98 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feh. 18, 



furnish seed. Timothy seed, being about the same size as the 

 Alsike, fcannot very well be separated from it ; but with red 

 clover, a fine sieve will quickly do the work. 



Having often dug up specimen roots of both Alsike and 

 the common red clover for comparison and exhibition, the 

 difference in the size of the crowns and the quantity of roots 

 seems to be decidedly in favor of the Alsike. 



Having now grown Alsike on a variety of soils for the past 

 20 years with success, I know that these are facts, and not 

 theories. 



In 1886, Hon. M. Anderson, of Wisconsin, had 80 acres 

 of Alsike — 20 acres harvested gave 110 bushels of seed and 

 25 tons of good hay. M. M. Baldridge. 



[Mr. Orville Jones, of Ingham Co., Mich., sent us the fol- 

 lowing, dated Feb. 5, in which he also refers to white clover. 

 — Editor.] 



As it is getting near the time of year to sow Alsike clover 

 seed, I will try to tell how I manage it. 



It must be remembered, however, that Michigan is a great 

 grass country, and that Alsike or white clover will not thrive 

 on high, sandy soil. To get a good catch, we must first select 

 a field or soil that is adapted to it, namely, a low, black soil, 

 or a high, level piece of clay gives best results. This also 

 applies to white clover. I have raised or grown these clovers 

 for years for my bees, and of course for hay as well, and have 

 never failed in getting the ground covered with plants. I 

 usually sow white or Alsike clover in with oats in the spring, 

 sowing about 2^ quarts of the latter, and two quarts of the 

 former per acre. It should be placed in the drill, or you will 

 have to go over the piece with a light harrow to cover all the 

 seed. 



Now, If you desire to sow with winter wheat, the best 

 time to sow is in the latter part of March or the first of April 

 (in this latitude), when the ground is frozen just enough to 

 make it comby. Now throw on the seed, and when the ground 

 thaws out the clover seed will be covered nicely, and waiting 

 for warm weather to germinate it. 



I wonder if Mr. Richter (page 46) is not doing some guess- 

 ing, as well as Dr. Miller, when he says one-third of 40 

 pounds is seed enough for an acre. In sowing white or Alsike 

 clover for honey alone, there is one thing to be remembered, 

 and that is, in not getting the plants too thick, as the more 

 they spread the more blossoms there will be, hence the longer 

 the honey-flow. 



Bees are wintering well here. Orville Jones. 



[For seed rates on beth of these honey-clovers, see page 

 107 of this number of the Bee Journal. — Editor.] 



Comb Honey vs. Extracted — Comparative Cost. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



In my former article on this topic (see page 17) I discust 

 the question as to how much extracted could be produced more 

 than comb. Now we consider the cost of the products to de- 

 termine which is the more profitable. 



The first outlay for bees and honey-house for either will 

 be about the same. By consulting Root's price-list I find that 

 he quotes comb honey and extracted honey hives just the 

 same. Counting then the cost of bees, hives and house, there 

 is no difference thus far. Let us count the cost of producing 

 comb honey aside from yard work : 2,000 sections at $3.00 

 — $6.00; full sheets of foundation for same — 2() pounds at 

 60 cents — .$12.00 ; a hand to fold sections and put in founda- 

 tion, one day, $2.00 ; 84 shipping-cases, ready nailed, at 20 

 cents each — .$16.80 ; cleaning and casing the honey, two days 

 at .$2.00 — $4.00. Total cost for sections, foundation, cases, 

 and all labor clast as shop or inside work — .$41). 80. 



Now let us consider the same part of cost of extracted. 

 Combs are in the nature of a permanent investment so I will 

 leave them to go into that part of the estimate. Uncapping 

 and extracting 2,(.)00 pounds, 2 men one day — $4.00; 17 

 boxes of 60 pound cans, at 75 cents per box — $12.75 ; .b 

 hours' labor running honey Into cans, at 20 cents — $1.0(i. 

 Total, $17.75. 



Now the outside or yard work : It will require 84 supers 

 to hold this amount of honey, either comb or extracted, unless 

 full-depth bodies are used for extracting, when only about 40 

 extras would bo needed. I will assume that the preparatory 

 work — getting colonies ready to receive extras — is about equal. 

 There cannot bo much difference. The hives once ready it re- 

 quires very little lime to put on the extras, and here again the 

 difference Is so slight that we will call it even. This practi- 

 cally brings us to the taking off the honey. 



