November, 1908. 



American ^ae Journal 



The good services of the jobber and 

 wholesaler are always to be recognized, 

 and it is certainly no reflection on theni 

 to advise bee-keepers to develop their 

 home market, and supply it fully before 

 shipping to the larger centers of con- 

 sumption. If the borne market is fully 

 supplied there will be less honey to 

 be disposed of by the jobber, it is true, 

 but if the jobber's volume of business 

 is thereby lessened he is compensated 

 by better prices and profits on the 

 smaller trade. 



I would beg of bee-keepers to avoid 

 the tendency to get into a scramble and 

 cut down the price of their honey to 

 ruinously low figures in order to get 

 the preference of sale away from other 

 bee-keepers. I have but recently been 

 informed of a case where a bee-keeper 

 sent a consignment of comb honey to 

 a commission merchant with instruc- 

 tions to sell for 10 cents per pound 

 if it could be obtained, and for less 

 if necessary to effect a quick sale. 

 There is certainly no profit in producing 

 fancy comb honey at 10 cents per 

 pound, out of which is to be paid, 

 freight, commission, and for sections, 

 comb foundation and labor. The con- 

 sumer is sure to pay from 15 to 25 

 cents per section for fancy honey be- 

 fore it reaches his table, and 10 cents 

 for fancy comb honey with charges 

 and cost of supplies out, leaves the 

 producer but a little over 7 cents per 

 section. The difference between about 

 7 cents and 15 to 25 cents per section, 

 goes to the jobber and retailer by way 

 of trifling expenses and big profits to 

 the non-producer of the goods, by the 

 bee-keeper who is determined to sell 

 whether he makes any profits or not. 



Let me urge you, brother bee-keep- 

 ers, to follow the example and teach- 

 ings of a few of the craft who have, 

 as far as possible, solved the problem 

 of marketing their product. You have 

 battled against great odds. You have 

 done well persistently to remain upon 

 the firing line until your bountiful crop 

 of honey is safely harvested, but hav- 

 ing emerged from the smoke of the bat- 

 tle of obtaining the crop (the smoke 

 from the bee-smoker of course!) do not 

 be satisfied or claim a complete victory 

 until crowned with the full reward of a 

 just and merited equivalent for the pur- 

 est and most wholesome of sweets — 

 honey — you have provided for the tables 

 of the land. 



How I Sell My Honey 



BY DR. M. E. MCMANES. 



To produce a crop of first quality 

 honey is one thing, but to dispose of it 

 advantageously is another story. 



With me as with a great many bee- 

 keepers, the bees are pets, and their care 

 a side-issue, yet if our hobbies can be 

 made a financial success we naturally 

 like them better. 



In studying the local market I find 

 grocers do not like to handle comb hon- 

 ey, consequently my first move was to 

 create a demand for extracted. This I 

 did by putting up a first quality article 

 in neat, attractive style, and employing 

 a man to canvass the city thoroughly, 



calling at every house. I put labels on 

 all my honey, both comb and extracted, 

 and being well known all over the city 

 I instructed my agent to call special at- 

 tention to the fact that this was a home 

 article from my apiary. As my name 

 was on the label consumers soon called 

 for my honey at the grocers. When I 

 called on the dealers, explaining what 

 I had, and how I advertised it, I had 

 no trouble in getting orders. The result 

 has been that every grocer in the city 

 sells my honey, and very few handle any 

 other. 



My comb honey the grocer gets, is 

 always the best I have. All sections 

 must be nezv, well filled and thoroughly 

 cleaned. My name is on every section. 

 This I do by using a rubber stamp and 

 stamping or printing the label on the 

 unfolded section. If more producers 

 would put their names on the sections 

 to show where they come from I be- 

 lieve less off-grade honey would be put 

 on the market. 



My extracted honey is put up in jelly 

 glasses holding 10 ounces, artd retails for 

 IS cents. I sell them for $1.35 per dozen. 

 The first obstacle I had to overcome was 

 the grocer's argument that 10 cents was 

 the popular price, and that 15 cents 

 would not go. I explained this way : 

 The larger glass costs me but one or 2 

 cents more per dozen than the lo-cent 

 size; the labels and work are the same, 

 and the consumer gets about double for 

 his money. But the best argument was 

 that the grocer gets more profit, as the 

 lO-cent size costs him from 90' cents to 

 95 cents per dozen. 



