30O 



October, igii. 



American Bee Jonrnajj 



fAR Western ^ Bee-I^eping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



The Commission Man and Honey 



The commission man has been belabored 

 by the farm press, and many a writer in 

 the bee-papers has taken a whack at him 

 whenever opportunity offered, but now I 

 want to record two good reports coming 

 from bee-keepers, of their satisfactory 

 dealings with commission merchants. 



A Western Slope honey-producer shipped 

 several hundred pounds of comb honey 

 to Denver, and after freight and commis- 

 sion had been deducted the producer re- 

 ceived $3.05 per case for his honey. This 

 honey was mainly No. i light amber, and 

 was conscientiously graded. 



The second instance came from an Ar- 

 kansas valley bee-keeper who shipped sev- 

 eral crates of comb honey, likewise to 

 Denver, and received $3.10 per case. 



These two instances show that honey, 

 when honestly graded and packed well 

 for shipment, will bring the producer a 

 satisfactory price. Buyers have been 

 offering $2.50 to $2.75 per case for honey 

 in these localities, so that a higher price 

 was secured than by selling to the car- 

 load buyers who merely wish to resell 

 again to Eastern wholesalers. 



The Fall Honey-Flow 



Bees are "making good" on the fall 

 flow from the third growth of alfalfa, and 

 sweet clover, and are breeding better than 

 common. Predictions are now that colo- 

 nies of bees in Colorado will go into win- 

 ter quarters with a good supply of young 

 bees. Eastern Colorado has had warmer 

 weather through early September than has 

 the Western part of the State. 



Dr. Phillips' Colorado Visit 



Dr. E. F. Phillips came to Colorado di- 

 rect from the National convention, and 

 visited the bee-keepers in Denver, Boul- 

 der, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Rifle. 

 Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose, and 

 Canon City. A busy 10 days he had of 

 it, too, making a circuit of over 1000 

 miles and meeting more than 100 bee-men 

 They iired him with questions, princi- 

 pally on bee-diseases, and he asked ques- 

 tions on Colorado bee-keeping methods 

 Dr. Phillips probably knows more of 

 Colorado bee-keeping than halt the men 

 who keep bees in the State. 



Why Produce Comb Honey? 



One of the chief reasons for Dr. Phil- 

 lips' visit to Colorado was to find out 

 why we produce comb honey to such an 

 extent. I do not know as he feels sure 

 that he knows just why we do, but I 

 think it is principally because we come 

 nearer getting a fair price for comb than 

 for extracted honey. Comb honey sells 

 more readily for $2.75 to $3.00 per case 

 of 24 sections than extracted does at 6^ 

 to y'/z cents per pound. And I doubt 

 whether you could persuade many Colo- 

 rado bee— men that 6'A cents for extracted 

 will bring in more cash for labor ex- 

 pended than $2.75 per case or 11^ cents 

 per section will for comb honey. I like 

 to produce comb honey because it is 

 cleaner and nicer to handle. 



Garfield County Bee-Meeting 



Wednesday, Sept. 6th, Dr. Phillips and 

 the writer met with the bee-men of Gar- 

 field county, at Rifle. Nine were present, 

 who represented about 1200 colonies of 

 bees. The crop is not good in Garfield 

 county this year, and will hardly exceed 

 one super of comb honey per colony. There 

 are no extracted-honey producers to speak 

 of. Mr. John Stotts, of Rifle, operates 

 about 600 colonies, and in one apiary is 

 averaging 4 cases or over to the colony, 

 while in another yard he is getting prac- 

 tically nothing. 



This (Garfield) country is delightful to 

 look upon, high mesas and sloping table- 

 lands 5 to 10 miles away, with orchards, 

 alfalfa fields and alfalfa stacks spotting 

 the whole. The dry pine and cedar-clad 

 hillsides rising on both sides of the Grand 

 Valley to the high mesas, one of which is 

 called "Book Cliff," from the close re- 

 semblance to a book, reach an eminence 

 of 1,000 feet or more. Deer abound in 

 this country, and also bear. The church 

 in which we met had a window which 

 was presented to it by Theodore Roose- 

 velt when on a hunting trip during his 

 presidency. 



Probably one car of comb honey will 



be shipped, while the production of the 



county will probably total two or three 



cars. 



*-•-•. 



Mesa County Bee-Meeting 



About 30 bee-men gathered in the Coui t 

 House in Grand Junction, Thursday, Sept. 

 7th, to talk over the bee-situation with 

 Dr. Phillips and the writer. Mr. William 

 Harkleroad, the county inspector, had done 

 fine work in arranging for the meeting, 

 and every one was interested. Messrs. 

