February, 1916. 



American Hee Journal 



supers and hives slide over it so nicely, 

 and any honey can be easily wiped up. 

 Have a box on the running board for 

 bee-hive tools, and do not get the auto 

 tools and the bee-hive tools mixed up. 

 Arrange the hives in each apiary so 

 that the auto may be run down between 

 the rows for unloading hives and su- 

 pers and loading on honey. 



I have found it very handy in hauling 

 honey on an auto to smoke out what 

 bees will leave the super quickly and 

 put the supers right on the auto. When 

 the auto is loaded the canvass cover is 

 tied over until ready to start, then it is 

 turned back and the bees come out 

 pretty fast. The throb of the car and 

 the motor drives the bees out, and be- 

 ing unable to keep up with the car they 

 return to their hives. This works finely 

 during the honey flow. 



One caution right here, do not try to 

 drive an auto and kill an angry bee at 

 the same time, you may run into the 

 ditch. In hauling bees, do not run 

 more than 20 miles an hour, suppose 

 you should lose a rear wheel. I broke 

 a rear axle one time when I had on 2(5 

 colonies, and if the hives had not been 

 well tied on, there would have been a 

 bad spill, but not a hive got out of 

 position, as the car was not going over 

 10 miles an hour when the break oc- 

 curred. 



My own experience with a car for 

 apiary use began in May, 1913, when my 

 brother and I purchased a 1909 Reo 

 automobile, two cylinder, 20-horse 

 power, with a removable tonneau. The 

 cost was $275, and the expense of run- 

 ning the car in 1913 was about $300, 

 counting $75 for depreciation. The car 

 ran about 6000 miles that year, and 

 many times hauled loads of 35 to 45 

 filled supers from 6 to 20 miles. Haul- 

 ing such loads of course is hard on 

 tires. In the season, my brother and 

 I hauled over 1300 cases of honey, and 

 did all of the apiary work for 700 colo- 

 nies, with this car. 



In 1914, we used the same car with 

 an expense of a little less than $300 for 

 the season's work, but we had more 

 trouble with the car. The past season 

 of 1915, we have used the same car and 

 have run it more than any previous 

 year, and the expense has been corres- 

 pondingly more. One thing that has 

 made the expense of running this car 

 rather high is that we have had so 

 many different people running it. If 

 you can care for your own car, the ex- 

 pense will be very much less. 



Quite a number of International 

 trucks have been bought by Colorado 

 beekeepers, but while they have given 

 good service, most of the beekeepers 

 say they think they will get some other 

 machine. One of the reasons is that 

 few beekeepers can go above $500 as 

 first cost of an auto. 



The most costly mistakes have been 

 made by beemen buying second-hand 

 cars, because they were cheap, buying 

 cars because they were getting a lot 

 for their money, and buying big cars so 

 that great big loads could be hauled. 

 When an auto has been bought, you 

 can count that the expense has just be- 

 gun. Gasoline and oil will cost as 

 much as the average grocery bill 

 amounts to each month, and when you 

 have a machine it will be used more 



for pleasure than a horse and buggy is 

 used. 



A Ford car can be run for 2 to 5 cents 

 a mile, according to the price of gaso- 

 line, oil, the size of loads hauled, the 

 skill of the driver, etc. If you are a 

 careful mechanic, '6'A cents a mile 

 should cover cost of gasoline, oil, 

 tires, actual expenses for repairs, parts, 

 depreciation, etc. Our County Agri- 

 culturist ran a car one year at an ex- 

 pense of 4 cents a mile and paid his 

 garage rent, and hired all repair work 

 done. He figured very liberal depre- 

 ciation, more than it has been neces- 

 sary to allow, as secondhand Fords 

 sell nearer the original cost than any 

 other car. 



The box for the beekeeper's auto is 

 very important. If you use an open 

 box, provide tie hooks on each side 

 about 18 inches apart, so the loads can 

 be tied securely. A good strong, plia- 

 able tie rope and heavy canvas will be 

 necessary. If you use stake side-boards 

 with a canvas, you will ordinarily need 

 no ropes. The canopy top for the 

 body is convenient, because by using 

 side slits hooked or bolted to the up- 

 rights, the canvas or tying is seldom 

 needed. A box 48 inches wide by 60 

 inches long will hold nearly, if not 

 quite, 100 8-frame supers, or half as 

 many hive bodies. Twenty-five colo- 

 nies of bees may be moved at a time if 

 they are not too heavy. A good, heavy, 

 wide drop end gate is a great help to 

 the b.'ekeeper, and should be included 

 in your specifications for a box. 



