708 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 11, 



ter can expand or contract as the weather changes, without a 

 bee having to go over, under, or around a frame ; and if there 

 is anything in this hive, this is the main point. 



The extracting surplus case is just the same as one of the 

 halves of the brood department. The frames are interchange- 

 able, and are \\ inches from the floor, but the bees can get 

 on them without going to the sides or the back end. The 

 body can be reverst bottom up without disturbing a bee, and 

 Is just the same either way. The frames are self-spacing, but 

 not the Hoffman, for, like B. F. Lewis, on page 565, " I want 

 no more Hoffman frames in mine." The body can be turned 

 either side to the front, it comes just the same. One of the 

 halves of the body, or a surplus extracting-case, can be used 

 to put a swarm in as a contractor. But the proof of the pud- 

 ding is in the eating of it. This time next year I can tell how 

 good or how bad it is, and I will let you know, if we are both 

 still alive. Lancaster Co., Pa. 



Honey-Production on the Island of Cuba. 



Br O. O. POPPLETON. 



On first page of the Bee Journal for Oct. 21, Mr. Muth in 

 reply to a question from " California," gives some figures in 

 regard to Cuban honey, and the duty on the same, and sug- 

 gests that I give some more light on the subject. 



I judge from what I could learn in Cuba, and since, that, 

 as honey-producing countries, Cuba and California are about 

 even. Conditions of honey-flow are very different in the two 

 countries, but it would be hard to judge which could produce 

 the larger gross amount of honey during a series of years. 

 Labor is cheap. When I was there wages for good, first-class 

 farm-hands averaged about .'P8.00 per month, and board, or 

 40 cents a day. I paid a hand for help in the apiary the 

 above wages, and he was a good hand, too. He did nearly all 

 the work of uncapping and extracting our crop of 26 tons, 

 and considerable other work also. During the height of the 

 season he did all the work with knife and extractor, usually 

 taking out, when working all day, from 1,500 to 2,000 

 pounds. 



Freight charges were very low. This 52,000-pound crop 

 costs us 15 cents per hundred weight net, from Havana to 

 New York, with an addition of a small lighterage charge in 

 Havana. It costs me 85 cents per hundred weight gross to 

 ship my honey from here to New York, and I cannot get as 

 good a hand as I had in Cuba, for less than about $25 per 

 month, and board. 



Cuba exacts an export duty of ii cents per gallon, and our 

 country an import duty of 20 cents, making a total of about 

 2)4 cents per pound. 



The bulk of the Cuban honey crop is produced by native 

 apiarists, who use sections of the hollow trunk of the royal 

 palm. These are long, from four to six feet, laid down on the 

 side, one end entirely open, the other closed with a board. 

 The brood is usually in a compact shape, leaving most of the 

 "hive" to be occupied with honey quite free from brood. 

 Whenever the hive is full, the honey is removed, comb and all, 

 tnasht, strained, and the wax rendered out. The implements 

 used are tubs, cloth strainers, kettles, a long knife or machete, 

 and an iron rod, one end bent into a hook. It will very 

 readily be seen that from the small investments in skill, capi- 

 tal and labor, honey can be produced very cheaply In a coun- 

 try with such honey-resources as Cuba has ; and that, unless 

 there is some drawback that we don't have, they can furnish 

 honey in our seaboard markets much cheaper than we cf^n 

 afford to produce it. This drawback is the duty, or rather 

 duties, amounting to about 2 '4 cents per pound, and partly 

 makes up for the extra prices we have to pay for freight and 

 labor. As Mr. Muth says, "Take off the duty, and we would 

 have to put up with Chinaman's fare, or quit the business." 



LESS STORING AFTKB EXTRACTING — WINTER PASSAGES. 



On page 661, Mr. J. F. Mclntyre is quoted assaying, " He 

 always found that bees stored less for a day or two after ex- 

 tracting." I think Mr. Mclntrye is right. More than this, 

 I have found that bees do not store more honey when hives 

 are full of nearly or quite empty combs than they do when 

 combs are nearly full of honey, provided they are not actually 

 crowded for room. The reverse of this has been, and I think 

 still is, the almost or quite universally accepted idea. 



On the same page is an item on the importance of winter- 

 passages in combs, in out-door wintering. I am a strohg be- 

 liever in the necessity of such passages, and had a very cheap, 

 easy method of making such passages so late in the fall that 

 they would not be closed up. I will not give the method, as it 

 cannot be easily used with 8 or 10 frame hives. With such 

 hives, Hill's device, or something similar, will partly, but not 

 altogether, answer the same purpose. 



Dade Co., Fla. 



Comb Foundation— Is its Use Profitable? 



BY "SAGE BBDSH." 



I was very much interested in the article on the above 

 subject, on page 579, by Mr. S. A. Deacon. Is the use of 

 comb foundation profitable when used in large quantities ? I 

 say no. I have been experimenting on that line, and in giving 

 the results I wish the reader to keep in view the fact that I 

 conducted the experiments in Southern California, in a locality 

 not particularly noted for its honey-yield, but we have the 

 sage and buckwheat on one side, and a large fruit district, in 

 which there are plenty of gum and pepper trees, on the other 

 side of our apiary. Our bees gather honey more or less all 

 the year, thus making it possible to succeed better in such ex- 

 periments than others who were in as good or better honey 

 district, but without the gums, peppers, and fruit-trees to 

 keep up some little flow of honey through the fall, winter and 

 early spring. 



Some years ago I was askt to look over some bees for a 

 neighbor. I found they had been allowed to swarm them- 

 selves to death, thus letting the moth, get a good start. I fixt 

 up some of them, but a few were so full of moth-worms that 

 the owner askt me to take them, returning the hives and 

 frames to him later. When I got them home I found I could 

 not get any comb foundation, so I took a frame of brood for 

 each from the colonies, and putting it in a new hive brusht 

 the little colonies out of the moth-eaten hives into them, giv- 

 ing each from one to two frames, having narrow starters of 

 foundation. They at once commenced to build nice worker- 

 comb. I added empty frames as needed until each had from 

 five to six frames filled with comb and brood. I then took 

 frames from one-half the hives to fill the other half, giving 

 empty frames as before, until in a short time I had the lot 

 ready for the extracting supers. I was so surprised at the 

 result I concluded to try it further. 



The following winter I bought out a small apiary. About 

 the time they commenced to breed up I went through them, 

 taking out all the drone-comb from the brood-chambers. Run- 

 ning short of worker-combs, I took what I needed from the 

 most backward colonies, and filled those that were strong. 

 That left mo with a number of colonies of three frames each, 

 fairly well filled with brood. I set these to the side of the 

 hive, put in a board, and in a few days they needed more 

 room. I then gave each an empty frame, and they at once 

 commenced to build nice worker-comb, and filled it with brood 

 as fast as built. I added frames as required until they had 

 about six frames each of brood. I then took frames enough 

 from one-half to fill the other half, until in a very short time 

 I had them all ready for the supers, and was very much sur- 



