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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 21, 1900. 



which will fail, or how many will give, and how much. 

 This necessitates the keeping of strong colonies thruout 

 the whole season, and every season, so as to be ready for 

 any flow, big or small, that might happen. 



Building up a colony strong, a la Doolittle, just for a 

 two or three weeks' flow, and letting it go down afterward is 

 easy enough, but keeping it strong during four months is 

 quite another thing, and Doolittle's methods are then a 

 stupendous failure. 



POOR LOCALITY. 



This condition is as far from a solution as ever. I will 

 have to move. I could go to the mountains and get tons of 

 honey, but I would not like to live there. Then, the honey 

 is like down here — of inferior quality. Another scheme 

 would be to buy poor, worn-out land, stock it with sweet 

 clover, and enrich it, and eventually sell it for three times 

 the buying price, besides having the honey for the trouble. 

 " I don't know " what would be the best. 



Knox Co., Tenn. 



Production, Care, and Sale of Extracted Honey. 



BY H. D. BURRELL. 



WHILE extracted honej' may be produced in any mov- 

 able-frame hive, it is best to use a hive adapted to 

 the work. In this hustling age, one who would not 

 " get left " in the race, even in honey-producing, must cut 

 all the corners he can. In long practice, I have found a 

 "divisible-brood .chamber " hive best for extracting. With 

 such a hive, rousing colonies may be had by easily increas- 

 ing the size of the brood-chamber, and simply manipulat- 

 ing its parts. I have united many colonies at about all sea- 

 sons when bees can be handled, by merely smoking them a 

 little and placing one hive upon another, with nothing be- 

 tween, and have yet to have harm done bj' quarreling. If 

 one queen is superior, kill, the other ; if not, let the bees 

 manage that matter. If we want increase, it is readily had 

 by division ; and I have easily workt thru whole swarming 

 seasons without a swarm, b3' a plan bj* which it is not nec- 

 essary to go to the apiary oftener than once a week. Such 

 hives are also good for wintering bees, indoors or out. 

 Honey in them can be handled easily by the case, which 

 saves time, trouble, and bee-stings, and there is no danger 

 of the frames sliding together, and causing leakage. 



It is best to have plenty of extracting-combs, and not 

 let the bees run short of room. Queen-excluding honev- 

 boards simplify the necessary work. When honey is about 

 three-fourths capt over, it is usually ripe enough to extract ; 

 but it is better to tier up and leave it on the hives until the 

 end of the season. In localities where there are two crops 

 in a year, a light-colored one and a dark, with a dearth be- 

 tween, it is better to keep the two crops separate, by re- 

 moving the light honey just as the dark flow is commenc- 

 ing. In the hot weather usually prevailing at this season, 

 honey will soon ripen in the hive, and may be extracted if 

 not capt at all. At the end of the dark honey-flow it is 

 usually cold or cool weather, and unfinisht honey will not 

 ripen nor be capt over. This unripe honey should be kept 

 separate, and sold for manufacturing purposes, or to some 

 other cheap trade. Sell none but well-ripened honey for 

 table use, if you would build up and hold a profitable retail 

 trade. That is a trade that pays. It is not necessary for 

 honey to be mild and white to be good. I have many cus- 

 tomers who prefer good buckwheat or goldenrod honey to 

 white clover. 



In taking honey from the hives it pays well to have 

 some bee-escape boards. They save smoking, shaking and 

 brushing bees. The Porter is the best of the many escapes 

 I have tried. Insert them at any time when convenient, 

 and if there is no brood or queen above them, the upper 

 stories will usually be practicallj- free of bees in 24 hours or 

 less. Extracting from the brood-chamber is seldom neces- 

 sary or advisable, with good management. 



It is essential to have a bee-tight extracting-room ; and 

 a stove in it greatlj- simplifies the work. Almost any 

 small room may be cheaply made air-tight, and easily 

 warmed, by lining it with heavy building-paper, lapping 

 the paper well, and tacking lath over the joints. In such 

 a room honey can be easily extracted at any conven- 

 ient time, summer or winter. If the weather is cool or cold, 

 pile the honey on empty caps or temporary benches, above 

 head-height if possible, heat the room to a temperature of 

 90 degrees, or higher, and keep it so for 24 to 48 hours, ac- 

 cording to the length of time the honey has been exposed 

 to a low temperature. It will then extract easily. Some 



kinds of honey will soon candy in the comb, and must be 

 extracted soon after being stored ; but most honey keeps 

 best in the combs, and it is better to leave it there until 

 wanted for sale or use. 



