Feb. 25, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



135 



sentative of Denver, he welcomed the convention to the 

 city, hoped its labors would bear fruit, and stated that 

 whatever the Chamber of Commerce could do, it would be 

 only too happy to do if the convention would give sugges- 

 tions. 



Secretary Williams, of the Chamber of Commerce, 

 talked of some of the work of the Chamber, especially the 

 Live Stock Show, of the early arrival of bees in the State, 

 and oflFered the use of the dining-room and the reading-room 

 to the bee-keepers during the convention. 



PRODUCING FANCY COMB HONEY. 



A paper by W. W. Whipple, on " How to Produce Fancy 

 Comb Honey," was read, but the Secretary did not get a 

 copy of it. 



Mr. Morehouse — When putting the section super be- 

 tween the parts of the Heddon hive, have you no trouble 

 with queens ? 



Mr. Whipple — None whatever. 



Mr. Gill— I am satisfied with our grades. We shonld 

 aim to produce as little No. 2 as possible, and turn our at- 

 tention to those two grades. 



Mr. Whipple — It is a question of the Eastern markets. 

 I am in favor of a fancy white grade. 



Mr. Pease — We have lost on our honey by not having a 

 fancy white grade. 



Mr. Gill — We have such honey. 

 Mr. Pease — But we don't get paid for it. 

 Mr. Whipple — I am in favor of selling our honey by 

 weight. This year my honey averaged 26 pounds to the 

 case. 



Mr. Jouno — I am like Mr. Whipple, in favor of selling 

 honey by the pound. If our honey is a little light the con- 

 sumer comes back on us. 



Mr. Whipple — The honest way is to sell honey by the 

 pound. Eggs, too. 



Mr. Spencer — If we had grading rules so as to make 

 fancy honey, wouldn't it be an incentive for all bee-keepers 

 to try to produce fancy honey ? 



Mr. Whipple — One year I had a ton of No. 2 honey. 

 Mr. Porter — It would merely complicate matters to have 

 a fancy grade. If you have fancy, somebody else will have 

 extra fancy. In our rules, No. 1 designates the highest. It 

 expresses a good deal. If a man produces nearly all No. 1 

 he is doing well. When it comes to sending telegrams and 

 writing correspondence about a fancy grade in addition to 

 the others, it is too much. 



Mr. Whipple — The great reason for a fancy grade is, 

 that it is in all the other markets. 



Mr. Porter — In selling anything it has always been my 

 rule to let the other fellow make a little money. I am sat- 

 isfied to have our No. 1 sold as fancy in the East. 



Mr. Jouno — I am with Mr. Porter on that question. We 

 ought to have more honey in No. 3. 



Mr. Whipple — If there were a grade of fancy white, I 

 should try to have some. I am in favor of changing the 

 grading rules, and also changing them to sell honey by the 

 pound. 



Mr. Booth — The trouble in selling honey by the pound 

 is that if the sections overrun, the retailer will never get 

 anything for that. He would only get as much for IV 

 pounds in a section as for J4 of a pound. 



Mr. Spencer — Will not some object to over-weight 

 honey ? 



Mr. Porter — They do not object to it when they are buy- 

 ing by the case. 



Mr. Gill — Our honey is full weight according to the 

 grading rules. Like the foul-brood law, our rules are not 

 perfect ; but if they were changed they would be no better. 

 The double-tier case was not wanted by the trade three 

 years ago, and now it is wanted. 



Mr. Porter — Nothing is more important than this. In 

 a sense we do sell by weight. We all have our grading 

 rules, and our honey is guaranteed to come up to our grad- 

 ing rules. In some localities, to be sure, it is hard to come 

 up to them, because in those localities it is hard to get the 

 honey filled out. 



Mr. Aikin — Mr. Porter's reminder is to the point. In 

 fact, we are selling by weight. Our rules give a little lee- 

 way. Suppose we do change to sell by weight. How long 

 will it be before the different buyers squeeze us down ? They 

 will buy by weight and sell by the piece to increase their 

 profits. Whenever we say to the buyer that we guarantee 

 certain weights, he is safe, and we are safe. 



