THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



error. The season here has been rather 

 an unfavorable one — and most Apiarists 

 divided their bees early, anil the poor sea- 

 son coming on just before the time for 

 storing surplus; the result was that when 

 the seasiHi did come for storing surplus 

 honey, the bees were not in condition to 

 store, and failure was the result. The 

 plan I described in the Sept. No., I think 

 far the best. That of waiting until the 

 best of the season for surplus, building 

 the bees up in the meantime, then remove 

 the queen with two frames of capped 

 brood and a few bees, to a new hive. Then 

 I would add I think "Novice's" lamp nur- 

 sery would come in nicely and the bees 

 would be helped along considerably, by 

 slipping a young queen into the entrance 

 of the <)ld hive. As I stated before, the 

 bees would not miss the loss of the two 

 combs, and while the hive was without a 

 laj'ing queen the bees would store much 

 more surplus than while they had one. 

 Besides the old queen with the two combs 

 would very soon be in a condition to 

 build comb and will soon strengthen up 

 to a full sized colony. The old queen's 

 wing should always be clipped. 



If honey is desired as well as increase, I 

 think the above plan much preferable to 

 "Novice's" plan of giving the new queen 

 to the new swarm or nucleus. 1 have 

 never tried the "Lamp nursery" — T alwaj^s 

 introduce a cell, think I shall try the nur- 

 sery the coming season. 



Wishing all eastern brethren success in 

 wintering, I am as ever, Amateur. 



Anaheim, Cal., Oct. 8th, 1875. 



For the American Bue Journal 



Extracted Honey. 



In the last number of the Journal we 

 see that some bee-keepers, and more es- 

 pecially, Messrs. J. Heddon and H. A. 

 Burch, are strongly opposed to the pro- 

 duction of exiracted hone\'. In fact, from 

 what they say, the beginner in apicul- 

 ture would infer that the production of 

 extracted honey is a real curse for the 

 practical bee-keeper. 



It may be, that in some localities the 

 extracted honey is of slow sale, especially 

 when it it is not known; but wherever 

 the people become accustomed to using it, 

 it soon becomes a readily salable article. 



We have been using the honej' extractor 

 every season, regularly, ever since it first 

 made its appearance before the bee-keep- 

 ers of the world, and to-day we prize it 

 more than ever. When we first offered 

 our extracted honey for sale, we sold but 

 little of it, for the American consumers 

 were not accustomed to it, and in the sea- 

 sons of '68 and '69 we did not sell more 

 than <j00 lbs. of it, around us. Now we 

 sell over 2000 lbs. of honey right around 

 home. Why is that? — Because we have 



created a market for it; because it has 

 given satisfaction. 



We have never had much difficulty in 

 getting rid of our extracted honey, at 

 prices ranging between 13 and 18 cents. 

 We would much rather produce extracted 

 honey than comb-honey; 1st, because we 

 can produce more of it; 2d, because it is 

 more easily transported. 



We cannot agree with Mr. Burch when 

 he says, that honey is essentially a luxu- 

 ry. Honey has been a luxury as long as 

 consumers could not get it at reasonable 

 prices; but now, wherever good extracted 

 honey is retailed by the producer at 15 

 cents per lb., it is becoming a staple arti- 

 cle of diet. Wax is indigestible, therefore 

 unfit for food, and this is the reason why 

 good extracted honey will always be more 

 likelj^ to become a customary article of 

 diet than the fancy comb-honey. 



If the discussion of the adulteration of 

 honey, has, in any way lessened the de- 

 mand, it has lessened only the demand 

 for adulterated honey, and has increased 

 that for the real genuine, granulated 

 article. 



Mr. J. Heddon says that he believes 

 that the extractor has kept us in igno- 

 rance of the true principles of comb-sur- 

 plus production. He might more truly 

 speak, if he said so of himself alone; tor 

 he should remember that there was a 

 time when the extractor did not exist, and 

 of course, at that time we had quite a 

 chance to test the true principles of comb- 

 surplus production. 



Let Mr. Heddon test and ascertain the 

 true principles of comb-surplus produc- 

 tion. We will tell him beforehand, that 

 we have tested them long ago, and that 

 we found that the production of extracted 

 honey was much more profitable than that 

 of comb-honey. 



In hunting among the back volumes of 

 the old Am. B. J. we find an article from 

 Mr. Heddon, (vol. 6, page 159,) in which 

 Mr. Heddon shows that he likes theory. 

 Let us, then, give him some theory on the 

 subject of the extractor. 



All, or nearly all, the most renowned 

 writers on bee-culture agree that wax costs 

 to the bees between 10 and fifteen pounds 

 of honey for each pound of wax secreted. 

 Taking'it for granted, then, that the combs 

 cost to the bees such a large quantity of 

 honey, the reader will at once see what ad- 

 vantage there is in returning the combs to 

 the bees. But this is not all. By the pro- 

 duction of comb-honey, the bee-keeper 

 keeps no empty combs for his bees to fill, 

 and when the season begins they have to 

 build their surplus combs anew. In so 

 doing there is a great loss of time, for if, 

 when the honey crop begins, they have no 

 empty cells at their disposal, they iiave to 

 remain idle until enough wax is secreted 

 to manufacture some combs. Besides, es- 

 pecially with the Italian bees, when the 



