Oct. 27, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



727 



to give a price at which houey should sell, by taking into 

 consideration the amount produced and the probabli; 

 demand. If a reasonable view is taken of markets and 

 prices, comparing honey with other sweets, the producer 

 will be able to secure a fair price for his goods. 



The view which I take of this matter may be thoujjht 

 optimistic by some of the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal, but it is based upon actual personal experience. 

 The writer has, for 30 years, placed his price on his crop, 

 and has usually obtained it. Yet there are dozens of bee- 

 keepers on a small scale in my vicinity who have made it a 

 custom to take their honey to the city and sell it for what- 

 ever price was oflfered them. The result has been that they 

 have often accepted as low as 10 cents a pound for comb 

 honey in fine sections, while I was able to secure this price 

 on extracted honey. The isolated producer is at the mercy 

 of purchasers when he does not inform himself as to the 

 value of and demand for his product. 



It is remarkable that the farmer is usually dependent 

 upon the ideas of others for the prices that he may expect 

 for what he raises, while he, being the sinew of the Repub- 

 lic, ought to regulate prices, or at least have a voice in this. 

 It is easier for bee-keepers to unite on such a question be- 

 cause their numbers are less, and they are nearly all read- 

 ing people who can be readily induced to join hands. Of 

 course, in establishing regular prices, no unreasonable re- 

 sult must be expected. If we ask too much for what we 

 have to sell there will be no sale. But how pleasant it would 

 be for our bee-keepers, if they were able to refer to a central 

 board, to inquire as to the prospective prices, and get a 

 rational and well-substantiated reply to the question, 

 •' What shall I ask for my honey ?" There is nothing im- 

 possible or optimistic in this expectation. Even if a central 

 union could not handle all our honey — and I do not see any 

 good reason for a negative — this union could at least inform 

 each and every one of us of the amount of the crop in the 

 country, apd of the prices which we should expect to secure. 



So each and every one of us should work to enlarge the 

 membership of our National Association. We are lucky in 

 being able to say that the present General Manager is the 

 most active man that we could have selected. All who have 

 had anything to do with Mr. N. E. France, by correspond- 

 ence or otherwise, will testify that he has left nothing un- 

 done that could help the work. He has indefatigably re- 

 plied to all inquiries, has gone wherever he has thought 

 help was needed, and has carried our aims forward to the 

 best of his ability. But he is very much underpaid. Most 

 of his time during the past year has been spent in our be- 

 half for the paltry salary of $100 1 I believe that I voice 

 the sentiment of all who have had anything to do with 

 him, in asking the Board of Directors to make an investi- 

 gation and place the salary of the General Manager at a 

 fair figure. 



The Association has something like a thousand dollars 

 in its treasury, and the next two years ought more than to 

 double the annual income, if we understand our own interests. 



It is evident that the world is ripe for co-operation in 

 all lines. A sign of the times for us bee-keepers points 

 itself in the act that the bee-keepers of Europe are them- 

 selves discussing the question of association. The French 

 bee-journals for some time past have been replete with pro- 

 grams of federation, of union, of the bee-keepers associa- 

 ting in one body. This question seems in many instances 

 paramount to the questions of methods of bee-culture. 



Hamilton Co., 111. 



Bees and King-Birds and Otlier Birds. 



BY J. P. BLUNK. 



0" CLOVER BLOSSOM", where are you? Here, let's 

 shake ,^'" . Say, "Clover", did you see what Mr. H. 



B. Terril has to say about king-birds on page 604 ? 

 Will you wait here until I go out to convince him. I'll be 

 back with him in a short time. 



Good evening, Mr. Terril ; I've called to see if we can 

 come to some better conclusion in regard to the king-bird. 

 I think you will find him a better citizen than you have 

 pictured him in the American Bee Journal, as I find he 

 bears acquaintance. While passing through the gun period 

 it's an easy matter to trump up charges againt many living 

 things. You say you have kept bees for 25 years, and still 

 a-killing bee-birds I Well, I had to keep bees but a few 

 years before I learned that this world was not created for 

 bee-keepers alone and their bees. We have but a few birds 

 now — what has become of them ? Go ask the man and boy 

 with the gun. When we were boys the birds were many. 



