20 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



cessfuUy, if he has time to visit them 

 but five times a year?" 



I have g-iven my bee-business a start 

 in a new direction. I am ffoing to keep 

 more bees in one hive — and as many 

 bees in one yard as the location will 

 warrant; hen, if I want to branch out, 

 build up strong yards in various local- 

 ities, keeping- an assistant in the yards 

 constantly during the honey season, 

 with expert supervision over the whole 

 work. In my opinion, this is the only 

 thing that will be successful in this 

 locality. I think I can profitably keep 

 250 colonies in my home yard, giving 

 personal attention to the condition of 

 each colony so to be certain that all 

 are in good condition for the honey- 

 flow. In this way I expect to get sat- 

 isfactory returns for my capital and 

 labor. 



Now that I am practicing medicine, 

 I shall not be able to give quite so 

 much brawn to the business, though 

 1 still expect to invest the brain. I 

 have a good man to help me, and I 

 think I can better afford to give a good 

 part of my time to my profession, 

 especially as there is one-half the year 

 in which there is not so very urgent 

 business among the bets. 



The present status of my bee-busi- 

 ness is about as follows: 13(> extra 

 strong and heavy colonies in the cellar, 

 very quiet and in the best condition of 

 any bees I ever had; supplies enough 

 for the next two years— all paid for; a 

 tirst-class assistant; a fairly good lo- 

 cation; a disposition to have the best 

 250-colony apiary in the world, with as 

 many more colonies as the locality will 

 profitably maintain. 



GETTING AS MUCH COMB AS EXTRACTED 

 HONEY PER COLONY. 



One thing- to which I am going- to 

 give special attention in the future is 



the sale of honey. My scheme does 

 away with the middlemen, and places 

 the product direct in the hands of the 

 consumer. I have a good salesman 

 who is desirous of handling my crop 

 year after year. He makes about $5.00 

 per day and his expenses, while my 

 honey brings me 10 cents per lb. for the 

 extracted. While this seems pretty 

 good, I question if it would not be 

 better to produce comb-honey at the 

 same price, retailing it direct to the 

 consumer in 10 ttj. boxes, taken direct 

 from the hive, with no cleaning or 

 crating-. I can get as many pounds of 

 comb hone}' per colony as I can ex- 

 tracted, and I am certain my bees are 

 in much better shape. I am aware 

 that this is different than the usual 

 estimate in regard to the relative pro- 

 portions of comb and extracted honej' 

 to be obtained; but this has been my 

 experience in carefully conducted ex- 

 periments extending'- over five years. I 

 think I can produce these 10 It., boxes 

 for $1.00 each, as there is no work 

 whatever in preparing them for mar- 

 ket, except to tack on a thin cover and 

 bottom. We can sell the boxes for $1.25 

 to the consumer, and there is no com- 

 iietition with the extracted honey men, 

 and the honey is better, and the cus- 

 tomers will stay right with you. 



M. P. Cady, M. D. 



My Wisconsin friend very wisely 

 qualifies his conclusions with the 

 phrase " in this locality;" and I may 

 explain that for my guidance and en- 

 couragement, I have the years of ex- 

 perience of Mr. E. D. Townsend, of 

 tliis State, who has all this time been 

 working along this very line, and for 

 the last two years, in the vay region 

 where I am to launch my enterprise. 



WARMING A BEE CELLAR. 



How it May be Done in a Cold Snap. 



It is best to have a cellar so far be- 

 low ground as to be beyond the influ- 

 ence of frost, but, occasionally, there 



is a cellar that answers fairly well in 

 ordinary weather, but in which the 

 temperature is inclined to go too low 

 in protracted cold spells. How to 

 raise the temperature at such times is 

 something of a problem. Last Febru- 

 ary I saw an item in the Rural New 

 Yorker describing how a man kept his 



