1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



177 



but for summer, at least, and perhaps for the year 

 round, in a garret or in a building where the sun 

 makes it very hot. C. C. Miller. 



1. We don't like to keep it beyond the following 

 spring. 3. Hard toicll; it depends on its quality, 

 the temperature to which it is exposed, etc. ;j. 

 Keep it in a dry warm place, as far from change of 

 temperature as possible. Dadant & Son. 



1. I do not know ; I never kept anj' long enough 

 to notice any deterioration in flavor. 3. That de- 

 pends entirely upon the source from which the hon- 

 ey is gathered, and how good care is taken of it; also 

 the quality of the couib. Some comb is thick and 

 some is thin. Some honey will not candy at all, 

 and other will candy in the comb in a few weeks, 

 in spite of every thing. ;>. I presume I do not know; 

 but I believe that I do know that it is much better 

 to sell each year's crop the same yejr, than to carry 

 it to the next. James Heddon. 



1. Some honey is better the very day it is brought 

 in than it ever is afterward; apple-blossom honey, 

 for example. Other honey tastes a little "silly" 

 when very fresh, and has its best quality say six 

 weeks after it is capped over. Other varieties have 

 disagreeable flavors when new, but are greatly im- 

 proved by being left six months in an old l)ee-tree 

 or box hive. I presume keeping such honey in a 

 warm airy room would answer nearly as well. As 

 a general rule we must expect quality to decline 

 when warm weather begins the next season. 3. J 

 think most comb honey will not candy if well kept; 

 and I strongly suspect that some samples will candy 

 in spite of every thing. If honey leaks, it is either 

 a poor article or it has been very badlj- treated. 

 3. I know nothing better than plenty of air in a 

 warm room. E. E. Hasty. 



Well, friends, it has done me a great deal 

 of good to hear your opinions on this sub- 

 ject. I feel just as most of you do— that 

 some honey, or, perhaps I should say, some- 

 times honey gets better by being kept a 

 while, and at other times it does not. In 

 our commission stores I believe they invari- 

 ably offer honey that is a year old, for a 

 cent or two less a pound than the new crop. 

 I do not know whether it is because it has 

 lost in quality or looks, or both. Perhaps 

 if the sections were kept away from the 

 dust and light, so no one could see any evi- 

 dences of age about them, they might be pro- 

 nounced just as good. The candying busi- 

 ness is certainly a damage to comb honey ; 

 but 1 have never been able to decide whether 

 it was the treatment or the kind of honey 

 that caused the candying. Doolittle's 

 reply would indicate that he thinks it is 

 altogether the treatment. I should like 

 to ask him if he never saw any comb honey 

 that would candy in spite of any thing he 

 could do. Friend Hasty has just hit the 

 nail on the head, to my notion, wlicn he ap- 

 plies the word " silly " to the taste of un- 

 ripened honey. When we first began ex- 

 tracting, I thought it would be a fine thing 

 to have some clear nectar, just as it came 

 from the blossom ; but the opinion of the 

 whole family, when i)ermitted to taste this 

 wonderful nectar, was just about as he puts 

 it. It was a " silly '' mess of stuff', and was 

 not honey at all. I believe that Prof. Cook 



claims, however, that the bees do not gather 

 *•' silly ■' honey in their locality. Perhaps 

 the bees have caught the progressive spirit 

 of the Agricultural College, and ripen their 

 honey on the wing while on their way home. 



]^EP0RTg ENC0a^^6I]\[6. 



AN AVERAGK ok 16.5 LBS. PER COLONY. 



E Started with 40 colonies, spring count; 3.5 

 strong, .) weak. We secured GOOO Ids. of 

 comb lioncj — an average per colony of lfi.5 

 lbs.; best Italian, 361'4 lbs. in sections: the 

 next best, a hybrid colony, 29.5 llis. W'g use 

 the combined shipping and honey ciate, holding 

 38 lib. Simplicity sections, and practice the tiering- 

 up plan. We do not contract the brood-nest. We 

 use the ten-frame Simplicity hive. Perhaps we 

 might have got more honey in the sections if we 

 had contracted the brood-nest or used a smaller 

 hive; but the question is, whether we could have 

 run such strong colonies in smaller hives, and kept 

 the swarming fever down. We have 83 colonies 

 packed on their summer stands, with plenty of nat- 

 ural stores to winter on. 



REPORT FOR 1887. 



From 40 colonies, spring count, we secured 1800 

 lbs. of comb honey— an average per colony of 45 

 lbs.; from the best stock, 141 lbs. in sections; sec- 

 ond best, 130 lbs. Sold down to 40 in the spring. 



Goodland, Mich. John & James Cowe. 



Bees thus far are in good condition, and the first 

 pollen was gathered Feb. 14. Flora A. Babcock. 

 Morrilton, Ark., Feb. 19, 1888. 



THE proceeds from 3 COLONIES. 



Two swarms of bees in 1886 I increased to 30. I 

 sold two of them for ^30. The rest all wintered 

 well. I got 3)0 pounds of honey in Simplicity hives. 

 If anyone can do better, let me hear. I have 37 

 stands now. Israel Jackson. 



Cambridge, Ohio, Feb. 6, 1888. 



3000 LBS. OF honey. 



My bees did very well last season. I used 1300 of 

 the lib. sections; and those I received from you 

 brought me 3 cts. more per section than those I re- 

 ceived at home, so you see it will pay me to use the 

 basswood sections every time. My bees made 3000 

 lbs., all told. M. J. Twining. 



Hanford, Cal., Jan. 37, 1888. 



OBTAINED 30 CTS. A POUND FOR HONEY SHIPPED 

 TO A COMMISSION HOUSE. 



I began the season of 1887 with 37 colonies, not 

 very strong. By keeping back swarming 1 obtain- 

 ed 1300 lbs. of comb and 335 lbs. of extracted honey. 

 I shipped a ])art of ray comb honey to A. C. Kendel, 

 and obtained 30 cts. per lb. for every pound I sent 

 him. I had only 13 natural swarms, but I divided 

 and built up until I now have 53 colonies that are 

 wintering flneb'. L. H. Kobev. 



Worthington, W. Va , Feb. 7, 1888. 



THE PROSPECTS FOR 1888 (!OOD IN C.^I.I l-'ORNl A. 



I am spending the winter in Southi rn Cilifornia, 

 but expect to return home in April. I have not 

 seen an apiary as yet, iior heard of any in this vi- 

 cinity, but 1 inteiid lo visit one or more of the large 

 ones lielore returning. There has been an abun- 

 dance of rain here this winter, making the crop 



