1872.J 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



137 



getting honey with that also. Now, to some in- 

 dividuals it makes, perhaps, no difference, 

 whether the honey or brood is stored, but as in 

 my case, having a good supply of drone combs, 

 which are as good as any for storing in honey, 

 and before you are aware of it, you will have 

 the largest part of these combs stored with eggs ; 

 and, now, how are you going to do it to get rid 

 of it? Well, I slung out the honey, and im- 

 mersed the combs in cold spring water for an 

 hour or two, and shook out the water, and there 

 were no drones hatched, but this I can avoid en- 

 tirely by the spreading out process. The queen 

 never troubled me with her drone eggs, if she 

 had enough of worker comb in the centre, and will 

 not ramble all over the comb. I have no doubt 

 by putting a honey board, perforated, between 

 the lower and upper story, to keep the queen 

 below, that a more satisfactory result may be 

 achieved ; but, how could there be anything 

 superior over the spreading out the combs ? I 

 will also add that friend Gallup does not say 

 how he places his entrance, as that is a great 

 deal ; for, if the combs run across the entrance, 

 instead as I have mine, the combs run length- 

 ways, with the entrance on the narrow end of 

 the hive, the bees, if the entrance is by the side 

 of the comb, the queen will occupy only those 

 combs near the entrance, and as I once had it 

 that way, the queen would go no further back 

 in the hive than the fourth comb, having all 

 brood on four, and stores on the other four 

 combs, and bees will, and cannot winter safely 

 in such a hive ; I have found them starved to 

 death with plenty in the hive. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I think I have drawn my yarn 

 quite long enough, and if you get to the end of 

 this, without losing patience, you will have done 

 all I will expect of you, and will say good-bye 

 till some other time, soon. 



Yours faithfully, 



C. "Wuhstek. 



Ontario, Sept. 27, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Extracted Honey, 



Dear Journal. — My experience during the 

 present season still leads me to believe that ex- 

 tracted honey must come down to a low price. 

 I hope I may be mistaken in this prophecy. It 

 may be that as people become acquainted with 

 it, and the method of obtaining it, their fears of 

 adulteration will gradually disappear, and ex- 

 tracted honey will become a staple article of 

 trade. At present, I find it sells better in small 

 country villages than in large towns or cities. I 

 have shown cans of beautiful extracted honey 

 in our large towns, and it was next to impossi- 

 ble to convince the purchasers that it was pure 

 honey. It was called manufactured, doctored, 

 &c. ; and your humble Apiarian was looked 

 upon as a veritable humbug, and I certainly 

 believe, if extracted honey was offered for one- 

 half the price of sugar, the honest beekeepers 

 would be insulted by the epithets of doctors, 



humbug, &c. In small country villages, manu- 

 factured honey has not been sold extensively, as 

 a consequence the buyer is not in fear of adulte- 

 ration, and readily buys if his means permit. 



LABELS. 



I have used several styles of labels on my 

 cans, and have learned by experience to use only 

 those that have the heading, pure honey, printed 

 plainly upon them. Mr. Muth, of Cincinnati, 

 sends out the most elegant labels, but the words, 

 machine extracted, printed thereon, spoils them 

 for my use. The lirst labels I used were headed, 

 pure extracted honey. I soon found extracted 

 had a vague meaning to very many purchasers, 

 and was interpreted into all sorts of ridiculous 

 definitions, all tending strongly to humbug. 

 The printers, who printed them, innocently 

 asked if this new kind of extracted honey was 

 any better than bee honey. Persons disposed 

 to be sarcastic, would remark, that it looked 

 very nice, and "I suppose you extract this 

 houey right out of the posies yourself, what 

 will become of the poor bees?" Another says, 

 in answer to your explanation of the extractor, 

 "Oh, yes! I see you set the hive, bees and all 

 into the machine, and let them spin like Inciter, 

 until the bees become so dizzy they have to let 

 go of their honey, and out it runs. Oh ! what a 

 wonderful invention ; what will they get up 

 next?'' • 



Now this is all very amusing ; and if you find 

 sensible people enough to purchase your honey 

 you can enjoy it, and laugh at the folly of these 

 would-be wise men. I therefore find that labels, 

 headed pure honey, excites less comment than 

 any other style. If honey is to be produced as 

 lavishly in the future as some predict, people 

 must become greater honey-lovers, or new uses 

 must be found for honey, which is not im- 

 pi obable. 



MY EXTRACTOR. 



I do not propose to describe a new-fangled 

 extractor, but wish to state how my comb sup- 

 ports, used in my extractors, are constructed. 

 In a former communication, I explained the 

 difficulties I had with a fine wire cloth support. 

 I have this season used a support made with 

 strips of tin, doubled lengthwise, and set in the 

 frame perpendicularly, one inch apart, with no 

 wire cloth about it. The spaces between the 

 tins give the honey the utmost freedom to flow 

 from the cells, and new comb is supported as 

 well as old. If any of your readers are about 

 to construct a machine, my advice is to throw 

 aside all wire cloth, and substitute the tins. If 

 the tins are required very long, it would be well 

 to support them in the middle. 



NOVICE. 



"Novice" will please explain his metal cor- 

 ners. When these corners are attached to a 

 frame, the projections are much too long for the 

 rabbet. Have we got to cut them off? If so, 

 why are they not made the right length at first ? 

 The rabbets are about one- fourth of an inch, the 

 projections nearly an inch. Please explain. 



Scientific. 



