THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



19 



THE PROl) UCTION OF COMB 



AND EXTRACTED HONE Y 



IN THE SA ME APIARY. 



G. A. GUEEN. 



(essay read bekoke the north 

 american bke-kkepkrs' society.) 



One of Uie growing tendencies 

 of the times is toward division and 

 specialization in all departments 

 of labor. That this principle is, 

 in the main, correct, there can be 

 little question. As the field of 

 knowledge is widened, or as com- 

 petition is increased, and the strug- 

 gle tor success becomes keener, 

 no man can att'ord to divide his 

 energies and so weaken his powers. 



It has been truly said that there 

 is such a thing as momentum in 

 mind as well as in physics, and 

 that many a man has just missed 

 becoming a great man by splitting 

 into two middling ones. 



In beekeeping, as in other occu- 

 pations, the greatest average suc- 

 cess will be gained by making a 

 specialty of it, even though an oc- 

 casional season, such as that just 

 past, ma^' bear hard on some. Vet 

 this principle may be carried too 

 far. We already have beekeeping 

 as a specialty, divided into the sub 

 specialties of honey-production and 

 the rearing of queens and bees for 

 sale, while some insist that honey 

 production should be divided and 

 a specialty made of either comb or 

 extracted honey. 



Circumstances alter cases. Un- 

 doubtetlly there are places where 

 comb huney cannot be profitably 

 produced, and there are probably 

 other places where it will not pay 

 to produce much extracted honey. 

 In most cases, though, a judicious 

 combination of the two will give 

 the best results. 



In the first place, study your mar- 

 ket. There will be found almost 



everywhere some who will consume 

 large quantities of extracted honey 

 at its lower price, when they would 

 hardly touch tiie more expensive 

 comb honey, 8u[)ply this demand. 

 There are others who will use only 

 a definite amount of honey, whtsther 

 comb or extracted. It is lolly to 

 sell extracted honey to these. This 

 applies almost as well to the whole- 

 sale as to the retail market. 



Comb honey, we all know, is 

 sold largely b}' its appearance. A 

 poor article that looks well will 

 sell better than a good article that 

 look badly. If there is any por- 

 tion of your honey crop that does 

 not look well in sections, secure 

 that portion in the extracted form. 

 With a good market for dark ex- 

 tracted hone}^ it will probably pay 

 to sell all light honey in the comb 

 and all dark honey as extracted. 



You may have some colonies 

 that do not produce nice comb 

 hone}'. Pinch otf the heads of their 

 queens as soon as convenient, but 

 in the meantime take their honey 

 with the extractor. 



Let it be your aim to have every 

 pound of comb honey first-class. 

 Poor extracted honey can be sold 

 for manufacturing purposes, but 

 poor comb honey is hard to sell 

 anywhere, and injures the market 

 for good comb honey. 



It sometimes happens that honey 

 comes in faster than the bees can 

 build comb to store it in. At this 

 time a few cases of empty combs 

 distributed among the best colo- 

 nies will pay an enormous profit. 



The production of extracted 

 honey may be combined with the 

 production of comb honey so as to 

 get rid of much annoyance, ex- 

 pense and loss that is inseparably 

 connected with the sole production 

 of comb honey, and at the same 

 time improve the (juality of all the 

 honey produced. 



To accomplish this result, a large 

 number of extracting combs is 



