284 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 28, 1880. 
NOTES ON THE HONEY SEASON. 
EXTRACTORS. 
Between September 4th and 18th in this part of Scotland 
we had heavy rainfalls, high winds, with an almost sunless 
sky. One day only during that period the sun shone, and 
then for a short space of time only. This has been disastrous 
alike to bees, crops of every kind, and threatening a total 
destruction in some places to the Potato crop. The other 
day of Potatoes sufficient for a family of four, only one was free 
from the disease. There has been only one day upon which 
the drones flew, the result being that only a few late-bred 
queens are fertilised. I have sufficient for my own use, but 
some friends must be disappointed. The loss in bees is but 
a trifle when compared with the crops lying upon the sodden 
soil caused by exceedingly heavy rains. 
The honey of this year here in the north is not only 
scarcer than that of last year, but is as a rule very much 
thinner and inferior in quality, most of it being quite subject 
to the extractor. The above report applies to a wide area, 
and in many places there is not even a surplus of honey on 
account of the low temperature. Where my bees stand at 
the Heather we had a fall of snow on May 13th that com¬ 
pletely buried the sheep, and frost and rain have been seldom 
absent since.' 
My own harvest of super honey is much below the average, 
but in consequence of my nuclei being in good condition to keep 
as stocks my harvest of drip honey will be as large as usual, 
most of my summer stocks being available for that purpose, 
otherwise I should have had to be content with much less 
honey. Others who have followed this system of manage¬ 
ment have also found the nuclei plan a good and profitable 
one. There is one difficulty—How are we to dispose of our 
surplus bees ? Most bee-keepers of my acquaintance are of 
the same opinion as myself, that plenty of bees in a hive now 
are as good and better than too many, which would be the 
case if we preserved all our surplus bees. I can get rid of 
all I have, but I hear from many persons that their surplus 
bees are condemned to the brimstone pit. “ What inhuman 
treatment!” som8 will say, but our system of management 
is in reality the proper one of preserving bees, but they will 
by-and-by accumulate, so much so that there will be no 
demand for surplus bees, and what is to be done with them ? 
If we were to pursue the course of spreading brood, stimu¬ 
lative feeding, and other questionable manipulations so much 
advised at the present time, we should, instead of having 
surplus bees to dispose of, be in want of many. 
I have said that the honey of this year is thinner than is 
usually the case, yielding to the extractor. When such is 
the case, and the bee-keeper has nothing but stocks to extract 
from and for stock, having no nuclei in reserve, then doubt¬ 
less it is an advantage to save the combs by its use. I have 
always advocated that the merit of everything in connection 
with bee husbandry should be proved by actual test or expe¬ 
riment. Once only at a show have we seen this done. It 
was with Abbott’s Little Wonder extractor, from which, after 
much puffing and blowing, the honey could not be moved. 
Nothing but pressing will extract the best samples of 
honey; but when that cannot be had, it is well to use the 
extractor. To ripen thin or unsealed honey by the aid of 
heat spoils its flavour, and so does extracting the thinner 
and lighter portion to be found on the top. Nevertheless, it 
is better to skim it off and give it to the bees than use heat 
to volatilise an essential element of honey. 
Are honey extractors perfect in their arrangements ? 1 
do not think so. Some are made to take one comb and 
others four. Some are driven by gear wheels, others by a 
simple crank. I prefer the silent movements of the latter, 
but with oscillation in both sorts when driven, and without 
showing any contrivance to steady or fasten them, and with 
the outlet close to the floor, as shown at all exhibitions, I 
am sure there is room for improvements in them. I would 
therefore suggest that extractors should have the cone-shaped 
bottom inverted, having its apex at the bottom. This ar¬ 
rangement would allow all the honey to flow freely towards 
it, which should have a spigot attached. The cylinder 
should be supported by three stout legs sufficiently high to 
allow a drainer and receiver to stand underneath, and means 
so that the whole thing could be fastened to prevent oscil¬ 
lation. Of course a stout girder of triangle or square shape 
must be riveted firm to support the revolving cage, which 
I would prefer to take one comb only, but steadied by an 
automatic water balance. The above is my idea of what 
an extractor should be like. 
Lately a cluster of Cyprian queen cells were forwarded 
to a gentleman by rail. When lying amongst other parcels 
at the railway station they commenced piping briskly, which 
greatly surprised the officials, who could not understand the 
strange sounds, but concluded it was a musical box playing 
foreign airs.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
HOME MARKETS FOR OUR HONEY. 
Some months ago a controversy raged upon the most proper 
measures to be taken for promoting the ready sale of honey pro¬ 
duced by cottagers and the other bee-keepers of this country. 
The end was, it will be remembered, that a British Honey Com¬ 
pany was formed, the chief supporters and, in fact, originators 
of this Company being leading members of the British Bee¬ 
keepers’ Association. The avowed object of the Company was 
to facilitate the sale of honey by bringing together the producer 
and retailer by means of the wholesale dealer. At the time I 
protested against any such method being resorted to, and pointed 
out that at the present day a directly opposite policy ought to be 
essayed and a serious effort made, not to introduce a third parti¬ 
cipator in the reduced profits of bee-keeping, but by reducing 
the number of hands through which honey had to pass before 
reaching the consumer, enable the producer to receive the differ¬ 
ence saved by knocking off one of the intermediate profits—by, in 
fact, bringing together, if not the producer and consumer, at any 
rate the producer and retailer without the intervention of any 
wholesale dealer, thus saving the profit which must otherwise 
be lost to the producer by the intervention of a fourth man. 
Protests had, however, at the time but little effect, and the 
Company was floated amid the self-laudation of a clique who 
were well represented by “George Walker, Wimbledon,” who, in 
reply to criticisms, asked those who condemned the enterprise to 
wait until sufficient time had elapsed to prove the wisdom or 
folly of estab ishing such a Company on a large scale for the 
sale not of British honey, but also of foreign bee produce, thus 
effectively and for ever keeping down in price our honey, because 
on the slightest scarcity of British honey they are at liberty to 
go to other markets and purchase what they require. 
Now, if this Company had not been formed by professed friends 
of the hee-keeper there would be little objection to what would 
in that case be a perfectly legitimate commercial enterprise, with 
the object of securing a good dividend to the shareholders and. 
fees to directors and other officials ; but when we find the Chair¬ 
man of the B.B.K.A., and Editor of the British Bee Journal, and 
others in somewhat prominent positions installed as Directors of 
the Company, it is absolutely necessary to criticise so very doubtful 
a policy. By their co-operation they give not an implied but an 
express sanction to the acts and ways of doing business of such 
Company, and authorise the purchase and sale of foreign honey 
to the detriment of home bee-keepers. They say that this is not 
so, and that the powers taken to trade in foreign honey are only 
to be used when English honey is scarce; but surely this means 
that however scarce honey may be in bad seasons, prices will vary 
but little from what can be obtained in the best years. 
It behoves us all to consider whether in following the advice 
of such interested persons we are not acting inimically to the 
true interests of bona fide bee-keepers as opposed to the bee¬ 
keeping shareholder and director At present, indeed, the matter 
might have been allowed to lie dormant, but I see in a paper read 
by the Rev. J. L. Seager at the second day Conference at the 
Colonial and Indian Exhibition on the 4th of August it is written 
thus, “ There is one point to which I especially wish to call your 
attention, and upon which I much hope we shall have a discussion. 
1 refer to the increasing difficulty of selling honey. To a 1 small 
