242 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



in diameter, with a bucket of water be- 

 tween — and warm the outfit over a two 

 burner oil stove until the honey is quite 

 thin — but never hot enough to melt the 

 wax. Then I mash the honey and wax 

 with a potato masher (made of heavy 

 wire) until the mass is liquid enough 

 to strain. 



My strainer is a wooden tray 12 

 inches deep with bottom of wire cloth, 

 which is just large enough to catch the 

 corners on the w-ash tub. The honey 

 drains out in a few hours, and is then 

 strained through fine cheese cloth (the 

 10 cent per yard kind), as all my honey 

 is treated, and let me say right here 

 that all extracted honey should be 

 strained through a fine cloth before of- 

 fered for table use. Dirty honey has 

 done more to injure the sale of ex- 

 tracted honey than unripe honey ever 

 did. More than that, I have to warm 

 honey, as it comes from the extractor 

 it's too thick to run through the fine 



cloth without being thinned by heating 

 gently, and there's where my two tubs 

 come handy again. 



To go back to the cappings : After 

 the honey is drained out, I dump them 

 into warm water, wash them thorough- 

 1}', and put them into a five gallon can 

 which has the top cut out, and place 

 over the oil stove. In a little while I 

 have a nice cake of wax. 



This plan does not injure the honey 

 in any way, takes but little time, and 

 costs little for tools, and keeps ahead 

 of the work instead of letting the work 

 get ahead of me. 



Oakland, Calif. 



[It is a noticeable fact that many of 

 the large bee-keepers use very simple 

 appliances. Whether this is best is un- 

 doubtedly open to argument, but I have 

 oftien thought that if beginners would 

 put more money into bees and less into 

 fixings that they would be more apt to 

 get the returns that would warrant 

 them in continuing in the business.] 



Demon^rating at Fairs and in Retail Stores. 



WESLEY FOSTER 



•^\ Y a greater and more continuous 

 ^^ demand there is no doubt but 

 that the price of honey would 

 rise. The real question of marketing 

 our honey is this one of arousing a de- 

 mand for our product. There are sev- 

 eral factors which are very essential in 

 establishing a continued demand for 

 honey. First, a rich flavored, heavy 

 bodied honey should be on sale all of 

 the time. One of the greatest draw- 

 backs to a steady consumption of honey 

 is the substituting of a cheaper grade, 

 when the best grades are all sold. Uni- 

 formity of grade and flavor with a sup- 

 ply for the market throughout the year 

 wall soon develop a clientele that wi'l 

 continue to grow. These conditions are 

 greatly aided if the number of bee- 

 keepers in a coinmunity is large. Then 

 everv one sees and hears about the bees 



and whether there is a large crop and 

 the general news of the industry, its 

 profitableness, etc. Xearly every one 

 has the idea that bees are very well 

 paying — the idea takes its rise no doubt 

 from the mystery surrounding the hive 

 and the imputed uncommon understand- 

 ing or genius of the bee man. 



There are other factors which limit 

 the eating of honey besides the lack of 

 a supply of honey of uniform grade 

 through the year; the principal of these 

 is the abundance of fruit certain years 

 and the consequent large supply of 

 jams, jellies, preserves and canned 

 fruits which every housewife puts up 

 in these seasons of cheap fruit. The 

 other factor in the smaller consumption 

 of honey is the cheapness of glucose 

 and syrup substitutes. This is very 

 noticeable in times of money stringency 



