498 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



\ng. 10, 1899. 



store anyway. I did not write about barrels theoretically. 

 In fact, I don't write in the bee-papers theoretically con- 

 cerning aiij' point. What I give is from experience of 30 

 years of dailj' practice with bees, or honey, or bee-goods. 

 So if you differ from me it is simply because you take mat- 

 ters from another stand-point ; but the acquired experience 

 of years cannot be done awaj' with by a few jokes, or a 

 sneer, and even tho I may not be approved by the mass of 

 the readers, I will stay with the assertions previously made 

 by me, that altho tin-cans are a progress, and are very 

 handy in a number of cases, still the old honey-barrel will 

 remain, in many cases, a useful vessel. 



Cogitator saj-s that I did not explain how a " glue- 

 coated " barrel could have its staves spread and closed 

 again, and yet be proof against honey soaking as before. I 

 did not think that it needed explaining, because I thought 

 any one might try and see how it behaved. The glue fills 

 up the crevices, and their spreading apart does not cause it 

 to break away from those crevices, but it simply shuts to- 

 gether when they are brought together again, and the bar- 

 rel does not leak. Facts, not fiction. The description that 

 Cogitator gives of his trial at opening a barrel simply shows 

 that he will do much better as a tinner than as a cooper. 



I have put up honey in small receptacles, both from 

 barrels and 60-pound cans, and when it comes to emptying 

 the honey of five barrels, or of its equivalent in tin-cans — 

 44 to 46 60-pound cans — give me the five barrels with all the 

 fuss of taking out the heads and putting them in again, 

 and with all the little do-funnies of the cooper that so much 

 annoy Cogitator. The 45 tin-cans may be dried on the 

 stove, sure enough — the fact is, I have done it on some of 

 them, but I got sick of it long before I got to the 45th can, 

 and my five barrels did not leak as much as those dried-up 

 cans when they happened to get a little too warm and the 

 solder run off the joints. It is evident that Cogitator had 

 only one can or two, and took his time, and had the stove 

 just right — neither too cold nor too warm — and could give 

 the steam its own time to get out of those cans thru the 

 screw-cap opening. 



A good many people succeed at one thing- while others 

 succeed at another, and we often pass by a very simple 

 thing without seeing it. So it may be that my way is not 

 the best, but I will tell you all the same how we do when we 

 extract, and Cogitator, or some other man, can tell us of a 

 better way. 



You all know that when the honey first comes from the 

 extractor, it is a little cloudy, containing chips of cappings, 

 motes, and probably a few impurities from the hive. It is 

 only after a few days that it gets bright and clear, or at 

 least after a few hours. When we 

 first extracted we had imagined that 

 we could strain it clean at once by 

 draining it thru a very fine sieve. 

 But we soon got over that fancy. 

 The very fine sieve got so stopt up 

 that it would have taken all day to 

 put in ten gallons. So it had to be 

 put aside and an ordinary flour-sieve 

 such as would stop only the large 

 pieces was svibstituted. The first 

 manufacturers of extractors labored 

 under the same delusion, and we re- 

 member that all our early-made e.x- 

 tractors were fitted with movable 

 sieves inside of the can which had to 

 be removed because they soon got 

 so stopt up that the honey would not 

 go thru them. 



Now, when we put up our honey 

 into barrels the honey settles, and 

 in about two days, if we see fit, we 

 can draw off all but about four gal- 

 lons perfectly clear. The last four 

 gallons are put in a separate vessel, 

 and in a short time the top is 

 skimmed off and our honey is all 

 clean. If we were to use tin-cans 

 first, last, and all the time, we should 

 have to draw our honey first in a 

 vessel where it would settle before 

 we filled our cans, or we should have 

 more or less skimmings in each can. 

 That is another reason that I had 

 not given before, for our preference 

 of barrels to cans when the honey is 

 first taken off. Of course, large tin 

 vessels may be used instead of wood, 

 and that is only a question of 



cooper or tinner, but I cannot see how we could go to our 

 out-apiaries with tin vessels and load and unload the crop 

 with as much ease if we used large tin-cans to put the 

 honey in until it settled, as with barrels. 



Now another thing : I am ready to assert that there is 

 more loss, on an average, with good tin vessels than with 

 wooden ones, and I see that I have a helper in the same 

 number of the American Bee Journal in which Cogitator's 

 criticism appears. On page 458, Editor Hill is quoted as 

 saying that he " has used a number of carloads of tin-cans 

 as a honey-package, and has found the percentage of loss 

 thru leakage greater than where barrels are used." Thanks, 

 Mr. Hill, for this shoulder to the wheel. 



If our tin-cans were always handled carefully there 

 would be little danger, but honey is so heavy an article that 

 the railroad folks are very often displeased when it becomes 

 necessary to handle those boxes containing" one or two 60- 

 pound cans, and the result is they are dumpt around with 

 very little ceremony. I have often known a can to become 

 emptied because one of the boards of the box had become 

 unnailed in rough handling, and the nail driven again, but, 

 driven wrong at the next turn, had been brought in con- 

 tact with the tin. These holes are worse than cracks in 

 barrels. 



Mr. Editor, pardon me for this long discussion of a sub- 

 ject which is already thoroly ventilated ; I wanted to ex- 

 plain my reasons for supporting the use of honey-barrels, 

 and for using them myself, for we are at it again, and the 

 boys have this very day filled two barrels from our home- 

 apiary. 



I do not think barrels are an absolute necessity in an 

 apiarj', but they do verj' well as a temporarj' storing-vessel, 

 and when honey is to be used for baking or for other manu- 

 facturing purposes the barrels are not to be discarded alto- 

 gether, ez'eri as a selling package. Hancock Co., 111. 



Removing- Honey by the Bee-Escape Plan. 



BY F. A. SNBI.L. 



WHEN honey is coming in slowly, or none being gath- 

 ered at the time one desires to take off honey, the 

 bee-escape is very useful or almost indispensable. 

 Near, or after, the close of a honey-flow, bees are very 

 much inclined to rob, so no honey should be exposed. A 

 bee-escape is in.serted in a board cleated to give the proper 

 space, and this board or escape is placed under each super 

 to be removed. It is so arranged that the bees can leave 



France's A'aci- for Storing Combs. 



