202 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



September, 



Tlie first combs built with this man- 

 ifestation will not be as white as that 

 later on when the bees get fairly down 

 to their work. They will snip wax 

 from the old combs adjoining and 

 work it into new ones. To avoid hav- 

 ing any second grade chunk honey I 

 lift the empty frjunes from> the supers 

 and note the color of the comb when 

 the frame is about one-half full or a 

 little moi"e. If it is very dark I take 

 the frame or frames to the extracting 

 room, throw out the honey and cut 

 the comb back to only a starter. These 

 scraps of comb are all saved and ren- 

 dered into wax. By the time the bees 

 get well at work in the empty frames 

 again the old combs are pretty largely 

 filled with honey and there will be lit- 

 tle or no borrowing of wax. 



I have had as white combs built in 

 this way as any one would want, and 

 by reason of the greater activity of the 

 colony I always felt that honey thus 

 obtained Avas very much like finding 

 a piece of money. 



The protluction of "chunk" honey 

 is. in my opinion, just as profitable 

 in many cases as section honey, if not 

 more so. The artist producer of honey 

 has not devoted as much time in ed- 

 ucating the consumer as he has in per- 

 fecting the commodity of the goods 

 he ofFers for sale. Consequently his 

 highest attainments are not appreciat- 



ed by the city folk whose trade he 

 seeks to catch, but is made to lend 

 color to the many-winged reports that 

 comb honey is largely manufactured. 

 .Tust so long as these conditions pre- 

 vail, 'the dealer in honey will, to a 

 \ ery great extent, be the receiver for 

 doubt and insinuations. Chunk honey 

 appeals to the people in general be- 

 cause it is on a par with their edu- 

 cation in things agricultural. It ex- 

 cites both the admiration and the ap- 

 petite of the lover of honey, and when 

 he has sampled it he is willing to con- 

 cede the fact that it is "real bees' hon- 

 ey." No bee-keeper who values his 

 reputation for honesty and a love of 

 right doing will seek to work off infe- 

 rior honey by covering it up with a 

 better grade. When I speak of chunk 

 honey, I don't mean all sorts. I mean 

 a strictly first-class article, cut into 

 neat blocks and placed with care in 

 a. suitable vessel for retailing. If 

 wra]iped in a good quality of butter 

 I)aper the honey is very presentable in- 

 deed, and will readily sell in 

 any market. Try it, brother bee-keep- 

 ers, and see if you don't find a good 

 market at home for much of your hon- 

 ey which, if lint up in section-lioxes. 

 would go to the cities to depress tJie 

 n^arkets and lower our wages. 

 Wheelersburg. O.. July 20, 1903. 



♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^ 



►^M^-f^^-f-M-f-f -M^- 



THE 



Bee = Keeping World 



♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ M f M ^t-H-H-H'-H- M MM ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦ 



GERMANY. 



DR. DZIERZDN relates in an ar- 

 ticle in Bienen-Vater "The Gold- 

 en Art of Obtaining Largest 

 Honey Yields," the following: 



"Having i)urchased four colonies of 

 bees at an auction during the begin- 

 ning of my bee-keeping career, in 1836, 

 an examination of my purchased prop- 

 erty showed a marked difference in 

 the coloaie-!. Thre? were very strong, 

 each covering the whole comb area; 

 but neither had more honey than need- 



ed for winter stores, while the fourth 

 had a large surplus of honey, but was 

 weak in bees To ascertain the cause 

 of this difference I carefully examined 

 colony num1)er four and found th' 

 queen slightly defective in her front 

 legs. It seemed difficult for her to 

 leave one comb and go to the next 

 one. She had confined herself to just 

 one comb, leaving all the rest for store 

 room. The (>ombs of the other three 

 colonies had been kept full of brood, 

 consequently no honey could be stored. 



