December, 1909. 



American Vee Journal 



he could do. Green's first thought was 

 that the can manufacturers, too, were 

 watering their stock, or, in other words, 

 were making short-size cans this year. 

 But when he looked he found that the 

 can he was using was not of this sea- 

 son's buying, but was the same as he 

 had used the previous season, with no 

 trouble about their holding 60 pounds 

 net. 



At about this time many things 

 passed through his mind, but he could 

 not help thinking but what everything 

 would come out all right yet ; at any 

 rate the crop was about half extracted 

 now, and the honey was not so very 

 bad, either. 



The next day, true to their promise, 

 the Browns sent their boy after a pail 

 of this new honey. The Browns were 

 one of Mr. Green's best customers, and 

 never lost an opportunity of speaking 

 a good word for Green's honey; they 

 would say to any one who expressed a 

 desire to buy honey, that you "should 

 surely buy your honey of Green, for 

 you are sure, by so doing, of getting 

 the very best the bees make ;" that 

 Green is an expert at the production of 

 extracted honey, or something in this 

 strain, and by so doing Green has 

 secured many a good customer through 

 the Brown's recommendation. 



This was no news to Green, for 

 hadn't these customers told him, time 

 and again, that the Browns recom- 

 mended his honey as the best that 

 money could buy? and as they always 

 bought the best of everything, they had 

 come after his honey. 



So one can imagine how Green felt 

 when he weighed up this pail of honey 

 and found that it filled the pail rather 

 fuller than last year, and especially 

 when he cautioned the boy to be care- 

 ful not to slop and spill it; for never 

 before had he put honey on the market 

 that one would have to be careful about 

 how they carried the pail, as to its slop- 

 ping over on account of its light body. 



Green was in sore straits ; he usually 

 told his wife of his plans, and if they 

 were working as he expected, and all 

 the particulars, but somehow he did 

 not feel like talking to any one about 

 his honey crop, for, to tell the truth, 

 he was very nearly discouraged; he 

 had not really thought of selling his 

 bees and going out of the business, 

 but somehow he could not help think- 

 ing that there was less worry about the 

 farm work than there was about the 

 bees. 



It was never this way before, for it 

 was a common expression with him 

 heretofore that he would rather work 

 with the bees than on the farm. This 

 year the work flagged ; he did not work 

 with the bees with the same interest as 

 informer years; and with these few 

 upper stories the bees had to be watch- 

 ed more closely than in former years, 

 as they would get their small quarters 

 full more frequently than in former 

 seasons when he had plenty of upper 

 stories to hold the whole crop of white 

 honey, and thus had to extract but 

 once; while now, with this later plan, it 

 did seem as if it took a good part of his 

 time "tinkering with the bees," as he 

 was won't to call it; and this, too, in 

 the very busiest part of the season, 

 when he was needed in the field to help 

 take care of the hay and other crops. 



This was something new in his bee- 

 keeping experience, for never before 

 had he spent so much time with his 

 bees — valuable time, as he found out 

 when he came to settle with an extra 

 hand that was made necessary by his 

 being so much with the bees. 



Neither was Green deaf to the fact 

 that Mr. Ripe was doing nearly as 

 much work on the farm as if he had no 

 bees ; he would see him out with his 

 bee-smoker while the horses were 

 taking their feed; he could see that Mr. 

 Ripe was going over about one-third 

 of his yard each noon, and put on up- 

 per stories where they were in need of 

 room. Then the next day another third 

 would be gone over; then the third 

 day he would finish the whole yard. If 

 he was a little crowded for time, or it 

 looked a little like rain, and more hay 

 was to come in than usual that after- 

 noon, you would see that he did not 



E. D. TOWNSEND. 



even stop to lift up the full story, but, 

 instead, would put the empty story on 

 top, then some later time, when more 

 time was at his disposal, these empty 

 stories could be put below, or there 

 would be but little difference in results, 

 as he knew, if these empty stories were 

 left on top to be filled. But it was his 

 custom to lift the full story up and 

 place the empty one below, and if there 

 was time that he could possibly spare, 

 and there usually was, the empty one 

 from the top was finally placed at the 

 bottom. 