Mr. Whipple — They are not satisfied with that. Another 

 point : If they buy by the pound they can figure it up. Say 

 we ship a car-load, and Mr. Aikin brings in full weight, say 

 22 or 23 pound cases net, and another man puts in 20-pound 

 cases. Mr. Aikin's honey brings up the other to be No. 1, 

 and Mr. Aikin doesn't get enough for his honey. 



Mr. Aikin — If I can sell by the pound, and get just as 

 much as anybody, I will leave separators out and stretch 

 the sections, and get more honey in each section. But 

 where will that lead to ? We will get into hot water a whole 

 lot quicker. With one-pound sections of honey, if they are 

 produced as they ought to be, we do not get 24 or 25 pound 

 net weight per case except in very rare cases, but, as a 

 whole, they run from 20 to 23 pounds to the case. The rules 

 limit us simply to protect us from 18 and 19 pound honey. 

 They don't lead us to produce crooked and ungainly honey. 

 To illustrate : A Fort Collins grocer said to me he had got- 

 ten some honey that weighed 26 pounds net to the case. I 

 told him that could not be separatored honey, and as a mat- 

 ter of fact you could not slip out half a dozen sections from 

 a case without damaging the honey. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Mr. Richards spoke a few minutes as a representative 

 of the horticulturists, calling attention to the independent 

 existence and distinction between the State Board of Horti- 

 culture and the Colorado State Horticultural Society, with 

 both of which he is connected, and inviting the Association 

 to appoint delegates to take part in the coming annual con- 

 vention of the Colorado State Horticultural Society, and 

 contribute a paper, for which he suggested a business sub- 

 ject as likely to profit both bee-keepers and horticulturists. 

 He emphasized the necessity of sticking to one's organiza- 

 tion, and declared that when it comes to the disposing of 

 produce, no people on earth were quite so weak as the hor- 

 ticulturists. If there were anything to be found fault with 

 they would kick and grumble, but would not go after the 

 man and see to it that matters were righted. He illustrated 

 the point by the story of the negro, who, as Thanksgiving 

 time approached, prayed often and earnestly for a turkey, 

 but without avail. As a last resort he prayed, "Oh, Lawd, 

 send dis nigger after dat turkey.'' He got it. 



MANUFACTURING BEE-SUPPLIES IN COLORADO. 



" Can not something be done at this meeting in regard 

 to manufacturing supplies in Colorado ?" 



Pres. Harris — We can not go hastily. We need a good 

 business committee to investigate the prices of machinery, 

 and report at another convention. 



Mr. Morehouse — I don't think this Association is ready 

 now to take up this question. Each one would have to chip 

 in more than a little. At the present time it is better for 

 each one to make his own hives. 



F. Rauchfuss— It is quite a difficult thing in the present 

 situation. But we might do the same as the Longmont 

 people. All these supply orders would have to be filled 

 early. I move a committee be appointed to take the matter 

 under advisement, for this State and other States. 



Pres. Harris— The chair would like to defer the appoint- 

 ment of the committee. 



Mr. Morehouse— I would suggest that perhaps the Col- 

 orado Honey- Producers' Association could get such hives 

 made in Denver. 



Mr. Frank Rauchfuss then read a paper on, 



THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER QRADINQ OF COMB 

 AND EXTRACTED HONEY. 



As Colorado is now one of the States foremost in the 

 production of choice white comb honey, which is shipped in 

 car-load lots to nearly all parts of the Eastern States, it be- 

 hooves every bee-keeper to give due consideration to the 

 question of carefully grading and packing of his crop of 

 comb honey. 



As long as most of the honey produced was needed for 

 home consumption, this question of grading and packing 

 was not such an important one as it is now, when most of 

 the honey produced has to be shipped out of the State, and 

 comes in competition with the honey produced in other 

 localities. 



The grading rules adopted by the Colorado State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, some years ago, have borne some good 

 results, as now about 90 percent of the bee-keepers of north- 

 ern Colorado are using a uniform size of sections (the 4"+ x- 

 4;4xlJ.s) and a uniform style of shipping-cases (the 24-pound 



