EDITORIAL 



'1111-: TKNI^KNH'Y of tlic tiim-s is now iiioi" 

 ;iml iiioro towanl ii central extracting station 

 w i t h complete power 

 e(iuij)nient and tanks, 

 rather than toward small 

 hand equipments at each 

 individual yard or snuill 

 portable band equipments carried from yard 

 to yard. E. E. Coveyou, Petoskey, Mich., 

 one ot" the most extensive beekeepers of 

 Aliohigan, told the Editor that it was very 

 dear to him that a large well-equipped ex- 

 tracting plant to which the extracting- 

 combs are carried and extracted, is far pre- 

 ferable to either of the other plans men- 

 tioned, for he had tried them all. His idea 

 was to have a complete power equiimient, 

 tanks and all, locateil at his home, with no 

 apiary at that point, to avoid the trouble 

 with robbers when extracting the combs;. 

 Of course, he said, there will be bees brought 

 in with the combs; but these, as they fly off 

 the combs, go toward a screen, where they 

 cluster. At the end of the day he makes 

 them up into a nucleus or colony. After he 

 accumulates two or three colonies in this 

 way he takes them to some out-location and 

 builds them up into an apiary. In this way 

 he starts new yards, saves all the bees, 

 avoids the danger of spreading foul brood 

 from robbing, and, what is of considerable 

 importance, avoids any trouble with neigh- 

 bors at out-yards. When extracting it is 

 almost impossible to avoid robbing when 

 bees are near by. When bees at the close 

 of the honey flow get a taste of new honey 

 they are apt to make things disagreeable for 

 farmers and others at an out-yard if the ex- 

 tracting is done on the spot. With his cen- 

 tral station at his home, where there are no 

 other bees, ]\Ir. Coveyou avoids all robbing, 

 .-ind tliere is no disturbance at the out-yards 

 otiier than would bo occasioned l>y taking 

 out and i)utting back the combs. 



There is another point that is worthy of 

 some consideration. The extracted honey, 

 instead of being scattered at four oi- five 

 "lifFerent yards wlnie thieves can get it, is 

 kept under lock and key at home. 



The modern automobile or automol)ile 

 truck makes it possible to haul big loads of 

 combs back and forth from the yards in 

 a way that could not have been done a few 

 years ago. It was then that a little port- 

 able extracting outfit had to be used at each 

 yaril. 



There is still one more point in favor of 

 the central station. There is no question 

 V)ut that a power extractor will get more 

 honey out of the combs than a hand extrac 

 tor; but just how much more it is impossible 

 to say, but enough more to pay for the ex- 

 tra cost of the investment at the central sta- 

 tion. 



Mr. Coveyou al.so thinks that many bee 

 keepers make a serious mistake in ha\ iiig a 



lionic yard at tlie ceiitial extracting station. 

 L'robably two-thirds of the beekeepers who 

 have central stations have a yard of bees 

 there also. This involves the nuisance of 

 robber bees, opening and closing screen 

 doors, danger of foul brood, and the seri- 

 ous danger of starting robbing and perhaps 

 a lawsuit with the neighbors whose children 

 or stock are stung. Ordinances are continu- 

 ally being introduced in councils forbidding 

 the keeping of bees within village or city 

 limits. While all such ordinances have been 

 declared unconstitutional, the main trouble 

 is not because the bees are in the village or 

 city, but because of robbing induced by ex- 

 tracting in these urban yards. 



Mr. Coveyou has a sixteen-franie power 

 extractor of novel design — one of the larg- 

 est, if not the very largest, machine in any 

 part of the United States. He has also what 

 he believes to be a practical machine for un- 

 capping combs in a wholesale way. Many 

 attempts have been made to make a machine 

 uncapper that would do the work more ex- 

 peditiously than any system of hand work. 

 But i:)ractically all of them have resulted in 

 failure. We hope to have illustrations show- 

 ing some of Mr. Coveyou 's ideas, for one 

 has only to look over his place to see that he 

 is an original genius — a man who takes long- 

 looks ahead and then puts those looks or 

 ideas, if you please, into practical applica- 

 tion. 



Mr. Coveyou is one of the original bottlers 

 of honey. He established the fact that 

 honey can be sold locally in small containers 

 some years before the large bottlers of the 

 country had got under way. Altho a com- 

 paratively j'oung man he is an old man at 

 tlie business just the same. We hope to 

 introduce him to our readers more extended- 

 ly later, and at tln^ same tinu> sliow some of 

 his ap[iaratus. 



KLSEWHEEE IN this number of Gleanings 

 we have editorially commented on the im- 

 portance of using 



Good Honey 



Versus Sugar 



For Winter Food. 



good honey 

 place of sugar for 

 wintering. Altho 

 we have referred 

 to the same thing in previous issues, the mat- 

 ter is so important that we must mention it 

 again. In the first place, there is no assur- 

 ance that we shall be able to get sugar for 

 feeding bees, at a price we can afford to pay. 

 Sugar syrup is slightly higiier than good 

 honey, and much higher than fall honey 

 There is no greater foolishness in all bee- 

 dom than to extract honey, or extract too 

 close, and feed sugar syrup. When honey 

 was relatively higher-priced, almost two to 

 one, there was some justification for feeding 

 syrup; but now that sugar .syrup is more ex- 

 pensive than honey, the good beekeeper will, 



