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(Entered as second-class matter July 30, 1907, at the Poat-Ottlce at Oblcago, III., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, 146 West Superior Street, 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, NOVEMBER, 1910 



Vol. L- -No. 11 



Editorial Notes and Comments 



Uniting Weak Colonies 



It is a great mistake to attempt to 

 winter a lot of weaklings. If a colony 

 lias not enough bees to cover at the 

 very least 4 combs, unite. If the work 

 is not already done, the sooner the 

 better. There is more than one good 

 plan of uniting. The newspaper plan 

 is the favorite plan with the writer, pos- 

 sibly because it is his own invention. 



No special preparation is needed. 

 Put a sheet of newspaper over one of 

 the colonies, and over that place the 

 story containing the other colony. 

 That's all — the bees will do the rest, 

 except that after 3 or more days you 

 will assemble in the lower story the 

 best combs of each, so as to have the 

 colony all in one story. Yet that is 

 not absolutely necessary. If there is 

 any choice of queens, you may destroy 

 the poorer, but if you have no choice 

 ihe bees will attend to the queen-busi- 

 ness. But there is some advantage in 

 having the queen of the upper colony 

 killed in advance; there is less danger 

 of any of the bees going back to the 

 old location. 



Either colony may be placed on top 

 of the other; other things being equal 

 it is well to put the weaker on the 

 stronger, always leaving the lower on 

 its own stand. 



Brood-Combs tor Bait in Supers 



In the British Bee Journal L. S. Craw- 

 shaw raises the question : 



"Is there not danger of getting pollen in 

 the sections when inserting shallow frames 

 of brood in the super ?" 



One would think so, but in actual 

 practice it does not seem so. Years 

 ago the writer practiced using a frame 

 of brood in the section super to get 

 the bees to work in the super, and 

 there was no trouble with pollen ; but 

 if the brood was left in the super until 

 capping began on the sections the cap- 

 ping would be darkened from the black 



wax carried across from the brood- 

 comb to the sections. 



But instead of using brood in the 

 super, a very much better way is to use 

 bait-sections — sections of the previous 

 year that have been partly filled and 

 emptied out. In some of the foreign 

 books or papers one reads of using 

 bait-sections partly filled with honey. 

 Bees will start about as well — perhaps 

 just as well — on the empty comb, and 

 it is hardly practicable early in the 

 season to have honey in baits, for if 

 kept over from the previous season 

 the honey would be granulated. 



A single bait-section in the center of 

 the super is all that is needed. In a 

 poor season this bait-section may be 

 filled and sealed and not another sec- 

 tion in the super started, but in a good 

 season it will be but a short time after 

 the bait is occupied before the bees 

 will be at work all over the super. 



Price of a 1-Ib. Bottle of Houey 



J. E. Crane estimates, in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, that when a producer 

 gets 8 cents for a pound of extracted 

 honey at wholesale, the consumer must 

 pay 24 cents for it. He figures thus : 



One pound extracted honey 8c 



P'reislit on same He 



Bottle 4Hc 



Freight to jobber ic 



Cost of selling to jobber He 



Labels, cost of bottling, etc %c 



Jobber's commission 2C 



Retailer's profit sc 



Total 22C 



Then another 2 cents must be added 

 for loss from leakage and waste, and 

 to pay the one who puts up the honey. 

 Editor Hutchinson well says in com- 

 ment : 



'■ It does seem a pity, as though something 

 was wrong, when it costs twice as much to 

 put a pound of honey into the consumer's 

 hands as it does to produce the honey." 



Right on the face of it, it looks like 

 paying a good deal for glass that is to 



be thrown away, to pay more for the 

 glass to contain 2 pounds of honey 

 than the producer would get for an- 

 other pound of honey. It might be a 

 work of philanthropy to educate the 

 consumer to buy honey by the can of 

 60 pounds. Any family can — ought — to 

 consume that much in a year. The 

 head of the family can buy such a can 

 for $6, while at 24 cents a bottle it 

 would cost him $14.40. That saving of 

 $8.40 ought to appeal to him. At the 

 same time the producer would be the 

 gainer to sell at $(! a can rather than to 

 sell at 8 cents a pound to the dealer. 



Keeping Comb Honey 



" To preserve comb honey in the best con- 

 dition, each section should be wrapped in 3 

 or 4 thicknesses of tissue-paper and stored 

 in a dry, warm place, well ventilated, and 

 where the temperature is never allowed to 

 get below 80 degrees Fahr."—Brias/i Bee 

 Journal. 



Such care of honey approaches, if it 

 does not entirely reach, perfection. 

 But is it practicable ? Perhaps on a 

 small scale with a few sections for 

 home use, but hardly on a commercial 

 scale. Certainly not in the northern 

 part of this country. With the ther- 

 mometer flirting with zero for many 

 days together, it is not easy to have a 

 place where the mercury never gets be- 

 low 80. In our living apartments we 

 want no such heat. The "well venti- 

 lated " part adds greatly to the diffi- 

 culty of keeping up the temperature. 



But some approach may be made to- 

 ward what is given as the ideal. Too 

 often honey is kept where it freezes 

 occasionally, if not frequently, and 

 then we have cracked combs and gran- 

 ulation of the honey. If we can not 

 keep it at 80, surely we need not let it 

 freeze. 



As to ventilation, is it at all neces- 

 sary ? Likely, to some extent, to cure 

 honey, but hardly to keep it. A section 

 of honey in perfect condition needs no 

 evaporation, and so no ventilation. The 

 trouble is that too often the honey is 

 not cured and in perfect condition 

 when cold weather arrives. A very im- 

 portant thing is that the honey be kept 

 in a hot place while it is still hot 

 weather. And that is not difficult. In 

 an attic it may be nearer 100 than 80. 

 And one hot day in August will stand 



