280 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



vicinity. Any information that will help 

 us in combating these diseases will be 

 appreciated, and will be a benefit to the 

 bee keeping industry. Your co-operation 

 is requested. 



Respectfully, 



E. F. Phillips, 

 In Charge of Apiculture. 



Extracted Versus Comb Honey 

 Production. 



This subject has been discussed pro 

 and con in the journals many times, and 

 the decision seems to be that all depends 

 upon circumstances. Of course, there 

 are instances in which either kind may 

 be produced to advantage, and there is 

 really little choice. In such cases it is 

 largely a matter of taste on the part of 

 the bee keeper. I think my friend Fred 

 W. Lesser, of East Syracuse, N. Y., must 

 be thus fortunately situated, judging from 

 the following that I copy from a recent 

 letter of his. He says: 



I have secured a fair crop of honey— 

 60 to 80 pounds per colony, extracted, 

 from 500 colonies. I could have taken 

 double that if I had taken proper care of 

 the bees in the cool weather of June. I 

 fed about 600 pounds of sugar, when it 

 ought to have been 4,000, or more, to 

 have kept them breeding. 



Do you still prefer to produce ex- 

 tracted honey instead of comb? The 

 only advantage that it has, in my opinion, 

 is thac the bees don't swarm. The dis- 

 advantages are many— harder work, 

 Grosser bees, poorer condition for winter, 

 no increase, bad when disease is around, 

 poor markets, and very little more honey 

 than when working for comb. I am 

 going more for comb; and I often wonder 

 why you ever took to extracted even 

 if you manage to sell it at ten cents. 1 

 believe that a man gets more pleasure 

 out of the business when working for 

 comb honey. 



I will admit that foul brood is much 

 more easily managed when working for 

 comb honey, but, aside from this, the 

 advantages that my friend mentions do 

 not appeal to me. As extracted honey is 

 usually produced, there is more, and 

 harder yard-work than when producing 

 comb honey. The shaking and brushing 



of bees in the hot sun is hard work, and 

 makes cross bees, but we don't do it 

 that way. We have sufificient supers 

 and empty combs to hold our entire crop, 

 and simply stack up the supers until the 

 harvest is over. This isn't hard work, 

 and does not make cross bees. Then we 

 take of¥ the honey with bee escapes, and 

 this does not make cross bees. We can 

 take ofT an entire crop without the bees 

 realizing what is going on. It is wheeled 

 into the honey house entirely free from 

 bees, warmed up and extracted at our 

 leisure — no bees buzzing around our ears 

 and diving into the honey. 



I have produced both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey, and I can't see much 

 difference in the colonies at the end of 

 the season. When there are drawn 

 combs in the supers, there is greater at- 

 traction there to store honey, but, if the 

 colonies are short of stores in the fall, 

 that is, shorter than when producing 

 comb honey, 1 think it comes from ex- 

 tracting combs out of the brood nest. 

 We never extract from the brood nest, 

 and, if any are lacking in stores in the 

 fall, we feed them and that ends it. So 

 far as the strength of colonies in the fall 

 is concerned, I don't see that there is an 

 advantage on either side. To be sure, 

 there is not much increase when working 

 for extracted honey, but it is an easy 

 matter to make any increase that is 

 desired. 



There was a time when extracted 

 honey was of slow sale, but that time 

 has passed. First-class extracted honey 

 is now as salable as so much wheat. 



If the bees are compelled to build their 

 combs in which to store their surplus, 

 they may store almost as much comb as 

 extracted honey, but with plenty of 

 empty combs, I have a'ways secured 

 a decidedly larger yield of extracted 

 honey. I believe that is the usual ex- 

 perience. 



As to which kind of honey a man most 

 enjoys the production, I should say that 

 it depended upon the man's tastes. The 

 production of comb honey is a delightful, 



