THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



39 



All the fixtures that I shall hereafter use, 

 must be adapted to a sort of wholesale man- 

 agement: and as far as jiossible, so arranged 

 that hurrj', unskilled assistants, or even care- 

 lessness, cannot materially affect results. 

 When a swarm is hived it is worth something 

 to knoiv that the frames will be tilled with 

 straight and sub>tautial worker comb with- 

 out any lookiui,' after: and I would rather use 

 the time so saved in caring for a few addi- 

 tional colonies, which \t'ill amply make up 

 any difference in results. 



1 want my apiary so that the whole thing 

 can be picked up at short notice at any 

 season and hauled or shipped with safety to 

 the contents of the hives: so I shall use wired 

 frames. Perhaps I shall never move my bees 

 much, but I think it worth while to be pre- 

 pared for it. I may find sometimes that my 

 bees are gathering nothing, while eight or 

 ten miles away nectar is plentiful. 



Remember, all my objections are from the 

 standpoint of the large producer, and may 

 concern but little the one who has only a few 

 colonies with abundant time to look after 

 them. Perhaps in them all, I am only re- 

 counting my mistakes again, but if I ever 

 find it out, I will own up. 



With regard to "feeding back," I am not 

 sure but it is a mistake to even discuss the 

 subject. The idea that honey is often adul- 

 terated, is quite prevalent, and acts as a 

 great injury to our business. I believe 

 though, that this is largely the fault of bee- 

 keepers themselves, through unnecessary 

 zeal in keeping the subject of adulteration 

 stirred up. Whether or not this be true, it 

 especially behooves us to keep silent on any 

 point which tends to give credence and color 

 to popular misconception. The old and 

 natural belief that it was impossible to adul- 

 terate or imitate honey in the comb, receiv- 

 ed a severe blow through the ''scientific 

 pleasantries," so widely circulated through 

 the newspapers, that comlj honey was being 

 manufactured without the intervention of 

 bees. The use of foundation helped along 

 the belief in the fraud, but it was usually 

 not difficult to convince an intelligent person 

 tliat the thing was impossible. But now, just 

 as the editor of one bee journal has secured 

 the retraction of a damaging falsehood, 

 along comes the editor of another with still 

 more damaging truth. AVe can no longer 

 claim that it is impossible to manufacture 

 comb, or that it would be unprofitable to 

 feed bees for the purpose of producing 

 honey, for the editor of a prominent bee jour- 

 nal declares it both practicable and profit- 

 able. The next reporter who wishes to write 

 a sensational article on the manufacture and 

 adulteration of honey, may speak from the 

 card as it were. He may not tell the whole 

 truth, or he may tell what appears to him to 

 be truth. ''Nothing lies like the truth;" and 

 an incomplete or garbled presentation of the 

 Review's position on these points would be 

 worse than the "Wiley lie." I speak thus 

 not from any desire to find fault, but from 

 my honest convictions. 



While feeding back extracted honey to 

 secure the completion of unfinished sections, 

 might be made profitable by some men 

 under some circumstances. I very much ' 



doubt that the majority of bee-keepers could 

 make it pay. I was not very successful in 

 my experiments, simply because the weather 

 was too cold. Tliere is no incentive here to 

 resort to such means to get sections finished, 

 until the honey season closes, about the last 

 of (September. Last season our honey crop 

 was cut short by the weather becoming too 

 cold for the bees to leave the hive. No one 

 can make feeding back iirofitable at such a 

 time. I believe that at any time it would be 

 found more profitable to adopt a system of 

 management that will reduce the number of 

 unfinished sections to as low a point as pos- 

 sible, then by extracting or selling at a low 

 price, dispose of all that contains honey. 

 Dayton, III., March 2, 1889. 



In our opinion, the above is the best review 

 that has ever been given our little book 

 "The Production of Comb Honey." Very 

 wisely, our friend brings forward his weakest 

 objection first. That the hives must be suf- 

 ficiently level to bring each comb within its 

 own frame, is an objection that is easily 

 overcome. That the combs may be built 

 true inside the section!^, necessitates a reason- 

 ably level hive. So far as swarming-out is 

 concerned, ice have never been able to detect 

 any difference between swarms hived upon 

 foundation, and those simply given starters. 

 With small brood-nests and young queens, 

 we do not get three per cent, drone comb. 

 (On this point, seethe review of ''Langs- 

 troth Revised," in this number. ) With old 

 queens there will be more or less drone comb 

 constructed, and we know of no />*-oc^/co/ 

 way of avoiding it, There may be some- 

 thing peculiar about our management, that 

 we have not yet discovered, or in the stage of 

 the proceedings at which our swarms issue, 

 (never before a start is made in the supers) 

 but this is certain, that no one could wish 

 for finer combs than we secure with the 

 methods we advocate. They would, of 

 course, be more easily broken down when 

 first built, than would those built on founda- 

 tion. Did we think of moving colonies be- 

 fore the combs had acquired sufficient 

 strength, we would have the combs built in 

 frames liberally wired. Friend Green says 

 it is worth something to kiioir, when a swarm 

 is hived, that the frames will be filled with 

 good, straight, worker comb, without any 

 looking after: and, even if he doesn't get 

 quite so much lioney by filling the frames 

 with foundation, he prefers to do it, and use 

 the time saved, by having no drone comb to 

 look after, in caring for a few more bees. 

 Good. That's a gem of a thought. Those 

 who can't hive swarms upon starters only. 



