I icccinbcr, 1907. 



American ^ee Jonrtial 



honey from heather was very difficult 

 to extract from the comli-> on account 

 of its density; sonic even no so far as 

 to say that it cannot be - ■.Irncted. 



L. C. Root, tlie son-in-law of Quinby, 

 a man of great experience in bee-cul- 

 ture, in discussing the ripening of hon- 

 ey, asserted to me that in his opinion, 

 the thickest and best ripened honey is 

 the slowest to granulate. I agree with 

 this assertion. He went- farther, and 

 said that very ripe honey would not 

 granulate. On this I think we should 

 demur for the simple reason that there 

 is very little if any honey that will not 

 granulate under any circumstances. 

 Even the thick heather honey, men- 

 tioned above as reported difficult to ex- 

 tract, granulates very readily. We have 

 had honey, purchased in Louisiana, 

 which was guaranteed by the producer 

 to remain liquid. But we had not had 

 it three weeks in our cold January cli- 

 mate of Illinois before it began to show 

 the change. 



I would most emphatically agree 

 with Mr. Greiner in trying to keep the 

 different grades separate. Nothing is 

 more difficult to sell than a grade of 

 extracted honey which is streaked in 

 color by the uneven mixture of two 

 different grades. When it becomes nec- 

 essary to harvest mixed honey, I would 

 insist on heating it and stirring it 

 thoroughly to mix it. It is sometimes 

 possible to make a very good grade of 

 honey out of two very different crops. 

 But much care must be exercised in not 

 overheating it and destroying its flavor. 

 We had, at one time, a lot of pure 

 basswood honey, from Lynnville, Iowa, 

 which was so strong in basswood flavor 

 that the average customer was afraid 

 of it, and mistrusted its purity. We had 

 also on hand a lot of very dark fall 

 honey. We heated both and mixed 

 them, and the blended flavors gave us 

 an article that sold readily. The bass- 

 wood changed the shade to a lighter 

 color, and the fall honey had hidden 

 the objectionable basswood flavor and 

 odor. 



In closing, permit me to emphasize 

 the statement made by Mr. Townsend 

 at the end of his article on page 720, 

 as the report of his son: 



"I could have worked 5 yards for 

 extracted honey with the same labor 

 it took to produce this crop of 2,300 

 pounds of comb honey." 



My preference for the production of 

 extracted honey is based on the same 

 idea. A much greater quantity of hon- 

 ey can be taken care of. A less number 

 of swarms secured. See Mr. Town- 

 send's report on the same page — 30 

 swarms when producing comb honey, 

 and 5 swarms when producing extract- 

 ed honey. To the beginner this may 

 not be an important item, but to the 

 apiarist who already has as many colo- 

 nies as he cares to keep, the matter of 

 undesired swarms is most important. 

 What we want is honey — more honey — 

 not more bees. 



The only drawback to the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey is the difficulty 

 of its sale. This does not exist in 

 Europe, and that is why so much more 

 of it is produced there than here by 

 large apiarists. Comb honey, in Ameri- 

 ca, will long be of more ready sale 

 than the other kind. 



Some of the Results of 

 Keeping in 1907 



Bee- 



BY C. M. DOOUTTLE. 



"How have the bees done this year?" 

 is a question which comes to me from 

 my correspondents. Another correspond- 

 ent writes: "You used to report the re- 

 sult of each season in the bee-papers. 

 Why do you not do it any more? Just 

 tell us through the American Bee Jour- 

 nal the result from the bees during the 

 year 1907." 



This reminds me of what the bee- 

 men used to be accused of years ago, 

 when it was said at our bee-conven- 

 tions and elsewhere, that when bee-men 

 had a good season with a large yield 

 of honey, they were sure to rush into 

 print with the matter, setting bee-keep- 

 ing out in glowing colors; but when a. 

 poor season came, they kept as mum as 

 a clam, and thus only the rosy side of 

 our pursuit appeared before the public 

 gaze, this causing many to get a false 

 impression of our occupation and rush 

 into bee-keeping to the detriment of 

 those already in, through an oVer-pro- 

 duction of honey. I know it is easier 

 to tell of our successes than of our 

 failures ; but I never believed that there 

 could be an over-production of honey 

 while there were liundreds and thous- 

 ands of mouths watering for even a 

 taste of the honey piled up in the bee- 

 keepers' store-rooms or on the markets 

 of our country. 



