1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1309 



cupying the same locality. One produces ex- 

 cellent honey; the other, honey that is no 

 better than New Orleans black-strap molas- 

 ses. The former uses queen-excluders and 

 other up-to-date appliances ; the latter does 

 not use queen-excluders. Need I say more? 

 Yes, I will say this much, after 15 years' ex- 

 perience in all parts of the American tropics, 

 that, if tropical honey is to gain its rightful 

 position in the world's markets, queen-ex- 

 cluding hcney-boards simply must be used. 

 Their use impedes the bees' progress very 

 little if entrances are provided to the honey- 

 chamber. As a matter of fact, the bees learn 

 not to pass through the zinc at all. 



It is true, some of our tropical honey is 

 dark, but this does not necessarily mean in- 

 feriority. On the contrary, heather honey, 

 which is dark and very thick, is classed in 

 Europe as extra fine. The European buyers 

 know how to detect whether honey is natural- 

 ly dark or actually dirty. Some people do not 

 believe this, and keep on shipping inferior 

 honey. The man zvho extracts from dirty 

 combs lias dirty honey. Honey is so delect- 

 able and delicate a comestible that the slight- 

 est admixture of foreign matter injures it 

 materially. Some people I know have the 

 notion that strained honey is necessarily in- 

 ferior. On the contrary, if well managed it 

 is the best there is. AH over Europe one 

 finds exquisite honey that never saw the in- 

 side of an extracter. Irrespective of other 

 considerations, the less honey is handled the 

 better, and this is secured by the principles I 

 advocate. 



The West Indian bee-keeper has two great 

 problems before him to solve — 



1. To produce the largest possible amount 

 of wax with a minimum of effort. 



2. To produce honey of the very highest 

 quality for a critical market 4,000 miles 

 away. The freight is the same whether the 

 honey be good, bad, or indifferent. 



If he follows the principles I advocate he 

 will certainly accomplish this without fail. 

 Moreover, he will do it in less time and with 

 much less labor than by Mr. Burr's methods. 



The bee-keepers of West Texas pursue 

 methods similar to mine, and I don't think 

 tliey can be called unsuccessful. The only 

 material difference is, the Texans are obliged 

 to ship the comb and the honey together as a 

 guarantee of genuineness. The West Indian 

 strains the wax out, as that is main-ly what he 

 i> looking after. He can get 33 to 35 cts. net 

 per lb. for his wax in London ; and if he can 

 average 6 lbs. per hive per annum he is well 

 satisfied. If he follows my principles he gets 

 high-grade wax with very little labor. No 

 refining, is needed. 



Mr. Burr would have us adopt the mussy, 

 laborious job of uncapping and extracting a 

 whole lot of combs in sizzling hot weather, 

 with the idea of saving the combs for next 

 season. The West Indian does not want to 

 do this at all. He wants the wax to sell to 

 some man in London. Mr. Burr admits tlie 

 bees stuff wax around and through the 



honey-board. If he will only allow the bees 

 a chance they will use the wax in making 

 combs, and there will be no further trouble. 

 I have seen bees stuff all the space between 

 the top-bars solid full because they could 

 build no comb, and didn't know what else to 

 do with the wax, apparently. 



The idea that it is ever so cold in Cuba 

 as to keep the bees out of sections nights 

 seems strange. I wonder how it is the bee- 

 keepers of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah 

 ever get a single section to eat, much less to 

 ship by the carload. They are a mile higher 

 in the air, much further north, and in a 

 climate where the nightly radiation is much 

 greater. In Cuba the finest tropical flowers 

 bloom all the year round without protection, 

 and yet it is too cold for bees ! 



It is heat, not cold, that bothers the West 

 Indian. 



About straining honey. Mr. Burr has evi- 

 dently had very little experience along this 

 line, as he states it would take 80 bags to 

 strain 300 gallons of honey. As a matter of 

 fact, it takes six bags — one for each barrel 

 if the barrels will hold 50 gallons each. No 

 tank is necessary, but a funnel in the bung- 

 hole of each barrel. It would be "just fun" 

 tci extract 300 gallons by my method — that is, 

 to cut out the combs. It is the "lightning 

 method." 



Apparently Mr, Burr thinks one can not 

 get a crop without an extractor. A German 

 wax-press is also a honey-press, and a very 

 good one. A big crop can be taken off with 

 it alone. Mr. Burr does not believe in bee- 

 escapes. I do, and there's where he and I 

 fliffer. Many of the largest and most success- 

 ful bee-keepers use them to their entire sat- 

 isfaction. 



Mr. Burr also ought to read what Mr. J. F. 

 Mclntyre, of Ventura, California, says about 

 queen-excluding honey-boards. The letter is 

 too long to quote here. See page 153, latest 

 edition of the ABC. 



Queen-excluders are just as necessary in 

 the West Indies as in California and are a 

 success in the hands of every one who knows 

 how to use them. 



THE "DISHONEST" ONE-POUNDl SECTION 



Why there will Never be a " Standard " Section 



which wtll Invariably weigh an " Honest " 



Pound. 



BY WM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



Every now and then appears an article 

 in some one of the bee papers on the above 

 subject. Various remedies are suggested, and 

 principal among them is the problem of de- 

 vising a section of such a size and shape 

 that it will weigh exactly one pound, no 

 more and no less, when finished. The writ- 

 ers seem to forget, if they have noticed it 

 at all, that force of honey7fiow, temperature, 

 and other atmospheric conditions, strength 

 of colony, building and storing propensity 

 of individual colonies, and, finally, the part 



