Advanced bee-culture. 



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thoroughly bee-ripened, well preserved, 

 superior article will not bring one cent 

 more in the general market, than ordin- 

 ary, pretty good honey. Perhaps, for 

 manufacturing purposes, there is no ad- 

 vantage in having such a superior article, 

 but for table sauce there is; and the only 

 way in which the man who raises a really 

 superior article can hope to receive pay 

 for his trouble, is by selling direct to 

 consumers, or by establishing a reputa- 

 tion for his honey among dealers and 

 their customers. For a man who is so 

 situated that he can make such a market 

 for his extracted honey, I will now go 

 over the ground and tell, as concisely as 

 possible, how to raise, in the cheapest 

 manner, extracted honey that will be the 

 equal of that that drips from the delicate 

 morsel of comb at the tea table. 



Until the time of putting on the supers, 

 the management is the same as that in 

 the production of comb honey. In the 

 supers I would use shallow combs, and 

 practice tiering up, the same as in raising 

 comb honey. Right here comes in an 

 advantage not present in raising comb 

 honey; iu tiering up, we need not wait 

 for the honey to be sealed. Most bee- 

 keepers know that honey is seldom sealed 

 until it is ripened, but all do not 

 know that it may be ripe, and yet not 

 sealed. In fact, the ripening process 

 may be hastened, or made more com- 

 plete, if the sealing can be prevented. 

 In other words, the ripening process 

 goes on more slowly after the cells are 

 capped, and would not go on at all were 

 it not that the cappings are more or less 

 porous. By raising up these shallow sets 

 of combs as fast as they are filled, and 

 putting another set under thero, those 

 the farthest advanced are kept at the top, 

 and the inclination to capping thereby 

 discouraged. If the honey can become 

 thoroughly ripened, with perhaps only 

 one-third or one-half of the cells sealed, 

 what a saving there is in uncapping ! If 

 I had plenty of combs, I would leave the 

 honey in the hive until the yield from 

 one source was over. It might be pos- 



sible to have yields so abundant and pro- 

 longed as to render this plan undesired, 

 but, usually, plenty of combs would al- 

 low of. its adoption. Just notice with 

 how little labor this can be managed; we 

 have only to watch and give additional 

 room when it is needed, and hive the 

 very few swarms that issue. I would 

 use a queen excluder; then, when ready 

 to extract, there would be no brood in 

 the way. 



One of the most tedious performances 

 attending the raising of extracted honey, 

 is the getting of the bees off the combs. 

 The smoking, and shaking, and brush- 

 ing, accompanied by robber pests if the 

 work is done after the harvest is over, a 

 a scalding sun overhead, make up a 

 combination that is very trying to the 

 "nerves." There is now but little doubt, 

 that the bee escape will yet relieve the 

 bee-keeper of all this unDleasantness. It 

 will only be necessary to go around at 

 dusk and slip a thin board, containing a 

 bee escape, under each upper story. In 

 the morning each upper story with a bee 

 escape under it will be found free of bees, 

 and can be taken off and wheeled into 

 the extracting room. 



When extracting with an ordinary ex- 

 tractor, quite a little time is spent in tak- 

 ing out the combs and t,urning them. 

 The automatic, reversible machine saves 

 this time. Some bee-keepers believe that 

 there will yet be substantial improve- 

 ments in extractors. Already experi- 

 ments are being made with a view to 

 making a machine in which the combs 

 may be reversed without stopping the 

 machine. 



After the honey has been thoroughly 

 ripened, and is extracted, and found to 

 be in possession of all the fine qualities I 

 have mentioned, what shall be done with 

 it ? How shall it be treated that it may 

 retain its flavor ? The key to success in 

 this direction is exclusion of the air. 

 Seal it up in glass jars or tin cans, or in 

 clean barrels. My preference is the 60- 

 Ib., square, tin can, with screw cap, and, 

 when shipped, a jacket of wood. Some 