In those days our birds did our spraying of fruit-trees. Not 

 so now, for there are too few of them. You accuse one red- 

 bird of taking 85 bees at one feed. Did you ever count the 

 bees you had crushed while putting on a super over a cross 

 colony ? Did you ever sit and look at the sight when the 

 young bees were out for a play some pleasant afternoon, 

 and conclude you could not spare a few for the birds, and 

 by doing so not lessen the surplus, rather than take the life 

 of one king-bird ? I would keep an extra colony to even 

 up matters. Surely, all living things enjoy life, and are 

 put here for a purpose. 



You say your father used to kill king-birds, which re- 

 minds me of ray father, always killing buU-snakes when he 

 could find them, while I consider the bull-snake the best 

 cat on the farm. We sometimes outgrow our dad's ideas. 

 The desire to kill is as old as the hills, and I sometimes fear 

 that man will never outgrow it. You may wonder why I 

 protect the bull-snake. He is a good mouser, and a much 

 better ground-squirrel catcher, as he will go into their holes 

 to catch them. I would rather furnish the king-bird a few 

 bees than to replant the corn after the squirrel. 



You also go loaded for the crow, which reminds me that 

 I was raised in a crow country, and thought once as you do, 

 until one day I went to a country where there were no crows, 

 and did not see a crow until I returned to my native State, 

 which was in the spring. The crows were returning, too, 

 and I then thought I had never heard anything so pleasing 

 to my ears. I stopped and listened to the din, which re- 

 minded me of home, mother, clay hills, and the old log 

 canoe on the river bank. Since then I have liked the crow. 



Last December I told the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal how I thought I had misjudged the king-bird 

 through my own blunders, by running hatching queens in 

 dead colonies ; that these run-ins had been killed in the 

 hive by the bees, and not by the king-bird. So this season 

 I operated in a different way by letting Nature take its 

 course and hatch the queen in each colony, and then I lost 

 20 percent of young queens. King-birds, some one says. I 

 say. No. I found where the blame lay. It was the old 

 man's fault again, not the birds', for I never have seen so 

 few king-birds as I did this season ; I don't think there were 

 to exceed three about the apiary during mating-time, so, of 

 course, it could not be them. 



I made a mistake when setting the hives close together 

 and in straight rows. I lost 48 percent of my bees with 

 spring dwindling. When swarming-time came I had two 

 thin, scattering rows left. The hives of all dead colonies 

 were removed, and the combs were placed in a rack under 

 the trees. These combs I placed 2 inches apart in the rack 

 to keep them from being bothered with the wax-worm, 

 which it did, and a lot of combs hang there to-day free from 

 all worms. 



As fast as swarms came ofl" I would place the old hive 

 where one had died, and I got one row replaced again. The 

 hives were just close enough to sit on one and work in the 

 next, all facing the same way. When queens took mating- 

 trips from the hives on the end of the rows they got back 

 again and would soon be laying, while those that came 

 from towards the center of the row, where they all looked 

 alike — not a few of them were lost. 



So now you see what an excellent opportunity that was 

 to saddle the blame on the king-birds. There is a good bit 

 of Adam in us all — I mean we men — we bird-killers — so 

 when we can't lay the blame on the women-folks its natural 

 in us to lay it somewhere, and poor King-bird is next in 

 order, and gets it. 



I want to make an impression on the beginners, that 

 will knock all the killing of birds out of their heads. It's 

 an easy matter to create a false impression on a beginner 

 by the older ones saying, "King-birds are bee-catchers'", 

 which will cause them to think so, too, and they get the gun 

 ready, whereas if we try to tell them that birds, too, have a 

 right in this world as well as bees, we may set a good ex- 

 ample at least. 



The other day I was talking with a bee-keeper about 

 this same thing. Here's what he told me : He had some 

 peas in the garden. A bird was seen among the peas a good 

 share of the time. He thought, of course, the bird was eat- 

 ing the peas. The gun was handy, and the bird was shot. 

 He opened the bird to see how many peas he had eaten. 

 Well, he didn't find a pea, but he did find a curious looking 

 bug, and a lot of them, too. He examined the pea-patch 

 closely, and there he found the same kind of bugs, and a 

 lot of them, too. He put the gun away, and told his wife 

 that he would never kill another bird. He said he was 

 ashamed to tell his mistake to his friends. 



So let us be doubly sure before we kill one of the feath- 



