56 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



ing any trouble, and by the aid of the 

 stringent law in force it is hoped that 

 the situation may grow no worse. 

 There are many drawbacks, drone 

 layers, mismating, robbing, poor pas- 

 ture, cranky neighbors, who make all 

 manner of foolish demands, the person 

 who seems to think that "God helps 

 him who helps himself," thieves, they 

 are well represented. I might name 

 others, yet if a man is of the " Johnny 

 on the spot " order, he can stand all at 

 a small loss. 



YARD EQUIPMENT. 



Assuming that you have the bees, 

 the next accessory is a Kamada or 

 shade for them. It consists of a frame- 

 work of wood over which wires are 

 drawn, and then a layer of arrow-wood 

 across with a second set of wires on 

 top to keep the wind from blowing the 

 covering off. The hives are arranged 

 in rows and the operator works be- 

 tween the two lines. Figure 1 shows 

 the general form of a ramada, end view. 

 Figure 2 shows the rear of an extract- 

 ing house, with honey tank sunk in the 

 ground, with a side view of the ramada 

 also. Figure 3 shows an extracting 

 house, tank, a lot of filled cases and a 

 pile of empties. 



The bee-men in charge often live at 

 the yards, and many unique structures 

 they build. Illustration No. 4 shows a 

 house with a sleeping room and kitchen. 

 Some of the beekeepers in the colder 

 States might think it somewhat limited, 

 yet it is very comfortable. It consists 

 of a frame work covered with mosquito 

 netting and a cover of arrow-wood to 

 keep the sun off. Figure 5 shows a 

 general view of a yard from a distance. 

 Figure 6 shows a yard where all hives 

 are covered by two thicknesses of bur- 

 lap sacks, as a protection from heat. 

 Figure 7 shows a yard a model for 

 neatness and arrangement, everything 

 being in its proper place. 



The prefence is given to the 10-frame 

 size, yet a few of the 8-frame are in 

 use. 



NUMBER OF COLONIES. 



It is estimated that there are more 

 than 20,000 colonies in thevalley; some 

 think as many as 22,000. With this 

 number of colonies and the existing 

 conditions, the valley seems over- 

 stocked, and I would not advise any 

 one to go there for the purpose of 

 beekeeping without first investigating. 

 Very soon more land will be watered, 

 and if it is sown to alfalfa there will be 

 a betterment of conditions. 



There are no queens bred in the val- 

 ley for market. Many rear their own, 

 and requeening is done soon after the 

 honey flow, which may be August or 

 September. Many think that it is not 

 best to try to rear queens at the warm- 

 est part of the summer, claiming that 

 the heat affects the vitality of the 

 drones, thereby causing a great per- 

 centage of drone layers, a condition 

 found only too often. 



A large percentage of the better bee- 

 men requeen as often as every two 

 years, and many every year. The fame 

 of the Imperial honey has traveled far 

 and wide, and dealers from everywhere 

 are looking here for honey, many hav- 

 ing orders they cannot supply. 



Lexington, Ky. 



Marketing Honey 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



A PERSON does not have much of 

 a show when contending with 

 the Editor (a big E please), but 

 the American Bee Journal has treated 

 me fairly by printing some of my 

 "stuff," so I shall again try to reach 

 the public eye with something about 

 selling our sweet product. 



In the American Bee Journal for 

 December, Mr. Pellett (page 414) sug- 

 gests that "Honey is, toward glucose 

 and all corn syrups, in the same rela- 

 tive position as butter is placed toward 

 margarine. Yet butter is not neglected 



garding the butter imitations have 

 been in force for a generation, I think. 



Butter does come in competition 

 with the oleo compounds, for each 

 and every packing house makes mil- 

 lions of pounds of butter imitations 

 annually, and honey will not have the 

 protection butter has (while some of it 

 is strong enough to protect itself) until 

 honey producers are as numerous as 

 farmers who send out bulter in tons 

 instead of pounds, as we, relatively, do 

 honey. I have not the figures by me, 

 but I know that the money value of 

 butter in the United States runs into 

 the hundreds of millions of dollars. 

 The value of the honey crop will not 

 reach $50,000,000. 



Of late years " butter substitutes" are 

 more in demand than the straight oleo- 

 margarine, which is "a granular, solid 

 fat produced from the leaf-fat of cat- 

 tle." The pure oleo was at first salted, 

 colored, and sold to take the place of 

 butter, but the grain, perceptible in the 

 mouth, betrayed it, so the manufactur- 

 ers soon began making a mixture of 

 oleo, cotton seed oil and pure butter, 

 which did away with the grain, and 

 this imitation of butter is so good that 

 wife and I prefer it to the uncertain 

 butter we are able to buy in a "coun- 

 try" store where we should be able to 

 get the best. 



Mind this. Oleo compounds, imita- 

 tion butter is sold to take the place of 

 butter on the table. It looks like but- 

 ter, smells like butter and tastes like 



NO. 6.-BRAN SACKS ARE USED OVER HIVES TO PREVENT EXCESSIVE HEAT 



Alfalfa is seriously damaged by the 

 ravages of grasshoppers which have 

 appeared in great numbers ; another 

 pest is the yellow alfalfa butterfly 

 {Eurymus curylheme), which is so com- 

 mon that the county is furnishing the 

 farmers poison in an attempt to eradi- 

 cate it. Bermuda grass is another pest. 

 The seed comes in the irrigation water. 

 Getting a start in the fields it over- 

 comes the alfalfa. It gives some feed, 

 but is not nearly so good as alfalfa. 



INCREASE. 



Increase is made usually by division, 

 letting the divisions rear a queen from 

 their own brood. Some think that the 

 queens shipped in do not do as well at 

 first as those of local production, a 

 climatic condition I infer, 



for margarine as honey is for glucose," 

 meaning, of course, glucose compounds. 

 Mr. Pellett having had legal training, 

 is a spefious debater. In this case, 

 however, while sincere and earnest, he 

 is, I think, mistaken. Honey is not in 

 the same relative relation to glucose 

 compounds as butter is to oleomargar- 

 ine compounds, generally called "imi- 

 tation butter, butterine," etc., for there 

 are stringent legal enactments regard- 

 ing the use of oleo compounds intended 

 for consumption as butter substitutes. 

 There is a small tax on the sale of ?/«- 

 colored compounds, but a tax of ten 

 cents a found on the colored stuff. 

 There is nothing of the kind regarding 

 honey, and until the pure food laws 

 were passed any one could adulterate 

 honey all they chose, while laws re- 



butter, so much so that I defy any one 

 to tell the " butterine " I use from good 

 creamery butter, particularly if it be 

 colored, and the user can color it him- 

 self with little capsules of butter color 

 packed with the butterine. 



With all due deference to the Editor, 

 there is no such relation between honey 

 and corn syrup compounds. These 

 masses are mixtures of artificial glu- 

 cose — made of corn starch and sulph- 

 uric acid — and cane or beet sugar 

 syrup in the proportion of 90 percent 

 glucose to 10 percent sugar syrup. 

 There is so little sweet in them that a 

 person may eat large quantities with- 

 out surfeit, and I have seen children 

 pour ounces of the stuff on a cake and 

 eat it. There is no question in color, 

 and the corn syrup does not take the 



