THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



141 



clover honey the past three years, but the 

 rains the past summer and autumn have 

 brought it in so it looks as though the 

 future was sufficiently rosy to satisfy 

 even the most pessimistic bee-keeper in 

 this section. 



Of course there will be seasons when 

 the flowers will yield nectar very spar- 

 ingly, and the timid may be discouraged, 

 but, on the whole, it seems to me that the 

 outlook is cheerful to say the least. 



ONLY ONE POOR SEASON IN FIVE. 



I find in looking over the past forty-five 

 years that I have kept bees, that we have 

 on an average about one poor season in 

 five, and, to match this, one extra good 

 year in the same time, although they do 

 not come with regularity. Besides, I have 

 learned that the intelligent and enterpris- 

 ing bee keeper can do much in turning a 

 poor season into a very fair season as you 

 illustrated in the December Review, in the 

 management of your home yard of bees 

 last spring. 



WINTER DEVOTED TO SELLING HONEY. 



Our honey is sold mostly in Eastern 

 New England, where only a small amount 

 is produced, and prices range from 16 



cents for number 1, or fancy, to 14 cents 

 for number 2, comb. Our extracted we 

 put up in quart, gallon and five-gallon tin 

 cans, and also in quarter, half, and pound 

 glass containers, that sell from ten cents 

 up. It is a good deal of work to put up 

 honey in small packages, but in winter we 

 are not crowded with other work, and it 

 is better than doing nothing. 



This year we have sold more or less 

 honey that has gone West, where the 

 crop is light. We have also sent consid- 

 erable extracted honey across the water 

 to Europe. 



Speaking of the crop of honey the past 

 season, our county has produced, as near 

 as 1 can estimate it, some sixty tons of 

 surplus honey, almost wholly comb, and I 

 suppose as much more might have been 

 harvested on the same ground, if there 

 had been bees to do the work. 



By the way, I was much interested in 

 the reply of the doctor in the hospital to 

 the patient who thought the doctors too 

 particular, " We don't guess at things 

 here; we find out definitely." Wouldn't 

 that be a pretty good motto for bee keep- 

 ers. It is a good thing to know definitely. 

 MiDDLEBURY, Vt., Dec. 21, 1910. 



mi^z^^^^m 



Some Methods of Securing Shallow Extracting 

 Combs, and Their Advantages. 



HARRY LATHROP. 



(^OME one has 

 ^ asked what 

 is the best meth- 

 od of securing 

 shallow extract- 

 A|, ing combs to be 



^m^:$ used at the sides 



of comb honey 

 / supers. We have 



made a good 

 many of these 

 shallow combs 

 althojgh v;e have never used them for 

 the purpose stated. We do not know as 



we can tell the best method of securing 

 them, but we can give the m.ethods we 

 have employed, which were satisfactory 

 to us. 



We first used the shallow combs for 

 hiving swarms on that were to be run for 

 comb honey. Inch starters were put in 

 and swarms hived on them, either in the 

 case of natural swarming or for shaken 

 swarms. One or two supers were given 

 according to the size of the swarm. The 

 comb honey super or supers were given 

 at once; some times over a queen ex- 

 cluder. The frames would be filled, al- 



