THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3292, 18 April 1917, Page 7

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

OOMB HONEY v. EXTRACTED HOMEY. I was asked this week by a beekeeper, " Does it pay as well to produce extracted honey as it does to produce comb honey?" No answer that will fit all cases can be given; but as a general rule the extracted honey will pay better. In the case, however, of the questioner, whose .location makes his main source of nectar come from manuka, there is no doubt that the comb honey will be better. Manuka honey will not extract. It is so stiff that it will not leave the combs at any pressure that would not break up the combs; and so one of tho great advantages of producing extracted honey—that of saving and putting back the combs—is lost. Manuka honey has another advantago when sold as comb honey, in that the cappings are - whiter than one would expect from honey so brown in colour. Speaking for a clover location, the advantage lies with extracted honey. The honey extracts easily, and the combs, being put back, mean a much larger return, as lees comb-building is required and larger storing accommodation is available in a heavy honey-flow. Generally it is considered a fair estimate that at least 50 per cent, more of extracted honey can be produced than of comb honey. Then there are other considerations that influence the result. One is the handling in marketing. It would seem to be the delight of railway officials and carters .to dump comb honey about as if it were made of cast-iron. 1 have had crates of sections returned to me in which tho glass front was smashed to atoms, and not one section but what was reduced to pulp. This was many years ago, and with me it marked the end of cOmb-honey production for the market. Another consideration is that tho market does not make a wide enough difference in value between the two products. To bo fair, section honey should always command 50 per cent, more value in the market than extracted honey. This it seldom or never doe 3. For at least eight years honey in parchment has commanded as good values as sections, and there is. no comparison as to safety in marketing and cost of production. It is, however, rather a pity that tho two were not on a more equal footing. Comb honey appeals to most people. It looks nice on the table—in fact, in no other form does honey appeal to the consumer so well as in the comb. In America some of the leading beekeepers, such men as Doolittlc and Dr Miller, are coinb honey men,' and with them the production of comb honey is reduced to a line art. The fact that these men have through long careers as beekeepers adhered consistently to comb honey would seem to indicate that with them tho conditions of production are more equal than they are here. BEEKEEPING ON THE WEST COAST. I have often wondered how about beekeeping on tho West Coast. This week I received a short letter from a beekeeper at Ross, Westland. In it he says: "We have no Beekeepers' Association here yet, but I believe it won't be lonpt beforo we have a chain of apiaries nil alon<r the Coast. If -wo could induce the settlers to produce honey—as there is a splendid tract of nativo bush right down this coast, —it would bo one way of helping to_ win this war. Plenty of winter feed, spring flowers galore—that is, when the sun shines. The trouble is that very often we have too much rain. Last season we got two crops of honey from tha bees, but this season we got only the January crop. In February we had a cold snap for about three weeks, and the entrances to the hives looked as if the bees lhad left." A hearty invitation was extended to J. A. to visit Ross and look up tho writer. It would be very nice, and if tho gap in tho railway was only filled up, might bo possible, but I am afraid there is no immediate prospect. COMB V. EXTRAGT. This has always been a perplexing question; but for the years 1917 and 1918 it is still more perplexing—it is momentous, if not serious. Whether one should drop tho production of comb honey, in view of the present market conditions, and produce extracted, is a matter that should not bo settled too hastily. That-? are many factors, national as well as lo>ail, that should be carefully considered beforo a final decision is reached. Wo feel thnt it would bo hardly wise or safe for us to make any recommendations as yet; but a careful survey of conditions may the intelligent reader, at least, to reach his own conclusions. The editor has Just retimed from an extended trip through tho Middle West and through* the East. Wo not only kept our eyes and ears open to _ see and hear everything we could fret hold ot. but wc> interviewed producers, large and small, and tho large buyers in various markets, and horo are soma of the. conditions that wa have nxeti. —

