294 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr 



own, that taking the women-folks along may make 

 some difference in my case, for they always insist 

 on having every thing picked up and in good shape 

 about the apiary, and I'm afraid I shouldn't always 

 be so neat. 



In many little ways it is in your power to do 

 things that will be pleasant, and will be a pleasure 

 for you to do. If you've been reading a daily paper 

 as you drove to Mr. Jones's, leave it at the house, 

 and say you've read it and don't care for it. Mrs. 

 Jones is pretty sure to like flowers. Take her some 

 seeds or some slips. Unless you're a better bee- 

 keeper than I am, you will occasionally have some 

 of what I call " crooked honey," which the bees 

 have built where you didn't want it, or in shape 

 that you don't want, and you may as well leave it 

 with Mrs. Jones. Don't take it to her and say, "I 

 always like to be independent, and pay my way, so I 

 brought you some nice honey," but go and ask her 

 if she will lend you a plate or a milk-pan; then take 

 her the honey and say, " Here's some honey that 

 was in such shape I didn't want to leave it in the 

 hive, and I'll be obliged to you if you'll use it for 

 me. It will be a dauby sticky mess before I get it 

 home, and I'd like to get rid of it." I've said that 

 more than once, and told the truth too, and I'm 

 pretty sure the crooked honey was appreciated. It 

 would be a mutual pleasure, too, for you to go to 

 the house early in the harvest and say, " Mrs. Jones, 

 here's the first section of honey ever finished by 

 the bees on your place, and I want you to see what 

 nice work they make. Try it, and see if it won't be 

 a good medicine for Mr. Jones." I might add that, 

 although 1 pay no rent, I always make a point at 

 each apiary of leaving all the honey I think the 

 family need for a year. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Friend M., your concluding paragraph 

 sounds so exactly like you that it seems to 

 me I hear the tones of your voice, and catch 

 the kindly look from your face as I read it. 

 You are surely right ; and the plan you give 

 will not only enable one to get along nicely 

 in establishing out-apiaries, but it will help 

 us in every kind of business in the world. 

 Nay, further : When the world's business 

 and the world's busy cares are done, it will 

 help you to lie down in peace, and be ready 

 for the " Well done, thou good and faithful 

 servant, " as he is ushered into that better 

 land. 



WORKING FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



FRIEND DOOLITTLE GIVES US SOME WISE HINTS 

 IN REGARD TO THE MATTER. 



C||\ EFORE me lies a letter requesting that I give 

 IV in Gleanings an article on " how to man- 

 |Sfl age for extracted honey," saying, " Such a 

 ^~ letter would be of great benefit to all nov- 

 ices." Of course, I desire to oblige and be a 

 " benefit to all novices," but I can hardly see how 

 the writer of this request knows that such an arti- 

 cle would be a benefit to "all novices," for it is my 

 opinion that the majority of them would not care a 

 cent for it. However, as the time is at hand to be- 

 gin to prepare for our season's work, it might be 

 well to see what should be done if we are to work 

 for extracted honey the coming summer. Just at 

 the present time there seems to be a "craze" 

 among bee-keepers on the subject of comb-honey 



production, some of our bee-papers going so far as 

 to inquire seriously if the "extractor ought not to 

 go," claiming that it has been a damage to us as 

 apiarists. I fear this is not a wise policy, for it can 

 only result in soon lowering the price of comb 

 honey and advancing the price of extracted, thus 

 causing an expensive changing of fixtures a sec- 

 ond time. It seems to me that the well-balanced 

 apiarist should produce both comb and extracted 

 honey; and as he sees the tide swaying toward the 

 side of the one, he should go a little heavier in the 

 opposite direction, but not enough so as to throw 

 aside all his fixtures along the line the tide is 

 moving. As I have worked for years for both 

 comb and extracted honey, and believing that the 

 present time is favorable to the production of 

 more extracted honey and less comb, I will, in 

 brief, tell the readers of Gleanings how I proceed 

 to arrive at what seems to me the best results. 



The first thing necessary in the production of ex- 

 tracted honey is a good queen to produce hosts of 

 workers in time for the harvest. But good queens are 

 of value only when we surround them with favorable 

 circumstances, thus getting large numbers of eggs 

 laid at the right time, and causing each egg to be 

 nourished to a perfect bee, so that we can have the 

 bees in our colonies by the tens of thousands at the 

 right time. Failing to do this, the flowers will 

 bloom in vain as far as filling our surplus combs 

 with honey ready for the extractor is concerned. 

 But, what are favorable circumstances? is asked, to 

 which I reply, an abundance of food and warmth. 

 The abundance of food is quite easily secured in 

 this day of bee-feeders, and especially so if the api- 

 arist has set aside, the previous season, as he should, 

 combs solid with honey, which are 'ready to be set 

 in the hive at any time. To secure the requisite 

 warmth in early spring, I know of nothing better 

 than chaff hives, such as I spoke of a month ago, 

 which, together with chaff dummies for the weaker 

 colonies, will give us the best thing possible along 

 this line. If we do not have the chaff hives, dry- 

 goods boxes or any thing made of rough boards to 

 set the single-walled hives in and hold the chaff is 

 better than no protection at all. Fixed in this way, 

 colonies will go right on breeding during cold days 

 and frosty nights where they would not think of 

 doing so were no such protection used. The 

 weaker colonies are to be confined to the comb.s 

 they can occupy till they are filled with brood, 

 when a frame of hatching brood is to be inserted in 

 such a colony, taken from one of the strongest. 

 Don't do this till they have the combs well filled 

 with brood, for I find that a weak colony can be 

 brought up to a condition ready to gather honey, 

 much sooner by leaving it till in the condition as 

 above, than it can by continual fussing with it in 

 early spring. In this way, now work till all hives 

 are filled with brood, which will be, if you have 

 succeeded as you should, a little in advance of the 

 honey harvest, or at about the time the main hon- 

 ey harvest is commencing. 



If we wish no increase from our bees, no time is 

 now to be lost in putting on the surplus arranger 

 ment, otherwise the bees become crowded and may 

 get the swarming fever. For the extracting super 

 I prefer another hive of the size of the first, but 

 some prefer one of only one-half the depth. As to 

 results, there is probably no great difference, but 1 

 consider it quite an object to have all hives and 

 fraipes alike in the apiary. In putting on this sur- 