The handiness of trailers cannot be 

 gainsaid; they can be hooked on easily 

 and autos have no trouble pulling them 

 well loaded. They should be either 

 equipped with solid rubber tires or 

 pneumatic tires. Good springs will be 

 required, as the trailer is generally 

 pretty well loaded. The cost of trailers 

 will be from $35 to $100 each, depend- 

 ing upon the kind of wheels used, and 

 the looks you want in your trailer. If 

 yoii use solid tires and do the work 

 mostly yourself, you may get out on 

 $35 expense. That is a pretty low 

 figure, however. 



Boulder, Colo. 



[Our own experience with the use of 

 automobiles coincides with the opin- 

 ion given by Mr. Foster in the pre- 

 vious article. We have found that the 

 light Ford is by far the best machine 

 for short quick work, and is more 

 economical to operate. Besides this, 

 it is simple and can easily be driven by 

 almost any one. In our apiary work, 

 we frequently have to send some of 

 our factory hands to do odd jobs, such 

 a car is very convenient for this work. 



For hauling honey and moving bees, 

 we have so far used nothing but horses 

 and wagons, as we keep two teams for 

 our supply hauling and farm work. Of 

 course, we produce extracted honey, 

 and this can be moved at almost any 

 time when the teams are not busy. For 

 the beekeeper who runs even as few as 

 two or three outya'rds, an automobile 

 seems to us to be almost indispensable. 

 —Editor.] 



Selling Ny First Car of Honey 



BY K. i;. I.E STOUROEON. 



■ WOULD not write this if both Mr. 

 Pellett and Mr. Dadant had not 

 urged me to do so. I do not like 

 to appear boastful, nor am I given to 

 using the first personal pronoun a great 

 deal. I happened to be in the office of 

 the American Bee Journal last month, 

 and in conversation related how I came 

 to be in the bee and honey business 

 and how my first car of honey was sold. 

 They made me promise to give it to the 

 readers in the same way that I re- 

 counted it to them. 



When it comes to marketing honey 

 my idea is that fundamentally it can- 

 not be different from marketing any 

 other commodity. I mean that the 

 same principles of salesmanship that 

 would apply to any other marketing 

 eflfort with success would also prove 

 successful if applied to the sale of 

 honey. 



Five years ago I was a cereal sales- 

 man traveling for a St. Louis mill, with 

 as little knowledge of the bee business 

 as the average boy who was reared on 

 a farm, where a few colonies were kept, 

 and who later drifted to the city. In 

 the parlance of the street, so far as 

 actual beekeeping knowledge is con- 

 cerned, I might say that " I hardly 

 knew on which end of the bee the 

 stinger was." 



I was born in Texas and had been 

 almost always a resident of San Anto- 

 nio or its closely contiguous environs. 

 Even though I was technically travel- 

 ing out of St. Louis, I remembered and 

 loved my old home to such an extent 

 that everywhere I went I registered at 

 the hotels as being from " San Antonio, 

 Tex." 



I soon began to notice that one ques- 

 tion was most likely to be asked of me 

 whenever my place of residence be- 

 came known. In Elmira, N. Y.. or Red 

 Oak, Iowa; in Albert Lea, Minn., or 

 Raleigh, N. C, some one would walk 

 up to me and say: "You are from San 

 Antonio ? Do you know where I can 

 get some of that delicious honey such 

 as I saw at the World's Fair," or "that 

 I ate while in San Antonio" or "that I 

 have heard my aunt speak of ?" 



This happened with such frequency 

 that I at last realized a field was left 

 fallow which I could till. I had often 

 wanted to give up traveling and settle 

 down, and this was my opportunity to 

 do so and still remain in my beloved 

 Texas. 



I started in business March, 1911. 

 That year we had a wonderfully 

 large and excellent crop of honey in 

 early spring. The Sunny South apiary 

 operated about 600 colonies of bees in 

 Atascosa county, and early in the sea- 

 son had a car, 36.000 pounds, ready for 

 shipment at Jourdanton station. It was 

 loaded and sent forward by freight to 

 Knoxville, Tenn. 



At last I was going to put my ideas 

 to the test, to prove that I could find a 

 market for our honev; that honey 

 would sell by the same methods that 

 would sell other commodities; that 

 there was a strong demand for honey 

 if only an intelligent effort was made 

 to find the demand. 



When the car reached Knoxville, I 

 arrived just after it. I did not know a 



