

68 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



The Secretary then read the following 

 paper by Mr. E. D. Townsend, of 

 Remus,' Michigan: 



THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION 

 OF EXTRACTED HONEY 



In assigning me this topic, I do not 

 suppose our Secretary had in mind that 

 I would say very much new or startling 

 on this old, worn subject, but we all 

 know that there are probably no two ex- 

 tracted-honey producers who follow the 

 same, identical procedure clear through 

 the season in producing a crop of honey. 



that is, the small lo-frame Gallup and 

 the large lo-frame Quinby almost al- 

 ways showed up poorest at extracting 

 time, and, on the other hand, those in 

 the 13-frame Gallup and lo-frame Lang- 

 stroth usually showed up best, with the 

 8 and 12 frame Langstroth and 8-frame 

 Quinby a close second. 



After this long comparison, covering 

 several j'ears each, many of the campari- 

 sons being with large numbers of 

 colonies, I do not hesitate to say that 

 for this location and my management, 

 there is no size of hive that will produce 



'i/ 



E. D. Townsend. 



Admitting this to be a fact, it is evi- 

 dent that we are not all producing ex- 

 tracted honey to the very best advan- 

 tage, which means at a less profit. Of 

 course, the location, the environment 

 of the bee-keeper, the number of bees 

 one expects to handle — all have a bear- 

 ing when discussing this subject. 



Just a word about hives, then I will 

 be ready to take up the main subject. 

 We have had extensive experience with 

 10 and 13 frame Gallup, 8 and 10 frame 

 Quinbys, and 8, 10 and 12 frame Lang- 

 stroth hives. During the whole 30 years 

 we have kept bees, many times the dif- 

 ferent sizes and styles were in the same 

 yards, so comparison of the different 

 styles and sizes were easily kept track 

 of. The results are the two extremes; 



more extracted honey, one year with 

 another, than the lo-frame Langstroth. 



Then, our preference is for a lo-frame 

 body, using 8 of the regular Langstroth 

 frames for our extracting upper-stories. 

 This size and style of hive, and upper- 

 story, suit us best, for our system of 

 management, which I am about to des- 

 cribe. 



The system we practice and recom- 

 mend for this location (northern Michi- 

 gan) for the profitable production of 

 extracted honey is as follows : 



At the close of the season (during 

 August in Kalkaska Co., and Septem- 

 ber here at Remus), our colonies are 

 all "hefted," and any we think have less 

 than 25 pounds of stores for winter are 

 fed up to 30 pounds. This gives us 



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