496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1921 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



had while in Philadelphia awaiting a con- 

 signment of 47 barrels of honey from my 

 bees. I saw a big display of section honey 

 in a grocery on Market Street. While stand- 

 ing in front of the window looking at this 

 honey, people passing by would stop to see 

 what attracted me. I would ask them, "Do 

 you think that is real bees' honey or some 

 manufactured stuff?" Ten said they thought 

 it was manufactured, and I asked, "Why do 

 you think so?" They said, "Because I 

 know they can and do manufacture it." 

 Two who had friends that had kept bees, 

 thought what they saw was real honey. One 

 who had been a beekeeper thought what he 

 saw in the window was bees' honey. One 

 man who was a chemist knew comb honey 

 could* not be manufactured. So you see 

 from that experience I concluded that 10 

 out of 14 of the city people think the honey 

 in groceries is not real honey. 



How can we hope to have people pay a 

 reasonable price and buy often anything of 

 which they have such a poor opinion? If 

 you approach people to see what they think 

 of honey, don't let them suspect you know 

 anything about it. If you do, you cannot 

 get their real opinion. There are but few 

 people who know what makes different sam- 

 ples of honey differ in color, odor, or flavor. 

 If the city people all knew, say, 12 to 24 of 

 the leading facts about honey and bees 

 (which beekeepers know), I feel sure all the 

 honey produced in the United States and 

 Canada would be consumed on the tables 

 each year by or before the new crops would 

 be offered and at a price satisfactory to bee- 

 keepers. 



Let beekeepers give to a general advertis- 

 ing fund, say, 10 cents per colony annually. 

 Do this to give people facts about honey. 

 What do you say? Come! let us do business 

 like business men! Let dealers and bottlers 

 advertise their particular label of honey in- 

 dependent of the above proposition. 



Pike Eoad, Ala. W. D. Achord. 



TO EMPTY UNFINISHED SECTIONS 



Bees Refuse to Move Sealed Honey. 

 Honey when Feeding Back 



Loss of 



Two years ago I tried a plan on a small 

 scale similar to the Deadman plan described 

 in August (1920) Gleanings for getting un- 

 finished sections cleaned up. I selected a 

 strong colony, put on a super with inch 

 starters in the sections, put a bottom-board 

 close to the side of the hive, on which I 

 piled four high the supers of unfinished sec- 

 tions and closed the entrance to the supers 

 from the outside. Then I took a piece of 

 2x4 scantling as long as the width of two 

 hives, hollowed out a groove on one side 



after the fashion of the Alexander feeder, 

 and put it under the back end of hive and 

 supers so the bees could pass freely back 

 and forth between the hive and supers. 



For a short time the bees went for the 

 unfinished sections like robbers, but as soon 

 as they found they had it all to themselves 

 they cooled down and refused to uncap any- 

 thing that was capped over. I took away 

 two of the supers so I could get at the other 

 two, uncapped the honey for them, took out 

 the sections as they were emptied, and put 

 in others, all the time watching the super 

 above the colony to see that they had room 

 to store the honey. In that way I forced 



Honey exhibit at the Bahia Exposition, Bahia, 

 Brazil, 1916. 



about 100 pounds of nice clear honey on to 

 them, but it took a month to do it. By that 

 time the nights were getting too cool for 

 comb-building. 



When I took off the super I had some more 

 unfinished sections — about 20 pounds of hon- 

 ey in a 32-section super. What the bees 

 did with about 80 pounds of that fed-back 

 honey I will never tell you. 



The plan looks good in theory, but in 

 practice it was a failure. If I try it again I 

 shall use unfinished sections above the col- 

 ony, but in that case we would get patched- 

 up and unsightly sections. William Cox. 



Oakland, 111. 



[The patched-up appearance of sections 

 of honey which are finished by "feeding 

 back" can be prevented if no sections that 

 are partly sealed are given to the bees for 

 completion. Any that are partly scaled may 

 be uncapped before being given to the bees. 

 Of course, if the unfinished sections are 

 well filled, having the cells built out full 

 depth, it should not be necessary to uncap 



