170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



to the old location when moved. Several 

 experiments in moving bees to different 

 parts of the apiary, and distances from a 

 few yards to several hundred rods, were 

 quite successful early last spring. From 

 hives moved with open entrances the bees 

 returned badly. Others were closed with 

 wire cloth, and some with the entrances 

 stuffed with moss or green grass, early in 

 the morning, and moved later in the day. 

 The next day, about 11 A. M., the entrances 

 were opened and the bees given a smoking 

 on the new stands. Hardly any bees return- 

 ed. Of the two I prefer the moss or grass 

 for closing the entrances, especially at out- 

 yards; not so much danger of bees trying to 

 crowd out as with screens, and less liability 

 of suffocation, as the bees can gnaw out. 

 I tried this several times, and was well 

 pleased. I moved 30 colonies about a hun- 

 dred yards in this way in September two 

 years ago. I did not get back there until 

 seven months later, the following March, 

 and found all good and well. They released 

 themselves. 



£^ 

 SPECIALTY VS. MIXED BEE-KEEPING. 



In the January Review L. Stachelhausen 

 gives us an article full of good points on 

 bee-keeping as a specialty, in which he tells 

 us that he did not make any money until he 

 gave up every thing else. But there are, 

 evidently, two sides to the question, and F. 

 Strohschein defends his side well. He mixes 

 bee-keeping with farming. Specialization 

 brings more profit in other lines, and so it 

 does in bee-keeping. Every thing is done 

 on a large scale with short-cut methods, 

 which result in cheaper production; there- 

 fore, if the locality is favorable, and the 

 honey crop can be depended upon with cer- 

 tainty, the bee-keeper should specialize by 

 all means. 



But there is the other side of the question. 

 Not everybody can be a specialist. Some 

 bee-men have not the ability to expand, and 

 the locality may not allow it. It may al- 

 ready be stocked, or the'honey-flow may be 

 uncertain. In that case it is best to mix 

 something with bee-keeping, so that, if one 

 fails, the other may be relied upon. If 

 rightly managed, such bee-keeping will bring 

 just as good returns as the other. 



EXTRACTING HONEY BEFORE IT IS SEALED. 



At the St. Louis convention this old ques- 

 tion came up, to which General Manager 

 France protested most emphatically. He 

 gets his honey ripened by leaving it on the 

 hives until it is all sealed, even if it takes 

 all season. That is good practice, and just 

 what I have often preached; but does it al- 

 ways work? Locality! In Texas, much of 

 our honey is very thick when gathered, and 

 little wax is secreted, so that often the bees 

 do not get the combs sealed. The honey is 

 soon ripe, and it is often necessary to ex- 

 tract before the combs are even two-thirds 

 sealed. There are three reasons why it is 

 best for us to extract before the combs are 



sealed, sometimes: First, if the honey is 

 allowed to remain in the old combs, espe- 

 cially catclaw and guajilla honey, it changes 

 its color and flavor; second, some of our 

 honey granulates soon after it is ripe, and it 

 ynnst be extracted whether sealed or not; 

 third, sometimes the combs are not sealed 

 at all; and if left on the hives during the 

 winter the honey granulates. The writer 

 had just such a mess a few winters ago. 



BEE JOURNALS AND CONVENTIONS. 



When a person has occasion to travel a 

 great deal, if he comes in contact with bee- 

 keepers as they are in their homes and in 

 their apiaries he is very often alarmed at 

 some of the things that are learned in this 

 way. One of these is the lack of interest 

 on the part of many of our bee-keepers in 

 reading bee journals and attending bee- 

 keepers' conventions. This is not only true 

 of our smaller bee-keepers, but of larger 

 ones who possess several hundred colonies. 



In the first place, such persons are entire- 

 ly ignorant of any thing pertaining to up-to- 

 date and advanced bee-keeping, and they 

 trudge along in old ruts that have long been 

 abandoned by the progressive apiarist. 



Secondly, and worse than the first, after 

 they have produced a crop of honey by hard 

 labor, they are not informed as to the honey 

 market and the ruling prices. They know 

 nothing about what other and more progres- 

 sive bee-keepers are doing with their crop; 

 and the fact in many cases is that they do 

 not want to know, and consequently the 

 crop is dumped upon the market at figures 

 far below the market price. Every pro- 

 gressive bee-keeper knows the results that 

 follow such carelessness. 



I remember distinctly a case that happen- 

 ed at home several years ago. A farmer 

 bee-keeper who had just launched out in the 

 pursuit to get rich quick, as some of us 

 were doing (?), after producing several thou- 

 sand pounds of section honey took it to the 

 merchant where he was accustomed to trade. 

 He was very anxious to sell his honey, but 

 the merchant was not so anxious to buy it. 

 The bee-keeper did not know what price the 

 comb honey ought to bring, and neither did 

 the merchant. Extracted honey brought 7 

 cents at that time ; but the merchant thought 

 it much more trouble to extract the honey 

 from the combs and fix it up ready for the 

 table, so that comb honey ought to be cheap- 

 er. Finally both agreed upon this, and the 

 bee-keeper took jive cents in trade for the 

 entire crop of as nice an article of section 

 honey as I have seen on the average market. 



The same quality of section honey was 

 selling at 12J cts. apiece at the leading gro- 

 ceries of the city, while the merchant who 

 bought the section honey at that ridiculous- 

 ly low price retailed it at the same price as 

 that of extracted honey. Imagine the re- 

 sults in that market! 



Many will say that the above is an ex- 

 treme case, which it is; but it is not the 

 only one of its kind. There are, however. 



