THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



159 



tion at once pleasant and profitable. The 

 results accruing to any method are the 

 safest and surest test of its utility; and 

 we would ask, have they verified the pre- 

 diction referred to above ? Is not bee-keep- 

 ing more hazardous and less remunera- 

 tive tVday as a pursuit than at any time 

 within the last twenty-five years? 



It is not necessary to enumerate the 

 evil consequences which have attended 

 the use of the honey extractor on an ex- 

 tensive scale in the production of surplus 

 honey, as they must be patent to all. The 

 vast amounts of raw, unripened extracted 

 honey, together with the sugar and glu- 

 cose that is sold for honey, having nearly 

 ruined the sale of the liquid article and 

 lessened the price of all honey, there re- 

 mains but one alternative that will give 

 us any permanent relief; viz., to secure 

 our surplus in ihe comb in such a man- 

 ner that it will command a ready sale at 

 a fair price. To secure this end it must 

 be stored in neat and attractive packages, 

 holding from two and one-half to four 

 pounds, gross weight. The glass box, 

 weighing two and a half pounds, we 

 have found to be much the most profita- 

 ble, since we have been able to secure 

 just as many pounds of honey, as by rais- 

 ing the larger sized packages. When it 

 shall become generally known that just 

 as many pounds of comb honey can be 

 obtained in any season, in small glass 

 boxes, as can be secured in liquid form 

 with an extractor, it seems to us that our 

 honey extractors will go out of general 

 use. We are often asked this question : 

 "Is not an extractor a necessary adjunct 

 in an apiary, when run to box honey?" 

 We can conceive of no possible use for it, 

 except to empty combs from hives in 

 which the bees have died in winter. One 

 hundred swarms that are run to extracted 

 honey, will keep an apiarist busy for four 

 months of the year to produce the honey, 

 and six more to sell it ; while three times 

 that number can be run to the little box- 

 es with less labor in the production, and 

 not more than one-sixth the labor is re- 

 quired for marketing it. Such at least is 

 our own experience, and we have tested 

 both systems pretty thoroughly. To insure 

 this most desirable result, the shallow 

 frame of not more than eightand one-half 

 inches in depth, the small hive 1500 (or 

 less) cubic inches capacity, and prolific 

 Italian queens, are indispensable requi- 

 sites. 



The depression certainly has induced 

 us to study and investigate its causes and 

 cure, to scan more closely the basis of 

 our past efforts and the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of our present system. And more 

 than all, it has enabled us to comprehend 

 one simple fact hitherto entirely over- 

 looked, that honey production is the 

 foundation and ultimate end of all bee- 

 keeping. Realizing the importance of 



this fact to some extent, the Michigan 

 Bee-keepers' Association devoted a por- 

 tion of their recent annual session at 

 Kalamazoo, to the consideration of this 

 subject. The great cry has been, "every 

 body should keep bees because there is a 

 mine of wealth in it, and little capital 

 and less labor is required to obtain it than 

 in any other pursuit." True, most of 

 these statements are made by parties who 

 are interested in swelling the ranks of 

 agriculturists, hoping they would become 

 patrons of their wares — "apiarian sup- 

 plies." The result is that hundreds and 

 thousands of pounds of honey is begging 

 for a purchaser to-day, at a price below 

 the cost of producing it. Now the posi- 

 tion we take in this matter of roping new 

 recruits into the business is simply this: 

 give a fair and candid statement in re- 

 gard to our present circumstances and 

 future prospects; tell the world that our 

 bees die in winter; that we secure a limit- 

 ed supply of surplus honey quite as of- 

 ten as we do a bountiful yield; that honey 

 is fast getting to be an unsalable article; 

 that it requires pluck, perseverence, great 

 energy and skill, and no small amount of 

 capital to make bee-keeping even a mod- 

 erate success, and having told the plain 

 truth leave every person to choose for 

 himself. Herbert A. Burch. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Distance of Combs from Centre to 

 Centre. 



As there seem to be various opinions 

 on this subject, I will give the result of 

 my experience and observations. 1 once 

 saw the question asked in the Bee Keeper''s 

 Magazine, " What is the exact distance re- 

 quired from centre to centre of combs ?" 

 The answer was 1 7-16 in. I then suppos- 

 ed that there must be a uniform distance 

 that bees would build their combs in a 

 box, hive or tree, or any other place where 

 they were allowed to superintend their 

 own business, and that any deviation from 

 that rule would intefere with their pros- 

 perity; and yet I wondered how a bee 

 keeper could be so exact as to adjust the 

 combs to the exact 1-16 of an inch every 

 time they were taken out and replaced, or 

 put into another hive, without using a rule 

 to measure them every time. I knew this 

 was not done, and yet I knew there were 

 many successful apiarists. Some writers 

 still advocate the same distance of 1 7-16 

 in. A. Benedict wrote an article in the 

 American Bee Joiirnal for November 

 1875, in which he stated: " In building 

 combs bees make them a certain distance 

 apart and they should be kept frame to 

 frame just as the bees construct them." 

 Now if this gentleman has guide bars in his 

 frames, and will put a set of frames into a 

 hive at various distances apart, not going 



