ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 51 



If we could just reverse the prices of our honey I might see a profit 

 In extracting nice comb honey; but as It Is, and ever will be, to me It Is 

 the most foolish of all foolishness, and I doubt If any man In the United 

 States can show and prove how he can enhance the price of extracted 

 honey in the New York market, which handles more honey than all 

 our other markets put together, a fourth of a cent a pound more than 

 those large dealers can buy It for from other parts of the world. It 

 Is all right for you to make all the handle you can over this point to 

 your customers who take only a few pounds In a retail way; but when 

 your product goes Into the markets of the world In carload lots, then 

 you will find that all this nonsense about leaving your honey with your 

 bees until It Is nicely capped over amounts to naught. The dealers want 

 honey of good flavor, thick and heavy, that, as soon as the weather gets 

 cool, granulates solid, so if the head of a barrel should be knocked out 

 it could be laid down and rolled across their storehouse the same as 

 a box of cheese with the cover off. Sell them honey of that kind and 

 they will not care whether It was extracted every day or left with the 

 bees until Christmas. 



February, 1906. 



FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY. 



HOW THIS PLAN CAN BE MADE PBOPITABLE IN THE PBODUCTION OF COMB HONEY; 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THINNING THE HONEY AND FEEDING 



DTTBING A NATTTEAL HONEY-FLOW. 



My first experience along this line was something over 30 years 

 ago. The honey fed was thick extracted, and fed in its natural state 

 after the August harvest was past. This I fed for the purpose of finish- 

 ing up partly filled sections. I soon found this was a very unnatural 

 time of the year for bees to build comb, as nearly every night was quite 

 cold, with frequent frosts. I also found that it took on an average a 

 little more than 3 lbs. of extracted honey fed in this way to produce 

 1 lb. of comb honey, and it frequently granulated In the sections in a 

 short time. 



I next tried thinning the honey with boiling water to about the 

 consistency of nectar. This made a great difference in results. The 

 bees took it from their feeders more readily, and It did not require 

 nearly as much honey to fill their sections, and I was not troubled any 

 more with its granulating in the combs; but I was not satisfied to stop 

 here when I could see that it required nearly 2 lbs. of extracted honey 

 to produce one of comb, and I realized that I was fighting natural law 

 In trying to force my bees to produce comb honey decidedly out of 

 season. 



My next step was to make extracted honey very thin with hot water, 

 and feed it to certain colonies producing comb honey during the entire 

 summer harvest, giving each colony about all It could handle during the 

 night. At first I was afraid it would have a tendency to check their 



