GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1918 



over the consumer will not go back to his 

 bad habits of excessive sugar eating but 

 will continue the use of honey. 



The beekeeper ought also to talk the use 

 of fruit as a source of sugar, not because i;t 

 does his business any good but because it 

 will help the health of those about him. We 

 ought all to be missionaries of health and 

 to do all we can to reduce the sugar debauch 

 of the American peojjle. The beekeeper who 

 is also a fruit-grower has the advantage 

 over his fellow beekeeper who grows no 

 fruit. These two branches of farming go 

 well together and they make the greatest 

 sugar combination on earth ! 



WE PROMISED in our last issue to show 

 illustrations of a form of shipping cage 

 m a d e wholly o f 

 Pound Pack- wood that would be 

 ages of Bees accepted by. the 

 for Parcel Post, postal authorities. 

 We have not yet 

 accepted the design that wall be ehea,p 

 enough to put on the market; but in our 

 next issue we hojie to show something made 

 entirely of wood that will eliminate wire 

 cloth and which will deliver bees by mail 

 long distances with the loss of hardly a bee. 

 The cage is not patented, and any one can 

 make it provided he has suitable machinery 

 for it. 



In a general way, it is nothing more nor 

 less than a box made of %-inch bassw^ood 

 and of a suitable size and shape to hold one, 

 two, or three pounds of bees. To provide 

 ventilation, saw-cuts % inch wide and % 

 inch apart, and reaching to within half an 

 inch of the corners, are made in the sides, 

 ends, top, and bottom. This idea came from 

 E. J. Ashley of California, and is a good 

 one. 



The difficulty encountered was in making 

 a cage that would be cheap enough and, at 

 the same time, strong enough to stand the 

 shocks and bangs received in the mails; 

 but we feel confident that we shall be able 

 to present a cage idea in our next issue that 

 will fill the bill. 



In this cojinection, we can not nutke it too 

 emphatic that shippers should not attempt 

 to send bees in poorly designed cages. One 

 bad shipment, or a few bad ones, might be 

 the means of revoking the privilege entire- 

 ly. It would be well, therefore, for pros- 

 pective shippers to wait until we can pre- 

 sent a form of cage that will be suitable and 

 which the United States postal authorities 

 liave favorably passed on. 



Qt= 



,s«= 



WHILE VISITING J. N. Harris of St. 

 Louis, Mich., one of the best beekeepers in 

 that State, he gave 

 A New Kink us an idea that 



of the Trade. h)()ks good. Altho 

 lie h a s a modern 

 power extracting outfit, and can extract his 

 combs as clean as any one, he says it pays, 



and pays well, to extract his combs a second 

 time, about five or six weeks after the first 

 extracting. In the mean time the combs 

 after the first extracting gather a slight 

 amount of moisture — just enough to make 

 the residue flow again. When the combs 

 are put back in the machine and given an- 

 other whirl a considerable amount of honey 

 will be secured — enough to pay for the time 

 and trouble several times over, said Mr. 

 Harris. The work can be <lone at a time 

 when it is most convenient to the beekeeper, 

 when the weather is bad outside. Of course, 

 it goes without saj'ing, that the extracting- 

 room should be warm, and it usually will be 

 in August or early September. 



This is a seasonable idea that during war 

 times may be productive of much good. It 

 may not work in all localities and with all 

 kinds of honey; but if one can increase his 

 honey crop by even a small percentage by a 

 second extracting during these strenuous 

 war times, he should do it. 



Mr. Harris works on the plan that most 

 beekeepers do — extracts after the croji has 

 been secured, and this requires a complete 

 set of combs. After the extracting the 

 combs are stored in supers in the extracting- 

 house, and allowed to stand four or five 

 weeks, when they are extracted again. In 

 that case tlie supers would have to be stag- 

 gered to let in air or moisture. 



When wet extracting combs are put back 

 on the hives it has been the belief that the 

 honey is saved. On this point there has 

 been much doubt. Some of our best bee- 

 kee})ers hold that such honey is wasted by 

 the bees gorging (overeating). If this is 

 true, the honey is lost. The Harris plan 

 will save it for a starving world. 



MOST OF the honey-producers of the coun- 

 try who ha\e j)ro(hu'ed comb honey in for- 

 mer years, are now 

 The Produc- ju-oducing extract- 

 tion of Comb ed, and some of 

 Honey them are saying 



Eliminated. tliat even after the 

 war is over the y 

 will never go back again to the production 

 of comb honey. The amount of it that will 

 be jiroduced this season will be very small, 

 and the production will be mainly from the 

 small beekeepers who sell in their own lo- 

 cal market. 



There is no doubt there will be a big de- 

 mand for comb honey in the big markets 

 this fall which cannot be supplied. The 

 exigencies of the war and the high price of 

 extracted honey (even higher than comb 

 honey in many cases) has made it a patri- 

 otic duty for every beekeepei' to produce as 

 much extracted as possible, to say nothing 

 of the fact that he can ]>roduce a pound of 

 extracted at about half the cost he could 

 produce a i)Ound of com!} honey. Some of 

 the largest producers in the Middle West 

 have told the Editor that thev could handle 



