366 



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the summer stands, 27 (4i per cent.) 

 were lost ; of the 152 colonies stored 

 in cellars. 15 (9 4-5 per cent.) were 

 lost — a dift'erence of 5 3-10 pev cent. 

 in favor of out-door wintering, the past 

 winter. Of the 21,900 pounds of comb 

 honey produced in 1889, onlj- 50 

 pounds remain unsold, and of the 

 8,170 pounds of extracted honey, 570 

 pounds remain unsold. 



After disposing with the Order of 

 Business, Mr. Jas. A. Stone, of Brad- 

 fordton. Ills., read an essay on 



Comb Ooney— Production, Care. 



Comb honey, in all its purity, and 

 without a possibility of adulteration, 

 is one of the healthiest, and, we might 

 say, the healthiest sweet that goes 

 upon the market. 



While the sweets of commei'ce may 

 be — some of them — pure and unadul- 

 terated, yet it is possible to make them 

 otherwise, and it is a shame to say 

 that some one is ever ready with his 

 process by which to make a profit by 

 imposing on his fellows. But thanks 

 to the Giver of all good things, that 

 He has made the little honey-bee so 

 wise that it can make a comb that can- 

 not be imitated, in which to deposit 

 the honey it gathers. 



We will say nothing of the adultera- 

 tion of extracted honey — except that 

 the price of the same is so low that we 

 do not believe it is carried on exten- 

 sivel}', as there can be but little, if any 

 profit. But while there is as pure a 

 sweet as comb honey is acknowledged 

 to be, let us lend our time for a few 

 moments to the consideration of its 

 " production and care." 



There are many points to be con- 

 sidered, but we shall only touch on one 

 or two of them, that we think are most 

 vital. 



Kind of Bees. — We ought to have 

 the kind that will gather the most 

 honey, unless they are more dangerous 

 as regards " life, liberty and the pur- 

 suit of happiness ;" and, in the Italian, 

 we claim to have a bee superior in dis- 

 position, as well as other qualities, to 

 the native bee. 



Since the importation of Italian bees 

 to the United States in 1860, they have 

 increased rapidly, and have become 

 very favorably known. They are 

 superior to our native bees, in their 

 large size and greater beauty ; they are 

 more prolific, longer lived, more in- 

 dustrious, less sensitive to cold, and 

 they swarm earlier and more fre- 

 quently, and continue later than com- 

 mon bees. Rev. L. L. Langstroth said 

 that his Italian colonies gathered more 

 than twice as much honey as his colo- 

 nies of common bees ; and Mr. Quinby 

 said that in all his experience, he had 

 not received an unfavorable report of 

 them. 



Kind ok Hive and Sections. — Of 

 late years we all know that there is no 

 market for honey in the old-fashioned 

 box. And why ? Because it is super- 

 seded by the one-pound section. In 

 all the commercial world, the object 

 sought is to get things into the laest 

 possible shape for handling ; and this 

 shape for comb honey is conceded to 

 be the one-pound section. Then, it 

 follows, that the hive used should be 

 the one in which we can handle the 

 sections with the greatest ease and 

 convenience, regarding stickiness, irri- 

 tating bees, etc. 



We want a hive having a section- 

 case in which the sections are so 

 placed as to be easily taken out when 

 full ; or, if not desired to be taken out, 

 the case raised and an empty one 

 placed under it ; and so on, tiering up 

 indefinitely, and thus leave the honey 

 in the care of the bees (as they can 

 care for it better than we can) till we 

 want it for market, or, if the time 

 comes for storing away for winter, we 

 can take it from the hive in the case 

 without loosening or breakage. 



Pastdrage for Bees — The bee- 

 keepers of this part of the country 

 have learned that in the years when 

 white clover is a failure, the surplus 

 honey crop is also more or less a fail- 

 ure, which proves that it is our best 

 honey-producing plant ; also, the honey 

 it yields demands the highest market 

 price. 



