October, 1907. 



American Hee Joarnai| 



tie healing around the sides when left 

 in moderately hot water would enable 

 the consumers to remove it, it would, 

 it seems to me, be an excellent plan. 

 Any one who has melted honey con- 

 taining comb knows the effect on the 

 flavor of it. 



Mr. Tocpperwein, to whom I have 

 written concerning transporting comb 

 honey, refers me to you as best pre- 

 pared to furnish the desired informa- 

 tion. I wish to know if it is much 

 damaged when shipped a distance. 

 What is the cost by freight to, say, Kan- 

 sas? As I am planning to engage large- 

 ly in the production of honey — chunk, 

 section, and extracted — I would be glad 

 to know which to give the lead. Your 

 opinion will be highly valued. It seems 

 to me to be a good plan to bring the 

 subject up in your Dep.irtment for dis- 

 cussion. "In the counsel of many there 

 is wisdom." J. B. Colton. 



Olmito, Texas, July 22. 



It does not seem to me that it is a- 

 serious matter to dispose of any quan- 

 tity of good honey, either comb or ex- 

 tracted, provided it is rightly done. The 

 greatest trouble that confronts us, as 

 bee-keepers, is the marketing of our crop, 

 and it is no other's fault save our own. 

 We know how to produce a crop of 

 honey year after year, if these are fav- 

 orable, but that is generally all. We 

 must have somebody else to market our 

 honey, and that one gets our profits. 

 We must make up our minds to pay 

 more attention to proper marketing of 

 our own honey; to distribute it prop- 

 erly, and to get profitable returns for 

 our honey and our efforts. 



Neither does it seem to me that there 

 would then be any glut in the markets 

 so that we could not profitably dispose 

 of our bulk comb, or any other kind 

 of honey. It is true that a good deal 

 of the early honey from some points 

 in southwest Texas did granulate this 

 year on the market, but this can, should, 

 and must be avoided. It can be done 

 simply by heating the liquid honey to 

 150 degrees, Fahr., which does not hurt 

 it in any way. Do not heat it hotter. 

 Some honeys will stand it, but others 

 will not. The honey in the comb will 

 hardly granulate, and with this heated 

 extracted honey poured over it, our 

 bulk comb can safely be put on the 

 market. 



With the experience I have had in 

 the production of section honey, last- 

 ing through 5 or 6 years, I would not 

 now go back to that way of producing 

 comb honey with its labor and expense, 

 and the "fussing" to produce a saleable 

 article that brings little more than the 

 comb honey that is so easily produced 

 in larger frames, with less work. .And 

 I would never attempt to produce sec- 

 tion honey without separators. Neither 

 would I think of using all those un- 

 cratable and unfinished sections for bulk 

 comb honey. It would be far too ex- 

 pensive. Instead of rigging up for pro- 

 ducing section honey as you propose, I 

 would rig up for the production of 

 bulk comb honey, using shallow extract- 

 ing frame supers. Then, when there is 

 no market for bulk comb (?"), why, sim- 

 ply extract the combs, for there will 

 surely ahvays be a market for extracted 



honey. All unfinished combs not fit for 

 bulk comb honey are extracted, and 

 there is no loss. The profits, however, 

 here in the South, will be greater than 

 if you "fuss" with section honey. 



The difference in the price is not 

 large enough ; besides, section honey in 

 glass shipping-cases goes at double first- 

 class freight, while comb-honey in cases, 

 and cases in wooden cases, like extract- 

 ed, goes at fourth-class rates. 



Considering all this is why we are 

 all producing bulk comb honey instead 

 of sections, as wc used to do. 



De Bizzy Honey-Bee. 



"No one's makin' speeches 



'Cep de honey-bee. 

 De principles she teaches 



Sounds ritiht sensible to me. 

 She says: 'Keep lookin' foh de sweets 



Dat's growin* everywhere; 

 An' if some no-'count weeds you meets 



Pass on an' don't you care.* 



"As she comes a-bringin* 



De goods f um 'roun' de farm. 

 She say: 'A little singin* 



Ain't gwjneter do no harm.* 

 I tells you, lots of us would get 



Mo* joy f'um life if we 

 Kep' follerin* de example set 



By de bizzy Honey-Bee.*' 



— Washington Star. 



