Nov. 9, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



709 



Mr. Howe— Sell it. 



Mr. Hershiser — My opinion of extracted honey is that it 

 is sent out in very bad shape. Sweet clover honey is very 

 thin if extracted before it is sealed over. 



Mr. Root— Mr. Cog-gshall claims to have no one at his 

 out-apiaries. How does he take care of them ? 



Mr. Coggshall — Large hives are of vital importance. 



Mr. Root — How do you put up your honey ? 



Mr. Coggshall— In kegs. To put it in cans would take 

 one extra hand. 



O. O. Poppleton— In a warm climate, in extracting 

 honey, we have the frames put in the extractor as they hang 

 in the hive, instead of on the end. In Cuba we used to run 

 two hands at $8 a month during the time we were engaged 

 in extracting. We have extracted as high as 2,000 pounds 

 in one day. My tank was so arranged that we could tell 

 just how much there was in it. 



Mr. Coggshall— One thing I want to speak of is the im- 

 portance of getting the bees off the combs. We go to one 

 end of a row of hives, raise the oilcloth, puff in a little 

 smoke, and the bees will go down if you give the end of the 

 oilcloth a little shake up and down for a minute or half a 

 minute. The motion makes a suction. 



F. Danzenbaker— I have noticed that when it was warm 

 the bees would get up motion. Just give them a little 

 smoke. 



Dr. Miller- Suppose you use no oilcloth, do you think it 

 worth while to have the cloth ? 



Mr. Coggshall — Certainly. 



Mr. Root — By using the suction motion the result was, 

 most of the bees would drop. 



Pres. Whitcomb— I think it is a dangerous thing to let 

 it go out that we sell honey extracted without capping. 



A sample of honey extracted before capping was shown. 



Pres. Whitcomb — This is not honey — it is nectar. 



Mr. Root— This honey ran 12 pounds to the gallon. 

 Nebraska is the only State that will produce honey that 

 weighs 13 pounds to the gallon. 



Mr. Selser— Mr. President, I think the matter that you 

 spoke of should be well aired. 



Put the honey in the sun to ripen. It is a fact, and I 

 am sorry, that honey is extracted before it is ripe. It is not 

 honey ; it is nectar. Honey, as far as weight is concerned, 

 depends largely upon the temperature to which it has been 

 exposed. I do not think the impression should go out that 

 honey is not ripened. I would like to ask Mr. Best what his 

 experience is. 



Mr. Best — If honey is not well capt it will not keep in 

 our locality, but if it is capt it will keep. 



Mr. Hershiser — I think it is easy to tell if honey is fit to 

 extract. Just turn the comb over, and if the honey falls 

 out it is not ripe, and should not be extracted. 



R. B. Chipman — I think I have handled honey as much 

 as any one who extracts. Localities differ. Honey that 

 has soured the quickest with me is honey that has not been 

 capt. The only right way to handle honey is to put it in 

 cans and never handle in any other way. Did the president 

 test accurately the honey that weighed 13 pounds ? 



Pres. Whitcomb — Yes. Heart"s-ease honey that was 

 exhibited at the World's Fair has not yet granulated. I 

 took it home in November. A man in Canada said Cuban 

 honey should weigh 13 pounds. I take it that honey is ripe, 

 under ordinary conditions, that weighs more than 11 pounds. 

 Mr. Selser — All honey is 23.5 percent water. The weight 

 of honey depends upon the amount of water in it. 

 The convention then adjourned until 7;30 p.m. 

 ICcntinued next week.] 



York's Honey Almanac is a neat little 32-page pamph- 

 let especially gotten up with a view to create a demand for 

 honey among should-be consumers. Aside from the Alma- 

 nac pages, the forepart of the pamphlet was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 effective helper in working up a home market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample for 

 a stamp ; 25 copies for 40 cents ; SO for 70 cents ; 100 for 

 $1.00; 250 for $2.25 ; 500 for $4.00. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 



The Premiums offered on page 719 are well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



How to Prepare the Bees for Winter. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT wants to know when it is best to 

 prepare his bees for winter, and thinks it will be better 

 to wait till the brood is out of the way in November, at 

 which time he can fix them up and feed them so that they 

 can carry the food right into the center of the brood-nest 

 where the brood has lately hatcht. I have been writing 

 some of late on this subject, but as the questions still come 

 in, it may be well to say a few words more along the line of 

 getting the bees ready for winter. 



To the above I would say, don't on any account wait 

 till cold weather comes before fixing the bees for winter, 

 for, if you do, winter will be almost sure to come and find 

 your bees not ready for it. Years ago I used to think that 

 the middle of November was time enough to look after the 

 winter necessities of the bees, but when that time came 

 something would occur so that I would think that waiting a 

 few more days would do no harm, and so I kept putting it 

 off' and putting it off till I was caught by snow and freezing 

 cold weather, and, as I write, I remember about writing an 

 article telling how I had equalized the stores of certain col- 

 onies when the mercury was near zero, considering that I 

 had accomplisht quite a feat in doing it. Well, the next 

 spring found me mourning the loss of many bees, and, upon 

 asking, I received advice from that great writerof yore— 

 Elisha Gallup— telling me that the months of August and 

 September were the ones in which bees should be gotten 

 ready for winter. After profiting by this advice for many 

 years, I am sure he was right, and more especially so where 

 the bees have not stores enough to carry them thru to the 

 next honev harvest. 



If there is one item above another, having great impor- 

 tance in the wintering problem, it is the securing of the 

 winter stores near and about the cluster of bees in time for 

 them to settle down into that quiescent state so conducive 

 to good wintering, prior to the middle of October, in the 

 more northern localities. 



To arrange these stores properly and seal them requires 

 warm weather; hence all will see the fallacy of putting off 

 caring for them till cold weather arrives, as is the thought 

 exprest bv our correspondent. 



To be' sure that all have the desired amount of stores, 

 there is only one certain way to do, and that is to open the 

 hives and take out each frame and weigh it, after having 

 shaken the bees off'. Next weigh a frame of empty comb, 

 or several of them, so as to know the average weight, which, 

 when deducted from the weight of those in the hive, will 

 give the weight of honey, note being made in all cases of 

 the amount of pollen the combs contain, their age, etc., 

 and the necessary allowance being made accordingly. 



Not long ago I saw it advised to put into an empty hive 

 the number of combs used in wintering, and weigh the hive 

 so arranged, when the hives in the apiary were to be 

 weighed, the amount of the other deducted, and if there 

 was 20 pounds left above this deduction there would be suf- 

 ficient stores in that hive for wintering on the summer 

 stands, and if there was 15 pounds it would do very well for 

 cellar-%vintering. No one could make any mistake in call- 

 ing such a method a careless procedure, and one which 

 would tend toward making wintering a failure. Hives sub- 

 ject to the weather weigh more than dry hives do that are 

 liable to be taken from the store-room ; colonies of bees dif- 

 fer very much as to size and weight ; old combs weigh 

 double that of new ones ; combs from a colony which was 

 queenless for some time during the summer will often con- 

 tain pollen to one-half of the amount allowed for cellar- 

 wintering; hence these and other factors make that method 

 of procedure little better than guesswork. 



Again, the amount named is too little by far, were this 

 all available stores. If after going over a hive and weigh- 

 ing each comb as I have given above, I find that there is 25 

 pounds of actual stores, I call that hive or colony all right 

 for winter. If less, it must be fed the deficiency; if more, 

 it can spare some to help another colony which is lacking 

 in that amount. In this way the whole apiary should be 



