Extracted Honey for Farmers, Etc.
The past year has been one of the poorest of all the poor years of the past, in my locality. The bees were so weak from poor wintering, and the cold, wet, backward spring made it impossible to get them ready for the harvest from clover. The flow from clover was very good; basswood was only fair, the bloom not being very profuse. At the close of the basswood season a long and protracted drouth set in, which “done up” everything brown. Bees here are very light in stores.
I worked a part of my colonies for extracted honey the past season. I used up all my empty combs that were vacated the past winter and spring. It was my first experience with extracted honey. I think it is just the way when the bees are not up to the required pressure for comb honey. If the farmers who keep bees would use the extractor, and give their bees plenty of combs at the right time, they would get more from their bees than they do. It requires a specialist to make a success at comb honey.
My best colony gave me 150 pounds of extracted honey, and my average of comb and extracted was about 20 pounds per colony, spring count. The increase was about 25 per cent.
I have some of the extra-light colored bees, and I like them. My queens are prolific, their colonies are just as populous as any of my dark ones—they are rustlers to work. If honey is left exposed, they will find it first, and get the lion’s share, too. I think they are just a little inclined to steal from the blacks. They are very easy to handle, stick right to the combs, and protect them from robbers. If they prove to be hardy to winter, I will requeen all my colonies in the spring.
C. P. McKinnon.
Bangor, Iowa, Nov. 30, 1893.