Caucasian Bees vs. Italian Bees 



I haVe not seen much pro and con 

 about the Caucasian bees from the 

 Southern bee-keepers. Surely they have 

 them under test and will report from 

 time to time. It has been said that 

 we have much inferior honey in the 

 South, and it is true in many locations, 

 and can be attributed only to the fact 

 that the bees do not give it the proper 

 attention while evaporating and capping 

 it. They quit it too soon, and the re- 

 sult is that it soon sours, or ferments. 

 Also, granulation will begin sooner than 

 it should. 



It is the thin honey that gives us the 

 most trouble, and the fact is that the 

 bees do not give it a body. The black 

 bees do not gather much of the thin 

 or inferior honey, but other strains do, 

 and it often gives them a lot of trou- 

 ble. I have seen the Italian bees recap 

 it many times, until cappings were li 

 of an inch thick. This is all they seem 

 to know to do to it, when the trouble 

 was that they capped it too soon. 



I have always found this fault in the 

 Italian bees, that they are too hasty 

 about capping their honey. If there is 

 a check in the honey-flow for a few 

 days, they will cap the honey and not 

 give it the attention they should. 



Cotton is becoming a great honey- 

 plant here. It is yielding better each 

 season. I can remember when it was 

 considered only a pollen-plant. Now we 

 get from 25 to 100 pounds of surplus 

 honey per colony from it, and our bees 

 winter on it. But its honey is thin, and 

 soon ferments, and is not wholesome. 



The Caucasian bees are giving this 

 and other thin honey a good body. This 

 fact is not due to season or locality, 

 for in the same yards, side by side, the 

 honey of the Italian colonies had soured 

 when we got around to extracting, 

 while that of the Caucasian was as fine 



honey as we ever produced, and shows 

 no sign of souring nor granulating, and 

 they gathered more of it, too. It has a 

 heavy body, and the flavor is very much 

 improved. 



In a previous article I mentioned 

 some of their good qualities, and at the 

 same time I noticed the care they were 

 giving their honey, but only mentioned 

 that they gave me a surplus of a few 

 pounds of nice comb honey. Now that 

 I have tested them extensively, I send 

 another report. 



I might also add that the Caucasians 

 have as large a brood-nest as other 

 strains of bees, but better compacted. 

 They are very quiet on their comb while 

 handling them. They cap their brood 

 and honey more evenly than other races, 

 raise the caps about as the black bees 

 do, and have a beautiful appearance. 

 Also, they are great cell-builders. Dur- 

 ing the flow of our best honey, the Ital- 

 ians kept pace with them very well. 



Crisp Co., Ga. J. J. Wilder. 



Not Good Fall Prospects- 

 Superseding Young Queens 



I could not help having a feeling of 

 regret come over me when I read the 

 announcement in the June issue of the 

 good old American Bee Journal, that 

 in the future it would be issued only 

 monthly. It seems to me there surely 

 are bee-keepers enough in this broad 

 land of ours to support a weekly jour- 

 nal, if they take the interest they 

 should. 



Fall Prospects. 



The prospects for fall honey are any- 

 thing but good this year, and I expect 

 that a good many will make the same 

 mistake as last year — that is, extract 

 too close, leaving the bees in almost 

 destitute condition for winter. If we 

 get a fall crop in this portion of the 

 State it will be something very unex- 

 pected, indeed, for our main source 

 for fall honey (brooniweed) is a fail- 

 ure this year, and we would need to 

 have one of those "unexpected" honey- 

 flows if we get any more honey this 

 year. 



The above is not given for the true 

 state of affairs throughout the State of 

 Texas, but for this locality. You know 

 Texas is a large State, and weather con- 

 ditions vary considerably. 



SUPERSEDURE OF YOUXO QCEENS. 



We have had more new experience 

 this year with the bees. Last fall one 

 of my best colonies of bees commenced 

 to supersede their queen, which was in 

 her 4th year. But as fast as they would 

 build and cap the cells. I would re- 

 move them to nuclei with the hope of 

 getting a choice lot of queens from one 

 of my best breeders, and I succeeded 

 in getting 12 or 14 nice young queens, 

 from these cells, to laying before the 

 old queen died. Like most cells built 

 in the natural way. the queens that 

 hatched from them were large and well 

 developed, and all proved to be good 

 layers last spring. They are among my 

 best colonies. Now here is the strange 

 part of the proceedings to me : Some 

 5 or 6 of those young queens have al- 



