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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLUINAC. 



Sept. 22, 1904. 



days that I have been undeceived. This matter of honey 

 quotations needs some airing. 



I recently wrote to a honey-dealer in Cincinnati, ask- 

 ing what he would give for fancy white clover honey in 

 cans. He replied that for such honey he would pay 6 

 cents, delivered in Cincinnati. Under date of Aug. 6 the 

 same dealer quoted amber extracted honev in cans at 6 

 cents, and fancy white clover in barrels at d^/i to 8. Why 

 such a wide difference? and why any difference at all in 

 price of fancy white clover honey? It seems to me that 

 honey all of one grade should bring a uniform price. If the 

 honey brings eyi to 8 cents in barrels, we can only, in 

 the absence of quotations, infer that it would bring a 

 little more in cans. Such quotations are either carelessly 

 or designedly misleading. Which? 



Again I ask, What are these quotations worth to the 

 honey-producer? Mr. Fred W. Muth, in his letter to the 

 Editor, remarked that honey quotations in the bee-papers 

 had evidently become a delusion to the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity. In view of the facts just related it looks as if 

 they may also have become a snare. 



It has developed recently that there are two classes 

 of men in the cities who furnish honey quotations to the 

 bee-papers, viz.: the commission man and the man who 

 buys to sell again. Some bee-keepers, I suppose, have 

 sent honey to both classes in the belief that the honey 

 would be sold and an account of sales rendered, and that 

 they would receive what the honey sold for, less freight 

 charges and the usual commission. 



If they have sent honey to the honey-buyer on the 

 strength of his quotations, and with this expectation, and 

 without previous correspondence and a previous under- 

 standing, it is my belief that some bee-keepers have been 

 disappointed with the returns for their honey. The quo- 

 tations for the different grades of honey sometiines vary 

 considerably, and the man who sends the best honey to 

 the market has a right to expect the best price for it. In 

 sending to the honey-buyer without a previous under- 

 standing with him, I will say, however, that the seller is 

 liable to be greatly disappointed. The buyer, to whom 

 the honey is sent, has the sender at his mercy, in a great 

 measure. 



If the buyer has been quoting a certain grade of 

 honey, say from 6 to 8 cents, it matters not that the 

 honey you send is the best of that grade — you cannot 

 help yourself if the price you received is the one lowest 

 quoted. Even if the honey-producer corresponds with 

 this class of honey-dealer, and thinks he is sure of getting 

 fair treatment, I feel tolerably certain that he will not al- 

 ways receive the satisfaction he looks for, unless in every 

 instance the buyer is a straight up-and-down man. 



I believe there is greater risk in dealing with the 

 honey-buyer, unless you know your man, than there is in 

 dealing with the firms and men doing a commission busi- 

 ness. The buyer may be honest, and he may be solvent, 

 and again he may be neither. If the commission man 

 defrauds you he becomes in law a criminal — the buyer 

 does not. Decatur Co., Iowa. 



[ Our Bee-Keepin$ Sisters ] 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson. Marengo, 111. 



Experience with Bees, Rendering' Beeswax, Etc. 



Under the inspiration of a perusal of the instructive 

 American Bee Journal we became enthused with the idea 

 of owning an apiary. Accordingly we purchased one 

 formerly owned by a resident of this city. She conducted 

 this very successfully for a number of years, until God 

 called her Home. We found many hives containing dead 

 bees and many old combs of granulated honey, with only 

 nine full colonies. We cleaned them up, arranging them 

 as best we could, and early in the season when there was 

 not much for bees to gather, we allowed them to extract 

 at their own sweet will all the honey in the old combs. 

 Possibly this was not wise, and some may say that it 

 encouraged robbing. But it certainly resulted in an in- 



crease of colonies for other bees began coming to us, and 

 during the swarming season one, two and once three 

 swarms came to us in a day. Our own colonies were not 

 very strong and did not swarm very much, but we in- 

 creased to 32 colonies. 



I never heard of so many bees coming and going. 

 The farmers place empty hives at different points in the 

 woods, and one man caught 27 swarms in this way. But 

 there are no sweets without some stings, and the best 

 remedy we find for them is to break off stems of milk- 

 weed and apply immediately, following with a hot paste 

 of antiphlogistine over night to draw out the swelling. 



Our first harvest was 60 pounds of extracted pure 

 sweet clover honey, and 30 pounds of comb from four 

 supers; next we took off 42 pounds of extracted from two 

 supers on one hive; next 52 pounds from three supers. 

 This is as thick as tar and very sweet and transparent. 



We are green at the work, and tried to bundle up 

 well to take off the honey, and use no smoke. But after 

 finding that the bees were cross, and that we got many 

 stings and phrenological developments, we used the 

 smoker, which quieted them and set them to eating, while 

 we walked off with the spoils. 



Where can I get a book on the use of honey as a 

 food or for culinary purposes, also for making exhibits 

 at fairs? I can readily see that the study of the methods, 

 ways and manipulation of the busy bee requires years of 

 experience, observation and hard work. 



After one has read, studied and asked all the crazy 

 questions conceivable, and thinks he is well armed for the 

 fray, he gets all the conceit taken out of him when he 

 bumps up against an unthoughtof problem. 



My little girl, seven years old, who is away on a 

 visit, writes me that she "would like to come home and 

 milk the bees, if some one would pull out the slivers first." 

 I find there is no true excellence without labor, and he 

 who would succeed must first buffet the rough waves of 

 experience, and suffer many reverses and — slivers. 



What is the best method of rendering beeswax, and 

 is there anything that can be used to whiten it. especially 

 old combs from the hives, and also the best way to clar- 

 ify or strain? 



We enjoy the American Bee Journal, and but for its 

 many instructions would never have dared to embark in 

 this sweet business. Mrs. B. J. Wade. 



Woodbury Co., la., Aug. 9. 



Your plan of leaving the depopulated hives for the 

 bees to clean out, certainly worked well in your case, see- 

 ing the material increase you secured. Indeed it is often, 

 if not always, a good plan to allow bees to take the honey 

 from hives out of which the bees have died, unless it be 

 so that the neighbors' bees get the lion's share. At times 

 when there is nothing to gather in the fields such a course 

 is a great stimulus to the bees, and some have gone so 

 far as to take combs of honey from the bees and put 

 them a short distance away, purposely to let the bees rob 

 the honey back again. 



You ask for a book on the use of honey as food or 

 for culinary purposes. Probably the nearest to such a 

 book is a leaflet on "Honey as a Health Food," written 

 by Dr. Miller and published at the office of the American 

 Bee Journal. It is also included in the book, "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees." 



Perhaps the best thing to use for extracting wax is 

 the German steam wax-press. Less expensive is the solar 

 wax-extractor, although it does not get out the wax so 

 clean. 



A simple and inexpensive way for small quantities 

 is thus given in "Forty Years Among the Bees": 



"An old dripping-pan (of course a new one would do) 

 has one corner split open and that makes the extractor. 

 The dripping-pan is put into the oven of a cook-stove, 

 with the split corner projecting out. The opposite corner, 

 the one farthest in the oven, is slightly raised by having 

 a pebble or something of the kind under it, so that the 

 melted wax will run outward. A dish set under catches 

 the dripping wax, making the outfit complete. Of course 

 the material to be melted is put in the pan, the same as in 

 the solar extractor." 



To clean wax perhaps all that is easily practicable for 

 you is to keep it liquid for a considerable time, so that 

 the itnpurities shall have plenty of time to settle. One 

 way is to put it in the oven of the range or cook-stove. 



