300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 15 



of the plans would be a failure. On p. 147 

 Mr. Cavanagh states that sales would be 

 made from the office, and orders shipped 

 direct from members' apiaries. That looks 

 well on paper; but is it practical? While I 

 was working in the bottling-house a sample 

 of honey came in which was good in every 

 respect; but when the shipment came the 

 honey was packed in old milk-cans that 

 had long since passed their days of useful- 

 ness, and, to cap the climax, they were tied 

 up in fertilizer-sacks which still contained 

 enough of that product to make their orig- 

 inal use apparent to all who came near 

 them. 



Just one more ease. A bee-keeper had 

 been successful in procuring a crop of fine 

 honey. It was bought from a sample. One 

 sixty-pound can was emptied in the heating 

 kettle along with some two or three hun- 

 dred pounds. We soon noticed a very 

 strong odor. Investigation revealed the 

 fact that the honey had been carelessly 

 handled, being put in a can containing lin- 

 seed oil. The result was, that about three 

 hundred pounds of honey was ruined, and 

 bottling had to be suspended until the ket- 

 tle was emptied and thoroughly cleaned. 

 Besides these two cases I have seen honey 

 come in that was so sour it was hardly fit to 

 use. Such cases as these grind hard, even 

 on men who understand handling honey; 

 but consider the effect they would have on 

 tl:e housewife, grocer, or druggist. 



On page 147 Mr. Cavanagh says further, 

 "They are paying now in the city an aver- 

 age of 20 to 25 cents per pound for extracted 

 honey, but we can market it for less by di- 

 rect means." If he can do this, I believe 

 that he has the key to the situation; but 

 from personal experience I doubt it. He 

 will have rent, insurance, fuel, taxes, cart- 

 ing, and numerous other bills. His honey 

 for table use will have to be put up in a 

 suitable package (and the trade demands 

 an expensive one), in such a way that it 

 will not granulate, which requires experi- 

 ence and costs money; and with the pres- 

 ent wholesale prices I do not think that 

 many packers are crowding John D. or 

 Andy, even if they do get from 20 to 25 cts. 

 per lb. It is not the packer or dealer who 

 gets this price, but the retailer. The pro- 

 ducer selling to the dealer in a large way 

 makes one shipment and receives the cash. 

 Thus the commission can be divided be- 

 tween the dealer and producer. 



Personally I think every bee-keeper who 

 can should work up a home trade. He 

 should use the best grade of honey put up 

 in a neat attractive package, and should 

 personally conduct a house-to-house can- 

 vass. Those who have neither time nor in- 

 clination for marketing in that way should 

 devote their energies to producing a better 

 grade of honey, and sell direct to the dis- 

 tributor who can blend, and discard honey 

 not suitable, thus putting out a uniform 

 grade. Good honey does not need to go 

 begging. 



Moorestown, N. J , March 23. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR BEGINNERS; ILLUS- 

 TRATED. 



The Use of Bee- escapes not Advisable if Queen- 

 excluders have Not been Used over the 

 Brood-chambers; How to Free the Combs 

 from Bees without Shaking them Off. 



BY E. D. TOWNSBND. 



In our outyards we can not use bee-escape 

 boards, for these do not work well except 

 when queen-excluders have been used; and 

 as we have always managed to do without 

 these latter we have to get along without 

 the escape-boards; for if there is any brood 

 above the brood-chambers the bees do not 

 desert it and go down through the escape to 

 the combs below. On this account we have 

 to depend upon other methods of freeing 

 the combs of bees — a system not without 

 its advantages, for no elaborate arrange- 

 ment is needed for reheating the honey be- ■ 

 fore extracting, as is necessary if the es- j 

 capes are used. 



It has been our experience that, if the 

 bees are shaken from combs into an empty 

 hive set on top of the brood-chamber or on 

 the ground in front of the entrance, so the 

 young bees that can not fly may run in, 

 some of the combs are cracked so that there 

 is more or less dripping of honey. This 

 drip and the exposing of the combs causes 

 robbers to be numerous. Sometimes during 

 a dearth of honey (and all our honey is ex- 

 tracted during the period when no honey is 

 coming in) , robbers are so bad that we have 

 to stop extracting for the time being until 

 things quiet down. After a few such expe- 

 riences we made an effort to impr >ve our 

 method of freeing the combs from bees. 

 With the help of the engravings I will try 

 to explain how most of this work is done 

 without exposing the combs to the robbers 

 to any great extent. 



In the last issue I described our method 

 of opening hives and removing covers, etc.; 

 so in this present article I will begin with 

 the cover removed, and give each step in 

 detail until the combs are freed from bees 

 and placed on the wheelbarrow. The use 

 of a wheelbarrow in a bee-yard will be a 

 part of my next article. 



If the reader will turn to Fig. 1 he will 

 notice that the operator is shown with the 

 smoker in both hands. This is the <'nly in- 

 stance where we use both hands for the bel- 

 lows of the smoker, and here both hands 

 are needed when smoking the greater part 

 of the bees down from an upper story. As 

 explained in my former article, the wind is 

 taken advantage of, for the smoker is so 

 placed that the smoke is blown over the 

 tops of the frames, as shown. When the 

 honey is nearly all sealed over as it should 

 be at extracting time (and as it will be if 

 proper methods are followed during the 

 honey-flow to give enough room but not 

 too much room for the storage of the honey) , 

 it is no trouble to smoke the bees down be- 

 low. Then this upper story is quickly re- 

 moved to the wheelbarrow, and covered 



