188i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



821 



fuss is all over. 1 bought an exti-actor from you, 

 and for two years it daubed every thing near it, so 

 that I had to keep a sponge and basin of water al- 

 ways by to clean my clothes with. I at last found, 

 by experimenting with bits of tissue paper, that it 

 was as Mr. D. says, a " circular fan." It has never 

 thrown over siiice, for I at once put a solid tin top 

 on the comb-basket, with openings through it to 

 drop the combs through ; made the top circular, and 

 just as large as will revolve inside the can. I would 

 not think of exchanging it for a cover to the can. 



Salem, O., Nov. «, 1881. M. Frank Tabek. 



Friend T., your invention is one of great 

 value indeed.' As soon as I read your letter 

 I became ashamed of myself to think I had 

 not thought of it before! I went straight to 

 the tin-siiop, and told them to make the top 

 of till' (■oml)-basket out of a whole piece of 

 tin, and we have found we can xlo it about as 

 cheap as the old way. Tliis makes liiem 

 much stronger, and effectually cuts off that 

 current of air that goes down in the middle, 

 and then comes out around the outside. It 

 also avoids tlie necessity of having a higher 

 can, or a cover over the extractor. If we 

 have room to set the combs in the comb bas- 

 ket, what more is needed V \Ve have tested 

 machines made both ways, by rumiing them 

 with a board in each side, in place of the 

 combs, and the invention seems to cover the 

 trouble perfectly. For the present we ex- 

 tend our tlianks'; and when we decide more 

 fully that tiiis invention is exactly the thing 

 needed, we will try to remember you more 

 substantially. Manufacturers of honey-ex- 

 tractors the world over, it seems to me, 

 ought to adopt your invention. 



OUR EXTRACTORS DO NOT ALWAYS ACT NAUGHTY, 

 EVEN WITH THICK HONEY. 



The extractor, knife, comb-liasket, and box came 

 all right; freight charge. $'ZM. I think the extract- 

 or a daisy. I extracted 30 combs of thick honey. T 

 turned the crank with all my strength, but failed to 

 break it or throw honey over, but succeeded in get- 

 ting nearly all out. There was certainly not a 

 pound left in each comb, as Hrother McNeill says 

 he has. Will T. Zink. 



Hois d'Arc, Mo., No\-. C, 18S4. 



Thank you, friend Z. 1 felt (piite sure 

 that our extractors could not nlJ throw lioii- 

 ey over tlie side of the can, for we had tested 

 so many of tliem. especially in regard to that 

 feature". Tliose we are making now for l88o 

 liave an iniprovement added which in no 

 way interferes witli tiieir working, that we 

 tliink will olniate the wJiole trouble under 

 any cii'cumstances. 



KlilENI) M. H. HUNT AND THE ADAMS MOUSIM'OW- 



kr; one ok my mistakes. 



Fil< ml li'nit: -Please accept many tlianks lor your 

 Haltering notice, and trouble of ])ublisliing iiicturc, 

 which my neighbors say is a good (^iic liut .^oii 

 made a mistake in saying T use the liorse-powei'. as 

 1 lia\e been ruriiiiiig an engine a ycav one huge 

 (Miough to run a i>lancr, saws, or gi-iml tVcd. It is 

 in a new shoii, ~i x -U. two stories, wiili addition for 

 (Migine. I liavc inloiiiii'd u\\ customers L;<'nerailv 

 that T use an engine, and I'm afraid thev will think 

 I've been telling wrong stories. M. H. Hunt. 



Bell Hraneli, Mich., \ov. IS, 18S4. 



AVell, now, friend II., I am very sorry, but 

 you see it jiisl corroborates what'l said, that 

 we had to liiid out ))>■ tlie neighliors what 

 you are doing, for you' didift often tell it of 

 yourself. May be you did tell it, though, 

 and I hail forgotten it. 



KEEPING BEES CLOSE TO THE TRAV- 

 ELED ROADS. 



ALSO something ABOUT THE HONEY OF CALIFOR- 

 NIA, AND THE PRICES IT DEMANDS. 



^ UK little home is between two roads that are 

 pretty well traveled, and now our stocks of 

 bees have got so numerous they give some 

 trouble, especially to a ranchman who has to 

 pass our place to go to town; and as we al- 

 ways want to live in peace with our neighbors, we 

 have sold onr bees. It is a loss to us, as our bees 

 have given us something extra every year, and 

 wheat-raising has not; but it can not be helped. 



We have not taken off as much honey as some here 

 in California, but our "bee king" prepared to let 

 the bees ripen it themselves, and none was extract- 

 ed but what was capped. Some swarms did better 

 than others, as is usual in all apiaries. One young 

 swarm was hived the 13th of May. The •2Sd they took 

 out 35 lbs. extracted honey from top box (we never 

 extract from bottom of hive), and the 30th we took 

 out o't lbs. more, and the same was kept up all the sea- 

 son; but the dates were lost, so I can not say just 

 how much that swarm did do; but we got 300 lbs. 

 each from quite a lot of hives. 



Mr. Myers, of Oregon, sent to us for a lot of our 

 tar-weed honey to feed his 60 swarms, as his bees did 

 not make any honey this year. He wi-ote-: " As 

 you sell it for 3 cts., cans and cases thrown in, and 

 the freight would be only about one cent more, of 

 course it will be better than sugar." Our bees win- 

 ter on it every year, so we know it is healthful. The 

 first six tons of our honey was made exclusively of 

 sage; the other four was slightly tinged with yel- 

 low, from a yellow-blossomed bush that blossoms 

 and yields honey profusely when the sage is nearly 

 done; and when both sage and bush are done, then 

 comes the tar-weed, keeping our bees busy a little 

 till willows come, after the i-ains. Our good honey 

 is all sold except one ton, and we have got 6, 7, and 8 

 cts. on account of its bright color, thickness, and ex- 

 cellent flavor, while most honey this year has 

 brought only .5V4 at most. Mrs. J. Hilton. 



Los Alamos, Cal., Oct. 13, 1884. 



You say, my friend, it can not be helped. 

 Are you sure you are not giving up too 

 easily? Can you not put your bees in some 

 other part o"f your farm"? or if this is not 

 practicaltle, build a board fence, say eight 

 feet high, between the apiar> and the road. 

 1 have known this of itself to stop all trou- 

 ble, for the bees will go over the top of the 

 fence, and when you once get them up eight 

 feet high they seldom descend to notice any 

 thing lower down. Besides, the passers-by 

 can not see the bees, and the bees can not see 

 the passers-by, and this factof itself seems to 

 go a good way toward peace and harmony. 

 The tall board fences will probably be worth 

 all they cost in the way of keeping oft" high 

 winds.— So your honey sold at from o to 8 

 cts. per lb.' AVell, this illustrates the vast 

 dilference there is in the quality of honey. 

 And there is almost as much dift'erence 

 here. We have poor honey that can 

 hardly be given away, and we have fair 

 honey and good honey, and then occasionally 

 what we call splendid honey. The latter is 

 light in color, thick in body, exquisite in 

 aroma and Havor. And this makes it neces- 

 sary for us to have our honey very carefully 

 graded, if we want the best price for it. 

 There are always customers who are willing 

 to pay fancy prices for fancy honey. 



