January, i 



Anu^rican Hee Journal 



or 29,900 percent of profit on capital 

 invested. That's ever so much ahead 

 of 34% percent he got in the honey- 

 business. But while he makes a profit 

 of $299 with his ax, he makes a profit 

 of $490 with his two apiaries, to say 

 nothing about his other apiaries, so he 

 is not likely to desert his bees and take 

 to the woods. 



Indeed some such view was plainly 

 in his mind, for in closing he says: "I 

 think this statement would be incom- 

 plete, unless I told what my son would 

 often say, while working this yard. The 

 expression would be something as fol- 

 lows: T could have worked 5 yards 

 for extracted honey with the same labor 

 it took to produce this crop of 2300 

 poun<is of comb honey.' " 



Without saying positively what is the 

 very best way to figure out the com- 

 parative profitableness of those two 

 apiaries, it may not be out of place to 

 say that one way would be to make a 

 comparison on the basis of the labor 



involved. 



Leaving the item of "work" out of 

 the accounts, the profits on the comb- 

 honey apiary are $311.74, and on the 

 extracting apiary $277.94. That seems 

 to put comb honey $33.80 to the good. 

 But note that "work" on comb honey is 

 charged at $75, and on extracted $25 

 — 3 times as much work in one case as 

 in the other. To make an even com- 

 parison, put 3 times as much work on 

 the extracted business, and you will 

 have a profit of 3 times $277.94 or 

 $833.82 against $311.74 for the same 

 amount of work at comb honey. Lookod 

 at in that way, extracted honey seems 

 to be more than 2% times as profitable 

 as extracted. 



Neither does that settle the matter 

 conclusively, by any means, for other 

 factors may come into the problem not 

 here considered. The answer to the 

 question while always interesting, will 

 probably always have to be settled for 

 each one by himself. 



Oliscellaheou 

 Haws -items 



Reports on Bees and the Honey Crop 



We have received quite a number of 

 these reports, which we asked for in 

 December. In the February issue we 

 expect to compile them for the informa- 

 tion of our readers. As they are still 

 coming in we thought it best to wait 

 another month before placing the re- 

 sult before our readers. \Ve would sug- 

 gest that all who will do so, kindly send 

 in their reports at once, so that we can 

 include them with others next month. 



Pasting Labels on Tin 



Paste made by mixing common wheat 

 flour with cold water, then brought to 

 a boiling point, will stick labels to tin. 

 If mixed up with warm or hot water 

 it will not stick, says Mr. W. H. Laws. 

 — Bee-Keepers' Review. 



bees have built comb in the space at 

 the bottom of the hives, filled and sealed 

 it, and I'm not sure they ever had brood 

 in it. Thev were no more restricted 

 than they always are, having abundance 

 of room in the supers. Neither did 

 the bees 'quickly remove' this honey, 

 and combs were found unemptied when 

 the false bottoms were taken out in 

 October." 



National Bee-Keepers' Association, Hon. 

 Geo. E. Hilton, of Fremont, Mich. The 

 apiary shown herewith is one of the 

 several that he owns. Mr. Hilton is an 

 excellent presiding officer, has been a 

 bee-keeper for many years, and is plan- 

 ning with the other members of the 

 recently elected Executive Committee of 

 the National to try to have the greatest 

 convention of bee-keepers next fall that 

 this country ever saw. It will likely 

 be held in some city centrally located, 

 so that the attendance may be large. 

 About the only thing needed to insure 

 the best success of the meeting is a big 

 crop of honey. And some hopeful 

 prophets say that 1908 is to be a good 

 honey-year. Well, we know quite a few 

 people who are willing that it should 

 be such. There is nothing like being 

 optimistic. So let us all hope that 

 President Hilton will be able to deliver 

 to bee-keepers a glorious honey crop 

 this year! 



Honey in Demand 



One item that looks like a. greater 

 scarcity or at least a greater demand 

 for honey than heretofore, is the fact 

 that the National Biscuit Co. is adver- 

 tising for it. It is well known that 

 this company has for years been using 

 large quarttities of extracted honey in 

 its business; but this is the first of its 

 rplvertising for honey; likely because 

 : cretofore enough was always offered 

 without advertising. 



Sweet Clover as a Fertilizer 



The probability is that sweet clover 

 is sometimes estimated at greater than 

 its real worth as a honey-plant es- 

 pecially where white clover in great 

 abundance coincides to a great extent 

 with the blooming time of sweet clover. 

 But it is very doubtful if it is gen- 

 erally valued as it should be as a for- 

 age plant. Still less does it get its due 

 meed of praise as an enricher of poor 



Do Bees Store Honey Below the 

 Brood? 



J. E. Hand having said that bees 

 never store honey below the brood, 

 a Stray Straw in Gleanings says that 

 while the general preference of the 

 bees is to store above the brood, there 

 are exceptions, and the following ex- 

 amples are given : 



"One year I put under colonies in 

 ten-frame hives hive-bodies of empty 

 combs for the bees to take care of. 

 To my surprise, at that time, the bees 

 did not leave them empty, as Mr. Hand 

 says, but stored honey in them. For a 

 number of years I've used bottom- 

 boards 2 inches deep, with a false bot- 

 tom, during harvest time, about 1% 

 inches deep. A good many times the 



Hilton's Thompsonville Api.vrv. in Benzie Co., Mich. 



Pres. Geo. E. Hilton, of the National land. This because only lately has 



On the first page we present the lat- come into prominence the fact that 



est picture of the new president of the the most valuable material to enrich the 



