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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1§ 



General 

 Correspondence 



THE 



SO-CALLED MANUFACTUHED 

 COMB HONEY. 



The Producer and the Buyer Both Partly 



Responsible for the Stories 



Concerning it. 



BY E. M. GIBSON. 



At a restaurant in San Diego a man told 

 me that he had sold lots of comb honey, but 

 that it was mostly manufactured stuff. I ask- 

 ed him if he was sure that it was manufac- 

 tured, and he said there was no mistake 

 about it — that he had sold tons of it, and that 

 his son was selling it at that time. When I 

 asked him if he would object to making two 

 thousand dollars, if he could do so honestly, 

 and with but little effort, he said he certain- 

 ly would not, and I told him of the offers of 

 the A. I. Root Company and of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association, and assured him 

 that, if he could prove beyond a doubt that 

 the honey was manufactured, there would 

 be no trouble in collecting the money. Al- 

 though I talked in a mild and kindly manner, 

 the man was angry, and he left the table, and 

 I have not seen or heard of him since. He 

 was badly worsted in the argument, as all 

 who heard it could plainly see. 



Are people wholly to blame for thinking 

 that honey can be manufactured, especially 

 extracted honey? In my opinion the pro- 

 ducer and the buyer are partly to blame — the 

 producer because he puts on the market hon- 

 ey of an inferior quality; and thebuyer because 

 he buys and pays as high a price for it as for 

 good honey, and sells it for first-class honey. 

 In foreign markets, as well as in our own, 

 California honey is quoted at a better price 

 than all other kinds; but the producers, or at 

 least many of them, are not doing their part 

 in trying to maintain the prestige which this 

 honey has, and which, by right of superiori- 

 ty, it deserves. 1 know of some who do not 

 strain their honey, but simply put it into cans 

 as it comes from the extractor. On remov- 

 ing the screw caps I have seen the particles 

 of comb so thick on the top that one was 

 obliged to dig a hole through it to get to the 

 honey. I wish I might be able to say some- 

 thing to convince these bee-keepers that they 

 are standing in their own light; but it is of 

 little use to write about it, for such bee-keep- 

 ers never read bee journals. Let us do what 

 we can to educate the buyers. That is what 

 I try to do at every opportunity. 



The only way that I can account for the 

 careless ways that bee- keepers in this State 

 have fallen into is to lay it on to the mild 

 climate. Bees need so little attention and 

 protection that they are neglected in other 

 ways. If the owners had to carry their bees 

 in and out of cellars at least twice a year, or 

 give them protection from the cold to avoid 



losing them, many of them would be obliged 

 to go out of the business. Others try to do 

 too much with the facilities which they have. 

 An inevitable result is that they fail in doing 

 any thing well. 



The advice of Mr. Doolittle to beginners 

 (to go slow) is excellent. A young man 

 came to me several years ago and said he 

 had saved up severaJ hundred dollars and 

 was going to invest it in bees. He had never 

 had any experience, but was going to buy 

 two hundred colonies to start with. I advis- 

 ed him to buy not more than twenty-five, 

 subscribe for a bee journal, and learn some- 

 thing about the business. But he thought 

 he knew best, and he bought the bees Two 

 years after this I saw him with several other 

 men picking up cobblestones on the streets 

 and throwing them into a scraper to be haul- 

 ed away. 



WHEN DO BEES GNAW SPLINTS? SPLIT BOT- 

 TOM-BARS. 



Bees gnaw splints under the same condi- 

 tions that they gnaw foundation; that is, 

 when frames of foundation are put in too 

 soon when the colony is not sufficiently 

 strong to build them out quickly, and also 

 when such foundation is left in too long. 

 Under these conditions bees will gnaw the 

 foundation whether it is put in supported by 

 wires or by any thing else; and, of course, 

 if the splints are not pressed in closely or if 

 they do not fit close to the bottom-bar, there 

 is an added incentive for the bees to gnaw 

 at the wood. I never fill a super with foun- 

 dation, no matter how strong tne colony mav 

 be, for the bees nearly always make bad work 

 in some of the frames. If I do not have 

 drawn combs enough left over for the sea- 

 son's use I take from the supers of the larg- 

 est colonies, as soon as the bees commence 

 to build freely in the spring, two frames of 

 drawn comb and replace them with frames 

 of full sheets of foundation. I continue this 

 until I have drawn combs enough for the 

 season. In this way the combs are nicely 

 drawn out, and by the time the honey-flow 

 begins I am all ready for it. 



On page 490, August 15, Dr. Miller says 

 that he would rather have a whole bottom- 

 bar than a split one if the comb is waxed to 

 it. I wish he had told us why. There may 

 be some disadvantage not apparent to one 

 who has never used splints; and as I have 

 ordered 36,000 sawed at the mill to replace 

 those that I already have now, I am wonder- 

 ing if I have made a mistake. However, I 

 do not like the idea of waxing the founda- 

 to the bottom-bar; for when splints are put 

 in, the foundation must be warm; and when 

 warm it expands. If it is fastened to the 

 bottom-bar, when it is warm it shrinks and 

 pulls loose after it cools. On the other hand, 

 if it is fastened when it is cool, it gets warm 

 and buckles when the super is put on the 

 hive. Last year I punched holes in the bot- 

 tom-bar to receive the splints, and this plan 

 answered fairly well, but occasionally the 

 splints would get out of place at the ends, 

 and the comb had to be bent back. If the 

 splints were held between the halves of a 



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