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78 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



Dr. Miller— It is hardly high enough then. 

 Mr. Niver— If I can get twice as much extracted from a 

 colony as I can of comb, and take care of three times as many 

 bees, I could sell the extracted honey at 5 cents, and make 

 as much money at it as I could selling comb honey at 15 

 cents. That would be about my judgment. 

 Dr. Miller— There is that "if." 



Mr. Moore — I want to call on a gentleman here to an- 

 swer that question. He is very modest and seldom talks 

 unless he is called on. What can the average bee-keep °i- 

 do in producing comb and extraced honey? If he produces 

 1,000 pounds of extracted, how much comb can he produce' 

 Mr. France, will^ou answer that? 



Mr. France — ^That has been fairly well answered. Gen- 

 erally speaking, I find about two pounds of extracted to one 

 of comb, taking it over Wisconsin. The amount of labor is 

 less in producing extracted, and the labor and expense of 

 producing comb are more. 



Mr. Moore — ^Do you mean to say that Wisconsin pro- 

 duces twice as much extracted as comb? That isn't the point. 

 The question is. If a man with 100 colonies can produce $i,oo<J 

 worth of comb honey, how much extracted can he produce 

 with the same colonies, the same year, in the same conditions? 

 Mr. France — About two to one. I think Mr. Wilcox one 

 year set apart a portion of his yard and it went a little over 

 three, did it not? 



Mr. Wilcox — More than that. 



Mr. France — I know that he was so converted to ex- 

 tracted honey that he has produced hardly anything else 

 since. 



Mr. Starkey — This question is raised. If an apiary has 

 produced 1,000 pounds of comb honey in this locality I would 

 rather think they could also gather-^,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey; that this locality would be suitable for twice that 

 number of bees if run for comb honey. I see in that a solu- 

 tion of over-crowded districts, where people running for 

 extracted get 2,000 pounds of honey„ twice the number of 

 bees will certainly get the honey and store it in combs. . 



Mr. France — I was a little interested right along that 

 line, so I took my home yard of 100 colonies half for comb 

 and half for extracted, and kept a memorandum of it, but 

 I wasn't satisfied with one year. That year it ran three to 

 one in favor of the extracted. The next year it was two and 

 one-tenth in favor of the ' extracted. It varies so with sea- 

 sons. There are other reasons more than the pounds of 

 honey. You must put in the additional labor and additional 

 cost. It is the net profits you are after. 



Mr. Wheeler — There is one point that has been over- 

 looked, and that is the weight of the hive when the bees 

 are ready for winter. I find if you produce comb honey you 

 have a colony that's better prepared for the winter than when 

 you produce the extracted. 



Mr. Longsdon — I am somewhat of the opinion that we 

 are exaggerating the amount of extracted honey that can 

 be produced over the comb. I will have to quote that old 



