564 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Extracted vs. Comb Honey. 



Mr. F. L. Dougherty in the Indiana 

 Farmer argues the point thus : 



The present season's work will be 

 convincing to a majority of bee-lieep- 

 ers ; that is. the season will determine 

 which will be the most profitable to 

 produce, extracted or comb honey. 

 In our own immediate vicinity, the 

 amount of comb honey is very meager, 

 while those who worked for extracted 

 honey report a very fair crop. 



We have been long convinced that 

 for the best results, comb honey exclu- 

 sively could not be depended ou. 

 Even during the best seasons we not 

 unfrequently find colonies that are 

 slow to start in sections, losing half 

 the season before they get fairly 

 started, whereas, if plenty of empty 

 combs be given them, as in a hive 

 fixed for extracting, they go to work 

 with surprising vigor." After they 

 have worked for a few days in the 

 upper frames, if these be removed 

 and the sections substituted, they will 

 generally enter them without further 

 trouble. There are exceptions to this 

 rule, however : for we have had colo- 

 nies that would not go into the sections 

 and build comb, with any amount of 

 coaxing. 



The outlook at the beginning of the 

 present season was Hattering in the 

 extreme, and we had reason to expect 

 a good harvest ; and in many localities 

 the yield from white clover was quite 

 good, but, on account of the previous 

 bad weather, the bees were not in 

 condition to gather it. At the begin- 

 ning of the honey flow from clover, 

 when the hives should have been full 

 of brood, the combs were almost 

 empty. Consequently all the honey 

 gathered at the beginning was stored 

 in the brood-combs, to the detriment 

 of the colony, as the queen soon be- 

 came cramped for room in which to 

 lay. When these full combs were 

 removed and empty ones returned, 

 this made but little difference, as the 

 honey was easily thrown out with the 

 extractor. But" when coml) honey 

 alone was the object sought, this plan 

 would not work so well. Again we 

 find that when bees are allowed to 

 begin the storing of any great amount 

 of honey in the brood-nest, they will 

 keep it, to a greater or less extent, 

 the entire season ; or, in other words, 

 a colony that is allowed to cramp the 

 queen once, is very likely to continue 

 it throughout the season. 



Again, this teaches us that very 

 much depends on the control which is 

 had over the brood-nest, during the 

 early preparation of the colony for the 

 summer's work,— such control as can 

 be had only by the use of division- 

 boards, reducing the size of the brood- 

 nest to the necessities of the colony. 

 enlarging it only to satisfy the de- 

 mands of the queen, and so managing 

 the brood-chamber, that at the com- 

 mencement of the honey-flov/, it will 

 be entirely filled with brood, leaving 

 but little space if any in which the 

 bees may deposit honey, but forcing 

 them directly into the sections for the 

 necessary room in which to store it. 

 This we think is the only manner in- 



which comb honey can be secured 

 with any certainty, but, during a sea- 

 son like the past, it is almost impos- 

 sible to secure this end before the 

 honey-flow ceases ; consequently the 

 extractor must be brought into lise or 

 a major part of tlie crop is lost. 



Bee-Keeping in England. 



The London Daily Telegraph of July 

 22, 1884, points out the many improve- 

 ments in bee-keeping that have been 

 made within the past decade— many 

 of them even since we visited Europe, 

 in 1879. in the interests of bee-culture. 

 "We are glad to welcome our Cousins 

 to a higher grade of apiculture. The 

 Telegraph says : 



Bee-Keeping as an industry of sub- 

 stantial importance gains ground every 

 year, and the hope expressed by the 

 spokesman of the Central Society, at 

 their latest meeting, that every county 

 would soon have its branch organiza- 

 tion, bids fair to be fulfilled. During 

 the six years that have elapsed since 

 the Baroness Burdett-Coutts became 

 one of the Presidents of the " British 

 Bee-Keeping Association," the pros- 

 perity of apiculture has been very 

 marked, for in the interval, scientific 

 ingenuity has been so successfully 

 directed to the improvements of hive- 

 construction and the methods of tak- 

 ing the combs that, to quote the paper 

 which was read at the meeting refer- 

 red to above. " the bee-keeping of 

 to-day no more resembles that of the 

 past than a railway train resembles a 

 carrier's cart.' 



