822 



THE AMERICAi^ BEE JOURNAL. 



The objections to a stationary or 

 single-position, spaced frame, are all 

 converted into advantages by using 

 it reversibly, and there will yet be 

 living proof that the Quinby stand- 

 ing-frame, of the Langstrotli size, and 

 with reversible wires to combine the 

 labors of Fathers Langstroth and 

 Quinby in an established union of 

 obliteration to the confused multi- 

 tude, and give us all peace and same- 

 ness to perfection in frame and hive. 



Mr. C. P. Dadant, of Hamilton, 111., 

 read the following, on 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Nothing is more appetizing than a 

 pretty section of white comb honey. 

 But comb honey will always be a 

 fancy article, and will have to sell 

 much higher than extracted honey, in 

 order to pay the bee-keeper that pro- 

 duces it. The aim of bee-culture, in 

 its progressive condition, is to pro- 

 duce honey for the masses— for the 

 laborers— who cannot afford to pay for 

 it any more than they can pay for the 

 average grades of sugar. 



Besides, comb honey, although it is 

 a ready selling article, will not fill the 

 place of liquid honey in a great many 

 instances- to make pastry or cakes, or 

 to use in teas, in case of sickness. It 

 is therefore an evident fact that the 

 sale of comb honey will always be 

 limited, and that the sale of extracted 

 honey will increase in proportion to 

 its production, provided the bee-keep- 

 er will take pains to introduce the use 

 of it among his neighbors. This we 

 have ascertained personally by our 

 own sales. In ]8(is our sales of ex- 

 tracted honey of about 500 lbs., were 

 difficult and slow ; now, our crops of 

 10,0(10 to 3'),000 lbs. are easily disposed 

 of, and although the prices "are lower 

 than formerly, yet we find the pro- 

 ducing of it to be a remunerative 

 businesB. We sell more honey to-day 

 in our town of 1,500 inhabitants than 

 we could sell 20 years ago in the city 

 of St. Louis. 



We consider the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, exclusively, as of much 

 advantage to bee-keepers, for a num- 

 ber of reasons, prominent among 

 which are the following : 



1. The apiarist who aims to produce 

 honey only for his own use, can pro- 

 duce much more of this honey than 

 of comb. 



2. The outlay for combs, crates and 

 boxes is not an oft-repeated expendit- 

 ure, since when once supplied tlie 

 stock remains. 



3. The bees need much less watch- 

 ing. The almost total prevention of 

 swarming by the production of ex- 

 tracted honey is no longer a matter of 

 doubt. For this purpose, it is only 

 necessary to provide the colonies with 

 a large quantity of empty combs 

 ahead of their needs. These combs 

 are not wasted, but are preserved from 

 year to year. 



4. ]5y the production of extracted 

 honey, exclusively, an apiarist can 

 take care of more than four times as 

 many colonies, as he can by the pro- 

 duction of comb honey; thereby en- 

 larging his profits greatly, even if he 



has to sell the extracted honey 

 much cheaper than comb honey. 



It would be a great mistake to im- 

 agine, as some have asserted, that 

 there is already an over-production of 

 honey. Honey of all grades is only 

 getting to be a staple. We do not 

 have to look back many years to the 

 time when its sale was soinsignificant 

 that it was only occasionally quoted in 

 the market reports of the large dailies. 

 When honey is found as often as is 

 sugar, molasses, or as butter, on the 

 tables of the average farmer and of 

 the average laborer ; when it is found 

 by the barrel or by the keg in our 

 wholesale and retail groceries— then, 

 and only then, can we say that we are 

 producing as much honey as the 

 coimtry can use. 



The "revolution in bee-keeping," of 

 which Father Langstroth speaks, in 

 his book, has taken place, but the 

 bee-keeping fraternity is only begin- 

 ning to find out all the advantages and 

 all the growth which the bee-business 

 must derive from this revolution. 

 C. P. Dadant. 



Dr. Mason described his method of 

 getting extracted honey, but com- 

 plained that he could not get more 

 than 65 pounds per colony. He was 

 asked how many combs he used, and 

 replied, "eight." 



Dr. L. C. Whiting said. If you will 

 " tier up." your hives, and use plenty 

 of combs, you can get twice as much 

 honey. 



Mr. C. F. Muth could not compre- 

 hend how the Doctor could manage 

 with so few frames. He wanted at 

 least 10 frames for the brood-nest, and 

 then another story for extracting. 

