244 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



wish to satisfy himself that feeding back 

 will not pay, he can get the beft results by 

 feeding the extracted honey right at the 

 close of the early white honey harvest, so 

 that the bees are kept active. It is thought 

 best by some to take away all combs except 

 those which have brood in them, when pre- 

 paring the colony for feeding back; but if 

 all combs are tilled with sealed honey, ex- 

 cept that which the brood occupies, there is 

 no adya'itasp in taking away the combs that 

 I can see. The extracted honey should be 

 thinned to a consistency of raw nectar by 

 adding the necessary amount of warm 

 water, thinning only the amount needed for 

 one feediue at a time, for if the thinned 

 honey is allowed to stand long in warm 

 weather it is quite liable to sour and spoil. 

 " Then there i"- another item against feed- 

 ing back, which is that from some reason or 

 other, this fed-back honey is far more likely 

 to candy or become hard in the comb than 

 is that put in the comb at the time it is 

 gathered from the field. When first taken 

 from the hive it looks very nice and attrac- 

 tive, bat when cool vveathsr comes on in the 

 fall it assumes a dull, unattractive appear- 

 ance, thus showing that the honey has 

 hardened in the cells, while comb honey 

 produced in the ordinary way is still liquid 

 and will keep so from one to three months 

 after the fed-back article has become al- 

 most unsalable." 



I agree entirely with Mr. Doolittle in 

 thinking it better to have the honey stored 

 right in the sections in the first place. The 

 only argument that could b^ used in favor 

 of raising extracted honey, and then feeding 

 it back, is that we can usually produce more 

 extracted than comb honey, but it must not 

 be forgotten that in feeding it back there is 

 some loss, so much, probably, that not so 

 much honey would be secured in the end as 

 would be the case if it were stored directly 

 in the sections. 



It is only with the best of management 

 that a profit can be made in feeding honey 

 to have it transformed into comb honey, that 

 is, have combs built or foundation drawn 

 out and honey stored in the resulting comb. 

 With good management and favorable con- 

 ditions, such as the right kind of bees and 

 hot weather, a profit can be made in feeding 

 honey to have it stored in combs. I know 

 that this can be done, as I have done it sev- 

 eral times, but the profit does not compare 

 with that of feeding to have unfinished 

 combs completed. The management can 

 be such that very few sections will be un- 

 finished at the close of the season, that is, by 

 crowding the bees down to a few sections 

 towards tlie close of the season, but I am 

 well satisfied that this course is followed at 

 a loss of honey. I would not put on the sec- 



tions quite so freely as the season draws to 

 a close, but I would certainly never crowd 

 the bees or even approach it. If given suf- 

 ficient section room, I believe we will there- 

 by secure as much finished honey as we 

 would by Crowding, or very nearly as much, 

 and the unfinished sections into the bargain. 

 There are three courses open for the dis- 

 posal of the unfinished sections, viz., selling 

 them at a reduced price to local dealers, ex- 

 tracting the honey and keeping the combs 

 for use another season, or by feeding Ijack 

 honey to complete them. To a majority of 

 bee keepers it is quite likely that the first 

 course is the best, while a few have found it 

 profitable to adopt the second, and the rest 

 of the bee folks follow the last. For sec- 

 tions that are from one-half to nearly com- 

 pleted I prefer the feeding of honey to 

 secure their completion. There is no kind 

 of question that with my management and 

 location that the coarse that I pursue is the 

 most profitable for me. Mr. R. L. Taylor, 

 who had charge of the Michigan Experiment 

 station, made several experiments in this 

 direction, taking great pains to be exact and 

 accurate, and his decision is that there was 

 a profit of over sixty per cent, in feeding 

 honey to secure the completion of unfinished 

 sections. An account of these experiments 

 was given in the Review for .January and 

 November, 18'.)G. Black bees are best for 

 use in feeding back, hybrids next best, dark 

 Italians next, and the bright yellow bees 

 "no good." There must be a contracted 

 brood nest, the honey must be thinned, and 

 it is better fed warm, and there must be hot 

 weather, such as we usually have in .July and 

 August. These are some of the main 

 points, bat there is much detail of manipu- 

 lation, all of which is given in one of the 

 chapters of "Advanced Bee Culture." 



Selling Honey Direct to Consamers; Re- 

 liquefying Thus Avoided; Some 

 Excellent Hints. 



To produce a crop is one thing, to sell it to 

 the best advantage is another and calls for 

 an entirely different set of faculties. Many 

 bee keepers are poor salesmen, and probably 

 could not become experts, but many of them 

 could do much better by selling their own 

 honey than by sending it off to some distant 

 city market, certainly better than to send it 

 to some swindler. But few have had more 

 experience in selling honey direct to con- 



