1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



148 



TVHAT DOES IT COST PEK POUND TO 

 PRODUCE HONEY? 



K. FRANCE TEI.LS US WHAT IT COSTS HIM PER 



POUND.— OTHER INTERESTINO FACTS 



FOR THE TRADE. 



T T is not a very easy task to make out just what 

 1^ honey does cost per pound. In the first place, 

 ^i we have got a {food deal of money invested in 

 "*■ bees and hives— buildings, wagons, machinery, 



horses, and fixtures of one kind and another 

 that we have to use to run the business. All these 

 things cost money; and it takes no small sum, eith- 

 er, to run 500 colonies of bees. The interest on the 

 money, and the wear and tear of the fl.xtures, will 

 be about as much as the actual cost of gathering 

 the crop. But let us see about what it did cost us 

 to gather our last crop, aside from the above in- 

 vestments. 



Kight boys' wages for 37 days S108 00 



Board for the 8 boys, 37 days 80.00 



1 man at $1.50 per day, 37 days 40 50 



117 barrels, at $3.00 each, to hold the honey.. 334.00 

 Rent for 5 yards of bees, away from home . . 75.00 



1 hired team at f 1..50 per day, 37 days 40-50 



Oats for 4 horses, SVa bu. per day for 30 days, 



at 35 cts. per bushel 26.25 



Hay for 4 horses, 30 days 15.00 



Total cash paid out for the crop $619.25 



Tf we add $18.00 more to the above figures, the 

 cost would be just about one cent and a half per 

 pound, as the amount of the crop was 43,489 lbs. 

 of honey. Now, besides the apove expenses, I 

 have figured up, at one-third less than cost, the 

 worth of the investment in materials, such as land 

 (one-half acre at home), buildings, bees, hives, wag- 

 ons, two horses, extractors, foundation-machine, 

 and a great many other fixtures, too numerous 

 to mention. On this amount I coini)iited the in- 

 terest at 7 ;- . I then added one-half the amount 

 of the interest, for the wear and tear of the fix- 

 tures. Then put in $300 for the pay to E. France 

 & Son for caring for the bees, and overseeing the 

 business for one year. To these items I put in 

 $50.00 for foundation used. The total of all these 

 amounts to over $800, or very nearly 2 cents per 

 pound for the cost of land, tools, fixtures, etc., m 

 the production of honey for the year 1886. Add to 

 this the i;4 cents (the cash paid out for the produc- 

 tion of a single pound of honey), and we have the 

 total cost of the crop at about 3',2 cents for a single 

 pound. But, remember, the year 1886 was an un- 

 usuallj' good one for honey. After we have se- 

 cured the honej' it is a long way from being cash. 

 It has to be sold. But it is not like a bed of straw- 

 berries. We can take our time to sell, any time 

 during the year, and we can kee]) it over if we don't 

 sell the fir^it year. 



BLACK BEES REPELLING JKJTH MILLERS. 



1 will just say, we have no trouble with the moths 

 or worms in our hives. As long as a hive contains 

 a good strong colony of bees there is no danger of 

 moths. Keep the bees strong, and they, whether 

 blacks or Italians, will keep clear of moths. I see 

 but very little ditterence. All the trouble we have 

 with the moth is to keep empty combs from being 

 destroyed until we can use them. We winter all 

 our bees outdoors, and we are not one of the lucky 

 kind who never lose any bees in winter. We always 

 lose some. If a colony dies before we are done 

 with zero weather, the worms, if there are any, 

 freeze to death, eggs and all. Such combs we can 

 keep in the hive, shut up tight until .luly. But if a 



colon}' dies, or swarms out in the spring, after the 

 cold weather is over, the combs left without live 

 bees will soon be wormy. It will be the same, 

 whether they were left by black or Italian bees. I 

 don't see any difl'erence. We have both kinds of 

 bees, and, of course, have a better chance to know 

 than we would if we had only one kind. There is a 

 great deal said about the Italian bees being moth- 

 proof. But a large part of such talk is from those 

 who keep only Italians. If they are kept strong 

 they are safe, and so would be the blacks. Now, I 

 don't want any one to think that I am opposed to 

 the Italians. I am not, by any means; but I do 

 think they are overrated. Still, I think the bee- 

 business has gone ahead faster than it would with- 

 out them, for this reason: They are handsome. 



If I buy a queen, and pay a few dollars for the 

 one bee, I shall be very likely to give her the best 

 of attention, make as much out of her as possible, 

 raise several queens from her, and those queens 

 have to be supplied with bees. First you know 

 there is a nice apiary built up, when, if the same 

 queen had cost nothing, there would not have been 

 very much interest taken in the matter. As for the 

 blacks being worse to rob than the Italians, I don't 

 see it. But we scarcely ever have any robbing, as 

 we have no occasion to work with the bees when 

 there is no honey coming in. 



FRANCE'S HONEY-EXTRACTOR. 



In your notes on my article in Gleanings for 

 Dec. 15, page 977, you ask a few questions which I 

 will try to answer. First, about my home-made ex- 

 tractor. It is essentially the Chapman extractor 

 with France's improvements to make it suitalile for 

 our work. The first extractor I got was a Winder 

 machine, made for me after 1 sent him one of my 

 frames. The whole can whirled around. There was 

 a hole in the center of the bottom, about as large as 

 my finger, for the honey to run out when the ma- 

 chine was at rest. 1 got along with it as long as I 

 was alone, or had one hand to help me. It bothered 

 me a good deal about choking up— the outlet was 

 too small. A little piece of comb, or some loose 

 cappings, would choke it up, and then we would 

 have to punch it out. One of my neighbors has a 

 Chapman machine. The can sits in a frame, has a 

 gate under the bottom to draw off the honey, and 

 has a revolving comb-basket inside. I liked that 

 better than ni}' revolving can, so I sent two frames 

 to Mr. Chapman to have him make a machine suit- 

 able for my frames. As my frames were large, the 

 machine would have to be of an extra size. I told 

 him to make the comb-basltet out of wire cloth, 

 three meshes to the inch. In due time I received 

 the machine. It was a big improvement over my 

 old revolving can, but it did not fill the bill. First, 

 the wire cloth in the comb-basket was five meshes 

 to the inch instead of three, as I ordered. The 

 trouble was, our frames stand on the bottom, and 

 have three heavy nails driven into them to keep 

 them apart. Those nails would go through the 

 cloth, and bothered me to get the comb out of the 

 basket. A three-mesh wire would let the nails out 

 easily, and scarcely ever make any trouble. The 

 honey-gate was too small — it would choke up as bad- 

 ly as our other machine. I took the gate out and 

 put in a larger one. I use a two-inch gate. When 

 we raise the handle of that, the honey will run, and 

 no small matter will clog it up. The comb-basket 

 was too small for my frames. A clean frame, with 

 no comb built on top or sides of the frame, would 



