1064 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



or blacks. Do you account for this by the ten- 

 dency in the blacics to rear drones in larger num- 

 bers, and earlier.?" 



" Yes, I do. In addition, we must bear in 

 mind that blacks are usually allowed their own 

 sweet will in the way of building drone comb. 

 There is also no check on the age of queens. 

 Under these conditions, and the well-known fact 

 that black bees can raise brood at a lower tem- 

 perature, it is but natural that the race of bees in 

 a given district should gravitate toward the 

 black race. There is another thing in this con- 

 nection; and that is, that the black bees (and that 

 would include the drones), being less susceptible 

 to cold, would be out in the air more than the 

 yellow bees." 



" I notice by the last issue of the Australian 

 Bee-keeper (March 15) some illustrations showing 

 the gearless honey-extractor that you are using at 

 your yards — that is to say, you employ two pul- 

 leys and a round leather belt, the driving pulley 

 being considerably larger than the driven ones. 

 What advantage has this over the method of us- 

 ing such gears rather than a positive drive that 

 can not slip.?" 



" I use the belt-driven gear owing to the li- 

 ability of cog gear to fracture when driven at 

 such a high rate of speed as is required to extract 

 our thick honey, which, as you may know, runs 

 12 lbs. to the gallon. The slipping is reduced to 

 a minimum by having the large pulley fixed in 

 such a way that it may be lowered at any time to 

 increase the tension of the belt. A little slipping 

 at the beginning, when first started, I consider 

 an advantage, as it will prevent the breaking of 

 new combs. One great advantage of the belt 

 gear is that it is almost noiseless." 



" Do you use a flat or a round belt.? and if the 

 latter, what is the size of it.? " 



" I use a round belt ^s inch in diameter, such 

 as is used for power-driven sewing-machines." 



" How many colonies have you.? " 



"I have at present 300." 



" How far apart are your yards.? " 



" Four miles and a half in a straight line. " 



"What are your main sources of honey? " 



"Exclusively eucalypts, with the exception of 

 a few plants and shrubs in early spring." 



"How does honey from eucalyptus compare 

 with American or European honey.?" 



" In color it varies to about the same extent. 

 It is of a different flavor, but of a greater density; 

 and I should think, therefore, it would be very 

 useful for manufacturing purposes." 



" Have you many unoccupied ranges in Aus- 

 tralia not too remote from a market.?" 



"That is a matter of opinion. All the best 

 bee territory within thirty or forty miles of a 

 railway is pretty well stocked now, but there are 

 immense tracts of native forest yet untouched on 

 account of the distance from railroads." 



" Can you estimate approximately the amount 

 of honey that is annually produced in Australia.?" 



" For the State of Victoria, during the season 

 of 1906 and '7 the number of hives of all kinds 

 was 48,000; and the yield of honey was 3,000,000 

 lbs., besides 46,000 lbs. of wax. This makes an 

 average of a little over 62 lbs. of honey to the 

 hive." 



" What would be your average, Mr. Beuhne, 

 per colony, one year with another.?" 



"My own average for ten years is slightly 

 over 100 lbs. ; but mine is by no means one of 

 the best districts." 



BOTTLING AND PREPARING HON- 

 EY FOR MARKET. 



BY E. E. COVEYOU. 



[The writer of this article, Mr. E. E. Coveyou, who produced 

 25,000 lbs. of honey this year, is one of the most extensive bot- 

 tlers of honey in the United States. He has every thing worked 

 down to a fine system to save labor. He has built up a large 

 trade and a big business. His scheme of "rolling" the labels on 

 the bottles and tumblers without touching them is quite unique. 

 The whole article, in fact, is deserving of a careful reading, for 

 he seems to be full of the "tricks of the trade." The best part 

 of it, he is willing to give them to the public. — Ed.] 



We have always bottled our entire crop, and 

 bought considerable each season. We also make 

 our hives and shipping-cases; and in order to find 

 time to care for our bees we must have some 

 quick method of performing all of the operations 

 connected with the business, and each year we 

 adopt new ways and means of saving time and la- 

 bor, and giving better results. 



UNPACKING THE GLASSES AND PREPARING FOR 

 WASHING. 



Practically all of our tumblers come in bar- 

 rels, while our jars are in cases. We can save 

 considerable as we make our own cases ; but we 

 would advise any one not in position to make 

 them to buy all reshipping-cases. 



To do faster and easier work we have 200 trays 

 holding four dozen tumblers each. These are 

 made in the following manner: The sides are of 

 wood 3 '2 by yk inch. The bottoms are made of 

 galvanized screen, and are held on by means of % 

 by Js inch strips. Similar strips are nailed across 

 the bottom every 6 inches to support the screens. 

 The tumblers and glasses are unpacked and 

 placed in these traj s. By the way, the trays 

 are provided with hand-holes in the sides and 

 ends, and, vsith the botdes, they are lowered 

 into the water in the washing-tank, when imme- 

 diately the glasses are all out of the trays and in 

 the water in less time than it takes to tell it. 

 They are washed, placed back in the trays, and 

 allowed to drain for a few minutes ; then they 

 are placed one on top of another on a drier 

 which is heated by steam-pipes. The hot air 

 ascends through the piles of trays, and the 

 moisture is thus carried off. 



LABELING. 



Now for the labeling. The first thing is the 

 table. It is a board two feet long and 18 inches 

 wide covered with oilcloth. The table-top itself 

 is pivoted on a shaft, so that it can revolve the 

 same as a piano-stool, only it does not rise or 

 lower except by a set-screw which is conveniently 

 located for adjusting to a height suitable for 

 those doing the labeling. 



The labels are piled in bunches of about 500 

 each. One end of each bunch (the end further 

 away) is pasted the same as a writing-pad. (It 

 would be well to put a piece of mosquito-netting 

 on the ends before or when pasting, as this holds 

 the labels together better should the paste be- 

 come brittle.) 



We now paste from four to six pads of these 



