214 



i9o8. 



American Hee Journal 



this requires the aid of an attorney and 

 due process of law; and on small ship- 

 ments the commission man knows it will 

 cost more than the amount involved. 



As a rule, bee-keepers should deal 

 with only reliable commission men — par- 

 ' ticularly those who furnish regular quo- 

 tations for the bee journals ; and in 

 every case where possible one should 

 sell outright. If the goods are fancy 

 or No. I, and the house is reliable, a 

 cash sale can usually be effected, for 'the 

 business is getting to be done more and 

 more on a cash basis. 



In case one has a lot of off-grade 

 honey — dark or otherwise inferior goods 

 — it may be necessary to sell on com- 

 mission. Such lots are usually disposed 

 of in that way, for no house will buy 

 outright a shipment of that kind when 

 it does not know what it is, much less 

 how much it will bring in the market. 



As we said before in these columns, 

 all dark or inferior-flavored honey 

 should be taken out with the extractor. 

 Nothing but the very best table honey 

 should be marketed in sections, and even 

 then all No. 2 should be sold around 

 home. 



It is well for the novice to understand 

 that old producers who deal on the 

 square — that is, sell their honey for just 

 ■what it is — and offer only first-class 

 goods, have no difficulty in making cash 

 sales and at good prices— usually above 

 the market. The dealer has come to 

 know them for their square dealing, and 

 he has -no hesitation in entering into a 

 cash deal, and not infrequently wires his 

 acceptance of the quotation. In the case 

 of some producers the honey is sold be- 

 fore it is actually off the hives. — Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture. 



Boardman-AIexander Feeder. 



In order to increase the capacity of 

 the Alexander feeder, Harley Condra 

 puts a Mason jar over the projecting 

 end, Boardman fashion, — Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture. 



Prevention of Honey-Granulation. 



Mr. Beuglas gives particular attention 

 to his honey after extracting, and by 

 careful storing and covering, preserves 

 the aroma that others, who are careless,, 

 allow to evaporate. He says his custo- 

 mers want honey that will not granulate. 

 This he supplies. By heating the honey 

 immediately after extracting, to 140 

 degrees, he is able to assure his custo- 

 mers that the honey will not granulate. 

 The following is what he writes on tlie 

 subject : 



"According to my experience and ob- 

 servation, if honey is heated immediate- 

 ly after it is extracted, the results ob- 

 tained will be much more satisfactory 

 than if left for a week or so before 

 being put through the heating process. 

 Mucli care should be exercised in the 

 healing of honey, which should not ex- 

 ceed mucli over 140° Fahr., and a gen- 

 tle motion kept up by stirring, so that it 

 majf be evenly heated. I would further 

 conclude that the graiuilation process 

 commences the very day honey is ex- 

 tracted. By the immediate application 

 of heat, granulation is evidently prac- 

 tically prevented." — Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



Clipping His First Queen. 



H. A. Smith, in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, gives the following interesting 

 account of his maiden attempt at clip- 

 ping a queen: 



"It was a great wonder I did not 

 kill the first queen I tried to clip. I 

 had always worn harvesters' pig-skin 

 mitts when working with my bees; 

 I clearly saw that I must disca'rd them 

 if I wished to succeed in doing those 

 numberless things which grow to be a 

 necessity as one's apiary enlarges. I 

 therefore got a pair of fingerless gloves, 

 and proceeded to clip my first queen. 

 I had to screw my courage up to a 

 terrible pitch to handle those bees with 

 bare fingers in looking for the queen. 

 .\t last I found her, and managed to 

 catch her between thumb and fore- 

 finger. My hand shook ; my fingers 

 spread apart; and her majesty dropped 

 to the ground. It was not such a hard 

 job taking hold of her. now she was 

 away from the rest of the bees, and so 

 I lost some of my nervousness. I 

 clipped her wing without receiving a 

 sting during the whole operation. Be- 

 fore night I had opened hives which 

 were nearly search-proof and clipped 

 their queens." 



Let me say to the beginner who has 

 not yet clipped his queens: Clip 2 queens 

 if you nearly collapse in doing so; af- 

 ter that you will want to clip everything 

 in sight." 



Honey vs. Sugar for Cake. 



