18 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



field in which to 'sell honey, although 

 Montana honey is also fine. But there 

 is so little of it, as the summers are so 

 short; therefore, the demand cannot 

 be supplied with local honey, which 

 thus leaves room for others to come 

 in and take advantage of the shortage. 



If you want to have a good outing, 

 and also see the,; country, just extract 

 your honey in the fall, get an automo- 

 bile, and then start out. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Sires surely have tested out their plan 

 of disposing of the honey crop, and it 

 certainly works well. No doubt others 

 will " go and do likewise." 



Mr. Sires passed through Sandpoint, 

 Idaho, twice during the recent few 

 months, and it was my good fortune 

 to meet him and 'have several interest- 

 ing interviews with him. He uses 

 paper packages, shipping the honey in 

 60-pound tin cans to where he wants to 

 retail it, and then fills the smaller pack- 

 ages with it there. 



While there is 'a great deal to the 

 producing end of honey, unless it is 

 well sold the results are not very en- 

 couraging. It is seldom, however, that 

 a good producer of honey is also a 

 good honey salesman, but I believe 

 that with the methods used by Mr. 

 Sires almost any beekeeper could 

 easily dispose of his honey crop, re- 

 gardless of its size. At any rate, the 

 plan is well worth a sincere trial. 



Sandpoint, Idaho. 



About Bee Demonstrations 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



AFTER giving a live bee demon- 

 stration in conjunction with a 

 public lecture for several years, 

 I have decided that it is of very doubt- 

 ful value and have discontinued it. 

 There is nothing which will attract 

 more attention in an average locality 

 than such a demonstration, and if it 

 were possible to control the nature of 

 the publicity that resulted, a properly 

 conducted demonstration might be 

 valuable. I have always taken pains to 

 explain that there is no mystery con- 

 nected with the performance, and that 

 nothing which might be dona would be 

 strange to well informed beekeepers. 

 After explaining in detail the manipu- 

 lation of the hive as practiced by bee- 

 keepers generally and the method of 

 controlling the bees, I have often been 

 confronted by glaring headlines in the 

 newspapers something like this, " SAM- 

 SON IN THE LION'S DEN HAD A 

 SNAP COMPARED TO THIS." The 

 reporters never overlooked such an 

 opportunity for a sensational story and 

 the kind of publicity that usually re- 

 sults often does more harm than good, 

 both to the operator and to the industry. 



Personally, I have never undertaken 

 such stunts as some do. I regard it as 

 a serious mistake to don a bathing suit 

 for such a performance. I formerly 

 removed my coat, but of late have de- 

 cided that it is better to make no spe- 

 cial display of preparation. As far as I 

 am willing to go in the way of stunts 

 is to fill a hat with bees and put it on 

 my head. Of course, the bees are han- 

 dled freely with the bare hands, which 

 is amply sufficient to make the average 

 crowd gasp. 



In my opinion, all that is desirable 

 in such a demonstration is to show the 

 usual manipulations of.the hive. If the 



performance becomes sensational rather^^^ 

 than educational, it is unworthy of any 

 self respecting beekeeper. Because it 

 has seemed impossible to avoid the ele- 

 ment of sensation I have chosen to 

 abandon the practice, although offered 

 a very attractive opening for giving it 

 on Chautauqua platforms next season. 



There are some very good reasons 

 why beekeepers should use the live bee 

 demonstration. If one is a good 

 speaker it gives a splendid opening to 

 inform the public concerning the pro- 

 duction of honey, its proper care and 

 importance as a food. The results are 

 particularly striking after it has been 

 given to an audience of children. If 

 properly veiled suggestions are thrown 

 out, a considerable portion of them will 

 go home and induce their mothers to 

 order honey at once. 



Many wrong impressions concerning 

 bees, which can be corrected in con- 

 nection with such a public appearance, 

 can be presented to so many people in 

 no other way. Demonstrations at fairs 



sections so that it could be taken apart 

 and crated for shipment. I soon found 

 that I was carrying about more bees 

 and more weight than was necessary. 

 A small hive which would contain four 

 frames and allow some extra space was 

 made for the purpose. Four dry ex- 

 tracting combs were placed in this 

 small hive and as many bees as seemed 

 desirable were shaken onto the frames. 

 This hive was fitted with a canvas 

 cover and handles so that it could be 

 carried like a suit case. 



Enough feed to keep the bees during 

 the trip was given either in the form of 

 honey or of sugar syrup. On one occa- 

 sion, before dry combs were substituted 

 for combs from the hive, I lost the bees 

 which I was taking with me for a dem- 

 onstration. It was a very hot day and 

 the coach in which I was riding was 

 very close. The bees crowded against 

 the wire cloth above the frames in a 

 dense mass and remained there until 

 the combs had melted down, and most 

 of the bees were so mussed up that 



MR. AND MRS. ARTHUR SIRES ON THEIR 3600 MILE TOUR IN IQ15 SELLING HONEY 



are of doubtful value at any time. The 

 crowd is constantly moving and is 

 there only for what is to be seen. Un- 

 less one can talk to the same people 

 for several minutes there is little op- 

 portunity to give an intelligent presen- 

 tation of the subject. Much depends 

 upon the speaker, his skill in pre- 

 senting his subject and the attitude 

 which he chooses to assume. Too 

 many men cannot avoid the temptation 

 to appear in a sensational light, and to 

 seem to exercise some mysterious in- 

 fluence over the bees. To place one- 

 self on the level of the ordinary street 

 fakir is to cheapen the entertainment 

 and leave a wrong impression in the 

 minds of the audience. 



EQtJIPMENT FOR DEMONSTRATIONS. 



The tendency with me has been con- 

 stantly to lighten the equipment car- 

 ried from place to place. During the 

 years of my early experience I used a 

 full colony of bees and a laige wire 

 cage. The hive was covered with wire 

 screen to keep the bees from smother- 

 ing, and shipped from place to place 

 by express. The cage was made in 



little could be done with the outfit. 



On arriving at my destination I found 

 myself in a quandary. There seemed to 

 be no beekeeper worthy of the name ' 

 within reach. I was advertised to give 

 a live bee demonstration the following 

 afternoon, and no bees were in sight 

 with which to do it. Since it was late 

 at the time the town was reached there 

 seemed nothing to do but wait until 

 morning and go in search of bees. The 

 most diligent search failed to locate 

 anything but a colony of black bees in 

 a huge box about as big as a trunk. 

 The frames were missing and combs 

 were built in various windings, com- 

 mon to box-hive bees. Since there 

 was nothing else available it was the 

 big box or nothing, so I negotiated 

 with the owner for the loan of his bees 

 for a rental of one dollar for the day. 

 My unfortunate hive was carefully 

 cleaned and the combs pieced back into 

 the frames as well as was possible and 

 tied in place. The big bo.x was then 

 moved a rod or two away and the little 

 hive placed in its former position. The 

 bees in the bo.x were then smoked tre- 

 mendously until they came pouring out 

 of the hive in a perfect cloud. After 



