1O03 



CLEAXiXCS IX r.F.E CULTURE. 



381 



the veterans. It is a little humiliating- to 

 think how many times this has happened 

 before. Now, if I have not got this right, 

 will James Martin please stand up and tell 

 us the truth in the matter ? 



Mr. Chapman recommended a plan for 

 requeening in the fall after the honey-g^ath- 

 ering- is mostly over (so that a few days 

 more or less without a queen would not be 

 of much account), by having a lot of queens 

 cells almost ready to hatch; then remove 

 the undesirable queens and give the colony 

 a cell in a queen -cell protector. Friend 

 Hutchinson suggested right here another 

 point in favor of requeening in the fall; 

 young- queens can be purchased at a lower 

 figure at such a time than at any other in 

 the season. 



WHAT TO DO WITH DARK HONEY FROM 

 THE SOLAR EXTRACTOR. 



I mentioned, while in Cuba, that the 

 honey from cappings, where it is rendered 

 by the solar wax-extractor, was too dark 

 to be marketable at a good price. Friend 

 H. K. Beecham, of "Williamsburg-, said he 

 made vinegar of this kind of honey; and, 

 in fact, he used all the sweets or sweet 

 wJfter, accumulating in the apiary, for the 

 production of vinegar. He said he had six 

 barrels of nice vineg-ar on hand at that 

 time. 



Somebody suggested that you could get 

 the honey that clings to the cappings off in 

 good shape by putting them in a pan and 

 setting them in the oven. The oven would 

 warm it up so gradually that the wax could 

 be melted without even injuring the color 

 of the honej'. Some of the women present 

 inquired what compensation the women 

 ought to have for having a man around the 

 cook-stove with the honey and wax on his 

 boots, etc. I think it must have been Bro. 

 Berg who suggested the cappings should 

 be turned over to the women, and let them 

 manage it and the oven. If I remember 

 correctly, there were some murmurs among 

 the ladies present at giving them so much 

 extra work, when perhaps their household 

 duties took all the time. Bro. Berg sug- 

 gested that they have all the honey that 

 comes from the cappings as compensation. 

 Xow, perhaps it was my imagination, in- 

 stead of one of the women, that asked if 

 thej- could not have the zvax also. Some- 

 body suggested that the greater part of the 

 honey could be squeezed out of the cappings 

 by taking a double handful and squeezing 

 them into hard tight balls, thus making 

 the honey ooze out. Well, one of these same 

 women (they did not talk out loud very 

 much, but they kept whispering to each 

 other) wanted to know whether the bee- 

 keeper took the trouble to zvas/i his hands 

 before he squeezed out this extra- fine honey 

 from the capping^s. 



While I am speaking of the bee-keepers' 

 wives and daughters present, perhaps I 

 might mention that every one seemed to be 

 •exceedingly' pleased to see Mrs. Root, for 

 almost the first time, attending a convention 

 in company with your humble servant. In 



fact, somebody, I do not know who, brought 

 an easy rocking-chair in the afternoon for 

 her to sit in. She sat in it a little while, 

 and then made the other women take it by 

 turns; and, by the way, is not that an ex- 

 cellent idea, bringing one or more easy 

 seats for the ladies, especially the elderly 

 ones? We men-folks do not get tired of 

 talking about bees and honey from eight 

 o'clock till dinner-time; and, to tell the 

 truth, a great many times the president 

 often has hard work to g-et the meeting ad- 

 journed when dinner is ready. Well, it 

 would not be at all strange if the wives and 

 daughters should get a little weary, and 

 an easy-chair or two mieht induce them to 

 come oftener. In fact, Mrs. Root has talked 

 so much about meeting the bee- keepers and 

 their families, she has at least /^arZ/j' prom- 

 ised me to go with me next time when I in- 

 vite her. 



PREVENTION OF ROBBING DURING EXTRACT- 

 ING TIME. 



When I made my last visit to the Paso Real 

 apiary, in Cuba, they had been extracting; 

 but the bees got to robbing so badly the 

 men actually had to stop work. In fact, it 

 was about the worst case of robbing I ever 

 saw — that is, that kind of robbing. In the 

 first place, our apiary of 500 colonies, where 

 the ground was as clean as a brickyard, 

 and no shade, was a bad arrangement, at 

 least when the sun got to be pretty warm, 

 as it was in February. Secondly, our peo- 

 ple there had a fashion of taking out a 

 wheelbarrow-load of empty combs and put- 

 ting them back over the hives as soon as the 

 honey was removed. At the convention at 

 Bellaire the matter was alluded to, and I 

 think it was Mr. Beecham who suggested 

 that combs right from the extractor should 

 not be put back on the hives until dusk, or 

 after dark. Why, at Paso Real I have 

 seen, I might almost say, bushels of bees, 

 instead of saying a bushel, piled all over 

 the two-story hive where a set of combs had 

 just been put on the upper story right from 

 the extractor. They covered the whole 

 hive, entrance and all; and not only that 

 hive, but the adjoining hives. Sentinels 

 and every thing of that sort were " snowed 

 under" by piles of robbers. Of course, 

 hundreds of bees were stung. A tent might 

 be used to cover one hive, but the robbers 

 poured on to the adjoining hives. My neigh- 

 bor Hilbert suggests that the reason of this 

 is that ten empty combs dripping with hon- 

 ey right from the extractor, placed over the 

 strongest colony in a yard, will have a ten- 

 dency to draw every bee in the hive (senti- 

 nels and all) right into the upper story to 

 look after these combs; and during the time 

 while the bees are licking up this honey, 

 robbers can, as a rule, march right in. 

 After learning the trick — that is, when the 

 honey-yield begins to slacken, bushels of 

 robbers will follow along where extracting 

 is being done. I told them, when I saw the 

 state of affairs, to shut right down and 

 stop; but the boys said they wanted enough 

 honey to fill some barrels to be shipped 



