been and 

 is being put on the market. We have 