 Elmer Kennedy, Roy Tait, J. A. Green, 

 Wm. Harkleroad, John Gavin and John 

 Wallace were the bee-men most exten- 

 sively engaged in bee-keeping who were 

 present. Probably no county in the State 

 is so well handled as regards the disease 

 situation for the number of bees. Mr. 

 Harkleroad reports less than 4 percent of 

 the bees inspected during the season as 

 diseased. The disease is well under con- 

 trol. Bees are not doing as well as sev- 

 eral years ago when more sweet clover 

 was allowed to grow; the farmers are now 

 becoming too careful of the fence-corners, 

 and alfalfa is being plowed up for beets, 

 potatoes, and orchards. 



Bees, however, are still fairly profitable 

 to the practical apiarists, and this year 

 yielded a fair crop, though lighter than 

 last year. Taking the county all over, 

 probably not more than half a crop vnV 

 be harvested. Comb honey and extracted 

 are produced in this county, and those who 

 have had experience say that three- 

 fourths as much comb . can be produced 

 as extracted. Under present price condi- 

 tions comb honey will remain in favor. 

 A local association was started, and those 

 present represented an ownership of about 

 2000 colonies. 



In the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Roy Tait 

 and Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Kennedy took 

 Dr. Phillips and the writer out for a 15- 

 mile spin in their automobiles, through 

 the fruit-orchards of this incomparable 

 fruit-district. It would do the heart good 

 for every man interested in progressive 

 orchard methods to see this district — trees 



loaded down with big, sound, well-shaped, 

 highly-colored fruit, and nearly every or- 

 chard indicating the careful supervision 

 of the specialist. 



From what I gathered in looking over 

 Mr. Tail's apiary, 1 should say that the 

 bee-keeper's methods are just as up-to- 

 date as the fruit-grower's. The bee-keep- 

 ers are as prosperous as other business- 

 men, and Mr. Green, Mr. Tait, and Mr. 

 Kennedy each have automobiles. Mr. 

 Tait carries 1500 pounds on the rear plat- 

 form of his automobile — an E-M-F 30- 

 horse-power machine. He uses a car- 

 bolized cloth for removing his honey from 

 the hives, and says he can drive the bees 

 out of the supers on a warm day when 

 bees are flying, as rapidly as he can carry 

 the supers to the automobile and pile 

 them on. 



Yellow Jackets and Bees 



Yellow jackets are everywhere present 

 in Colorado this season, and reports of 

 these lively little insects "getting away" 

 with colonies of bees are frequent. One 

 bee-keeper says a yellow jacket will clasp 

 a bee between the thorax and abdomen, 

 and bite it in two. Where they cause 

 the most trouble it is necessary to hunt 

 their nests and burn them up. They are 

 a pest in extracting, and are also a seri- 

 ous menace to weak colonies. They sting 

 much more severely than the honey-bee. 

 and fight back when attacked. 



"Meado-ws and Pastures," by 



Joseph E. Wing, a staff correspondent 

 of the Breeders' Gazette, is the title of 

 a cloth-bound book of 418 pages, de- 

 voted to a study of the production, de- 

 velopment and care of grasses, as re- 

 lated to meadows and pastures. Mr. 

 Wing made investigations in every 

 State and several foreign countries, be- 

 sides thoroughly studying the scant 

 literature of the subject. His own ex- 

 tended experience in growing all the 

 common grasses has enabled him to 

 interpret competently and digest a 

 wealth of data and facts, which he pre- 

 sents in a fresh and fascinating style. 

 He pays particular attention to several 

 kinds of clover, mentioning their value 

 to bees. So far as we know, the sev- 

 eral pages devoted to sweet clover is 

 the first complete defense of this clover 

 that we have seen in book form. Its 

 growing is encouraged and its value 

 described. This book gives definite 

 instructions concerning every view of 

 the subject. It is fully illustrated, and 

 certainly should be in the hands of 

 every farmer of this country. The post- 

 paid price is $1.50, or we club it with 

 the American Bee Journal for a year — 

 both for $2.30. Send all orders to the 

 American Bee Journal, 117 North Jef- 

 ferson St., Chicago, 111. 



'' The Amateur Bee-Keeper " 



This is a booklet of 86 pages, written 

 by Mr. J. W. Rouse, of Missouri. It is 

 mainly for beginners — amateur bee- 

 keepers — as its name indicates. It is a 

 valuable little work, revised this year, 

 and contains the methods of a practical, 

 up-to-date bee-keeper of many years' 

 experience. It is fully illustrated. Price, 

 postpaid, 25 cents; or with the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal one year — both for 

 $1.10. Send all orders to the office of 

 the American Bee Journal. 



