Amgrican Hee JournaI | 



October, rQio. 



long spell of cool weather right in the 

 clover bloom, and more than once my 

 records show that the bees were rush- 

 ing in the nectar with the thermometer 

 in the (iO's — a very unusual condition 

 of affairs as all in the clover belt are 

 aware. 



be possible, legal control of bee-terri- 

 tory will have to be an established fact. 

 When all these little points of law are 

 working nicely, won't the bee-keepers 

 have a happy time ? Really, it makes 



Alfalfa for Honey in Ontario 



Alfalfa has been grown in a small 

 way for a number of years all around 

 us, yet previous to the summer of 1!X)9, 

 it was a rare thing to find a bee on the 

 blossoms of this plant. Last summer, 

 however, the bees worked freely on 

 some that was left for seed after having 

 first had a crop taken ofT for hay. This 

 summer the same thing is true to a 

 greater extent, and at this date (Aug. 

 17) the bees are swarming in the after- 

 noons on a field that is being left for 

 seed near us. Mr. Adams, of Brant- 

 ford, reports that one of his bee-yards 

 is storing a surplus from the same 

 source, as in that locality a lot of the 

 clover is being left for a seed crop. It 

 certainly begins to look as if alfalfa 

 might figure as a honey-plant here in 

 Ontario in the near future, although 

 why it is just starting to yield nectar 

 seems a bit strange. 



Perhaps the plant is getting accli- 

 matized better. Certain it is that in 

 " our locality " there formerly was no 

 nectar in the blossoms. If we could 

 only get the farmers not to cut the hay 

 so early, when it is just starting to 

 bloom, we might get a lot of honey 

 from the first crop. It is now up to us 

 as bee-keepers to get a law passed com- 

 pelling the farmers to leave the alfalfa 

 until the bee-keepers say that they may 

 " now go ahead and cut it." But be- 

 fore such ideal legislation as that will 



Alfalfa. 



one think that he is living a century 

 too soon when we meditate on the 

 good things in store for our grand- 

 children who will be keeping bees in 

 our stead. 



Southern Beedom 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl. New Braunfels. Tex. 



How Bulk-Comb Honey Is Put Up for the 

 Market 



To produce a crop of honey is one 

 thing; to put it up for the market is 

 another thing; and to market it after 

 the crop is produced and put up is still 

 another. It is fun for us to produce a 

 fine crop of bulk-comb honey; it is 

 simply fine to have tons and tons of 

 nice white and delicious combs of 

 honey as fancy as any fancy section 

 honey, but produced so much cheaper, 

 and with so much less work. 



Then it is fun for us to pack it in the 

 various size containers ready for the 

 market. It means just that much clean 

 cash for every case of bulk-comb honey 

 that we are able to put up in the honey 

 season. I say bulk-comb honey, for 

 with section honey, and also extracted 

 honey, this has never been the case 

 with us. Section honey has a limited 

 demand as compared with our bulk- 

 comb honey, and the same relation ex- 

 ists between extracted and bulk-comb 

 honey. In proof of the latter I need 

 only say that a host of cxtracted-honey 

 producers write and ask me where 



they might find a market for their ex- 

 tracted honey quite a while after we 

 have sold out our bulk-comb honey 

 entirely. A number of such enquiries 

 are on my desk now. Another proof 

 of this fact is that out of every -50 or 

 more orders for honey, amounting to 

 several hundred cases of honey, all is 

 for bulk-comb honey, with only a few 

 cases for extracted lioney scattered far 

 and wide through tlie season. 



In the last issue the readers were 

 shown the way the honey comes from 

 the hives, and how bulk-comb honey 

 looks in the frames just as taken from 

 the supers. Unfortunately this does 

 not show up as it should, due to much 

 of the details being lost in the half- 

 tones when printed. But these combs 

 are cut out of the frames as shown in 

 one of the pictures herewith, where the 

 writer is at the "job." The frame re- 

 moved, the comb is cut in two through 

 the middle, and each half laid side by 

 side in the large-mouthed, 8-inch screw- 

 cap square .^-gallon can, forming a 

 solid layer of comb honey. The next 

 2 pieces of comb honey are then laid 

 across the first layer, and so on until 



10 combs have been placed in the can. 



The cans are not removed from the 

 cases in filling them, and after the comb 

 honey is filled in, extracted honey is 

 put in to fill up the cans. This fills the 

 empty spaces, and besides making up 

 the weight it keeps the comb honey 

 buoyant in the cans, and no matter 

 how much they are handled, the comb 

 honey does not become mashed up as 

 some seem to suppose, from the letters 

 and enquiries that have been received 



Bulk-comb honey in these large cans 

 is listed as "Bulk-Comb Honey in two 

 60-pound cans to a case," and sells as 

 120 pounds at from 10 to 11 cents per 

 pound f. o. b. the producer's shipping 

 point. The dealer buys this in these 

 large cans to retail again out of the 

 original package. He pays the freight, 

 which he adds to the price of the honey, 

 together with his profit, and it is seen 

 at once that it brings quite a good 

 price by the time it reaches the con- 

 sumer. Many consumers who can use 

 a -o-gallon size, or OO-pound can, order 

 direct from the producer. If only one 

 can is ordered, we charge half cent ex- 

 tra per pound for the difference of 

 making an e.xtra shipping-case for a 

 single can shipment. Many consumers 

 join in with a neighbor and order two 

 cans in a case, thus getting the benefit 

 of the regular price. The price to the 

 consumer direct is generally always a 

 little higher than that to the large 

 dealer, as far as we can do so to allow 

 him his proper share of profit. 



A great quantity of our bulk comb 

 honey is put up in smaller size pack- 

 ages, however, which are then sold to 

 the consumer in the original package 

 by the retailer. These are 3-pound 

 cans, tnl 6-pound and 12-pound pails 

 of the triction-top kind. 'The second 

 picture herewith shows a variety of 

 these. Unfortunately we had no 6- 

 pound size pails on hand when the 

 picture was taken. But the 3-pound 

 cans are shown in the center of the 

 picture. These are standing on top, 

 and a few in front of the shipping-case 

 in which they are sent to market. This 

 case holds 20 of the 3-pound cans, mak- 

 ing a 60-pound package. A case of the 

 60-pound pails is shown at the extreme 

 right in the picture — ten 6-pound pails 

 also making a 60-pound case. 



To the left are 12-pound pails and 

 their case, in which 10 of them are 

 shipped, making a r20-pound case. 

 Then there are the familiar large size 

 60-pound cans and their case, except 

 that these cans have a very large 8-inch 

 opening to allow the packing of the 

 comb honey in them. This is another 

 120-pound package. 



The comb honey for these is cut in 

 various ways, each size of can or pail 

 requiring different cutting of the 

 combs. For the 12-pound pails the 

 comb is first cut in the middle, as for 

 the large 60-pound cans. Then each 

 of the halves is cut again in the 'middle 

 so as to make 4 squares of comb honey 

 to each comb. These are then laid in 

 the pails flat, one on top of the other 6 

 layers high. Then the pails are filled 

 with extracted honey. For the 6-pound 

 pails the combs are cut into .") pieces 

 across the comb, and 4 layers make the 

 pails full enough to be filled with ex- 

 tracted honey. But for the :!-pound 

 cans it is necessary to cut off from one 



