1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1341 



BEE-KEEPING IN MICHIGAN. 



A Visit to the Home of E. D. Townsend; 

 the Gasoline Extraotoi'-eiiirine Tested. 



BY H. H. ROOT. 



Last spring at the Northern Michigan Bee- 

 keepers' convention Mr. E. D. Townsend, of 

 Remi;s, invited me to make him a visit dur- 

 ing the next extracting season, and see some- 

 thing of the conditions of bee-keeping in 

 Michigan. Thinking this would be an excel- 

 lent opportunity to give the new gasoline- 

 engines for running the extractors a thoi'- 

 ough trial I had one sent on ahead by freight, 

 which, fortunately, arrived on the afternoon 

 of July 9, just al^out four hours before I did 

 myself. 



Mr. Townsend has no home yard, his bees 

 being all in out-apiaries scattered around in 

 localities which he finds by experience are 



to the yard where enough honey was capped 

 to begin extracting. At first the road led 

 through some of the most extensive potato 

 and bean fields that I have ever seen: but as 

 we got further out from the town every thing 

 began to look more and more wild, until 

 nothing could be seen but the rough under- 

 brush and small trees that had grown up aft- 

 er the lumber had been cut off years before. 

 By this time the road was but a narrow track 

 in the sand. Finally we turned abruptly to 

 the left and followed the road through the 

 brush, until, on turning again, down a little 

 hill, we came upon a clearing in which was 

 the apiary, completely surrounded by young 

 trees. See Fig. 1. A neat-looking honey- 

 house about the center of the apiary made 

 the picture complete. Fig. 2 is a closer view 

 of the building. 



It will. pay to look at this honey-house more 

 carefully. It seems like a very substantial 



FIG. 1. — PARTIAL VIEW OK ONE OF THE OUT-YAKUS OF E. 1^. TOW^NSEND, REMUS, MICH. 



the best. He has one yard about half a mile 

 south of Remus; another four miles east, one 

 four miles west, and one three miles north, 

 while there is still another much further 

 north, near Kalkaska. Many of our readers 

 will remember Mr. Townsend as a man who 

 insists on having strong colonies for the pro- 

 duction of extracted honey as well as of 

 comb honey, and one who constantly preaches 

 the doctrine of producing a better quality of 

 honey. Still, in spite of all this he does very 

 little manipulating of combs; for, as he says, 

 he does not believe in tearing a hive all to 

 pieces every little while just to see how the 

 bees are getting along. 



Early the first morning we loaded the lit- 

 tle engine on to the wagon, took a can of 

 gasoline, and started on the four-mile drive 



building, put up in the ordinary way, but it 

 is more interesting to know that it was made, 

 with two others just like it, in a shop during 

 the winter, and hauled to its present location 

 in a wagon. It is so constructed that it can 

 be taken apart in a very short time. The 

 gable roof, of course, is in two parts, making, 

 with the four sides, only six large pieces to 

 handle. The whole structure is held together 

 with l)olts. 



Different kinds of building-paper were ex- 

 perimented with for a lining to keep out 

 bees, etc.; but tar paper was finally decided 

 upon, for the reason that it is not only bee- 

 tight but mouse-tight as well. Since the tar 

 paper has been on, no mice or ants have been 

 seen. It was feared that the black paper 

 might make it pretty hot inside, when the 



