THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 405 



the minute forms of life which accompany it. To maintain this 



equilibrium should be the object of the bee-keeper who wishes to 



avoid heavy losses, and if I were a northern honey producer, and 



endeavoring to carry out the editor's suggestion, I think I would 



buy all colonies from one southern breeder and would engage him 



to raise more for me the following spring. 



Albury, Kerts, England. 



■[One of the points in favor of shipping bees without combs has been the 

 belief that in this way the danger of carrying disease would be eliminated. But 

 Mr. Bullamore says that the Isle of Wight disease has been scattered badly in 

 that very way. If, as mentioned in these columns previously, the Isle of Wight 

 disease has any connection with what we know as paralysis, then we are not 

 entirely safe in shipping bees even without combs. Can any one throw any 

 further light on this question.] 



A Comb Honey Problem. 



BY H. TRICKEY. 



' "Jl ^ your issue of April, 1912, page 129, appears an article by 

 Jjl Fred W. i\Iuth relating to the production of comb honey, stat- 

 ing what he would do were he raising comb honey to ship. 

 As to supplies recommended it is all right, but if he will tell us how 

 he would have the bees store only fancy and number one honey, 

 the bee-keepers will vote three times three rousing cheers as well as 

 the honor of imparting some information long sought for, but not 

 found as yet. 



The bee-keepers, especially of the irrigated sections of the 

 Ignited States, find that the honey that the bees wnll store in the 

 sections that will not pass as fancy and number one, is of too large 

 quantities to be disposed of on the home market. Some of this 

 honey has to be shipped to other markets and returns are very often 

 unsatisfactory. If Mr. Muth would have his heart gladdened as 

 well as the bee-keepers', he will tell them how to manage the bees 

 so that they will only store fancy and No. 1 honey. A rushing big 

 crop is necessary to get the bees to do anything near what Mr. ]^Iuth 

 would have. 



I have been keeping bees for something like twenty-five years 

 and shipped honey by carloads, and as yet I can't get the bees to 

 do as I would like, but only as suits them. 



[I have just finished grading my first hundred cases of comb honey (1912^) 

 crop. The Colorado rules are the ones used and here is the way it is casing out : 

 5 are culls; 35 are No. 2; 50 are Choice; 9 are No. 1 and one is Fancy. Mr. 

 Muth would have a difficult time in finding a location where only Fancy and No. 1 

 honey could be produced. He would buy only 10% of our crop this year if he 

 confined his purchase to the two highest grades. 



Here is one of the greatest charges against the rules with three or four 

 grades — the buyers want only the one or two best grades, leaving the producers 



