February, iiji. 



American lee Journal 



removing, packing and shipping tlieir 

 tall crop of honey, and much of it 

 granulated. One bee-keeper writes 

 that he has quite a lot of it in this con- 

 dition, and wants to know what to do 

 with it. 



There are a lot of consumers who 

 prefer it in its granulated form. They 

 liave been educated to eat it, and to 

 heat it up if they preferred it in the 

 liquid form, and «e bee-keepers should 

 do more towards educating our custo- 

 mers on this point. A label stating 

 why some honey would granulate, and 

 what to do with it in case it should 

 granulate before it was consumed, 

 ■iliould be put on every jar, can or pail. 

 This would go far towards relieving 

 the situation. 



The majority of the bee-keepers 

 know the sources of honey that are 

 liable to granulate early, and when the 

 bees store it, and they should take it 

 off, pack it, and put it on the market as 

 fast as the bees finish it. But when a 

 bee-keeper is caught late with a lot of 

 it on his hands, already granulated 

 solid, better keep it over until ne.xt 

 summer and work it over, and put it 

 on the market while the weather is 

 warm, and it will not granulate so 



early, or before it could be consumed, 

 which would surely be the case if it 

 was worked over now. What I mean 

 by "working it over," is to heat it up 

 thoroughly, and if it is chunk honey, 

 remove the comb after it is heated, and 

 sell it as e.xtracted honey, unless it can 

 be heated sufficiently so as not to melt 

 the comb. This can't always be done, 

 or at least it is my e.xperience. 



Then another bee-keeper writes 

 wanting to know if he can feed back 

 his granulated honey in early spring. 

 It might be done if the bees were very 

 short of stores, to stay immediate star- 

 vation; but it could best be fed back 

 to them later, just before the honey- 

 flow, when the weather was more set- 

 tled, and it would not be so apt to give 

 them dysentery, and cause dwindling. 

 The granulated honey or cane syrup is 

 bad to bring about tiiis disease, and it 

 is best to keep it away from the bees. 



If it was heated up and thinned some 

 by adding water, and fed back later, 

 when it would not be so likely to dis- 

 ease the bees, they might store too 

 much of it in the brood-chamber and 

 crowd the queen, and thereby do a lot 

 of harm. 



Far Western ^ Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster, Boulder. Colo. 



The Quality of Alfalfa Honey 



Mr. A. C. Miller, in the December 

 .American Bee Journal, says: 



"For several years past, white lioneys 

 have been steadily declining in popularity 

 in some markets, and amber orgolden honey 

 has come into popular fa\or. Jnst what the 

 reason is it may be hard to determine, but 1 

 believe that one very potent cause has been 

 the advent of alfalfa honey. It lacks char- 

 acter; it is insipid, and consumers are quicii 

 to drop it. A common remark is. tiiat ' it is 

 suearfed honey.' and I have heard that 

 from many a person who has never seen a 

 bee manazine or tcNt-book. At any rate, the 

 honey is not what they want. The amber 

 honeys have been found on trial to have a 

 'real honey taste.' the tiolden color looks 

 attractive on the piale. and it is becoming 

 Iiopular. " 



Mr. Miller's castigations of alfalfa 

 honey are the outcome of an observa- 

 tion of conditions in a market where 

 the stronger-flavored honeys have long 

 held sway. The taste of the people 

 who speak so about alfalfa honey has 

 been brought up on strong honeys. No 

 one who is accustomed to alfalfa honey 

 would ever call it tasteless. It is de- 

 nominated as a beautiful, mild-flavored 

 honey. We see a good many ICastern- 

 ers out here — in fact, the bulk of our 

 population is from the East — and I 

 liave heard our alfalfa honey praised 

 so often as being free from tliat 

 strong, disagreeable twang so common 

 in Kastern honey, that I am surpriseil 

 to hear this re|iort from Mr. Miller. 

 I'.ut, then, there are all kinds of tastes, 

 and I would be pleased to see every 

 one get the lumev thev like, and lots 

 of it. 



The shipping of a mild-flavored, light- 

 colored lionev. such as alfalfa, to a 



market where strong, twangy, throat- 

 burning honey is wanted, is a mistake, 

 e.xcept that the Western honey is 

 searching for a market, and the effort 

 will continually be made to educate the 

 tastes over to alfalfa honey. Regarding 

 amber honey, I agree with Mr. MilleV 

 that it is very attractive, as much so as 

 the white. 



