THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



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of Alsike clover for seed. Thej' have 

 also been long-sighted enough, the 

 most of them, to leave a good sized 

 wood-lot, containing a good many 

 basswood trees; so that, about every 

 other 3'ear, I get a crop of basswood 

 honey at that yard. Now, I have cus- 

 tomers who will give a cent a pound 

 more for clear clover honey than thej' 

 will for that that has basswood mixed 

 with it, so this yard is usually ex- 

 tracted just before the basswood opens, 

 about the first of July, when the upper 

 stories are put back for the basswood 

 crop, and are treated the same as I 

 have explained above, where we have 

 only the one kind to handle. This 

 clover honey, extracted during the 

 honey flow, is never quite as good body 

 and flavor as that left on the hive a 

 week or two after the flow stops; but, 

 as the politician would saj', "I'm in 

 the hands of in}' friends," so if they 

 want it this way, and are willing to 

 pay a difPerence in price for the clear 

 clover, I, of course, keep it separate; 

 as the difference in price more than 

 pays for the extra extracting. 



While on the subject of extracting 

 during the honey flow let me give a little 

 kink that I never saw in print. You 

 know bees, during the night, evaporate 

 nearly all the water out of the honey 

 gathered the previous day, now, all 

 the honey you can take off in the morn- 

 ing, before any new is stored, will be 

 much better than it will be if left until 

 later in the day, when the raw, thin 

 honey will be mixed with it. 



This is my system of working in an 

 ordinary season; but there are seasons 

 when hone3' is so thick and nice when 

 first gathered that it is in condition to 

 extract almost as soon as the bees 

 store it in their combs; and then there 

 are other seasons, like the last two, 

 for instance, when the honey is never 

 thoroughly ripened, no matter how 

 long left on the hives. This last con- 

 dition is hard to explain; in fact, I 

 have never been able to wholly over- 

 come this obstacle. In some future 

 article, under the head of handling 

 the crop, I will tell how '\t\& partly 

 overcome. 



Remus, Mich., Dec, 26, 1903. 



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.©r 



BY M. P. CADY. 



(3' HALL bee-keepers manufacture 

 ^ their own hives, or buy them at 

 the greatly increased prices from the 

 supply dealers? This seems to be the 

 question agitating Beedom just now. 

 Having had some experience in both 

 methods of procedure, I am prompted 

 to write this article, in the hope that 

 it will, in some degree, contribute to 

 the best interests of the bee-keeper. 



To begin with, there are two general 

 classes into which those engaged in 

 bee-keeping may be roughly grouped: 



First, those who make the business 

 their vocation — in a word, specialists. 



Second, those who keep a few colo- 

 nies for any secondary consideration; 

 e. g. , recreation, supply of honey for 

 family use, to help piece out a small 

 income, etc. 



From the character of the articles 

 published in the Review, I infer that 

 its members are mainly of the special- 

 ist group, and so will only say in re- 

 ference to the second group that, 

 unless the bee-keeper chances to 

 be a skilled mechanic, who 

 has plenty of time to devote to the 

 pleasurable task of making better hives 

 than can be bought of any supply deal- 



