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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLHrtAL. 



April 21, 1904. 



[ Our Bee-HccDin§ Sisters j 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Experiences in Selling Honey. 



Dear Friends : — We bee-keepers have, I believe, been 

 too nice with our honey in the past, is one reason people 

 suspect us of manufacturing our honey. When our fathers 

 used to "take honey " it was not so perfect, some bee-bread 

 and some brood in it, often, and the bos generally smeared 

 all over with bee-glue. Now we have none of those things 

 about our honey ; it is perfect, in perfectly white, clean 

 sections, and people "suspect us, and accuse us of makitig it. 



The past year we took 6000 pounds, all comb honey ex- 

 cepting about bOO pounds, and we were so driven with work 

 we just let people come to our home for it and take it as it 

 came from the hives, at whatever prices we could get for it ; 

 in SO and 100 pound lots we got 10 cents per section. We 

 just had time to scrape the tops of the sections, as they were 

 in the cases, and we found it pleased the people to find bee- 

 glue on them. They were assured the bees gathered the 

 honey — not one word of fault — and the farmer neighbors 

 from far and near came for honey the second and third 

 time, and took full cases of 36 sections each. 



The grocer soon fell into line and 'phoned us, " Bring 

 me in one, two, or three cases." Some paid cash down, 

 while others preferred to wait until the honey was all sold, 

 or if there was a section in the outside that was not filled 

 out, we took it back from the grocer. We never sold honey 

 with so much pleasure. There were no bottoms to the cases, 

 and yet I don't think one grocer found fault with leaking 

 honey ; they kept a paper under each case or super. When 

 we took them fresh honey we brought home the supers. 



We 'phoned to adjoining towns and sold several men 

 SOD pounds or more. Some we delivered, and others came 

 for it themselves in spring wagons and took it with them— 

 those same cases just as they were taken from the hive. 

 Scarcely any dripping honey, as it was not handled over to 

 be scraped ; but when we sold to the grocers in adjoining 

 towns I was careful to see that the outside sections were 

 filled out. One grocer bought 500 pounds, and telephoned 

 for us to save him 500 pounds more. 



We turned the cases bottom upward when we took them 

 ofiF of the hive, on their own honey-boards, and as there is a 

 bee-space between the honey-board and sections, the sec- 

 tions dropped down on the honey-board, thereby loosening 

 them, so they were more easily taken out of the supers. 

 We use a super holding 36 sections, 4 rows, with boards be- 

 tween each row, and 9 sections in each row. We leave them 

 bottom upwards until the honey is sold. 



DISAPPOINTED GROCERS. 



When our honey was all sold out several grocers said, 

 " Why, if we had known you were going to sell out so soon 

 we would have bought a big lot. Thought you had lots left 

 yet." 



Farmers came for it and bought it by the case. Sections 

 sold by the count, and not by the pound, although at the 

 last we had a hundred pounds or more of light sections, 

 which we sold by the pound. One woman bought a super 

 full, and after awhile spoke for SO pounds, but did not come 

 for it until we were all sold out, when she 'phoned that she 

 wanted it. I supposed she had given up wanting it, but she 

 would not give it up, so we had to withhold some from a 

 man to whom we had sold later. 



Our honey was not built with separators. Years ago 

 we used separators, but we thought the bees swarmed worse 

 when we used them, and about that time we changed our 

 supers to a super in which we can not well use separators, 

 but we are careful to have on starters, have the hives level, 

 so the comb in the section does not lean to one side, and 

 also are careful to put the starters in the center of the sec- 

 tions. 



When selling honey, if two or more sections were built 

 together, such supers were sold to private families. 



BULK OR CHUNK HONEV. 



One grocer from a neighboring town brought over si.x 

 or eight 2 and 4 gallon jars, and asked for " cut out honey," 

 offering us the same price as that in the supers. He helped 



me cut it out, not being very careful that all was sealed ; if 

 it was half sealed he took it. When he had filled his jars 

 he asked me if I had any jars to sell him, as he would take 

 more, and said he had a call for that kind of honey. I told 

 him not to put in any excepting what would sell all right. 

