GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the winter, Ijiit no brood in any of tliem. Only a 

 small quantity of bees were living, and they are 

 still dying by the handful. T don't think I shall 

 have a colony left for sprint:. My apiary is located 

 in the back yard of my lot in the middle of our 

 city, and I have been only five years in the business. 



We had such a drouth in this section that there 

 were no blooms for the bees to work upon until late 

 in the fall. There were enough for them to lay up 

 for winter. 



East Radiord. Va., Dec. 9. R. H. Creasv. 



Farmers' Insurance Co. Insures Bees against 

 Fire Loss 



I have read the letter of inquiry about bee insur- 

 ance, page 956, Dec. 1, and your answer that you 

 have been informed that no company will insure bees 

 against loss by fire. We have 170 stands of bees 

 insured for $400 against fire and lightning, in storage 

 and out, by the Farmers' Insurance Co., Cedar Rap- 

 ids, la. The liability is $3.00 per stand in case 

 of loss. There was no trouble about getting it. The 

 agent wrote in for instructions, and permission was 

 givtn at once. 



Turkey River, la. L. W. Maxwell. 



Retail Your Own Honey 



There is one method of marketing honey that is 

 rarely mentioned in any bee-journal, and I beg to 

 suggest that it be discussed in Gleanings in 1915 

 — that is, the bottling and selling of extracted honey 

 by the producer. Go into groceries where you will, 

 and you see bottles and jars of honey on the shelves. 

 On closer e.xamination you will see " This honey 



\v as put up by Packing Co., or " Bottled by 



Bottling Co." Why cannot beekeepers supply 



their local grocers at least, or retail it to the con- 

 suiiers in the nearby towns themselves? 



Some beekeepers object, saying that they have not 

 the time to bottle honey ; but I know that there must 

 le scores like myself who have but little to do in 

 « inter, and many no doubt have a heated workshop 

 or honey-house where the work may be carried on. 

 Surely there must be some who bottle and sell part 

 of their honey in small packages, and I am sure 

 they will be willing to give others some hints on 

 the subject, such as best methods of bottling, selling, 

 etc., and best size of bottle to use. 



Every beekeeper who retails his honey should be 

 prepared to furnish honey in any form his customer 

 desires it. Thus, if he produces comb honey only I 

 believe it would pay him to purchase extracted hon- 

 ey from a producer of that article, or exchange with 

 him and vice versa. Beekeepers cannot give too 

 much study to the selling of their honey. 



Catskill, N. Y., Dec. 28. Elmer W. Palmer. 



Beekeepers near Akron, N. Y., Organize 



We held our meeting at Akron, N. Y., Dec. 15. 

 The day was rather stormy, and the crowd was not 

 as large as would have been the case had the 

 w-eather allowed. Those present had an interesting 

 time discussing timely topics. 



One member has a trying time every year keeping 

 pollen out of his sections. At first thought it would 

 seem this is a question of carelessness, but not so, 

 as Mr. Sprout is an intelligent beekeeper and not to 

 be misled so easily. He says it bothers him every 

 year from the beginning of the clover flow to the 

 end, in colonies before swarming and after. Y'oung 

 and old seem to make no difference. He uses a 

 frame nearly 12 inches in depth, and hives his 

 swarms on two empty combs, and does not put on 

 supers immediately, but still the trouble is there. 

 If he puts an empty super under a partly filled one, 

 in goes the pollen and sometimes on top. He has 



tiied almost every thing conceivable, even putting 

 drone foundation in sections, but of no avail. Can 

 any of the readers offer a remedy? 



A local organization was formed with the following 

 officers: President, .Tohn N. DeMuth, Pembroke, N. 

 Y. ; Vice-pres., ,1. Hoy Lincoln, Niagara Falls, N. 

 Y. ; Sec'y-Trea.s., William Vollmer, Akron, N. Y. 



A summer field meeting was also decided upon. 



Akron, N. Y. William Vollmer, Sec. 



[ Bees are creatures of habit and they must not 

 be allowed to get the habit of placing pollen in the 

 sections. We presume that Mr. Sprout recognizes 

 this fact and that he has done all in his power to 

 prevent them from doing so. An occasional cell of 

 pollen in comb honey seems inevitable, but if there 

 are combs containing some pollen at each side of the 

 brood-chamber with plenty of empty cells for more, 

 the trouble is not likely to be serious. 



Some have used a queen-excluder which also serves 

 as a pollen-excluder usually, but if possible the 

 situation should be controlled in some other way. — 

 Ed.I 



What to do •when a S'warm Issues 



When I'unning for comlj honey, no matter how- 

 much roo.n or ventilation is given the colonies, some 

 will swarm. This is my way of treating them. 1 

 watch at the entrance for the queen (of course I 

 have the queens clipped) ; and then I cage her and 

 lay the cage at the entrance of the hive that the bees 

 came from. Then while the swarm is in the air I go 

 through the hive and cut out the queen-cells. At the 

 beginning of the season I put back four or five 

 frames of brood in an eight-frame hive, and fill the 

 rest of the space with full sheets of foundation. At 

 the latter part of the season I put back six or seven 

 frames of brood, filling up with full sheets of foun- 

 dation. About the time I get through the colony the 

 swarm will return. When the bees are about half in 

 I let the queen run in with them. The brood that 

 is taken away from such colonies is given to weak 

 colonies. 



Juda, Wis.. Dec. 8. .James D. Benson. 



Ames Bottom-hoard for Four Hives Faulty 



The Ames bottom-board, p. 889, Nov. 15, is faulty 

 in this respect : When the colonies are very strong, 

 the weather very hot, and a sudden check occurs in 

 the honey, the bees from the south hives will often 

 get up a nice scrap with their north neighbors, and 

 a lot of dead bees will be the result ; then when 

 young queens are mating they too often return to 

 the wrong hive. Now, if he will tack the cleats on 

 the bottom of the hive with short nails so they can 

 be easily removed, he can, when he takes off the 

 winter case, move the hives to the extreme ends of 

 the bottom-board and place a wide shingle on edge 

 next to the north liive, and have things more har- 

 monious. 1 have been through the mill. 



SfHsiKIRER. 



A Beekeeper who has not Walked for 

 nearly 40 Years 



I am II! years of age, and I have not walked for 

 nearly 40 years. I was stricken with infantile 

 paralysis in both feet and legs in 1876 when I was 

 five years old, and have never walked since. My 

 feet and legs are very small. I cross my legs by 

 laying one foot en one thigh and the other on the 

 other. I have leather pads filled to put on to crawl 

 on, and also leather slippers, as I call them, for my 

 hands. I am strong in my arms and body, and 

 crawl about my little apiary and shop, which is also 

 my honey-house, and work with my 43 colonies. 



When I was 17 years old I crawled half a mile 

 to hive my first swarm. 



Woolwine, Va. Jesse G. Cockram. 



