976 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



to time, some of which came from Prof. 

 Frank Benton, also an entomologist. These 

 public servants do much to add to our practi- 

 cal bee-lore, even thoug-h their instruction 

 masquerades under the guise of "science," 

 usually so little understood by the popular 

 mind. On Friday evening we listened to a 

 very interesting paper from Mr. J. F. Mc- 

 Intyre, of Sespe, Cal., on the subject of 

 " Selling Extracted Honey at Wholesale ; 

 how to Get the Best Price." Mr. Mclntyre 

 is a bee-keeper who has made a success of 

 his business. So successful has he been 

 that he is one of the few who can hold a 

 crop for a whole year and then sell it when 

 prices are right. 



In starting out he said that this was the 

 hardest problem to solve he knew of. The 

 old proverb, that " to him that hath shall 

 be given," still held good ; but he would 

 paraphrase it this way: " To him that hath 

 money shall be given a high price for his 

 product; and from him that hath not money, 

 his produce shall be taken at a very low 

 price." Again, he said that all things 

 come to him who can wait. But there was 

 the rub. How could a man with hungry 

 mouths to fill wait with interest gnawing 

 at his vitals? He did not know one neigh- 

 bor bee-keeper who had his last year's 

 honey crop of any kind. They had all sold 

 out at a low price to speculators. What 

 middlemen had not sold remained on their 

 hands, and they were holding for a higher 

 price, and would get it. What were we 

 going to do about it, and what should we 

 do with the small producer? These ques- 

 tions had never been satisfactorily answer- 

 ed. Was there really any hope for the man 

 who was too poor to hold his crop? He 

 thought there was. For example, the citrus 

 fruit-growers' organization of Southern Cal- 

 ifornia had done much to solve a similar 

 problem for the small fruit-grower who was 

 too weak to get good prices for his crop. 

 Before the citrus fruit-growers' organiza- 

 tion was put in working order, the fruit 

 business was in such a bad shape that the 

 producer actually received expense bills in- 

 stead of returns for carloads of oranges he 

 shipped east. They had to do something 

 or quit the business. They organized an 

 association knowm as the Southern Califor- 

 nia Fruit Exchange. They put agents 

 under bonds in every large city in the Unit- 

 ed States, with headquarters at Los An- 

 geles. They pushed the sale of fruit, and 

 were pushing it to such an extent that 

 $11,000,000 worth of fruit was now consigned 

 to these agents annually, and honest re- 

 turns made to the grower. But the Ex- 

 change had become so successful that they 

 were now willing to help other producers — 

 producers of honey; and there was hope 

 that this organization, already powerful, 

 would be able to take the product of the 

 weak bee-keepers, market their honej' for 

 them at any time of the year, in spite of the 

 speculator or of the bulls and bears, and 

 give them fair returns. 



On the afternoon of the same day we 



listened to a very logical and carefully 

 written paper by Mr. W. L. Porter, on 

 "Out-apiaries for Comb Honey." "The 

 out- apiary, " he said, "is the invention of 

 the specialist, the bee-keeper who devotes 

 his whole time to bee culture, and depends 

 on it for his income." But in order to carry 

 on the business successfully, three things 

 must be considered: First, location; second, . 

 the stock of bees ; third, the method of ma- 

 nipulation." In seeking a location it was 

 important that the bee-keeper bear in mind 

 that there must be an abundance of honey- 

 producing plants. It should not be over- 

 stocked, and should be favorable for the lo- 

 cation of the hives. As to the bees, he 

 would have those bred with special refer- 

 ence to hardiness. They should have 

 energy and comb-building qualities. A 

 very important problem in connection with 

 the out-apiary business was the control of 

 swarming. Some made a practice of clip- 

 ping; others to dequeen; but whichever plan 

 was employed, two things had to be con- 

 sidered: First, the colonies should have 

 plenty of storage room, and, if shaded, 

 w^ould be less apt to swarm than those under 

 opposite conditions. Second, that a colony 

 of bees carefully bred was not as much in- 

 clined to swarm as one bred without refer- 

 ence to that quality. Managing out-apia- 

 ries was not easy work, but was continuous 

 work the year round. Much valuable time 

 was lost every da3' in going to and from the 

 out-apiary. But in spite of all that, there 

 was much advantage in having the yards 

 scattered. In one locality bees might 

 dwindle badly, or the flowers might fail. 

 In another locality only a short distance 

 away there might be a good crop. Each 

 bee-keeper would have to adapt himself to 

 his own conditions. In closing he empha- 

 sized the importance of having all the hives 

 full of bees at the time of the honey-flow. 



BOTTLED H0NP:Y GROWING IN POPULARITY. 



There is no question that bottled honey 

 is getting to be more and more popular with 

 the consumer class. The number of articles 

 that have been published on methods of 

 bottling have resulted in popularizing the 

 sale of honey in glass to such an extent 

 that tons and carloads of it are now put up 

 in that form that formerly sold in bulk at 

 very low prices — too low for the bee-keeper 

 to make a fair living. 



If you, dear reader, happen to live in a 

 locality where there is no bottled honey ex- 

 cept that which comes from some packing- 

 house, unknown or of doubtful reputation, 

 just try putting out some neat bottled goods 

 of your own, bearing your own label, and 

 see what a nice trade you will have. Your 

 own good reputation, with a personal ex- 

 planation from yourself, will make the 

 goods move off like hot cakes. But you 

 must make one trip around among the con- 

 sumers, explaining that it is your honey; 

 how you put it up, and that you guarantee 

 it to be absolutely pure. 