 Even his bees, kept on the house-top 

 in the city of Cincinnati, had given 

 him averages double and even treble 

 what Dr. Mason had obtained, and 

 from hives in the country wliere they 

 had not so far to fly, he got far more 

 honey. 



C. P. Dadant prefers large hives and 

 gives to the bees a plenty of combs in 

 advance of their needs. Honey should 

 not be extracted until ripe. Many 

 bee-keepers think that honey must be 

 sealed before it is ripe. This is a mis- 

 take ; honej; may be ripe before it is 

 sealed, and it may be sealed before it 

 is ripe. 



S. T. Pettit— If we leave enough 

 honey in the hives, we do not have to 

 feed sugar, which prevents that much 

 honey being put upon the market, and 

 relieves the market to that extent. 



II. R. Boardman — I have given -8 

 empty frames to a colony of bees in 

 the fall, fed them 50 fts.of sugar syrup 

 (two parts of sugar and one of water), 

 and they built comb, stored the syrup 

 and wintered well. I have done this 

 with several colonies. 



Mr. W. E. Clark said that the 

 President had been the most success- 

 ful producer of extracted honey in tlie 

 East, and he would call on him to 

 explain his methods. 



Pres. Root, in response, said that 

 it was perfectly true, as Mr. Clarke 

 had said, that Mr.Doolittle's requisites 

 for producing comb honey were just 

 as applicable to the production of 

 extracted honey. A good queen, for 



example, was just as necessary for the 

 one as the other. In both cases wise 

 manipulation was needed, and it took 

 a large amount of study to know what 

 is wise manipulation. Certainly we 

 must have large colonies of bees to 

 gather the honey, then we must ex- 

 tract it at the time when it could be 

 done to the best advantage and with 

 the least hindrance to the bees. It 

 was hard to lay down specific rales — 

 every bee-keeper must be a law to 

 himself, and find out the methods 

 best adapted to his own locality. 

 Experience must be bought by prac- 

 tice, and at considerable expense ; he 

 only hoped that it would not cost 

 others as much as it had cost him. 

 The secret of success lies in having 

 plenty of workers at the right time, 

 and in order to do this we must have 

 good queens. Then comes the ques- 

 tion of manipulation, We have had 

 good results from extracting unripe 

 honey, thus saving the bees the labor 

 of ripening it, but the question is, will 

 it pay to do this V I think not. Then, 

 again, there is spring manipulation ; 

 spreading the brood, and tlie like. — 

 In my opinion, we have manipulated 

 many a colony to death. I am getting 

 to think less and less of manipulation. 

 In feeding, we look, not at immediate 

 results, but at the future. We have 

 heard much about adulteration, and 

 we must avoid the very semblance of 

 it. Our product must be even above 

 suspicion. Some of the lower grades 

 of honey are selling so low that it will 

 not pay to sell it and buy sugar. — 

 Bees should never be allowed to "hang 

 out " during a honey harvest ; if they 

 do, something is wrong. Our hives 

 have a ventilator, 6x12 inches, in the 

 bottom, which can be opened or closed 

 at pleasure. 



Mr. S. T. Pettit gave his experi- 

 ence in producing extracted honey. 

 He had missed it by not leaving the 

 honey in the hive long enough to 

 ripen. One season his honey was all 

 of an inferior quality, owing to this 

 cause. He did not believe that we 

 could ripen the honey as well as the 

 bees themselves do it. He said that 

 we should have at least one-third of 

 the honey capped before extracting, 

 and he believed it was better if all 

 was capped over. He then asked : 

 Do you think, Mr. President, that you 

 can ripen honey artificially as well as 

 tlie bees can do it? 



President Root— I am not sure. I 

 know we can ripen it more thoroughly, 

 and I can discover no ditl'erence in 

 the taste. 



S. T. Pettit— Some have not as keen 

 a sense of taste as have others. I have 

 ripened honey artificially, but it never 

 had the fine, rich, oily, aromatic flavor 

 which honey ripened by the bees had. 

 It is my opinion that bees add, in the 

 ripening process, some animal product 

 (formic acid, perhaps), which the 

 lioney can get in no other way. 



Rev. L. L. Langstroth did not know 

 that he could add much to the ocean 

 of intelligence that was tiding all 

 around, but he wished to say a word 

 or two. He believed there were many 

 things that the bees could do— certain 

 things better than we can— and ripen- 

 ing honey was one of them. There 



