come out to have a " finger in the pie," 

 too, and, as there are but tew drones 

 flying at this part of the day, your 

 chances for purely mated queens are 

 ten-fold greater, and, too, with drones 

 reared from the most prolific queens. 

 whose bees are the hardest workers. 

 This plan followed up day after day till 

 all the young queens are mated will 

 well repay all extra trouble in bringing 

 it about. 

 Oquawka, 111. 



From the Western ARriculturist. 



Comb or Extracted Honey, Which ? 



c. P. DAD A XT. 



The decision of this question depends 

 considerably on the amount of care that 

 a bee-keeper can bestow on his bees, 

 and also on the market that he can 

 reach ; but we will try and solve it from 

 a general point of view, and with a con- 

 sideration of markets in general and 

 also of future prospects. 



The main advantage of comb honey 

 is the less amount of time it takes to 

 harvest it. and the greater facility with 

 which it is sold when it is once brought 

 on the market. But there are many 

 drawl lacks to this. 



Comb honey can never be raised in as 

 large quantities as extracted, from the 

 fact that it takes all the comb away 

 from the bees, and forces them to build 

 up their combs at a time when they 

 should be busy in the flower fields. It 

 takes not only time, but also honey, for 

 bee-keepers are aware that in the pro- 

 duction of each pound of wax about 15 

 lbs. of honey are used. Of course, comb 

 foundation" remedies this to a certain 

 extent, but it nevertheless leaves the 

 bees with a great deal of work, since 

 foundation only furnishes the base and 

 material for cells. Extracting, on the 

 other hand, allows the bee-keeper to re- 

 turn all the comb after emptying it, so 

 thai the work of building comb is no 

 longer required, and these extracted 

 combs can be used over and over for 

 years. 



Moreover, it is only the white and 

 choice comb honey that can be sold to 

 advantage, for if any comb is dark from 

 the presence of pollen, or through hav- 

 ing contained brood, or if it is bruised 

 or injured in anyway, it becomes of less 

 value than the honey that could be ex- 

 tracted out of it. The very darkest or 

 ugliest comb will furnish just as nice 

 extracted honey as the very best, and 

 pollen or other impurities will never be 

 found in extracted honey. 



There is still another great disadvan- 



tage in comb honey, and that is the dif- 

 ficulty of transporting it without break- 

 ing. There is nothing more easily 

 injured than this by rough handling. 

 and when choice comb honey is shipped 

 to any distance there usually is consid- 

 erable loss through leakage. This is to 

 us the greatest stumbling block in the 

 production of comb honey, and we find 

 that even could we get % more for comb 

 honey than for extracted the latter 

 would still pay best. 



There is now, however, quite a pref- 

 erence on most markets in favor of 

 comb honey. This arises mainly from 

 the fact that the strained honey of old 

 was of very poor quality, being gener- 

 ally made from the residue of the very 

 lowest grades of honey, and pressed or 

 strained out of the comb with a mix- 

 ture of pollen and often dead bees. 

 The consumers have hardly yet become 

 aware of the great difference between 

 strained and extracted honey. We find 

 in our experience of selling honey that 

 wherever the consumers become ac- 

 quainted with the fact that extracted 

 honey is as good as the best honey with- 

 out the wax, they ask for nothing but 

 extracted honey. In Keokuk, where 

 we sold extracted honey for the past 10 

 years, the price is now about on a level 

 with that of comb honey, and we fore- 

 see the clay when it will command a bet- 

 ter price than comb honey. Our advice 

 therefore is, raise ext raided honey in 

 preference to comb. We sold lo.OOOlbs. 

 of extracted honey the past season. 



Hamilton, 111. 



From the Rural New Yorker. 



When and How to Feed Bees. 



J. G. BINGHAM. 



There are bee-keepers who say : " Bet- 

 ter keep no bees than feed them !" There 

 are others who think they have done 

 enough if, once a year, when the time 

 of greatest need comes, they remember 

 these little creatures with a small por- 

 tion of honey, or sweetened water, or a 

 piece of candy. But there are also 

 some bee-culturists in the world— and, 

 thanks to the spirit of progress, their 

 number is increasing — who feed during 

 the whole year; that is, whenever it 

 maybe deemed advisable as a matter of 

 profit. Brimstoning bees, and really 

 robbing them of their honey, and se- 

 curing large yields in good seasons, can- 

 not be termed scientific bee-culture. 

 On the other hand, wintering bees suc- 

 cessfully, and, in order to secure a sur- 

 plus during poor seasons, such as last 

 year, decreasing the number of colo- 