My second and last obstacle was the 

 grocer's argument that it is customary 

 to sell honey in bottles. This was easily 

 overcome by the fact that jelly glasses 

 could be used over and over again by 

 the consumer, while bottles were gener- 

 ally thrown away. 



. That my reasoning was correct is 

 proven by the fact that the local dealers 

 have used over 2,000 glasses and 1,500 

 sections the present season. 



When you sell to dealers don't can- 

 vass ; and above all don't forget to ex- 

 plain fully how to treat candied honey. 

 Don't think that by saving a few cents 

 on the cost of labels you profit by it, 

 because the more attractive you make 

 your article the better it will sell. 



Piqua, Ohio. 



Age of Bees— How they Grow 



EY C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



"I notice that you sometimes answer ques- 

 tions through the American Bee Journal. 

 Will you please tell me through its columns, 

 how long the bee is in the egg form, how 

 long in the larval form, how long in the pupa 

 form, and how long the bee lives after it 

 emerges from its cell?" 



Quinby told us in his book, "Mysteries 

 of Bce-Keeping Explained," published 

 about 1865, that the egg, as laid by the 

 queen, hatched in 3 days to a larva ; 

 this larva was fed by the nurse-bees 6 

 days, when the cell containing it was 

 sealed over, remaining thus for 12 days, 

 during which time it underwent the 

 changes of "from caterpillar to butter- 

 fly," vvhen the covering to the cell was 

 eaten off and it emerged a perfect bee. 



being a period of 21 days from the lay- 

 ing of the egg to the perfect bee, mak- 

 ing a little allowance for the weather, 

 as very warm weather hastens this de- 

 velopment to a limited extent, and cold 

 weather retarded the same. 



Always being desirous to know things 

 for a certainty, I conducted several 

 experiments which proved to my satis- 

 faction that Quinby was correct. In one 

 of these experiments I placed a frame 

 of nice, clean comb in the center of a 

 populous colony about May 15, and 

 looked at it quite often till I found eggs 

 in it, which date I marked on top of 

 the frame. In about 2 hours less than 

 3 days I found 8 or 10 little larvae 

 hatched, and in 6 days and lyi hours 

 these larvK were sealed over. Twelve 

 days thereafter I looked and found these 

 had emerged from their cells, together 

 with probably 100 others from the cells 

 immediately surrounding the cells which 

 contained them. From this trial I was 

 entirely satisfied as to the correctness 

 of Quinby, and continued so to be, till 

 a feyv years ago quite a noted bee- 

 keeper said that 6 days was altogether 

 too long for the bees in the larval state, 

 he claiming that 3 to 3^ was very much 

 nearer the correct time. 



I felt very much like contradicting 

 the statement, but concluded that I 

 would not, as I had made but two or 

 three experiments, and these when it 

 was generally quite cool weather, still I 

 could not think that both Quinby and 

 myself were wrong. So I went to ex- 

 perimenting again, and although the 

 weather was quite warm the result was 

 3 days in the egg, 554 days in the larval, 

 and 11^4 days in the pupa state, making 

 20 days in all ; and igj^ days is the 

 shortest time I have ever known of a 

 perfect bee from the time the egg was 

 laid to the emerging of the perfect bee, 

 no matter how hot the weather was dur- 

 ing the whole length of time of incuba- 

 tion. Besides this, I have many times 

 cut out all queen-cells but one from 

 colonies 7 to 8 days after the bees had 

 swarmed, and had the bees build queen- 

 cells over larvae still unsealed, and when 

 these queens were old enough to emerge, 

 send out a swarm with the queen hatch- 

 ing from the cell I had left or the 

 one I had given them at the time the 

 rest of the cells had been cut ofif. 



I believe it possible where extreme heat 

 occurs during a period of 19 days, for a 

 very populous colony to develop bees in 

 an hour or two more than that; and 

 I have often known them to be nearly 

 24 days in developing, where it was 

 steady cool weather, and the colony 

 small during the whole of that time; 

 but 21 days is as near the rule as is 

 possible, and can be counted upon in 

 governing all of our manipulations in 

 making "swarms" or colonies, etc., where 

 we need some knowledge of this matter. 



The time of the year when the de- 

 velopment of brood is most retarded by 

 cool weather is in the fall, and when 

 most accelerated by warm weather is in 

 May and June. 



Regarding how long a bee may live, 

 barring accidents, after it emerges from 

 the cell, that all depends upon the time 

 of year when it becomes a perfect bee. 

 If a bee emerges about the first of June, 

 its life will not vary much from 45 



