762 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



opposition might disappear were they ac- 

 quainted with our extra-light section founda- 

 tion. 



THE PROPER WAY TO EXHIBIT COMB HONEY 

 AT FAIRS. 



As in former years, I had occasion to see 

 the honey exhibits at several agricultural 

 fairs this year, and in every case almost all 

 the exhibited comb honey was unduly ex- 

 posed to dust, flies, and insects in general. 

 Where the rules and regulations demand an 

 exhibit of 250 sections in the general display, 

 and every section exposed to view, as is the 

 case at the New York State fair, it would en- 

 tail too heavy an expense for the exhibitor 

 should he have to show his honey under 

 glass. The managers of the fair should pro- 

 vide suitable glass cases for these exhibitions. 

 For my part 1 should not like to exhibit and 

 expose to dust and flies so large an amount 

 of honey for a week or two, even if I were 

 sure of carrying off the first premium on my 

 exhibit. The fact that a certain lot of honey 

 has been awarded the first premium at a 

 great show may be a recommendation of 

 some material value; but the accompanying 

 circumstance of eight or ten days' exposure 

 to flies and dust would detract much from 

 that value. In some of our best and most 

 frequented grocery stores I have observed 

 comb honey very carelessly exposed to dust 

 and flies, while in others the flakes of honey 

 are left in the glassed shipping- case, or are 

 displayed in a neat glass case as it should be. 

 It pays to be neat m any kind of business; 

 and particularly in our honey business neat- 

 ness must not be disregarded. 



I have usually shown my comb honey in 

 a large glass case, and in small specially de- 

 signed single-row glassed cases, showing 

 practically all the comb. I have also shown 

 the single sections when they were glassed 

 on both sides. This last is a very good way 

 providing such glassed honey can be sold by 

 weight afterward, glass to be paid for as 

 honey. 



CLEANING OUT EXTRACTING-COMBS. 



In an article I wrote for the American Bee 

 Journal a short time ago, in which I describ- 

 ed and illustrated my method ot having ex- 

 tracting-combs cleaned out, etc., and which 

 the editor commented on, page 653, as well 

 as Dr. Miller in the next issue, I referred to 

 the combs as they came from the extractor 

 "wet with honey." It would be reasonable 

 to expect the bees to clean out any combs 

 containing unsealed stores. My bees have 

 always been prone to take sealed honey out 

 of combs under similar conditions, and I 

 would not expect them to do a thorough job 

 if it were sealed honey placed in stacks of 

 supers back of a hive. 



In order to have sections that are partly 

 filled with honey, both sealed and unsealed, 

 cleaned out without injuring the comb, Mr. 

 Danzenbaker advised once at a bee-keepers' 

 convention that we pile them up before the 

 entrance of a hive during a warm night. I 

 have so far preferred to stack up the supers 

 containing such honey somewnere in the 



bee-yard upon a bottom-board, covering with 

 a close-fitting cover and giving a small en- 

 trance. This is less work for me, and we 

 run no risk of having such bait sections 

 spoiled by rain during the night. They may 

 thus be left out as long as is convenient, or 

 it is convenient to take them in. 



BUYING CARBON-BISULPHIDE CHEAP. 



Up to within a year or two the price I had 

 to pay for bisulphide of carbon was 35 cents 

 per pound. This was not only excessive, but 

 it was more — it was prohibitory, as I could 

 obtain practically the same result for not 

 much more than one-tenth the cost by using 

 sulphur. Of late I bought the sulphide at 

 $1.00 per gallon (about 11 pounds), and 45 

 cents express from the city. At this price I 

 can stand it to use it in the fumigation of 

 comb honey and combs. It stands to reason 

 that, the smaller the space is to be filled with 

 fumes, or, rather, the more combs we can 

 crowd into a certain space, and the nearer 

 we can shut up every thing, guarding the es- 

 cape of the fumes, the more successful we 

 shall be in doing the work cheaply as well as 

 effectively. I do not know of a more prac- 

 tical plan than to stack up the supers eight 

 or ten high, placing the liquid in a saucer on 

 top in an empty super, or, better, a shallow 

 ring, covering all up as tight as I can. It is 

 really the same method I practiced for many 

 years when I was using sulphur, with the 

 exception that I used a full-depth hive-body 

 on top to burn the sulphur in. When I prac- 

 ticed this method, sometimes I had the hive- 

 cover scorched a little on the inside, but had 

 never a fire started. It is a method I still 

 use at times. It is the cheapest, even with 

 the bisulphide of carbon at $1.00 per gallon. 



Naples, N. Y. 



QUEEN-EXCLUDERS, NOT HONEY-EX- 

 CLUDERS. 



Evidence to Show that HoneyJBrought in 

 by Field Bees is Not Transferred to the 

 Young Bees to be Carried to the Cells; 

 Honey Above Excluders the Only Pure 

 Honey. 



BY ELIAS FOX. 



In reply to W. F. Cox's article on the'use 

 of queen-excluders, page 631, Oct. 15, I de- 

 sire to say just a few words. Only a few 

 years ago I gave a report of one colony giv- 

 ing me 125 lbs., stored above a queen-exclu- 

 der in, I think, something like three weeks. 

 Last year I reported one colony giving me 

 425 lbs. of surplus for the season. This also 

 passed through a queen-excluder and was 

 stored in three full-depth extracting-supers. I 

 think they are all wrong when they say the 

 field bees deliver their loads of nectar to 

 nurse-bees to be stored in the surplus cells, 

 or store it in the brood-chamber later to be 

 transferred above. This is all bosh. Bees 

 are more consistent and economical of time 

 and labor. True, I have often seen the 

 young bees receive honey direct from the 

 incoming field-bees; perhaps one in ten 