Other plants, such as Spanish-needle 

 and heart's-ease, sometimes yield a 

 good supply of fall honey, but to en- 

 courage their growth is to grow weeds. 

 Buckwheat sometimes furnishes well, 

 but I have seen it in full bloom when 

 it did not produce at all. Catnip and 

 motherwort are excellent honey-pro- 

 ducers, but the trouble with them is 

 that they never become plentiful 

 enough, for they are biennial, and 

 easily killed out where land is culti- 

 vated, and are almost useless for other 

 purposes, except medicinal. 



In some localities golden-rod is val- 

 uable as a honey-plant, but I have 

 failed ever to see a single bee gather- 

 ing from it. Alsike clover (where it 

 has become common) is conceded by 

 bee-keepers generally, to be ahead of 

 all other plants — for this and many 

 other States — as a honey-plant. The 

 attendants upon the Northwestern 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention spoke in high 

 praise of this clover as a pasture for 

 stock as well, and for mowing for hay ; 

 and many who had tested it preferred 

 it to red clover, to mix with timothy — 

 its good points being that it ripened 

 with timothy and cured as quickly. So 

 in summing up honey-plants, I be- 

 lieve our best plant is the Alsike clover. 

 With all the above-named plants 

 favorable, the bees will produce the 



coveted sweet ; but I do not believe 

 that it is wise to be over-anxious to 

 get the first drop of honey that it ia 

 possible for the bees to secure in the 

 spring, and thereby starve the brood. 

 In other words, I do not believe in 

 "killing the goose that lays the golden 

 egg ;" but I do believe in first provid- 

 ing for the life and health of the 

 "goose," that she may "lay" many 

 " golden eggs." 



But one says if they do not produce 

 stores enough to carry them through, 

 feed them on something less valuable 

 than honey. The question then arises. 

 Is that possible, in the light of reason ? 

 I do not believe that there is any other 

 food for bees that is as good as that 

 which they gather where Nature has 

 supplied it, notwithstanding the au- 

 thority on the other side of the ques- 

 tion. 



Suppose one gets his bees through 

 the winter on a food that is much 

 cheaper than another uses, and event- 

 ually (though perhaps not for a year 

 or two) some disease — diarrhea, foul 

 brood or what not — breaks out among 

 them, and the profit ceases, bees and 

 all. "But." you say, " these diseases 

 will sometimes come anyway." Cer- 

 tainly ; but we notice that those who 

 are crying most in favor of feeding are 

 those who have the most disease in 

 their apiaries to cry about. We no- 

 ticed in the Northwestern Convention 

 last fall, that the very man who had 

 the most to say about a bee-feed to 

 prevent diarrhea, was the same man 

 who said most about his bees being 

 troubled with it. I quote from the 

 American Cyclopa?dia, when I say, 

 "Feeding should never be attempted 

 as a matter of profit." 



Care of Comb Honey. — In storing, 

 it should have a warm, dry place ; and 

 one said in the convention last fall, 

 that it ought not to be tiered within K 

 inches of the wall of the room. 



In marketing, I believe that our 

 first, last and all-the-time rule should 

 be — Tidiness. We should not let our 

 honey go into the market with impi'es- 

 sions of our thumbs on the sections. 

 Nothing would be more vexing, than 

 for one to offer his honey to an old 

 customer, and have him say, "Why, 

 here is some honey I got from Mr. A., 

 at 2 cents less than you ofier yours, ■ 

 and I can't sell it." You look at it — 

 you do not wonder that it will not sell, 

 for it has no inviting appearance. If 

 men do not know it, the sooner they 

 learn it the better, that almost every- 

 thing is sold to the majority of people 

 on its looks ; and tidiness is first con- 

 sidered when the appetite is being 

 tempted. 



In the first place each section should 

 have the wax scraped off around the 

 edges, where the bees have come at it. 



