1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAI.. 



675 



Producing Only Extracted Honey— Other 

 Comments. 



BY KDWIN T5EVINS. 



It was only a little while ago I bade the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal good-bye for 20 years. The serious 

 charge brought by Mr. Tyrrell, that my practice does not 

 correspond with my preaching, Is my excuse for breaking the 

 silence so soon. The atrocious crime of inconsistency I shall 

 neither attempt to palliate nor deny. Like Rev. Emerson T. 

 Abbott, I am not wasting any time in trying to be consistent. 

 That one's practice does not always correspond with his 

 preaching is no new thing under the sun. Is it not the Chris- 

 tian's daily confession and lament, that he has done many 

 things that he ought not to have done, and left undone many 

 things that he ought to have done ? 



For Mr. Tyrrell's and everybody's information I will say 

 that I am a comb honey producer. I am also a producer of 

 extracted honey. Hence, my opinion owjhi to have some 

 value, whether it has or not. While adhering to my opinion 

 that extracted honey ought to be the only kind of honey pro- 

 duced, I am not unmindful of the fact that until some condi- 

 tions are changed that ought not to exist, it may be unwise 

 for all the beekeepers of all the world to go into the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey. For instance, California honey, and 

 the honey of some other places, ought not to be put on the 

 market at the price of wheel-grease; but it is. 



The honey adulterator ought not to be so numerous and 

 so active as to cause everybody who eats extracted honey to 

 have a suspicion that he is also eating something else not 

 quite so good; but he is. Then honey-eaters ought not to be 

 so devoid of something ([ do not care to name) as to eat their 

 honey with the comb, instead of eating it without the comb; 

 but they are. The millennium is not here, and is not any- 

 where in sight, and until it arrives it may be prudent for some 

 folks to keep on rais — (beg pardon) producing comb honey. If 

 it gets around in my day, I will stop rais — (beg pardon, again) 

 producing comb honey. 



Mr. Tyrrell, it seems, has fallen in with my notion about 

 producing all extracted honey, as he says that he has decided 

 to work that way in the future. He may find satisfaction in 

 the use of S-frame Langstroth hives tiered up for the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey, but sooner than use all of that kind 

 myself for that purpose, I think I would kick them into the 

 middle of next week. My extractor will take two Langstroth 

 or two Quinby frames, or four frames as long as the Quinby 

 and six inches deep ; and of all the frames I have ever ex- 

 tracted from, I like the six-inch frames the best, whether of 

 Langstroth or Quinby length. I will make them for all the 

 hives I use for extracted honey. Some frames, I notice, are 

 sent out to be used in supers made to take ii-ixil^ sections. 

 In my very early boyhood days I sometimes fisht for brook 

 trout with a bent pin for a hook. This was because I had not 

 a penny to buy a fish-hook, and I did not know how to make 

 one. I am not fishing for trout any more with crooked pins. 



There are one or two considerations that might lead me 

 to an extended use of the 8-frame Langstroth, or, what is 

 about the same thing, the S-frame dovetailed hive. If I were 

 rearing bees to sell it is likely I would use them. Again, if I 

 wanted to make a rapid increase of colonies in hives of stan- 



dard depth and length, I would use them. Brood can be 

 found in the upper stories of these 8-frame hives at almost 

 any time from May to October, but it is uncertain about find- 

 ing it in hives taking more or deeper frames. This brood in 

 the upper stories affords a safe, rapid and easy means of in- 

 crease without the vexation and uncertainty of natural 

 swarming. 



Early in September I received two queens from Eastern 

 breeders. I had not made much preparation for introducing 

 them. On looking around I found two or three frames con- 

 taining brood in each of two of these upper stories. Then I 

 slipt a queen-excluder between the upper and lower stories, 

 brusht all the bees from the combs in the upper stories, and 

 when the combs were peopled with bees, I brusht the bees 

 into the nucleus-box and introduced the queens by Doolitte's 

 caged-bees plan. The frames of brood and honey were used 

 to hive the bees on. This is a work that can be often repeated 

 all through the summer season ; and if anybody has lost as 

 many queens as I have in introducing, he will thank Doolittle 

 a thousand times for his caged-bees plan. 



But to return to Mr. Tyrrell. I am not going to get out 

 any writ of injunction to restrain him from using the 8- 

 frame Langstroth hive, and as many of them as he wants to. 



Allow me to say to Dr. Miller that I make most of my 

 hives now with Js-inch strips attacht to the bottom-boards, 

 and that I have razed some that had entrances cut in the hive- 

 ttodies. 



A CRITICLSM ON HIVE VENTILATION. 



I want to be allowed to find a little fault with the way 

 Mr. Tyrrell ventilates his hives. He says he does it by raising 

 the back end about f^ of an inch or an inch. If I raised but 

 one end of the hive I would raise the front end. If 1 were to 

 raise the back end at all I would raise the front end just as 

 much. With some hives, in some situations, raising one end 

 is enough. Other hives need raising all around. The bees 

 come and go with greater comfort and freedom when they 

 have plenty of room at the front. When the back end only is 

 raised it seems to me that a good many bees loaf around the 

 gap to enjoy themselves. 



And now, my friends, good-bye for 19 years and about 11 

 months, unless somebody brings against me some more serious 

 complaint than that my preaching and my practice are not in 

 harmony with each other. It is needless to say that this is not 

 Chapter I of my new book — " A Fool's Errand ; or The Mys- 

 teries and Miseries of Bee-Keeping." 



DEACON ON COMB FOUNDATION. 



Since writing the above I have read Mr. Deacon's article 

 on "Comb Foundation," and I feel constrained to break that 

 awful silence of 19 years and about 11 months. 



After reading Mr. Deacon's savage attack on the use of 

 comb foundation, " Pennsylvania's " still more savage attack 

 on the bee-space, and Mr. Simmins' mild condemnation of the 

 bee-escape, I began to suspect that modern bee-keeping is all 

 a mistake, and felt like saying. Let us all go back to the use 

 of the box-hive and the log-gum. Since then I have gathered 

 up my courage and have resolved to keep right on using comb 

 foundation, and a good deal of it. The bee-space will con- 

 tinue to do business in my hives, and I shall use more bee- 

 escapes next year than this. 



■ Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 

 From its firm base as soon as I." 



Mr. Deacon's positive assertion that comb foundation Is 

 only the septum or base of the completed comb is so much at 

 variance with everything that I have heretofore read on the 

 subject that I believe I may be excused for asking for further 

 proof. I believe that Mr. Deacon is himself not quite satis- 

 fied that he is right. He does not say that he has experi- 

 mented in a way to convince him of the truth of what he 



