GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in the Southw^est 



Louis SCHOLii, New Braunfels, Texas. 



BULK COMB HONEY DURING THE WINTER 

 MONTHS. 



During the first years of bulk-comb-honey 

 production in Texas, the home of this prod- 

 uct, every precaution was exercised to dis- 

 pose of all of this kind of honey before the 

 cool weather of the late fall months and the 

 winter set in. This was done to evade the 

 danger from granulation of the honey, 

 which makes it unmarketable if this should 

 take place. As a result, this effort on the 

 part of the beekeepers has led to a tendency 

 to lower prices toward the end of the season. 

 The beekeepers themselves are responsible 

 for these lower prices to a large degree, in 

 that they offer their bulk comb honey for 

 less money rather than run the risk of hav- 

 ing it granulate on their hands. On the 

 other hand, most of the buyers have always 

 discontinued handling honey, and bulk comb 

 honey especially, as soon as cool weather 

 began. This is unfortunate for the beekeep- 

 er who is not able to dispose of his crop in 

 time. Some have lost considerably in a few 

 instances. 



With the idea of overcoming this difficul- 

 ty I have experimented quite a good deal 

 during three or four years, with the result 

 that I have been selling and shipping bulk 

 comb honey throughout the entire year. Al- 

 though I carried over, through last winter, 

 only about 6000 lbs. of both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey for this purpose, there will be 

 at least twice this amount used this year; 

 and the indications now are that this will 

 not be enough to fill all the orders that I am 

 reasonably expecting from the steady rate 

 they have been coming in thus far. In com- 

 parison with last year's receipt of orders up 

 to the same time in the winter, I have had 

 more than twice the number already. 



The secret of handling bulk comb honey 

 during the winter time is in the manner of 

 packing it. Unlike the methods employed 

 by most beekeepers, that of packing the en- 

 tire crop as soon as the harvest has been 

 obtained, I have very little packed in ad- 

 vance of orders for it. On the one there is 

 too much danger of the honey granulating 

 before it is sold, or at least presenting the 

 appearance of old honey when it reaches the 

 customer. Newly packed honey displays 

 that fresh appearance of new goods. 



For this reason our comb honey is kept in 

 the frames in supers, and the extracted hon- 

 ey in cans. When orders come in, the comb 

 honey is packed in the desired size of pack- 

 ages, and the extracted honey, which has 

 first been heated to a temperature of about 



150 degrees F., is poured over it quite hot — 

 not too hot, or it will melt the comb. Usu- 

 ally the extracted honey has granulated in 

 the cans ; but this does not matter, as it can 

 be liquefied easily since it must be heated 



any way. 



* * * 



STANDARDIZATION OF HIVES AND FIXTURES. 



It is rather unusual to notice so few im- 

 ]_irovements or changes in hives and other 

 beekeepers' supplies in the catalogs as this 

 year. Heretofore our first desire, upon 

 opening one of these catalogs, was to find 

 what new things were added to the list or 

 whether any of those already listed had been 

 changed or improved. 



In our opinion the beekeepers are bene- 

 fited by this greater stability in the sup- 

 plies, both in the cost of the investment as 

 well as in the greater uniformity of the 

 supplies purchased from time to time. I 

 do not want to be understood as being op- 

 posed to improvements of any kind in the 

 hives and the rest of the supplies and ap- 

 pliances. Far from that ; for, in fact, I am 

 one " who is gnilty " of having been at vari- 

 ous times instrumental in bringing about 

 certain changes and improvements in api- 

 cultural things; and a few good substantial 

 improvements have but recently been added 

 to the list of the beekeepers' necessities. 

 But I do deplore many of the radical 

 changes and so-called improvements that 

 have been put forward at various times that 

 were so entirely different from the old that 

 great expense was necessary for their adop- 

 tion. Many such changes have cost beekeep- 

 ers much money; but they are discarded 

 again, sooner or later, for " something new 

 and better "(?), and perhaps as entirely 

 different as in the first case. 



My most earnest desire has always been 

 for a more uniform standard in every tiling 

 used by the beekeeper. The less difference 

 in the large numbers of hives, supers, 

 frames, sections, bottoms, and covers, used 

 by the beekee]ters of the counti-y, the cheap- 

 er can they be manufactured. The same 

 applies to shipping-cases and eontainei's in 

 which we market our crops. It would also 

 mean much toward a reduction in the cost 

 of most other articles used. 



Tlie more complicated an article, the more 

 difficult to manufacture; and, consequently, 

 the higher the cost of production. The more 

 immerous the sizes or styles of such articles, 

 the more expensive machineiy is needed, all 

 of which costs more money. For that rea- 

 son greater simplicity and uniformity are 



