Ml^t |S^^-|R^^:p^rs' ^K^^jtkm* 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF HONEY PRODUCERS 



E. B. TYRRELL, Editorand Publisher 

 Office OF Publication - - - 230 Woodlan d Aven u e 



VOL, XXIV. 



DETROIT, MICHIGAN, DECEMBER 1, 1911. 



No. 12. 



The Mo^ Profitable Year of a Twelve-Hundred 

 Colony Bee Keeper. 



M. H. MENDLESON. 



^Jl N 1897 I made the most money 

 Jl from my bees. I had then about 

 twelve hundred colonies. I pro- 

 duced both comb and extracted honey. 

 The extracted honey was sold and 

 shipped to various states in the Union. 

 I have not' my record here, but I think 

 I secured from 6 to 7 cents for the ex- 

 tracted and 12^ cents for the section 

 honey. A great part of this section 

 honey brought me 15 cents. The bulk 

 of my comb honey was sold to one 

 fancy grocery company at Los Angeles. 

 As I believe in thorough ripening of 

 my honey I have a more ready sale for 

 it at advanced prices. One firm bought 

 indirectly the bulk of my exjtracted 

 honey for years, until lately. Of late 

 years Mr. L J. Stingham has bought by 

 the carload, and whenever I had a good 

 year the bulk of it is sold to a firm at 

 Los Angeles. 



CONDITIONS FOR GOOD YIELDS. 



The conditions for our good flows 

 are wet winters with continued late 

 spring rains, favorable warm springs 

 and summers and clear weather. 



Very seldom we miss having a good 

 honey flow when the above conditions 

 exist. Of course our bees must be in 

 prime condition for these good results, 

 and there is not any reason why we 

 should not have any of these good 

 flows in the future, unless some unfor- 

 seen blight of the sages or fire destroys 

 the source of the honey flow. 



I have had a much larger flow since 

 that time from 1,870 colonies, but 1 

 lacked skilled help to care properly for 

 the bees and crop, consequently I had 

 but less than a half crop, or 101 tons, 

 which should have been from 225 to 

 275 tons by skilled assistance. You see 

 this 101 tons is but a trifle over 108 

 pounds to the colony, which should 

 have been between 200 and 300 pounds 

 per colony, which is not beyond reason 

 here on the best ranges which I have 

 and a good equipment. 



PAST FEW YEARS VERY POOR. 



The past number of years have been 

 a damper on our business. Very poor. 

 To make the business pay here bee- 

 men should have sufficient good land 



