130 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



I take I deem of importance to the 

 fraternity, in several particulars. It 

 is simple and requires no extra labor. 

 It is economical for it requires no ex- 

 tra expenditure from frames or appli- 

 ances. It can be applied to any frame 

 hive, and by any person, no matter 

 how small his experience. In order to 

 get ready for winter again it is re- 

 quired to be sure to remove a frame 

 or two, space the balance a little wi- 

 der apart, and feed the bees enough 

 to carry them through. This how- 

 ever requires very little labor. It is 

 ordinarily done with any hive, no 

 matter what method is used ; and it 

 is far less labor than is required in 

 manipulating reversing frames. There 

 is one claim made by the advocates 

 of reversing, that I have mentioned. 

 It is the idea that by reversing we 

 get our frames fully filled out. As a 

 matter of fact, however, when foun- 

 dation is used, very few frames are 

 not so filled with comb, and the few 

 that are not can be easily fixed, with- 

 out trouble or expense. I have test- 

 ed this matter as I have said, care- 

 fully, and I think so well of it, that 

 I desire it to be generally known, 

 and to be fully tested. I hope and 

 trust that full tests will be made, and 

 full reports given in regard to it. 



Foxboro, Mass., April, 1886. 



For tlie American Apicultiirist. 



COMB OR EXTRACTED 

 HONE Y— WHICH? 



Uy Allen Pringle. 



The question is often asked, espe- 

 cially by beginners in beekeeping, 

 "Which kind of honey shall we pro- 

 duce, comb or extracted?" Which 

 is more profitable? After upwards 

 of twenty years' experience my de- 

 cided conviction is and has been for 

 some time that if only one kind is 

 produced the extracted is the more 



profitable, but that it is more profita- 

 ble to produce both conjointly than 

 either one exclusively, except under 

 very special and exceptional circum- 

 stances. I hold this to be true for 

 several reasons. The first is that if 

 the apiarist does a local trade (and 

 every beekeeper ought to have more 

 or less of a home market for his 

 product) his customers will impera- 

 tively call for both kinds of honey. 

 Some will have none but comb honey, 

 and if you cannot supply them they 

 will purchase elsewhere and a good 

 future customer is lost. I say a good 

 future customer because he may not 

 be a good customer at present or so 

 long as he sticks to the comb honey, 

 for that is really less profitable to the 

 producer, unless he get ajDrice higher 

 than that usually obtained for comb 

 honey. But these sticklers for comb 

 honey and comb honey only, can 

 almost always be converted to the 

 extracted honey if you manage them 

 right, and then they become profita- 

 ble customers. I just now have in 

 mind a customer of mine whom I 

 suppHed for two or three years with 

 the choicest section comb honey — he 

 would have nothing else. He was 

 one of your stubborn Englishmen — 

 was a dry-goods merchant, and had 

 a large family. He didn't care so 

 much about the difference in the 

 prices of comb and extracted honey, 

 but was prejudiced against the lat- 

 ter (the "strained" honey) and was 

 biassed in favor of the comb and 

 would have it anyway." I finally 

 laughed the prejudice out of him 

 and argued the extracted honey into 

 him — /. <?., metaphorically speaking. 

 I chaffed him about eating beeswax. 

 I said, "if you want to eat beeswax 

 go to the apothecary and buy it at 

 fifty cents a pound after first getting 

 a medical prescription, and then eat 

 it secundum artem; but don't make 

 me a party to turning your stomach 

 into an apothecary shop !" I showed 

 him that the comb was merely wax 

 and sediment and that the extracted 