"If we bake a cake, using honey for 

 sweetening, and keep the cake a "year, 

 or until it loses its sweet taste, we will 

 see that, as the sweetness disappears 

 from the center, it approaches the outer 

 surface and escapes into the atmos- 

 phere, and the cake becomes insipid at 

 the center first. Now if sugar is used 

 instead of honey, the insipidness begins 

 on the outside first, and the tasteless- 

 ness runs deeper and deeper, until it 

 reaches the middle of the cake. Will 

 the reader please explain the cause of 

 the different behaviors of the sugar and 

 honey? Also why does the sugar cake 

 become stale in 2 weeks, while it takes 

 the honey cake 6 to 10 months. — C. W. 

 Dayton, in American Bee-Keeper. 



Suppress Swarming and Help Honey 

 Crop. 



Wm. McEvoy, in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, tells how he proceeds to check 

 swarming and secure the largest crop 

 when working for extracted honey. 

 Editor Hurley says : 



"For the last two years we have fol- 

 lowed this plan ourselves — having re- 

 ceived the hint from Mr. McEvoy — 

 and we can truly say that its results 

 are surprising." 



Here is the plan as given by Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy: 



"When the right time comes to put 

 supers on all strong colonies, I lift a 

 comb of brood up into the super and 

 leave the queen-excluder off just then 

 so that the queen can go up — a thing 

 she will quickly do. and in a few days 

 the super will be filled with brood. 1 

 then raise this super up and put on 

 another one, but before doing this 1 



lift up 2 combs of brood into it. Shake 

 the queen below, and then put on the 

 queen-excluder. In about 6 days later 

 I lift up 2 more combs and put 2 empty 

 combs in their place, for the queen to 

 use, as she will by this time be found 

 wandering over the combs of brood, 

 hunting for cells to lay in. The lifting 

 up of brood and the putting of empty 

 combs time after time in the center of 

 the brood-chamber brings a greater in- 

 crease in bees, and has always given 

 me much larger returns in extracted 

 honey than I could ever get any other 

 way. 



"We will now turn our attention to 

 one of the most valuable parts of all, 

 and that is the brood I lifted above the 

 queen-excluder where it was fed so well 

 and left there until all capped. In the 

 fore part of the season I take part of 

 this fittcd-up brood from one super and 

 part from another until I get enough to 

 suit me and then tier it up here and 

 there on colonies not so strong, and 

 have it all hatched out on these in a 

 few days without the loss of one cell 

 of brood. This booming of several colo- 

 nies with so much all-capped brood 

 builds them up so fast that when the 

 real honey-flow comes on I don't find 

 much difference in any of the colonies 

 in the whole apiary. 



"Bees run this way work with much 

 more vim, snap and life than I could 

 ever get them to do under any other 

 system. Of course it will be noticed 

 that I run the queens for all they are 

 worth — a thing I certainly do — and with 

 the exception of a few very choice 

 queens I requeen every colony every 

 year." 



Early Spring Feeding of Bees. 



G. W. Avery, in the Irish Bee Jour- 

 nal, makes some sensible remarks that 

 apply as well here as in Ireland. He 

 says: 



"If bees must be fed any time in early 

 spring, the owner should bear in mind 

 that the method which causes the least 

 disturbance is the one above all others 

 to adopt. Combs of sealed honey, which 

 are like money in the bank to the bee- 

 keeper, and should always be on hand, 

 are far and away ahead of anything 

 else. Next to that, well-made candy is 

 the best, and enough should be given at 

 a time to last for several weeks, if pos- 

 sible, in order to avoid disturbing the 

 bees too often, especially in cold 

 weather. 



"The best, and I think the only good 

 way to spring stimulate, is begun the 

 previous autumn, by sending the colo- 

 nies into winter quartres with abund- 

 ance of stores. Not simply just what 

 is thought about sufficient to carry them 

 through, but rather than err on the side 

 of scarcity, let them have an extrava- 

 gant allowance. Just enough is never 

 enough to winter a strong colony well." 



Henceforth I will not be bound by 

 the Slavery of Fear because the man 

 around the corner is always more 

 frightened than 1 am, even if he 



doesn l show il.—Arrlea. 



