1S96 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ill 



many, although this is rather an exaggeration 

 to most of them. It is unjust to class all five- 

 banded bees as the same, although the name 

 " five banders" is a misnomer, and should nev- 

 er be used. Chas. D. Duvall. 

 Satsuma Heights, Fla., Dec. 22. 



[I have never claimed anywhere in these 

 columns that a?/ five-banded bees were inferi- 

 or. If you can find such a statement I'll give you 

 —let's see— our very be^t breeding-queen. — Ed ] 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 



I MAKE no formal report of the Illinois State 

 Bee-keepers' convention which I attended in 

 Chicago, Jan. 9th and 10th; but I have made 

 various references to what was said and done, 

 in footnotes and editorials. My report, or the 

 remainder of it, then, will probably be made up 

 of similar references in future. For a full de- 

 tailed report, see the American Bee Journal. 



The meeting, I am happy to say, while not 

 large in attendance, was lively and enthusias- 

 tic. Under the leadership of Dr. Miller, real 

 live practical questions were discussed. 



Chicago is an ideal place for holding conven- 

 tions. There we find the great houey-market, 

 perhaps the greatest in the world, and there the 

 great and enterprising newspapers fairly tum- 

 ble over each other In their rivalry to get out 

 the best and fullest report of every convention 

 in the city. The Chicago Record, an enterpris- 

 ing IrJ-page paper, sold for only 1 ct., in its issue 

 for Jan. 10 gave a fairly good notice of the con- 

 vention. Some of us were a little taken back 

 as to the way we were pictorially represented. 

 It seems the Recor\J has a fashion of giving 

 pictures of those who figure in the various con- 

 ventions that meet there from week to week. 

 The meeting of bee-keep- 

 ers was no exception. A 

 few of the members had a 

 good laugh at my expense 

 over the picture that rep- 

 resented your humble ser- 

 vant with the "big head." 

 At the earnest request of 

 two or three I reproduce 

 the picture itself. Well, 

 here it is. I should have 

 been very much "mad" 

 were it not for the fact 

 that the Record artist put a " big head " on the 

 others. Those who received this doubtful hon- 

 or besides myself were C. Schryer, M. M. Bald- 

 ridge, Dr. C. C. Miller, and Editor York; but 

 their pictures looked as much like them as a 

 queen bee does like a clothes-pin, and I forbear 

 " showing them off." 



SENDING HONEY TO COMMISSION HOUSES; 

 TRICKS OF THE TKADE ; SOME OF THE DAN- 

 GERS TO BEE-KEEPERS POINTED OUT. 



In our last issue I had something on this same 

 subject; and being desirous of pursuing it fur- 

 ther while in Chicago, both in the convention 

 and between sessions, and at commission houses 

 that I called upon, I made it a special subject 

 o£ inquiry; and I will now endeavor to give you 

 the plain facts as I found them. At the outset 

 I wish to say that I do not wish to cast reflec- 

 tions on the commission business as such. My 

 only purpose is to point out some of the dan- 

 gers, and how the misunderstandings, quarrels, 

 and possible lawsuits may be avoided. 



QUOTING HONEY AT MORE THAN ACTUAL JIAR- 

 KET PRICES. 



Both in and out of the convention I learned 

 that some of the houses, not only in Chicago, 

 but other cities as well, had been making a 

 practice of making special high quotations — at 

 all events, considerably higher than it would 

 be possible for them to realize in the open mar- 

 ket. The object of this, of course, was to get 

 consignments from bee-keepers; and in this 

 they succeeded admirably. Well, having re- 

 ceived the consignments these firms in many 

 cases do not scruple to meet the sharpest com- 

 petition In the open market. Irrespective of what 

 they had promised in the way of returns to the 

 bee-keeper; and the honey will be sold for sev- 

 eral cents lower per pound. Of course, there is 

 complaint; but the commission house gets out 

 of It by claiming a loss in leakage, broken- 

 down comb honey, or poor quality all round. 

 Again, they will claim to sell at quotations. 

 They will quote at, say. 15 cts. per lb., and real- 

 ize to the bee-keeper perhaps 8 cts. They claim 

 that the honey was sold at 1^ cts.; but after 

 taking out the cartage, freight, commission, 

 leakage, and other little items, they will work 

 it around somehow so as to net the bee-keeper 

 only 8 cts. 



I believe I have not overstated the situation. 

 There are many bee-keepers who can testify 

 that they have been served this way: but it is 

 needless, to say that they are deceived by that 

 firm only once. The trouble here is on both 

 sides. In the first place, the bee-keeper, in look- 

 ing over the market, sees the name of one firm 

 that quotes much higher than any of the rest in 

 the same city, and he rushes his honey off to 

 them. If he would stop a moment he ought to 

 see that they can not realize better prices— at 

 least not much better— than their competitors 

 who have been longer in the business, in all 

 probability. But he does not think of this. He 

 simply thinks these are better prices than he 

 has been getting at home; and he forgets that, 

 out of that price, must come cartage, freight, 

 etc., and that a firm who will make this high 

 quotation is pretty apt to make these other 

 items much larger than they really are. 



