1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



807 



Saturday half -holiday. This custom is quite 

 common with us during the summer months, 

 May till October ; but in England, I am told, 

 it holds the year through. As a rule they 

 take life easier, and get more enjoyment out 

 of it, than the average American citizen does 

 in his mad rush to get rich and lay up a com- 

 petence. 



I spent a day in the south of England at 

 Ripple Court, near Dover, with F. W. L. Sla- 

 den, who is an enthusiastic bee-keeper, and 

 collector of specimens of bees of all species 

 and varieties, and he has indeed a collection 

 to be proud of — humble-bees (or, as they are 

 sometimes called, bumble-bees) of many kinds 

 and colorings and sizes ; Apis dorsata, of sev- 

 eral varieties ; bees from all countries on the 

 globe. I did not learn how many different 

 specimens he had ; but I should judge from 

 the number of specimen-cases we examined, 

 and the number displayed in each, that there 

 can not be less than 500 different specimens, 

 with very few duplicates. Mr. Sladen is still 

 collecting, and anxious to exchange specimens 

 with others who are making collections, or 

 to receive specimens from any source. He is 

 especially desirous of securing more speci- 

 mens of American humble-bees, as he has very 

 few of this class in his collection. He has 

 several small hives of humble-bees which he 

 is cultivating and experimenting with. 



The main source of honey in this part of 

 England is from sainfoin. Lucerne is also 

 grown, but it does not yield honey, no doubt 

 because they do not have the proper atmos- 

 pheric conditions for its secretion. Mr. Sla- 

 den has over 100 colonies of bees in two api- 

 aries ; had taken over a ton of honey, and is 

 getting at wholesale something like 18 to 20 

 cents per pound. I find, however, that the 

 English bee-keeper prepares his honey for 

 market much more elaborately than we do in 

 America. Extracted honey is usually put into 

 pound bottles, and neatly labeled with the 

 name of the producer ; and if he is a member 

 of an association the association label is also 

 added, which does not guarantee the purity of 

 the honey, but the character and good stand- 

 ing of the producer. In this form extracted 

 honey brings nearly the same price as comb, 

 and it is growing in favor. Comb honey is 

 invariably put into cartons of some kind, and 

 they are usually a much more elaborate kind 

 than those common with us. The standards 

 set for the shows require glass both sides, with 

 a lace-paper fringe of a certain depth all round 

 the edge of the glass, the four sides being 

 of pasteboard or tin. Much is also put up in 

 ordinary pasteboard boxes, neatly labeled. 

 There is always a good market in England for 

 honey, and the quality of much that I saw 

 seemed below the average American honey. 

 There ought to be an excellent outlet in Eu- 

 rope for all the surplus honey produced in 

 Cuba, Jamaica, and other West Indies, with- 

 out any of it finding its way into this country 

 to lower the price of our product. In fact, in 

 good seasons it should be possible to export 

 our surplus at a profit rather than see our mar- 

 ket go so low. One thing, however, will not 

 be tolerated ; and that is, shams or adultera- 



tions ; and the United States has lost prestige 

 in Europe in a way that it will be very diffi- 

 cult to regain, because of shams and adultera- 

 tions in the way of filled cheese, bogus butter, 

 poor meats, as well as adulterated honey. If 

 a producer were to make good connections 

 with distributors in England he might often 

 find a good outlet for a surplus. 



The honey crop of Great Britain was cut 

 short, and it is considered a very poor season. 

 The demand for supplies stopped almost en- 

 tirely in June, while it usually lasts through 

 Jul}' and August. As a consequence, most of 

 the dealers have considerable stock to carry 

 over till next season. The sections used in 

 Great Britain are either lj| or 2 inches wide, 

 and either two or four beeway, about equal 

 quantities of each width and style. The no- 

 beeway has not made much headway as yet, 

 owing to some unfavorable comments of some 

 of the leading writers in the British Bee Jour- 

 nal, together with the naturally conservative 

 temperament of the people, making them 

 slow to take up with new ideas, no matter how 

 good or meritorious in themselves. It is worth 

 mentioning in this connection that the first 

 and second prizes awarded for sweepstakes at 

 a pure-food show which it was my privilege to 

 attend in London, just before leaving, was 

 given to bee-keepers who use the no-beeway 

 sections, and showed them in the exhibits 

 which captured the prizes. These two pro- 

 ducers in the vicinity of London are Mr. 

 Seymour, of Henley-on-Thames, and Richard 

 Brown, of Somersham, Hunts. They, as well 

 as others who have tried the no beeway sec- 

 tions, are satisfied of their superior merits in 

 spite of the disparaging words of prominent 

 writers. 



I had a pleasant interview with Mr. Brown, 

 and he was loud in his praises of the no-bee- 

 way sections. He is, hy the way, a wide-awake 

 bee-keeper, ever on the alert for a good honey- 

 pasture for his bees, and ready to move them 

 several times a season as need requires, to se- 

 cure a profitable yield of honey as a reward 

 for his care and labor. 



One of the chief sources of honey in Scot- 

 land and north of England and Ireland is 

 heather. This little shrub with its profusion 

 of purplish-pink bloom gives the mountains a 

 ruddy, warm appearance, in spite of the cold 

 wind that often blows amid the highlands. 

 Heather honey has a reputation all its own, 

 and it seems to be an enviable one too. It 

 strongly resembles buckwheat honey, not 

 only in appearance, but somewhat in flavor. 

 The honey is a dark amber color, and the comb 

 is very white. One quite remarkable peculiar- 

 ity of heather honey lies in the fact that it 

 can not be separated from the comb by the or- 

 dinary honey-extractor, but must be pressed 

 out, thus destroying the comb for further use 

 except to melt up for wax. In view of the 

 very thick honey thrown out of the combs in 

 the dry climate of our Western States, I could 

 scarcely credit the universal impression that 

 heather honey could not be thrown out of the 

 comb with a good extractor ; yet I had no 

 means of disproving it, and was obliged to ac- 

 cept it as a fact. Presses of various patterns, 



