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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of necessity be stored in the sections 

 (when those filled with comb are given) 

 until comb is built in the brood-nest, 

 and as fast as the comb is built the 

 queen fills it with eggs, and the result is 

 that the honey goes into the sections 

 where it is worth 15 cents a pound 

 while the brood-nest is filled with brood. 



With this system of management, 

 queen-excluders must be used, else the 

 queen will at once invade the sections 

 where the bees will soon empty some of 

 the cells of honey to make room for her 

 to begin laying. I have managed with- 

 out excluders by putting one or two 

 combs in the brood-nest to give the 

 queen a chance to begin laying in the 

 brood-nest when the swarm is first 

 hived, and by the time that she is well 

 started there, more cells will be built in 

 which she can lay. The brood-nest 

 being started in the right place, there it 

 will remain. 



So far as results in surplus honey are 

 concerned, I have been more successful 

 in using simply starters in the brood- 

 nest, but the objection to, their use is 

 that the combs are not always straight, 

 and often drone-comb is the result. To 

 remedy this, it has been urged that the 

 combs can be sorted over, and the im- 

 perfect ones melted into wax. 



This matter of using combs to hive 

 swarms on when producing comb honey 

 is not one of theory alone with me, as I 

 have hived one swarm on starters, then 

 one on sheets of foundation, then one on 

 drawn combs, and noted the results. I 

 continued to thus experiment year after 

 year, until I was most thoroughly con- 

 vinced that the use of drawn combs was 

 a loss. I not only secured less surplus 

 honey, but the colony was left in no 

 better condition for winter. Between 

 the use of foundation in full sheets, and 

 simply starters, there was not so much 

 difference in results, but the balance was 

 in favor of simply the starters, while 

 the cost of the foundation must be con- 

 sidered in addition. 



It was the result of these experiments 

 that led to the publication of my little 

 book on the "Production of Comb 

 Honey." Three thousand copies of the 

 book were sold, and I would be glad if 

 the purchasers of that book would tell 

 where I am at fault, if I am at fault. 



Flint, Mich. 



Sour Honey and Adulteration — 

 Both Detrimental. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY FRANK COVERDALE. 



Webster's Pocket Dictionary we offer 

 as a premium for sending only one new 

 subscriber with $1.00. It is a splendid 

 Dictionary — and just right for a pocket. 



It has always been a mystery to me, 

 since we have attained such perfect 

 machinery for throwing honey from the 

 comb, that this product should not sell 

 at a more paying figure. It is not, in 

 my opinion, he who carries on adultera- 

 tion that must stand all the blame, but 

 he who is so careless as to extract un- 

 ripe honey, let it sour, and then place 

 such on the market, or place it on the 

 market just as soon as it is extracted. 

 Such honey, sealed tight in jars or re- 

 ceptacles of any kind, will soon ferment, 

 and even if such is sold before souring, 

 it is too thin, and the consumer will say 

 there is water in that honey. 



I am sorry to say that much of this 

 sort of stuff is placed on the market — 

 far more than I had any idea of until I 

 became " cheeky " enough to take ad- 

 vantage of every opportunity to taste, 

 and what a puckery taste it is, and, to 

 my sorrow, I know that it is a fact. 



Even at the Fairs it stands on exhibit. 

 Then if our foremost brethren will do 

 this, how much more so with the less 

 experienced. I now feel confident that 

 much pure honey is on the market — that 

 which is a positive damage to our trade. 

 How long this state of things will last I 

 do not know. 



Honey, when thoroughly ripened by 

 bees, is rich, pure, sweet and healthful, 

 and such honey thrown from the comb 

 should bring a far better price on the 

 market than it does at present. 



The very best comb honey will not 

 take the place of extracted on our table. 

 Our children will cry out for extracted 

 honey. Would not the mass of people 

 at large do the same, in a measure, if 

 they were not so ofttimes "bitten" with 

 fermented, soured, and sometimes adul- 

 terated, honey ? Such honey is not as 

 good as "black-strap" molasses, and 

 until such affairs can be overcome, the 

 price for extracted honey must at large 

 remain low. 



I took some very nice honey to our 

 grocery store one day — such as could 

 hardly be expected — and the clerk said 

 that 10 cents was all that he could pay, 

 and wanted to know if it had been 

 boiled. I looked him smilingly in the 

 face, and informed him that it didn't 

 need any boiling. 



" Yes," he insisted, " it must be 

 boiled, or it would not keep." 



