130 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that the bees' body has hollows in it, not 

 filled with anything but air or if he chooiies 

 not even air, and also that birds have hol- 

 low bones and feathers. This latter is not 

 peculiar to birds. Animals have hollow 

 bones where great strength is not needed 

 and because nature does not put material 

 where it is of no use. Now if these hollows 

 in bees or birds have no air in them before 

 they fly, how can they make them lighter 

 by putting air into them. That would 

 make them heavier. If these hollows have 

 air in them, that air is at about the same 

 temperature as their bodies. If they could 

 make it warmer it would be no lighter un- 

 less they could expel some of it and thus 

 make a partial vacuum. But they cannot 

 make it warmer and therefore cannot expel 

 it. They might press more air in but that 

 would make their bodies heavier. — In short, 

 bees or birds have no power to make their 

 bodies lighter or heavier at will. I think 

 Mr. Adair cannot properly call his supposi- 

 tion a settled fact. W. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Extractor versus Honey Boxes. 



A great many experienced apiarians are 

 advocating the exclusive use of the extract- 

 or for obtaining surplus honey, speaking of 

 boxes (with them) as things of the past and 

 looking upon those who use them as inclin- 

 ed to " old fogyism." 



In this age of the 19th century, progress 

 and improvement are the watchwords ; are 

 we not then a little too much inclined to go 

 after things of the "new idea" order — 

 throwing up our hats every time we hear of 

 anything in bee-culture which strikes us 

 as being a deviation from the old path — 

 running our apiaries upon windmill princi- 

 ples — talking about barrels and hogsheads 

 of honey to be secured the coming season 

 in spite of drouth or storm, when in fact 

 our stocks are daily diminishing in num- 

 bers, and it is only by exercising the great- 

 est vigilance that we can prevent the native 

 blacks from running out our pet Italians. 



That the extractor is an indispensable 

 article in a well managed apiary, probably 

 all acquainted with its working will admit; 

 but that beautiful comb honey is to be 

 supplanted by the extracted article will 

 only take place when the eye hath lost its 

 admiration for beauty, a-nd fancy and style 

 have nothing to do with the sale of this 

 staple luxury. 



So long as the idea of crushed bees and 

 other imiHirities is connected with the sight 

 of strained honey, just so long will that 

 put up in fancy boxes continue to com- 

 mand the higher price. 



Were all honey raisers the coming season 

 to run their ajnaries exclusively for extract- 

 ed honey, and the season be as good as was 



' the past, I fear our markets would be glut- 

 ted and the crop find, at wholesale, a price 

 but little above that of ordinary strained. 

 Tlie low price at which it was quoted the 

 past fall and winter in the principal places 

 ' of consumption throughout the country I 

 think will bear me out in making this pre- 

 I diction. 



While honey in glass boxes in New York 

 was quoted at from 30 to 35 cents a pound, 

 wholesale ; extracted and strained was only 

 put down at from 12 to 15 cents a pound. 

 To be sure we sometimes get a better price 

 for it when put up in jars, but how are we 

 to keep it from hardening ? In the lan- 

 guage of D. W. Quinby, commission mer- 

 chant, handling large quantities of honey, 

 and brother to M. Quinby, "it soon 

 candies, looks like lard and don't sell." I 

 have a doubt as to whether these advocates 

 of the slinger theory believe they obtain as 

 nice an article by using the extractor, as 

 that stored away, evaporated and sealed by 

 the bees themselves. Has it the luscious 

 richness to the taste ? I have heard good 

 judges of honey say it has not. 



For example, take from the box a flake 

 of white comb honey built just the right 

 size to fit a small plate, and it is of itself 

 an ornament even to the table of the rich 

 and will tempt the palate of an epicure. 

 Slice that comb up into small squares to be 

 passed to each individual, and can anything 

 in the shape of liquid honey excel, or even 

 compare with that which drains into the 

 bottom of the dish from the severed cells- 

 clear as water from the limpid spring — 

 aromatic as the flowers from whicli it was 

 culled — tempting to both eye and taste and 

 pure as ever are the unadulterated pro- 

 ductions from natures laboratory. 



The symmetrical beauty in the structure 

 of the comb, each tiny cell a perfect hexa- 

 gon and solving a mathematical problem 

 in Euclid, furnishes a subject for conversa- 

 tion, and all are ready to praise the indus- 

 try of the little bee endowed with such 

 wonderful instinpt. No wonder the old 

 poets sang to its praise ; for the product 

 of its labors furnished an article of export 

 from the islands of the Mediterranean to an 

 extent beyond anything we hear of in these 

 modern times of imported queens and 

 honey slingers. 



I do not make these comparisons in a 

 fault-finding spirit, but merely to look the 

 subject square in the face without ignoring 

 what others have done before us. 



For the past few winters bee-keepers 

 have had a serious difficulty to contend 

 with and I fear the advantage gained in 

 building up swarms by the use of the 

 movable-comb frame is more than offset 

 by disastrous losses in wintering, and a 

 close canvas would probably show that in 

 the United Stales there is not more than 



