^lU 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



December 



'or while being operated by him, etc. 

 This interests the people and gives con- 

 fidence. If one wants to sell comb 

 honey to his townsmen, let him produce 

 it without comb-foundation. One friend 

 told me recently he got so that he 

 would eat his comb honey with a spoon, 

 digging it off from the foundation leav- 

 ing this article untouched. Comb- 

 foundation does not improve the qual- 

 ity of our comb honey. Editor Hutch- 

 inson says in a recent number of the 

 Review, he would pay five cents more 

 per pound for honey produced with- 

 out its use if he was to eat the honey 

 hmself. Would it not be reasonable to 

 suppose that other consumers are just 

 as sensitive in the matter? Our aim, 

 therefore, should be to please the peo- 

 ple by not using comb-foundation in 

 sections. If we succeed we will build 

 up a lasting trade. 



If one starts out to sell honey to his 

 townsmen it will be a good thing to 

 also carry extracted honey. I myself 

 am very partial to this kind of honey. 

 I believe it is more wholesome than in 

 the comb. Several years ago I melted 

 up 27 sections in my solar; as a result 

 I have a neat little cake of wax weigh- 

 ing 121/3 ounces. It seems to me the 

 human system would have quite a job 

 to do away with the wax where one 

 partakes freely of honey in the comb. 



I always cry to '>ush the sale of ex- 

 tracted honey wherever I can. But we 

 must produce a good article. Above all 

 things it must be heavy in body. I 

 bought some maple syrup once which 

 was half water — I didn't buy any more 

 of it. For same reason I would not sell 

 water to my neighbors for honey — most, 

 people hereabouts had all they wanted 

 of it this season without buying it. 



I make it a rule to let my combs be- 

 come sealed from top to bottom be- 

 fore extracting. I am then reasonably 

 sure to have good, thick honey. I 

 would rather have my honey off in col- 

 or than in body. As to allowing the 

 queen to roam all through the hive, I 

 am opposed to it. I want my extract- 

 ing combs free from brood. If I could 

 have things always just as I wanted 

 them. I would only use clean combs for 

 extracting supers, or such as had not 

 contained brood at any time and were 

 free from pollen. There might not be a 

 perceptible material difference in the 

 honey, but it certainly would be more 

 appetizing to me. 



A great many people would use ex- 

 tracted honey if they only knew the 

 article, and it was brought to them. 

 It requires a little strategy sometimes 

 to even induce people to taste of it. 

 They know, of course, what "strained" 

 honey is like; they ate it when their 

 grandfather took up his bees each fall; 

 thev don't like it! That is quite natural. 

 All the more I want to be particular 

 with my extracted honey as to eliminat- 

 ing all hive flavor or pollen flavor. 

 The purer our honey is, the more con- 

 verts we will make. 



I tried a scheme at our agricultural 

 fair with good success, and where peo- 

 ple are not yet familiar with good ex- 

 tracted honey, it will pay any one to 

 do as I did. 



When the crowd began to increase 

 toward the middle of the day, I pro- 

 duced a quantity of nice white biscuits 

 from my limch basket, and with my 

 honey knife — clean and bright — I cut 

 some of them into slices. I then open- 

 ed a can of my finest honey and spread 

 a little of it on each slice, using a small 

 silver spoon for the purpose. Every- 

 body was then invited to sample the 

 honey. Hundreds of people undoubted- 

 ly had their first taste of extracted hon- 

 ey on those two days I kept up my 

 lunch counter, and many sales were 

 made right there and then. When peo- 

 ple become acquainted with a good ar- 

 ticle of extracted honey, they will often 

 buy it in preference to comb, even at 

 the same price, for it is more con- 

 venient to use. The only drawback to 

 handling extracted honey is its tenden- 

 cy to granulate. A few people prefer 

 it thus, and I aim to have it for them, 

 but the great majority of people want 

 it liquid and transparent. It causes a 

 great deal o£ work sometimes to liquefy 

 honey. We must be on our guard not 

 to have it become solid in our barrels. 

 Before it gets to that point it must be 

 drawn off and melted over a moderate 

 fire. Granulated honey in small glass 

 or tin packages may be liquefied in a 

 solar machine, if one can induce the 

 sun to shine any. In using the sun's 

 heat there is no danger of impairing 

 the quality of the honey or breaking 

 packages. It has given me good satis- 

 faction. 



For retailing extracted honey from 

 the store a one-pound package seems 

 desirable. I am in search of a cheaper 

 one-pound glass package than the 25- 