With this system of looking over 

 one-third of his yard each day, Mr. 

 Ripe was able to see inside of every 

 colony in the yard every third day — 

 plenty often enough, as the experienced 

 extracted-honey producer will ac- 

 knowledge, to secure every bit of honey 

 the location will produce. 



Mr. Green knew all this, and was 

 troubled; his honey was costing him 

 much more work than Mr. Ripe's, and 

 he knew by the number of upper stories 

 on his neighbor's bees, that Ripe was 

 securing about as much honey as he. 



Another thought uppermost in Mr. 

 Green's mind these strenuous times (as 

 he knew by previous experience), was 

 was that Ripe, by having a hand to help 

 him 2 days, would do all his extracting 



during those 2 days and be through 

 with it, and be ready for any other job 

 that might be needed doing, either on 

 the farm or selling honey, as the case 

 might be. The result was that Mr. 

 Green lost at least 3 weeks in the pro- 

 duction of his crop of honey, for this 

 was about what time he devoted to the 

 bees, in addition to the time Mr. Ripe 

 spent with his. 



It was the middle of July, and the 

 white honey-flow was over, and Green 

 was through extracting; all his open 

 storage was still full of the last extract- 

 ing of honey — " 'Twas being ripened 

 artificially," he was heard to say. 



This was the season of the "harvest 

 showers," and he, like the ordinary 

 bee-keeper, had made no provisions for 

 a fire in his honey-house to keep the 

 temperature up, and thus dry the at- 

 mosphere that was very damp this rainy 

 weather; the consequences were that 

 his honey would gather dampness dur- 

 ing the wet period — about as much 

 as would evaporate during the fair 

 weather — and he was heard to re- 

 mark that " he never before realized 

 how much water honey would take up 

 from a damp atmosphere." Even if he 

 had had a stove in the honey-house, 

 how in the world could he have spent 

 the time to have kept the fire going, for 

 wasn't he rushed to the utmost trying 

 to take care of the harvest that was cut 

 and ready to be cared for? 



I would not have the reader get the 

 impression that Mr. Green was any 

 more negligent than other farmer bee- 

 keepers (or specialists, either, for that 

 matter), for he was very painstaking, 

 energetic and thrifty, as I have said be- 

 fore ; but isn't it the record, that if any- 

 thing has to be neglected about the 

 farm, it's the bees? 



Some may think that the writer has 

 drawn an extreme picture in the above 

 case, and that any ordinary bee-keeper 

 would know better than to try to cure 

 honey artificially, without first making 

 quite extensive preparations for the 

 evaporation of his honey before under- 

 taking to cure it artificially. To this I 

 would say, that in the many honey- 

 houses I liave visited, not one in a hun- 

 dred is so arranged but that honey 

 left in open vessels would get poorer 

 in quality every minute it was left 

 open. It would be much better if it 

 were put into 60-pound cans as fast as 

 taken from the bees. The curing of 

 honey artificially is a trade, and should 

 be undertaken only by those with an 

 extended experience, and then only 

 when one is producing honey for the 

 baker, or for manufacturing purposes; 

 for no one has ever artificially cured 

 honey that had that beautiful, aromatic 

 flavor that honey has when well ripened 

 by the bees. 



Then this same honey is improved 

 by its being left on the hive after the 

 season, a; long as the weather is warm 

 and favorable, but should be taken off 

 and extracted before cool September 

 weather comes on in this locality. 



Of course, if the white honey is fol- 

 lowed with a flow from buckwheat or 

 inferior honey, the white should be ex- 

 tracted just before the dark begins to 

 come into the hive. Green knew this, 

 and when the quality of hii honey did 

 not come up to the standard of former 

 years he was discouraged. It was hard 



