254 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aprii. 1. 



fluctuate, and as at any given general price 

 different localities vary in their retail prices, 

 owing to closeness or distance from the pro- 

 ducing point, prices will ever be a varying 

 quantity. My ten-cent section here or in 

 Denver must cost more when sold in fancy 

 markets of Chicago or New York. 



We must produce so that our honey will 

 sell by the package, both at wholesale and 

 retail. Owing to the ever varying conditions 

 under which we must produce honey, slow, 

 intermittent, or irregular flows ; even a flow 

 that is as steady as clockwork, but slow; or a 

 fine free flow interrupted by irregular weath- 

 er ; or a swarming colony ; or different man- 

 agements, etc., will make it sure that there 

 must be crooked combs particularly bulged 

 and uneven weight, in the best-managed apia- 

 ries. If we can not produce year by year with 

 a reasonable certainty without separators, we 

 must use them. 



Even when we use separators we shall have 

 uneven weights. It requires the most skillful 

 management in very many seasons and local- 

 ities to get nice section honey — sections that 

 will weigh even one year with another, one 

 colony with another, and one part of a season 

 with another part. But while we can not 

 have complete regularity in weight, we can 

 have the honey all ivithin tlie zvood, and an 

 approximate unanimity of weight, by the use 

 of separators. That the honey be within the 

 wood is important, primarily to aid in equal- 

 izing weight, and principally for safety in 

 handling. Even practical apiarists will have 

 accidents marring cappings by the comb 

 faces touching, or coming in contact with the 

 adjoining section or case side, etc.; and if we 

 who have both practice and a first interest do 

 such things, how much more the inexperi- 

 enced ! 



I have handled a great many carloads of 

 honey, both my own producing and of others ; 

 have also seen many other carloads, and I 

 know that, even though the use of separators 

 lessened the amount produced, that with sep- 

 arators is worth more money. I am at this 

 very time selling some honey produced with- 

 out separators. It is the leavings after the 

 best was picked out, and the producer was 

 glad to get 5 cents a section for it. He had 

 about 75 cases all told, and from the 75 he 

 sorted out the best to the amount of about 

 one-third or a little more, and this best third 

 brought him 20 cents per case less than the 

 great bulk of mine and others produced with 

 separators. My poorest grade of separatored 

 honey brought more money than his best, 

 while my poorest brought very nearly double 

 his poorest. 



It is but fair to say that this comparison is 

 of one new in the business as against my 

 years of experience ; but there were others 

 more nearly equal in experience, but using in 

 part separators, and the difference in favor of 

 their use was from 10 to 20 per cent. I know 

 a man who says no separators for him, he 

 would not use them. I once asked the pnv- 

 ilege of shipping a small lot of my honey in a 

 car he was shipping, largely of his own pro- 

 duction. He consented that mine should go 



in if it was nice No. 1 goods. So urgent was 

 he that I put in only nice honey that I used 

 great care in grading, and even left off my 

 name and address, lest I should get the wrong 

 kind of advertising by having it on ; but when 

 I loaded the honey you may guess my cha- 

 grin to observe that I had the nicest lot of 

 honey in the whole carload. Mine was sep- 

 aratored, the rest not. 



Let those who advocate no separators go 

 into the markets and handle honey, either at 

 wholesale or retail, and they will be cured of 

 their error very quickly. When you think of 

 whether you will or will not produce with 

 separators, just ask yourself what you would 

 prefer were you in the retailer's place, and 

 you can soon settle the question. 



But you say you can get more honey with- 

 out than with, and it means more money to 

 you. You are wrong. Bees will just as read- 

 ily enter a super with separators as one with- 

 out — often, weak colonies 'more readily. A 

 few bees can cluster between separators and 

 work a few sections, when if they were to 

 start in a larger compartment they would not 

 do it ; or if they did they woiild spread into 

 more adjoining sections and finish fewer of 

 them. Strong colonies will take your whole 

 super, separators or no separators, and store 

 just as much with as without ; but the weak 

 colony is the one that will do the very poorest 

 work, bulging and irregular, and are the ones 

 of all colonies that nmst have separators if we 

 get a No. 1 article from them. 



Now figure as you will the cost of separat- 

 ing ; extra time cleaning and casing non- 

 separatored ; bulged thrown out ; faces marred 

 in your own or retailers' hands ; difference in 

 prices paid for the various sorts ; loss of trade 

 by crooked combs disgusting dealers when 

 they are broken, and all the factors bearing 

 on the subject, and you will use separators. 



Loveland, Col. 



[It is true, that Mr. Aikin gave one of the 

 best talks on the use of separators I ever 

 heard or read, and I accordingly asked him 

 to write it out for Gleanings. 



With regard to the ten-cent honey, and the 

 friendly "dig" you make at the editor, I 

 think if you would look up what I have said 

 in the matter you would see that I had refer- 

 ence to a particular localitv and to a particu- 

 lar season. It would be folly to think that 

 the same sections could be sold from year to 

 year for the same money. 



I think you are quite correct in saying that 

 a weak colony will do better in a separatored 

 super than in one without separators ; but 

 when the colonies are strong, then the results 

 seem to be reversed. — Ed.] 



AN OLD THEORY EXPLODED. 



Rich young Drone married poor Virgin Queen, 



People thought they were not well mated ; 

 She was spry, indu.strious, and clean, 



He all kinds of work fairly hated. 

 But to lie around she soon under.stood 



Better than Drone, the work-shirker ; 

 But strange ! After rearing their young brood, 



Though Drones, every one was a worker. 