Indeed, there are not, probably, 

 many .Societies which in a single 

 decade of existence can point to more 

 material results, and the very bees 

 themselves, if they could compare the 

 present with what has gone before, 

 would be amazed when comparing the 

 old " go as you please "" procedure in 

 the straw-hive— when the colony had 

 to be murdered before their honey 

 could be taken, and fifty per cent, of 

 their best work was wasted and 

 thrown away. They can now look 

 around at the commodious and charm- 

 ing structures of wood and glass in 

 which they are invited to store their 

 sweet harvest, and prepare for it with 

 a regularity and geometrical accuracy 

 that must be eminently delightful to 

 these small winged Euclids of orderly 

 angles. Their lines are laid down for 

 them in wax, and each sheet of comb 

 is in width and depth and length 

 exactly the same as the next, so that 

 disparity, the bees' abomination, is 

 impossible, and mathematical exact- 

 ness, their passion, is invariably in- 

 sured. 



Still more to the point, perhaps, is 

 the fact that now, bee-keepers do not 

 suffocate their colonies whenever they 

 wish to move them, or murder them 

 whenever they wish to rob them of 

 their harvests. For such a reform as 

 this all bees should be truly grateful. 

 and, if the truth were known, they 

 probably are. 



Great, however, as has been the 

 expansion of this industry, there is 



room enough in Great Britain for an 

 enormous increase. The initial ex- 

 pense, trifling though it may seem, 

 is suflicient in many cases to deter 

 experiment, aiid. strange as it may 

 appear, local superstition has. in some 

 places, an effect in setting the country- 

 folk against the industry. ]5ut the 

 British Bee-Keeping As'sociation is 

 going tlie right way to work ; for assist- 

 ance in money to those who wish to 

 start in the enterprise and cannot 

 afford to do so. with liberal prizes and 

 substantial encouragement in the 

 direction of cheapening hives and the 

 best apparatus of the apiarist are, 

 after all, the only methods by which 

 this remunerative occupation can be 

 popularized and established. 



From other aspects than the money 

 one— and there are many who are 

 ready to confess that they recognize 

 other than material aspects in a com- 

 mercial undertaking— the culture of 

 bees abounds in interest. Quite apart 

 from the natural history of the insect 

 —which sufficed, it may be remem- 

 bered, for the life-long study of a 

 great mind, and yet was left unex- 

 hausted by his researches — the tradi- 

 tion and tolk-lore of the hives are of 

 extraordinary alnuidance and most 

 curious character. In its literature 

 the sympathetic connection supposed 

 to exist between liees and their own- 

 ers—indeed, between the insects and 

 humanity — forms a very curious and 

 pleasant chapter of rural superstition. 



Quarrelsome people need never try 

 to keep bees, nor should any one hope 

 to find honey in hives, who"trespasses 

 upon a neighbor's land-marks. If a 

 bee comes into a house, it must not 

 be treated like a wasp, but deferen- 

 tially encouraged to go out. They 

 hum a hymn of joy, it is said, on 

 Christmas Eve. and on Good Friday 

 store no honey. They love children, 

 and share with the swallow the pretty 

 distinction of being the returned spir- 

 its of the little ones. Thev are em- 

 phatically the friends of man, both in 

 the sentimental fancies of literature 

 and the practical results of their 

 exemplary Industry. 



Convention Notices. 



^" The Western Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation will hold its second annual 

 meeting in Independence, Mo., Wed- 

 nesday, Thursdav and Friday, Sept. 

 24—26, 18S4. The Association will 

 endeavor to make this the most in- 

 structive and interesting meeting it 

 has yet held, and will spare no pains- 

 within its means to make it in every 

 sense valuable to all. 



C. M. Crandall, Sec. 



i@° The bee-keepers of Hancock 

 county, Ohio, met inFindFay,on Aug. 

 9, 1884, and organized an association 

 to be known as the Hancock County 

 Bee-Keepers' Association. Twenty- 

 two persons became members by pay- 

 ing the dues. 2.') cents. The As'socia- 

 tion meets again on Sept. 20, 1884, at 

 the Court House in Findlay, at 10 a. 

 m. Bee-keepers are cordially invited 

 to attend. Sam'l H. Bolton, Sec. 



P. A. RlEGLE. Pres. 