1. First and foremost, we may say there is a general demand for all kinds of extracted honey. At first the market was chaotic. It gradually began to _ recover itself, so that now extracted honey is scarce and prices firm. We positively know that agents are scouring tho West Indies for some large buyers in the City of New York. When those buyers are interviewed and asked what they are going to do with this honey they will give out no information. They simply say that they want tho honey, and are prepared to pay cash for it. 2. The market is overloaded with comb honey, and prices are easy. A great deal of Western comb honey is found at some particular points in the East. Some ot it has begun to granulate, or, as the saying is, '■gone back to sugar." Some large wholesale grocery concerns loaded down with some of this? product are trying to unload. Some dealers say they will never handlo comb honey again. It granulated on their hands last year, and they will not be caught again.

On tho other hand, there seems to be no complaint of Eastern comb honey, nor of Western honey that does not granulate. Much of this is moving off at fair prices. We have learned of some particular .localities in the_ East where carloads of comb honey are in storage. If this could be held in liquid condition until next season there would need be no particular concern; but it is granulated. It is but fair to state that not all Western comb honey shows this early tendency to granulate. Much of it will remain liquid as long as tho Eastern comb honey. It is but fair to say also that Western comb honey, as a rule, will grade higher than Eastern comb honey. The sections are more evenly filled, are whiter, and tho product is of good flavour. But because some Western comb honey granulates soon after cold weather sets in, that very fact adversely affects the sale of all comb honey. Some Eastern comb-honey producers aro sore over the fact. 3. Largo numbers of extractcd-honey producers are making plans to produce a largo crop next season; or, if they produce any comb honey, they will run exclusively for extracted. These people are glad that they are not comb-honey producers. The present good prices on extracted, with tho probabilities that they will hold for next season, look very encouraging. 4. A large number of comb-honey producers are going to change over to extracted. The present prices of the liquid product as compared with the comb have led them to feel that they can make more money producing the former than the latter. 5. A large number, and, perhaps, a very great majority, of comb-honey producers east of the Mississippi will continue to produce what they have been producing. They have always had good prices, and tho demand has been quite satisfactory. Then, moreover, they feel'that the time will come when there will bo a scarcity of comb honey and an over-production of extracted. 6. The two past favourable seasons in the East, at least, with good prices, will induce a large number of backlotters and farmers to keep a few bees. They have seen what their neighbours have done in honey-production; and, having discovered that bees pay a larger return on a given investment, will keep a few bees, and, of course, will produce extracted, because that requires less experience. 7. Two years ago there was an over-pro-duction of extracted and an under-produc-tion of good comb honey. Prices on the liquid article were sagging, while those on comb honey were going up. Two years ago there, was an over-production of potatoes, with the result that some farmers became disgusted. They stopped raising potatoes, entirely, and now they wish they, had kept on with them.

The comb-honey producer, remembering scino of these peculiar conditions of supply and demand, will reason that a largo number of beekeepers will change over to extracted. If they will .do as the potatofarmers did, there is a possibility that combhoney "may have a very strong demand m 1917 and 1918.

8. Wo are reliably informed that in some of tho alfalfa districts and in the arid West there are a Rood many carloads of comb honey in storage seeking a market. There is a great deal more in tho Eastern markets, and this is granulated on the hands of the dealer. In some of tho alfalfa districts beekeepers are wishing they had produced extracted instead of comb'; and some of them aro already saying that they will produce extracted honey next season, 9. As Wesley Foster says in his department, the cost of changing over from comb to extracted honey producing is no small item; but perhaps the timo has now arrived when the production of alfalfa comb honey has exceeded its demand.

10. There is one thins the beekeeper should remember, and that is, that tho business of bottling honey hns been crowing by leaps and bounds. The public is just waking up to the fact that honey is a really cheap food,and a necessary one —a food that ought to bo in every homo like ordinary granulated sugar. It is now found in our largo groceries as it never was

before. Grocers will handle bottled honey when they will not touch comb honey. For thi.j reason the demand for extracted will continue strong.—Gleaning-?.-.