296 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



EXTRACTING, STORING AND PUTTING 

 UP FOR THE MARKET. 



I extract my own honey when it is 

 nearly all capped; store it upstairs in 

 open, waxed, alcohol barrels. These 

 barrels are on stands sixteen inches 

 high. The honey is drawn off through 

 the largest size molasses gate. I in- 

 sert my gate about two inches from 

 the bottom. I put my honey in from 

 the extractor without straining. Any- 

 thing heavy will settle to the bottom. 

 Light matter will remain on top. I 

 draw off the honey as I need it. When 

 a barrel begins to run thin or dirty, I 

 leave the biilance until the last of the 

 season. All honey is heated from 140 

 to 160 degrees in the old fashioned 

 way, in four enameled kettles, on the 

 kitchen stove. I have two galvanized 

 tanks, holding nine hundred pounds 

 each. I generally use cheese cloth, 

 and, for some hone3s a finer grade of 

 goods for a strainer. This is held 

 over the top with an iron hoop that 

 just fits. From these tanks the honey 

 is also drawn off through a large sized 

 molasses gate, an inch from the bot- 

 tom. The tanks are on stands 18 

 inches high. Platform scales set un- 

 der the gate, a lid is placed on the 

 scales, and the honey weighed right 

 into the tin pails. Quart jars are not 

 weighed. If properly filled they will 

 hold three pounds. The quarts are 

 sold at forty cents. If my own jar is 

 returned at any time I pay five cents 

 for it. I now use white flint jars. By 

 ordering ten gross they cost me $5. per 

 gross at the factory of Ball Bros., at 

 ■ Muncie, Ind. The tin pails are bought 

 from the American Can Co., Chicago, 

 111. The last lot cost me, ten-pound 

 honey pail, at $9.75 per hundred, 

 twenty-pound honey pail, $18.00 per 

 hundred at factory. 



Forty-eight hours after the honey 

 has been heated all air bubbles and 

 foam have come to the top. It then 

 runs fast enough through the gate so 



that I can put up 2,000 pounds in a 



day. 



All my honey is neatly labeled with 



a small label, printed in black, and 



reads as follows: "Choicest Linden 



Honey from the Apiaries of , and 



Choicest Clover Honey." I sell only 



strictly pure, white, clover honey for 



clover. I mix all the way to fift3'^ per 



cent, clover honey with basswood, to 



take away the tartness. I consider 



this the principal point of success in 



my entire honey business. My label 



does not read Strictly pure Linden, but 



"Choicest Linden." 



I create the impression that I pro- 

 duce all honey sold by me, but I do 

 not s-xy so. A party will say: "You 

 must have an awful lot of bees." I 

 answer: "When I get done I will have 

 20,000 pounds of honej'sold. " It is not 

 always wise to tell even the truth, but 

 I make it a point to tell no lies. 



It will cost me nearly one hundred 

 dollars for advertising, stationery and 

 reading matter for 1903; yet, after tak- 

 ing off all expenses, I have the sum of 

 $800 for my own labor and the team, 

 from bees and honey alone. 



I have a thirty-acre farm, and am 

 working into small fruit. I sell the 

 eggs from 120 hens to several honey 

 customers, at a premium of five cents 

 per dozen above wholesale quotations. 

 I sold a load of potatoes to customers 

 at a cent and a half a pound in Octo- 

 ber. It is very easy to sell any good 

 article to a well-pleased\\o\\&y-c\x^iom&r, 

 at a good price. Apparently, the 

 honey puts them in a sweet humor. 

 Young chickens are sold to my cus- 

 tomers. Old hens are sold to the store. 



When I shipped up those bees from 

 New Orleans I took the best combs of 

 brood, and the best young queens from 

 115 colonies, and abandoned the bal- 

 ance. I couldn't sell them at any price. 

 Since then, I understand, some were 

 burned, high water took some, and 

 those that the darkies left were killed 

 out by foul brood. 



West Bend, Wis., Dec. 15, 1903. 



