714 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



Beeville, Texas. 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



licsson No. 14. 



(Continued from page 619.) 

 HOW TO GET ALL WHITE HONEY. 



Now I will be glad if my Southern 

 readers will pay strict attention to this 

 lesson, especially how to get nice, clear, 

 white comb honey. 



First, I will say that we must have 

 nice, clean sections, and use the best. 

 and thinnest foundation for starters. 

 But the greatest trouble lies with those 

 bee-keepers that do not study their 

 honey-plants, and let their sections re- 

 main in the hives when red or undesir- 

 able honey is coming in, and the bees 

 will have some dark honey along with 

 the white, and all is spoiled. Now. if 

 you have a crop of white honey during 

 the season, you should know exactly the 

 time, as near as possible, when to look 

 for it. Have your bees in condition to 

 gather it, and take all undesirable 

 honey off, if there should be any, and 

 have the supers ready to put on the mo- 

 ment the white honey begins to come 

 in ; and you can, if you like, use some 

 dark sections for bait in the center of 

 the super, then, when well started, take 

 it out and put in new ones. But by all 

 means, do not let your dark honey get 

 mixed with the light. If you will do as 

 I have directed, you will be pleased to 

 find you can get white honey in the 

 South as well as anywhere, and just as 

 fine flavored honey. 



I have had it intimated to me that 

 comb honey in the South is too tender 

 to ship, etc. Now, friends, I would not 

 like to have you think this. I cannot 

 see any difference in Northern and 

 Southern honey as regards its shipping 

 qualities. Of course, during the very 

 warm weather here our honey is very 

 tender, but any honey would be tender 



under the same conditions. But I as- 

 sure you that you can produce and ship 

 comb honey in the South as well as any- 

 where. 



The greatest trouble we have here 

 with comb honey is the moth. I am 

 going to have made a wire-cloth honey- 

 house, large enough to hold 20,000 

 pounds. I mean by a " wire-cloth house," 

 that I will make the sides nearly all 

 wire-cloth. Make it ant and moth proof. 



And then, in this dry country, I notice 

 that the moth does not bother combs 

 that are well ventilated, like those shut 

 up close. The wire-cloth sides will al- 

 low the wind to circulate freely through 

 the house, and keep the dampness all 

 out. I have some honey in a small wire- 

 house now, and it is keeping all right. 



I have always delighted in producing 

 section honey since I first tried it, and I 

 expect to produce and ship it in the 

 future. I am anxious for Southern bee- 

 keepers to put comb honey — fine section 

 honey — on the markets of the world, 

 and let people know we can produce 

 something except " Southern strained 

 honey." I tell you, friends, we of the 

 South have been too careless about get- 

 ting up our honey for market, and we 

 must not sleep over our rights any 

 longer, but let's go to work and produce 

 comb honey by the carload, as we call It. 

 Let's have all our white honey in the sec- 

 tions, and extract the darker grades, 

 and I believe that if we will be up and 

 doing, and try ourselves, we can add to 

 our list fine comb honey by the carload. 



The reason I have gone over these 

 grounds so carefully, and repeated some 

 words about it, is because we are away 

 behind on section honey, and we should 

 not be. Now some, or all of you, try 

 some section honey this year, and see if 

 you are not pleased. 



SMOKING CAGED BEES AND QUEENS. 



When queens are caged, and the bees 

 with them show fight, and you wish to 

 smoke them, better let the smoke pass 

 over or through your fingers, especially 

 if you use a direct-draft smoker, as you 

 may burn the queen and bees to death 

 in a twinkling. I have done the like, 

 and to keep you from doing the same, I 

 tell you how to avoid it, for if the smoke 

 burns your fingers, you may know it will 

 injure the bees. Jennie Atchley. 



Some Questions About Texas. 



Mns. Atchley: — I am a bee-keeper, 

 and having sold my place and apiary 



