THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



81 



much difference made in prices, by them, 

 for any certain grade, it does not pay the 

 producer to take too much pains. My ex- 

 tracted honey is always sold direct to con- 

 sumers, and at about the same price that is 

 received by most bee keepers for comb 

 honey. I am the "middleman" as well as 

 the producer, not dividing profits with any 

 one. 



Where this course is pursued, it stands the 

 bee keeper in hand to furnish only that 

 which will please and hold the customer. 



I want large hives and strong colonies — 

 these go hand in hand you know — large 

 liives are my fad now. I've had the small 

 ones, and am through with them. A strong 

 colony can ripen honey more rapidly and 

 more perfectly than it is possible with small 

 colonies in small hives. I am not particular 

 ab^at the kind of bees just so they are hust- 

 lers: hybrids, a cross between the German 

 and Italian suit me. 



As soon as white clover begins to furnish 

 surplus, all the honey in the brood combs, if 

 there is any worth mentioning from fruit 

 bloom, or other sources, that is dark, is ex- 

 tracted. 



Now, if there is anything I don't want, it 

 is frames in the supers differing in size from 

 those in the brood departments. 



If, at the end of the season, or at any time, 

 I wish to put full frames of honey from 

 supers into the brood nest, how convenient 

 to have frames all tlie same in size. I can- 

 not now use space to enumerate all the ad- 

 vantages in uniformity of frames in each 

 apartment. 



I have queen excluders for all my hives, 

 but don't always use them. In fact, I don't 

 think I will ever use them any more. Of 

 course the queen goes up into the combs 

 used for extracting purposes, but then, as 

 they aie all-worker, and, as this liberty 

 given the queen lessens the disposition to 

 swarm, I let her go. Brood doesn't bother 

 very much in extracting, unless the combs 

 are very full of brood and not honey enough 

 to pay in them. In this case they can he 

 used to form new colonies, start nuclei, or 

 lowered into the brood nest where they be- 

 long. 



Where the honey is to be ripened in the 

 hive (and who but the bees can add the gilt 

 edge) we practice tiering up, extracting only 

 after the white honey is all in and mostly 

 sealed. Extracted honey so produced can 

 not be different in any way from the best 

 comb honey, and we keep it so by at once 

 running it into our six and one-half pound 

 screw cap tiu «ans, which are sold to our 

 customers at $1.(X) each. 



But this is not the way the generality of 

 producers manage. Eight frame hives hav- 

 ing small supers of same capacity that must 

 be extracted every few days whether the 

 houey is thick or thin, is the way it is done 

 by many ; and, worse still, this green honey 

 is ran into cans, or barrels, and closed up 

 and placed in some cool building, resting 

 on a floor near the grouiid ; or, worse still, 

 it often goes to the cellar, and, if anything 

 is said about that bein^' a bad place for 

 honey, the answer is : " Oh, my cellar is 

 perfectly dry." 



It is an expense that not every one seems 

 likely to incur, to have two or three sets of 

 extracting supers and combs to be used in 

 the production of extracted honey, and it is 

 help for these beginners or persons of limit- 

 ed means, that we must furnish now. 



If hives are to be used with but a single 

 tier of combs from which to extract, I 

 would let them get as well filled as possible 

 before extracting. If no swarming is de- 

 sired a day or two of delay will make trouble. 

 Just in the nick of time, the work must be 

 done. Much of the honey will be newly 

 gathered and thin, and should be put in 

 clean, open top vessels, and placed in — well, 

 the best place I know of is a garret, where 

 the sun on the roof makes the heat intense 

 and drying. Not only this, but some pro- 

 vision must be made for circulation of air. 

 An occasional light skimming during the 

 first few days will remove the very thin nec- 

 tar that rises to the top. 



Honey so treated will be found to be 

 pretty well ripened, and although not pos- 

 sessing the finest aroma and flavor, will give 

 general satisfaction. 



I agree with your advice that honey to be 

 shipped should be put in sixty pound screw 

 cap cans. 



Honey that has candied in barrels is a 

 nuisance unless one is prepared with boiler 

 and pipes for liquifying the honey as it re- 

 mains in the barrels. 



As a section of drawn comb induces work 

 earlier in the supers, so will a frame of 

 brood taken out of the brood apartment 

 and inserted in the center of the extracting 

 combs above. This is especially the case 

 where queen excluders are used as where 

 much drawn comb is used in extracting 

 supers. 



"Kind of hives, did you say?" Well, 

 there is too much talk about kind of hives 

 for the little difference in actual profit. I 

 use the standard L. frame, but every spring 

 I get, by purchasing bees, a variety of shaped 

 hives, deep and shallow frames, but these 

 things have but little to do with the amount 

 of honey secured. Expensive hives are not 

 needed in producing extracted honey, if, in- 

 deed, in raising comb honey. Why, Mr. 

 Editor, I have some double walled hives 

 made out of shoe boxes, the material of 

 which did not cost over twenty-five cents 

 each, and I'll put them up against the best 

 ij;r».(X) hives in the land, either for comb or 

 extracted honey. It may not appear digni- 

 fied, but I must say it's all bosh to advise 

 expensive hives and outfits in the production 

 of honey that must be sold at the prices ob- 

 tained tiy the masses of producers. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va., April 28, 1890. 



Tin Cans for Storing and Liquifying Honey. 



CHALON FOWLS. 



"Y*^ DITOR REVIEW.— As others will dis- 

 V if^ cuss the best methods of raising ex- 

 jj^i^ tracted houey, I will confine myself to 

 a description of my way of storing the 

 honey, after it is raised. 



I use tin cans holding about eighteen and 

 one-half gallons, and made a little more 