An active 12-year-old boy, with any 2-frame extractor, 

 will throw out honey as fast as almost any man can uncap 

 it. Expensive, reversible extractors are nice to have, but 

 seldom necessary. It is best to have two uncapping-knives, 

 and keep one all the time in hot water, changing often. A 

 small oil-stove is handy for this. 



For storing extracted honey, or shipping it in a candied 

 state, or for holding cappings and draining them, I know 

 of nothing handier or much cheaper than lard-cans. They 

 hold about seven gallons ; and I get them of my grocery- 

 man at 10 cents each after the lard is sold ; and can get 

 them new of the butcher or hardware man at 25 to 30 cents. 

 For uncapping, arrange a can in a convenient place, put a 

 wooden frame on top to rest the honey and clean the knife 

 on, and let the cappings drop inside. Have a strainer made 

 of tinned wire-cloth, 12 meshes to the inch, soldered to a 

 circular tin rim with sloping sides, and a little larger than 

 the top of a can. Place this, convex side up, on a can of 

 cappings, and invert all on another can. After the cap- 

 pings are well drained, put them thru a solar wax-extractor, 

 even if it is neceesary to wait for warm weather in the 

 spring. 



In warm weather the bits of comb and other foreign 

 matter that will always get into honey while extracting, 

 will soon rise to the top, and may be skimmed ofi^. In cool 

 weather, however, they must be strained out, and the honey 

 must be heated in order to do it quickly. A good and sim- 

 ple plan is to put it in 5-gallon screw-cap tin cans and heat 

 it slowly to a temperature of 120 to 115 degrees. A piece of 

 iron or stone one inch thick placed under one side of the 

 can will prevent danger of burning the honey. Attach a 

 cheese-cloth sack, about 5x12 inches in size, to a sliding 

 honey-gate, screw the gate on the can, tip it on one side, 

 and draw the honey thru the sack into any convenient re- 

 ceptacle. A hole made in the top of the can with an awl, 

 or some other sharp-pointed tool, will give vent, and the 

 honey will run more freely. The hole can be stopt when 

 necessary with solder or wax. 



It saves watching, and some danger of having a muss 

 to clean up, by having the extractor on a bench high 

 enough so a can on a platform scales can be set under the 

 honey-gate. A tin funnel, unusually large at both ends, is 

 often a very handy implement. Get a Daisy thermometer 

 for 25 cents, to test temperature with, and be very careful 

 not to let the honey get too hot. That will injure the color 

 and flavor, and melt the wax in it, which will adhere to the 

 inside of the can, or spoil the strainer. 



Don't use galvanized iron for anj' purpose where honey 

 will come in contact with it. The acid in honey affects the 

 plating. I once had an extractor-can made of it, and if a 

 small quantity of honey was left in the can a short time it 

 acquired a peculiar, offensive taste and smell. 



From the finer flavored honeys it is better to exclude 

 the air, but the stronger flavored kinds are improved by ex- 

 posure to the air in a well-ventilated room, care being taken 

 of course, to exclude dust and insects. If you are troubled 

 by ants, make a bench to keep honey on by laying 2x6 inch 

 pieces of lumber edgewise on the floor, and covering them 

 with boards. Make a chalk-mark one inch wide entirely 

 around the middle, lengthwise, of the 2x6 pieces, and not 

 an ant can crawl up over it. They can't get a foothold. 



For shipping liquid honey, perhaps the square tin cans 

 are best, but for cheap honeys, barrels or half-barrels are 

 cheaper. 



Produce a good, well-ripened article of extracted honey, 

 " get a hustle on," and sell it directly to customers yourself 

 for a fair price. Do this and observe the Golden Rule, and 

 you will find pleasure and profit in the business. — Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review. Van Buren Co., Mich. 



York's Money Calendar for 1900 is a 16-page pamph- 

 let especially gotten up to create a demand for honey among 

 should-be consumers. The forepart was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 effective helper in working up a home market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample 

 free ; 25 copies for 30 cents ; SO for 50 cents ; 100 for 90 

 cents ; 250 for $2.00 ; 500 for $3.50. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 