I do not think that the bee-keepers 

 of the West can afford to blend tlieir 

 honey to the e.xtent the Eastener can. 

 The Westener will do better to sell his 

 alfalfa honey on its merits of flavor 

 and color, and at the rate it is being 

 shipped into the East I do not see that 

 the consumers are dropping its use as 

 fast as they are taking it up. 



There are certain districts in the 

 East that seemingly can not get enoiil^h 

 Western comb honey (alfalfa), and 

 others that absorb large quantities of 

 extracted alfalfa. 



Our Colorado people eat honey as I 

 never saw it eaten in the East. It is 

 common for some of our Boulder gro- 

 cers to sell a hundred cases (li4-lb. 

 cases) of comb honey, and a ton or 

 two of extracted, in one season. Peo- 

 ple will eat alfalfa honey in large 

 amounts more readily than they will 

 the stronger-flavored honeys. Alfalfa 

 honey is nilni. Eastern honey is only 

 tas/id. 



The condition Mr. Miller speaks of 

 is easily explained. The home-grown 

 honey is soon exhausted, and the 

 dealer, in order to supply the demand, 

 sends his customers some of the alfalfa 

 honey of which there is a lar.ge supply, 

 iii7ly to find it does not give the s;itis- 



factinn in every case because it was 

 not the same as they (the consumers) 

 got before. 



Whether your honey is strong or 

 mild flavored, try to keep your trade 

 supplied with the same grade from one 

 year's end to the other, and alwavs. 



The Cost of Honey-Production 



Not long since I had the pleasure of 

 hearing an address by Joe Wing, on 

 "Some Phases of the Live Stock In- 

 dustry." In telling of his work for the 

 Tariff' Board, in detenriining the cost 

 of wool-production at luune and abroad, 

 he made some strikiu.L; statements In 

 making a trip through Michigan, inter- 

 viewing sheep-owners, he did not find 

 one man in ."iO who knew what he was 

 making or losing on sheep. Many a 

 one found upon figuring that he was 

 losing, and making up on other farm 

 products. Changes in methods would 

 liave remedied this in many cases, but 

 some quit raising sheep when they re- 

 :ilized they couldn't do it e.xcept at loss. 



The instance of the old German 

 grocer who could not tell what his 

 selling cost was, is a parallel case. 

 When questioned further if he knew 

 whether he was making or losing 

 money, he replied ; 



"Veil, when I starts in business. I rents 

 store-room, house. %o in debt for goods, 

 wagon, horses and all. Now 1 has my own 

 store paid for. my own house, no mortgage, 

 my Koods are all paid for; 1 has money in the 

 bank, and an 8o acre farm. I thinks 1 am 

 doing pretty well makin;; some moneys. I 

 don't know how much." 



These cases cited illustrate the posi- 

 tion of many bee-keepers. They are 

 doing well, but they dn not know how 

 well. A few points may awaken ideas 

 as to the advantage of more thorough 

 methods. 



An apiary in the West, equipped for 

 comb or extracted honey, represents 

 an investment of ^'7 or $8 per colony. 

 Some cost less, smiie more. Probably 

 the average bee-keeper requires abmit 

 one dollar's worth of supplies per hive 

 each year. In my own apiary, I find 

 that the work of caring for ray bees, 

 preparing supidies and packing the 

 honey, requires about 2.') days per bHi 

 colonies. 



At this rate, one man should be able 

 to care for .50il or 601* colonies of bees 

 with little hired help. If each of us 

 could get at the cost of producing our 

 crop, and at the same time introduce 

 more systematic methods, we would 

 soon be able to care for probably twice 

 as many bees as we now think possible. 



There is one point that is very evi- 

 dent as I become more familiar with 

 Colorado bee-keepers. That is, that 

 management counts for far more th;ui 

 the yield per colony. The specialists 

 who are producing e.xiracted honey and 

 are making the most money, do not 

 average over 50 pounds to the colony, 

 and this at 7 cents per pound is not a 

 very large income per colony. 



I have m;iintained for some time that 

 a comli-houey producer who could 

 average one case of honey per hive, 

 could do well if he had an economical 

 system of management. What we 

 need is to cut out the fuss -fuss and 

 dabble; eliminate the useless motions, 

 and hold the essential principles in the 

 living-room of our minds. 



