November, 191.' 



373 



American Hee Journal 



disposing of his crop of honey is 

 usually able to obtain this information 

 in personal discussions with the other 

 beekeepers present. Send us in your 

 questions any time and we will en- 

 deavor to answer them in a satisfactory 

 manner at the meeting. 



Every beekeeper in Michigan is in- 

 vited to attend, and is expected to 

 bring along another beekeeper to join 

 with us in making the 50th annual 

 meeting of the Michigan Beekeepers' 

 Association bigger'n ever. 



F. Eric Millen, Sec.-Treas. 



East Lansing, Mich. 



Honey Shortage in England. — The 



prospects for " heather" honey in Eng- 

 land this Season are not bright. June 

 frosts, which blighted the heather buds, 

 was followed by a wet summer. The 

 bees of the United States have pro- 



duced a splendid quantity of honey 

 this year, averaging 15(3. 2 pounds per 

 colony against 82.2 pounds last year. 

 Over 50,000,000 pounds of honey are 

 produced yearly, hence the English 

 shortage can readily be supplied. This 

 season's large yield, together with in- 

 creased receipts of honey from the 

 West Indies, has depressed prices. 

 American honey e.xports were only 

 $130,000 in value in the 12 months 

 ended June 30, 1914, of which but $-1000 

 went to England. 



Exports of honey dropped to $114,000 

 during the months ended June 30, 1915, 

 of which $54,000 went to England. 

 Germany was formerly the largest pur- 

 chaser of American honey, taking in 

 the fiscal year 1912. $134,000 worth ; in 

 1913, $107,000 worth; in 1914, $75,000 

 worth, and forthe year just closed only 

 only $10,000 ytoxih.—Crnited Stales Con- 

 sular Keports. 



five tons of honey. Many are doing 

 the same and getting results equally 

 satisfactory. Of course, I am waiting 

 an.xiously to see how these apiaries 

 will show up next spring, for we may 

 expect some return of the disease. 



The enclosed photograph shows Mr. 

 Korse at work in his honey-house dur- 

 ing the busy season. The Korse Bros, 

 have been successful in migratory bee- 

 keeping, wintering their bees in the 

 valley orange groves and moving to 

 the sage belt after extracting from the 

 orange flow. 



Caufornia ^ Bee-I^eping 



Conducted by J. E. Pleasants. Orange. Calif. 



The Season 



The season just closed marks, on the 

 whole, a slinhtly more encouraging 

 condition among the beekeepers of the 

 coast than prevailed last year. There 

 was no more honey taken per colony 

 than last year, and we have had a fair 

 sized battle with European foulbrood. 

 Prices, however, have been just a little 

 better and more sales have been made. 



But one lesson, I think, we have 

 learned : That it is a mistake to hold 

 honey over unless prices are extremely 

 low. Early sales generally average 

 best. It seems that the European war 

 has demoralized our amber honey trade 

 for the last two seasons. This has also 

 borne down the price of white honey, 

 as many will use the cheaper article 

 regardless of quality. A surprising 

 amount of ignorance still prevails 

 among our home consumers and retail 

 grocers regarding the different grades 

 of honey. This also leads to careless 

 methods of grading among beekeepers, 

 the idea prevailing that people will pay 

 as much for amber, especially for light 

 amber, as for white. 



of the present year, however, it broke 

 out badly, and at least 150 of his colo- 

 nies were diseased in the spring. He 

 has worked among them valiantly, re- 

 queening and destroying all infected 

 matter, and strengthening where neces- 

 sary by uniting. He has now an api- 

 ary of 200 colonies of good, clean Ital- 

 ians. 



When he and I looked them through 

 we found but one colony slightly in- 

 fected. He bought over 100 queens 

 this season from one queen-breeder. 

 This I consider a pretty good record 

 of cleaning up an apiary, besides taking 



OscAK Downs, of Orange. Calif. 



Honey Grading 



There is certainly a much needed 

 "campaign of education" among the 

 consumers and merchants as to the 

 relative grades of honey and the prices 



European Foulbrood 



Our beekeepers are making as strong 

 a stand as possible against our new 

 enemy (new here), European foul- 

 brood. Almost to a man they are re- 

 queening and doing all that can be 

 done. 



For the encouragement of all who 

 have this scourge to contend with, I 

 will cite an instance of persistent effort 

 on the part of a beekeeper, whose api- 

 ary I visited last week. Two years ago 

 this disease appeared in the Santa Ana 

 Canon apiary of Mr. Oscar Downs, the 

 apiarist mentioned. He then had 300 

 colonies. The first year the disease 

 showed but slightly. At the beginning 



OLIVER KORSE AT THE CAPPINGS MELTER 

 The Korse Bros, apiary is in the Santa Ana Mountains 