 I let him have one more jar, and he filled it, besides buying 

 a lard-can of candied extracted honey, paying 9 cents a 

 pound, and he also bought three or four hundred pounds in 

 supers. 



CHOICE HONEY. 



I do not think we ever had nicer honey than ours was 

 last year — very white and rich white clover, and all the fall 

 honey was very light, no dark honey. The white clover 

 was very abundant, but we could seldom see a bee at work 

 upon it. It must have been because there was so much 

 white clover and so few colonies of bees. I saw a great 

 many more bees on catnip than on white clover. 



One lady, after buying a 36-pound case three times, 

 came after all the full supers were sold and bought about 50 

 pounds of chunk or " cut out " honey. 



LARGE HIVES. 



Our hives are large because we pack in chaff and win- 

 ter the bees out-of-doors, but it makes too large a brood-nest, 

 so we keep the bees in one end of the hive in summer, and 

 put supers only on top, as we think we get nicer honey, and 

 that it is more easily handled ; but we had 3 or 4 colonies 

 we could not very well keep confined to the supers ; they 

 would, when they had two or three supers on, get out into 

 the empty space in the hive and build co.mb, so with one 

 colony I took a super and turned it upon end and set it down 

 beside the brood-nest with three supers on top, so the next 

 time I had three supers to take off all at once — about 100 

 sections — the super on end being filled out nicely. When 

 the weather was hot we unclasped and opened the front 

 board of nearly all of the hives, as our hives are not nailed 

 at the corners, but clasped or clamped, and those colonies 

 that would build outside of the supers would build right 

 ahead in plain sight, if I was not careful to cut out the 

 combs every few days. 



HANDLING SUPERS. 



We did not take out sections as fast as they were filled, 

 as some direct to be done, but removed a whole super at one 

 time. It is too much work to take out filled sections, and 

 then I think it is more apt to cause bulged sections. If the 

 sections are let alone, as the bees build them, when we use 

 no separators they will build more evenly. 



We have abandoned wintering in the cellar because of 

 so much heavy lifting for Mr. Axtell. If properly put up 

 early in the fall, with plenty of honey, they winter as well 

 for us as if they are put in the cellar, and with less trouble. 



Warren Co., 111., Feb. 4. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Your experience the past season might almost lead one 

 to believe that the effort to produce honey in the very nicest 

 shape is misdirected. It must be remembered, however, 

 that the honey was as nice as you ever had — " very white 

 and rich white clover " — that of itself would make those 

 who purchased a small quantity to desire a " second help." 



It is very likely that your customers were willing to 

 give as much to you for sections without any cleaning as 

 for honey put up in nicer shape by others ; perhaps they 

 would give more for it. But that was not necessarily be- 

 cause of the presence of bee-glue, but because of confidence 

 in you. With many there is quite a bit of pleasure in buy- 

 ing at first hands, with the comfortable assurance that they 

 are getting the genuine article. 



It is true that the exceeding beauty and regularity of 

 honey put up in the nicest shape has aroused suspicion in 

 the public mind as to its genuineness, but is not that sus- 

 picion wearing away ? -and would it be wise to begin to 

 educate the public in the other direction, so as to accept 

 unsightliness as evidence of purity ? Indeed, there is very 

 strong evidence that a great portion of the honey-consum- 

 ing public at the present day are sufficiently educated to 

 prefer honey put up in the nicest manner possible. If any 

 of the sisters has any doubt on this point, let her send to 

 any of the city markets a consignment of honey just as 

 taken from the hive, and another put up in the highest 

 style of the art, and when she receives one or two cents a 

 pound more for the latter than for the former, she will con- 

 clude that there is pay for the extra labor of preparation. 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



