THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



me that the fellow who attempted to 

 " put up a job " on Mr. Coggshall would 

 better look out. Whether or not my es- 

 timate of his character is correct, he has 

 certainly been shrewd enough to recog- 

 nize that time, or labor, is the most ex- 

 pensive factor that enters into the cost of 

 producing hone3^ Bees cost less than 

 labor; so Mr. Coggshall keeps lots of 

 them ; and then puts into practice all the 

 short cuts and "lightning" methods 

 that his bright brain can devise. To 

 illustrate; if extracting when robbers are 

 troublesome, instead of going to the ex- 

 pense of making a building bee-proof, he 

 goes on with his work regardless of the 

 robbers. Of course, they dive into the 

 extractor and are knocked down into the 

 honey; but they rise to the top, and the 

 honey beneath them can be drawn off free 

 from bees. ' ' Bees are cheaper than 

 tight bviildmgs," says Mr. Cogshall. " I 

 can raise them for fifty cents a colony, 

 and probably not more than a colony is 

 lost in this way. " When he is through 

 extracting, the supers or hives of empty 

 comb are left in the old buildings for the 

 bees to clean up; even if they do have a 

 general melee at it. His apiaries are iso- 

 lated, and if the bees do go on a " tear," 

 no one is injured thereby. Mr. Cogg- 

 shall is one of the fortunate few in this 

 country who have really made quite a 

 little money in bee-keeping. 



I was once talking with Mr. Heddon 

 about the advisability of covering a little 

 spot of ground with a coating of cement, 

 or with something like the asphalt pave- 

 ment for each hive. There would then 

 be no more rotting of hive-stands, and 

 the grass would be kept down. He ex- 

 claimed: " Oh, Hutchinson, we couldn't 

 do anything like that when we are raising 

 ten-cent honey ! " 



Speaking of»ten-cent honey reminds 

 me that my friend Koeppen was in to see 

 me a few days ago. He had been to De- 

 troit to sell some honey, and found that 

 the finest white comb honey could be 

 bought for only ten cents a pound. He 

 said: "Of course, there is a profit in it at 



that figure; but I tell you, a fellow has 

 got to raise a lot at that price to make 

 anything." 



That is the point exactly. The man 

 who makes his fortune in the keeping of 

 bees must now keep a lot of them; scatter 

 them around in out apiaries, and then 

 adopt such implements and methods as 

 will enable him to secure the honey with 

 the least possible labor. It is not a ques- 

 tion of how can I secure the most honey 

 per colony; but, of how can I make tlie 

 greatest profits ? This is the broad sense 

 in which bee-keeping must be viewed if 

 we are to reach the highest commercial 

 success. 



KEEP COMB HONEY UP TO .\ HIGH 

 STANDARD. 



There are two articles in this issue of 

 the Review bearing upon this point. One 

 is by Mr. R. L. Taylor; in which he shows 

 the different thicknesses of different foun- 

 dations after they have been worked by 

 the bees. The other is by Mr. C. G. Fer- 

 ris. This is really a more important sub- 

 ject than many bee-keepers realize. 

 Comb hone}', as built naturally by the 

 bees, is a morsel of unsurpassably delici- 

 ous sweetness. The use of comb founda- 

 tion has enabled bee-keepers to produce 

 more honey — much more — and to pro- 

 duce straight, even combs with less care; 

 but it has robbed honey of some of its 

 deliciousness. For my own eating, I 

 would willingly pay a cent a pound more 

 for honey in which there was no founda- 

 tion. In tha gradual breaking down of 

 those flaky walls of virgin whiteness, there 

 comes to the palate a delicious sweetness 

 and pleasure that is largely absent when 

 a piece of tough, leathery, yellow wax 

 takes the place of those brittle flakes of 

 comb. Not only this, but the cell-walls 

 themselves are often largely made up of 

 the wax that is taken from the founda- 

 tion; and are thus more tough and leath- 

 ery than those built from flakes of virgin 

 wax. I know that I have written before 

 upon this point, but it needs line upon 



