1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



617 



source. When these cases were removed they were 

 I'ound empty. Although many sections were part- 

 ly filled with light honey, when the How lioni that 

 ceased, all were I'ound to ho empty, the honey hav- 

 ing- been carried below; but an examination showed 

 that the hives were heavy, and that doubtless ail 

 had abundant stores for winter. They found honey 

 in the fall flowers, Init not enough to send them in- 

 to the sections. 



The croi) of honey was 417 pounds, every section 

 nicely filled and sealed, and as white as snow. 

 After selecting- 73 pounds of the nicest sections 

 for home use, the rest was sold to a g-roccr in the 

 town at 15 cents a povnid. When the firm delivered 

 this honey, and received S.'jO.^S, they feU rich in- 

 deed. That night, they posted up their books for 

 the year. They found that their entire outlay had 

 been only !Kt).75, which, added to the f'ZO.W owed 

 their father for last year, made sf^CSf) as their entire 

 debt. This they paid and had $30.40 i-emainiiig. 

 They were now o\it of dtd)t, and could feel that 

 their apiary was all their own, and the question 

 was, what to do with the rest of their money. 

 Their mother advised them to place it in their 

 father's keeping, and use it as needed to provide 

 supplies for their apiary. Their father said that 

 as they liad three empty hives, he thought ten new 

 ones would be abundantly sulhcient to hold next 

 j-ear's swarms; that he had no lumber on hand, and 

 that, if Tommy made hi\es, he would have to buj* 

 lumber, and that it would be better to order hives 

 in the flat from the supjily-dealer. These would be 

 planed, and cut out all ready to nail, and would 

 cost only a little more than the lumber. Ten hives 

 would cost 8.5 cents each ; so the money was st'iit foi- 

 them. They abo ordered 1000 sections. 



Mr. Meek wanted Tommy to study diligently; 

 and he well know if ten hives had to be made by 

 him it would interfere with his studies; therefore 

 he advised buying hives ready to nail. To nail and 

 paint these was a comi)arativcly short job, and it 

 was all done before school opened. 



One evening, late in the fall, Mr. Meek leturned 

 from a short journey he had taken in his buggy. 

 The children ran out to greet him, when he lilted a 

 large tin can from his buggy, and asked if they 

 knew what it was. After they had examined it 

 Tommy guessed it was a churn; and .Jane s;ii 1 it 

 was a machine for making apple-butter. 



At length he told them it was a honey-extract(<r. 

 They had read about that machine, and its u-.e, but 

 had never before seen one. This excited them, rnd 

 they were for running with the news to mother, 

 when their father called them back to care for tlie 

 horse, as he was chilled al'ter his long- ride. When 

 they returned from the barn they carried the ex- 

 tractor with them into the house. Their father, 

 now warm and comfortable, explained that, where 

 he had stopped the previous night, the farmer had 

 at one time owned quite an apiary; but an invalid 

 son who cared for the bees had died; and as there 

 was no one to take his jilaee, the Lees had been neg- 

 lected, and finally all had died. He was selling- his 

 hives and fixtures, and had offered this extractor 

 and uncapping-knife for three dollars. As it was 

 not half its cost, he bought it for the firm. He 

 then showed the children how to take a frame of 

 sealed honey, out off the caps with the honej-knife, 

 and place it in the revolving frame, close by the 

 wire netting-; prepare another fi-ame of honey, and 

 place it on the opposite side; then turn the crank 



rapidlj', and the honey would be thrown out, and, 

 striking the side of the can, would run down, and 

 could be drawn off through the honey-gate. The 

 combs would then need to be lifted out and turiled, 

 when the other side could be extracted in a similar 

 manner. The combs, then free*From honey, could 

 be returned to the hive, and, in the time of a good 

 honey-How, would soon be refilled. 



He said he felt confident that more honey could 

 be raised by extracting, but it did not meet as ready 

 sale in most communities as the eoTnb, and sold at 

 a lower price. To raise extracted honey, we need 

 to prepare our hives with two sets of frames— one 

 below for brood, and one above for surplus. A hive 

 so prepared is called a two-story hive. The frames 

 in the upper story ai-e the ones extracted. 



During- the winter. Tommy, under his father's di- 

 rection, made upper stones for two of their hives, 

 intending- to use those two for raising extracted 

 honey. 



Til he ci>)itinw(l. 



SOME EXPERIMENTS WITH CANDIED 

 HONEY. 



IS THERE ANY WAY TO PREVENT ITS GRANULA- 

 TION? 



@NE man writes you that, if honey is kept in a 

 warm rooiTi, it will not candy; another says. 

 Seal it up hot; another. Keep it in the dark. 

 Writers seem to ignore the fact that a test 

 made with only one kind of honey is of no 

 value whatever. 



I noticed some months ago you spoke of honey 

 not candying, even with a zero freeze. Are you 

 sure that a zero freeze will cause honey to granu- 

 late more quickly than the most moderate weather 

 we have in Januiiry? I am not sure that you are 

 not right. My experiment which I am about to give 

 is not worth much, for the reason that it was made 

 with only one kind of honey. You will remember 

 the year we had a drive together, some ten yeai-s 

 ago. The following winter I took some of your 

 Medina Co. honey (linden, candied solid). When we 

 got it I melted it thoroughly, put up 10 half-pint 

 glasses, i)laced two in the office where there was a 

 self-feeding hard-coal stove, perfectly warm— I 

 should think certainly above 00° the 34 hours— two 

 in the yard exposed to a zero freeze; two in the 

 cellar, wrapped up in dark paper placed in a dark 

 room; two in the hallway where it would be about 

 the freezing-point all the time, and two in the ware- 

 room, where it was warm in the daytime and cold 

 at night. Now, inside cl two weeks every glass was 

 candied solid, and I could not distinguish any differ- 

 ence in the time that it took for each one to become 

 candied. 



That same season 1 went to the Shenandoah Val- 

 ley, in Virginia, and bought some honey from the 

 blue thistle, in the conUi. The following >fay that 

 honey was not candied. After I left there, which 

 was in August, they had a good yield from a yellow 

 Hower, I think the goldenrod. Some of that was 

 sent to us; and although that was taken out of the 

 hive after what I have already spoken of, it was 

 candied solid in the combs in the month of Novem- 

 ber. 



When a man tells me how to keep a certain kind 

 of honey from candying, then I am ready to listen 

 to him; b\il when he tells me how to keep honey 