There is a number of plans or methods of removing sur- 

 plus. If it is done by the use of escapes, we may again bal- 

 ance labor, for there can be but little difference. If brushing 

 is to be practiced, the difference would be a little in favor of 

 comb. I consider either of these methods as too slow, too ex- 

 pensive, and altogether unnecessary for an apiarist. A farm- 

 er with a few colonies to supply his own table may well make 

 use of the escape ; but the apiarist — though apiculture be not 

 his sole occupation--should by all means have a honey-room. 

 If he does not have such a room separate and into which he 

 can carry bees and honey and have proper window-escapes, he 

 should have a very cheap bit of room in the yard, and absolute- 

 ly bee-proof, and window-escapes. I consider this the way, 

 and have so practiced in a wholesale way. To remove the 

 honey — either comb or extracted — I first smoke down the bees 

 by shooting smoke in and above and keep them going like a 

 flock of sheep, and quickly remove the super, and if a grass 

 yard, swipe the bottom on the grass; but if no grass I use a 

 great, big grass-brush and swipe this over the bottom. I then 

 carry the super to the house and let the bees pass out through 

 the window-escape. 



Since the foregoing is the better one I shall make my cal- 

 culations upon that method. To remove the surplus in this 

 manner we can again balance the labor, for it means about 

 the same in either case, though if deep extracting-supers are 

 used more bees will be carried to the house than with sections, 

 and the more uncapt honey, the more bees will remain with it. 

 This covers the yard work ; and, all things considered, we may 

 say the difference in labor is scarcely worth noting. 



The question of swarming, however, comes up. Many 

 will say that when extracted honey is produced, swarming is 

 but little trouble. I know that it is possible to get fair results 

 and very little swarming when working for extracted ; but if 

 the methods to discourage swarming are pusht far enough to 

 make it practical, the additional expense to make it a success 

 for comb, or to stay with them to care for swarms, is not very 

 great. However, it does take some more care, skill and ex- 

 pense in the yard-work to produce comb ; but I propose to bal- 

 ance this against the fact that the extracting must be done at 

 once, while the sections once in the house they can wait till 

 the rush is over to receive further attention. I can get into 

 the house either comb or extracted honey with about the same 

 time and labor ; but the extracted must be thrown out while 

 warm, and while extracting we might be doing other yard 

 work. Considering, then, that comb necessitates some more 

 labor because of an increast tendency to swarming, and that 

 the extracted demands care (extracting) immediately after be- 

 ing removed from the hive while comb will wait for a slack 

 time for cleaning. I must again balance the one against the 

 other. 



Now let us consider the cost of marketing. We left the 

 comb honey in shipping-cases and the extracted in 60-pound 

 cans. The comb is ready for either retail or wholesale — the 

 extracted ready only for wholesale. Comb honey usually goes 

 at first-class freight, extracted at second or third class. If 

 comb goes at .$1.00, extracted will go at about 75 cents, or 

 )4, cent more on the comb. 



We took as a basis one ton of honey. We are not endeav- 

 oring to get at the actual cost, but the comparative. Where 

 we could balance one thing against another — or cancel com- 

 mon factors — we have done so. We have figured the ton of 

 comb, aside from common factors, at $40.80, and extracted 

 at $17. 75 — a difference of about 1 '4 cents per pound more 

 than the comb would cost. If you ship a distance costing 

 $1.00 per 100 pounds, there would be about }^ cent more. 

 Let us then say a difference of l}i cents. 



There is yet in the matter some uncounted cost. The 

 production of extracted requires an investment in fixtures or 

 plant that is not in a comb-honey plant. For comb honey we 

 need a section-folder — Root lists the Hubbard at .$2.50; also 

 a foundation fastener at .$1.00 — I prefer a combined machine 

 worth about .$,3.00. These machines of various makes cost 

 all the way up to about .$5.00. Root also lists uncapping- 

 knivesat70 cents, and uncapping-cans at ,$7.00. Now, I 

 am going to give the extracted product an advantage here, 

 and "factor out " these items. This covers the comb-honey 

 outfit, but there is needed for extracting, an extractor, ex- 

 tracting-combs, strainers, buckets, etc. Extractors are listed 

 at from .$7.00 to .$20 — we will say .$10 for an extractor; 

 large settling-tank (cheap) at $5.00 ; buckets, strainers, etc., 

 $3.00 total, $18. 



Now for extractlng-comb.a : Wo have counted to hold the 

 2,000 pounds in sections, 84 twenty-four section supers, so 

 we will count 42 full-depth extracting-supers and 7 frames 

 each, or 294 frames. It will cost about 8 to 10 cents per 

 frame for foundation. According to Root's list they wire and 

 (ill frames with thin foundation at $10 per hundred. Whether 



