574 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



July 



tiii^is.— In logard to the Alley drone-trap, 

 notice what we say in recent issues of 

 Gleanings, in Notes and Queries. 



0UR QuE33ri6N-B6?^, 



With Replies from our best Autliorities on Bees. 



Ail queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated nnd free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 oi- nuf^tions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, " For Our Question-Box." 



Question No. 6i.— Wlisn shnuJd comhs ordinarily 

 he crtractcil - u'/ic/i Just seaJed over, partly sealed, or 

 whrn scaled for some time, in order to get the largest 

 returns in dollars and cents/ 



When partly sealed. L. C. Root. 



When partly sealed. Geo. Grimm. 



Wlien ripe, reg-ardless of cappings. 



Dadant & Son. 

 When filled. They need not be capped. 



Chas. F. Muth. 

 E.vtraet when the combs are full of thick honey, 

 setilod or not sealed. E. Fkance. 



That depends. Ordinarily, I should say tier up 

 and extract at the close of the season. 



Mks. L. Harrison. 



That's a tough one. Perhaps partly sealed, if it 

 is wf 11 ripened afterward; otherwise, when sealed 

 scmie time. C.C.Miller. 



1 1 depends upon the season and locality. Some- 

 times honey is ripe before it is sealed, and some- 

 times it is sealed before it is ripe. 



Dr. a, B. Mason. 



Not so much sealing will be necessary if you 

 work the tiering system with shallow combs, just 

 as it should be worked. You see, all depends. 



James Heddon. 



This is one of the vexed questions in bee culture; 

 but in my practice it has been impossible to get 

 combs any further along than "partly sealed '■ be- 

 fore having to extract them. O. O. Poppleton. 



ir the bee-keeper will never market till fully ripe, 

 and will keep in open vessels in a warm room, then 

 decidedly just as the bees begin to cap it. I have 

 tried this for nineteen years. A. J. Cook. 



Looking to immediate returns, extract as fast as 

 you can; but if you wish to build up a per- 

 manent market, and produce goods fit to eat, leave 

 the honey in the hives as long as you can. 



P. H. Elwood. 



When about one third sealed. 1 put the honey in 

 tanks holding 200 gallons, let it settle for two days, 

 and fill the barrels from a faucet in the bottom un- 

 til one-third of the honey is left, and this I allow to 

 ripen in the sun. Paul L. Viallon. 



T think this should depend upon the judgment 

 and good sense of the apiarist. Extract when suflB- 

 clently ripened, whether sealed or v>artly sealed, or 

 not sealed at all. Even sealed honey is not all 

 equally well ripened. H. K. Boardman. 



I should say, when three-fourths sealed. At that 

 stage it is sufficiently ripened to make flrst-class 

 honey, and the bees will be doing more efficient ser- 

 vice by refilling the combs than l)y working to cap 

 over the remaining cells. R. Wilkin. 



" My voice is still for war " against the practice 

 of extracting unsealed honey. As long as we let 

 the boys extract raw honey, so long raw honey will 

 get on the market, and demoralize things; and the 

 dollars and cents will stay in the ougbt-to-be con- 

 sumer's pockets, instead of skipping into our pock- 

 ets. E. E. Hasty. 



That depends. If you can get more for a choice 

 article of honey than for a poorer ordinary quality, 

 or, if you are making a business of honey-produc- 

 tion and want to keep all the bees you can. profita- 

 bly, it will pay you to have combs enough to leave 

 the hones' on the hive until it is thoroughly ripe. I 

 seldom extract honey until the combs have been 

 entirely sealed for some time. James A. Green. 



When partly sealed over, in my opinion; yet I am 

 free to admit, that the best honey comes from 

 those which have been sealed over for some time. 

 The thing that makes me say " partly sealed over " 

 is the money part; for I can sell as much of the 

 one kind as I can of the other, as the public is not 

 as discriminating as bee-keepers are, on just what 

 constitutes really nice honey; at least I find it so in 

 this locality. G. M. Doolittle. 



It is a little singular how often the words 

 come in, or somethinij equivalent, *' That de- 

 l)ends.'" Whoever produces honey or any 

 thing else ought to strive to please his cus- 

 tomers. I confess to a very great liking for 

 honey left on the hives until long after it 

 has been sealed. But suppose the bee- 

 keeper wants his money, and suppose he 

 does not get as much honey by this course. 

 Dadant suggested, some tiine ago, that one 

 would get just as much honey by piling up 

 the combs in extra hives until the whole 

 crop of the season was collected (and I am 

 very much inclined to think he is right), and 

 then extract it at your leisure long after the 

 flow is over. This is the kind of honey for 

 me, even if it is a little darker in color than 

 that thrown out just when the cells are 

 partly sealed. It is a great deal more work, 

 however, to extract it — at least, it has been 

 so with us here, and it ought to bring a larg- 

 er price. Like friend Hasty, I am "still 

 for war " against raw honey or green honey. 

 Let us have it ripe and rich, dried down un- 

 til it is solid heavy, and free from aU objec- 

 tionable flavors. There is very little honey 

 to be bought which I should call really 

 •' gilt-edge." Of course I am now speaking 

 of extracted honey ; and I suppose the prin- 

 cipal reason is, that the bee-keepers can not 

 afford to let it get rijie. At our conventions, 

 samples have been exhibited, ripened by ar- 

 tificial means, perhaps fully equal to any. 

 Prof. Cook alludes to this in his reply. 



Question No. 65.-78 it advisable to extract raw 

 nectar from imsealed combs, and ripen the " green" 

 honey drtiftvially? If so, ivhat sort of apparatus i« best 

 for the purpose t 



No. 

 No. 



Geo. Grimm. 

 Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I have had no experience in ripening extracted 

 honey artiflcially. H. R. Boardman. 



No; but it will pay to wait till bees commence to 



seal, then proceed aa suggested in 64. 



A. J. Cook. 