But I am not asked for an article on 

 over-production, nor could I properly 

 "tackle" the matter had I been, so I will 

 content myself in telling the readers of 

 the American Bee Journal something of 

 the season of 1907 and its results in 

 southwestern Onondaga County, which 

 is a part of the State of New York. 



The bees came out of the cellar in 

 fine condition, as good as I ever knew 

 them to do, but after a few warm days 

 it turned cold, and it kept that way till 

 near the middle of June, so that on 

 June 10, at a time when the hives should 

 have been full of bees and brood, there 

 was not a single colony that was as 

 good as it was the day it came from 

 the cellar, while many colonies were not 

 half as good. Of course the season was 

 late, but not nearly so late as were the 

 bees, although everything was done that 

 could be done to advance them along 

 the line of prosperity. With June 20 

 v/arm weather came, and this pushed 

 vegetation along very rapidly, so that 

 I saw that if any results in surplus 

 honey were to be obtained it must come 

 along the line of massing the bees to- 

 gether, rather than a line of expansion. 

 To this end. brood was taken from the 

 weaker colonies and given to the strong- 

 er ones, so that these arrived in fairly 

 good condition when the clover and 

 basswood bloomed later on, at which 

 time the plan of "shook swarming" was 

 followed, and the beeless brood given 

 to the weak colonies from which brood 

 had been taken to help the stronger 

 ones up to where this "shook swarm- 

 ing" could be done to advantage just 

 at the commencement of the honey-flow. 

 And to keep these colonies to which the 



brood was given from contracting the 

 swarming fever before the time came 

 to shake to the best advantage, all the 

 combs not occupied with brood were 

 taken out so as to give place for the 

 frames of brood given, when these 

 combs having no brood in them, but 

 some honey, were placed in an empty 

 hive, together with other reserved 

 combs, sufficient to fill this extra hive, 

 when a queen-excluder was placed on 

 top of the hive of brood, and on this 

 was put this hive of combs containing 

 more or less honey. This honey helped 

 the bees to keep up the brood below to 

 its greatest capacity, and also gave a 

 place for the storing of honey, should 

 any little yield occur before the time 

 was ripe for shaking; as well as to 

 ward off any desire to swarm wliich 

 might arise from the hive full of brood 

 below. Besides this, it started the bees 

 to work in the upper story, or the sur- 

 plus apartment of the hive, if we please 

 so to speak, so that at the time of shak- 

 ing the bees were used to going above 

 with any honey which came from the 

 fields. And, besides this, at the time of 

 shaking this hive of combs in which the 

 bees had been at work for some time, 

 was just the hive into which they were 

 run when they were shaken from their 

 brood, as it was necessary only to set 

 this upper hive on the stand in place of 

 the hive of brood, put on the supers 

 of sections, and shake the bees in front. 



They were then in their own home, 

 as it were, -but without brood, and as 

 the queen continued to lay right along, 

 the honey in these combs, together with 

 that coming in from the fields, was 

 rushed right up into the sections, 

 through the force of habit they had ac- 

 quired before the shaking. Every bee, 

 or practically so, which was in both 

 stories of the hive before shaking, was 

 now in that hive of broodless combs 

 and honey, and for this reason there 

 had to be an overflow of bees right 

 into the sections; and, as the queen de- 

 manded room for the laying of her eggs, 

 and the bees also demanded brood for 

 their future existence, all thought of 

 future swarming was banished, and 

 work with a will was at once begun 

 right where it would count for money 

 in the pocket of the apiarist. 



The combs of beeless brood were 

 piled 2 deep on the weak colonies, and 

 the emerging of this brood soon made 

 these colonies strong, with plenty of 

 room for the storing of all the honey 

 that came in from the fields, in the 

 cells vacated each day by the thousands 

 of emerging brood, for the queen was 

 kept in her old hive by means of a 

 queen-excluder before the hives of 

 brood were set on top. 



'Now for the result of this massing 

 plan in a poor season, for it proved to 

 be the poorest of any season I have 

 known since that of 1869: 



The average yield of section honey 

 from the colonies so worked was 61 1-3 

 pounds, or that many pound sections, 

 while in the combs put over the weak 

 colonies there is an average of about 

 45 pounds that could be extracted; but 

 as I prefer to keep this for next season's 

 use, it will be stored away to set over 

 colonies next year in following out the 



