40 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. IS, 1903. 



the busy part of the season, when you would not have time 

 to ask questions or visit some bee-keeper to find out just 

 what you might wish to know. In this way anyone can al- 

 ways be advancing, instead of retrograding. 



Don't be found around the country store or saloon on 

 winter evenings, sitting on dry-goods boxes and barrels, 

 filling the minds of others, or allowing your mind to be 

 filled with idle gossip, and often worse than idle gossip ; or 

 spend your time over an old, dingy checker-board, or musty 

 pack of cards, or the billiard table. These things are not in 

 place for an energetic, wide-awake bee-keeper, with plenty 

 of unread bee-literature at hand. "Read, study, think," 

 should be our motto always, and especially at this season of 

 the year. And we will find only fun in these things, if we 

 are interested enough in our business to make a success of 

 it. 



Then, during the daytime, we can be getting everything 

 ready that we wish to use during the next season, so it can 

 be put right where we want it at a moment's notice. The 

 first to get ready should be our supers or surplus arrange- 

 ments, so that we can set the whole on in one day, if neces- 

 sary, just when the honey-flow begins. Get these around, 

 and scrape off all the propolis adhering to them and the 

 separators, and all bits of comb, should there be any fas- 

 tened to any part of them. All bits of comb should be saved, 

 and to save them best the wax-extractor should be close at 

 hand, and all waste pieces of comb put into it during the 

 whole season. As often as it is full, get out the wax and 

 have it ready to fill again. 



All sections that are partly filled with honey should 

 have the honey extracted from them, unless you will need it 

 to feed in the spring, as this honey will not be likely to cor- 

 respond in color or quality with that which the bees will 

 put in to finish out the sections the next season. To extract 

 this nicely, fix a shelf close to the ceiling of your room, put 

 the honey thereon and keep the room so warm that the mer- 

 cury will stand at from 90 degrees to 100 degrees for four or 

 five hours before you commence to take the honey out. By 

 placing the honey near the ceiling we do not need nearly so 

 much fire to heat it as would be required if placed on 

 floor or bench. These partly filled sections, if we tried to 

 extract them without warming, would be all ruined, so far 

 as the combs are concerned, and the apiarist's prospect of a 

 good yield of honey the coming season would be quite badly 

 damaged also ; for, according to my value, these are better 

 than money in the bank, and will give a greater interest. 



After the honey is extracted, these sections are to be 

 put in the center of each super, as "bait-sections," thus 

 securing an early commencement of work by the bees in the 

 supers, and also so the full sections shall come off at once, 

 which, as a rule, makes the bees loth to enter a second lot. 

 I usually put in from two to eight of these baits, according 

 to the number I have in proportion to the colonies I expect 

 to run for comb honey the nextseason, when the rest of each 

 super is filled out with empty sections, each having a starter 

 of thin foundation in it, or fill the sections with full sheets 

 of foundation, as you prefer. Having the sections all nice 

 and each super filled and all complete, pack all nicely away 

 where they will be kept clean and free from dust till wanted 

 for use. 



The next work is to secure the material for further sec- 

 tions, by buying or otherwise, and make it up. To arrive 

 at the number I wish, I allow ISO one-pound sections for 

 each old colony I expect to work for comb honey during the 

 next season, and after 30 years of experience I find this esti- 

 mate is not far out of the way. Of course, there are many 

 seasons in which I do not use them all, but when we have a 

 season like that of 1901 in this locality, with an average of 

 180 one-pound sections all complete, we are pleased to have 

 150 of them all prepared at the beginning of the season. It 

 is well always to be sure to have nearly enough, for it is far 

 better to have some left over unused, than to find ourselves 

 with not half enough when the honey season is in full blast. 



Many put off this getting-ready part till spring, so that 

 they may know how their bees winter, but the one who ex- 

 pects to make a successful bee-keeper will not do this ; for 

 if the getting-ready part is put off till just before the honey 

 harvest, the result always shows a greater or less loss. 



Having the section part all in readiness, we next come 

 to our hives, frames, covers, bottom-boards, etc., all of 

 which should be looked over, repaired or built new, just in 

 accord with the number of colonies we expect to increase to 

 the next season. Then having these all in readiness, we 

 next wire the frames we expect to use brood foundation in, 

 and put the foundation in also, so that this part will be in 

 readiness. Many put off this part, thinking that the bees 

 will not work this "old foundation " after it has been in the 



frames for some months, but, rest assured, that the bees will 

 work this foundation just as well when wanted, as they 

 would had it been put in the frames an hour before placing 

 them in the hive. After having the frames thus prepared, 

 place the number you wish to use in each hive, and pack all 

 nicely away. 



We are now done, all but the material for any experi- 

 ments which we may have planned to make, and we can get 

 this out to suit our fancy, and have all in readiness, by 

 which time probably spring will be upon us, and the bees 

 call us to the active duties of the season of 1903. 



Now, after any have done as above, who have not been 

 in the habit of doing so before, they will find that they 

 have enjoyed the winter better than ever before, while at 

 the same time they have advanced more in the pursuit of 

 bee-keeping than they ever did in any two years before. If 

 they do not so find, then their experience will be entirely 

 contrary to that of many of our most practical apiarists. 

 Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Selling Basswood Honey to Consumers. 



BY A. W. SMITH. 



MY object in writing this article is to give my experience, 

 and try to find out if it is the same as the experience 

 of bee-keepers in other parts of the country. 



The bee books and papers say, " Develop the home mar- 

 ket," and I have followed that advice so that from a market 

 of a few hundred pounds, 20 years ago, I now have a market 

 for from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds per year, and nearly all of it 

 is sold direct to consumers, or to retailers who sell it to con- 

 sumers, and it will probably average about 's comb and % 

 extracted each year. 



I can sell raspberry, clover, buckwheat or goldenrod 

 honey, or a mixture of either two or all of them, and my 

 customers will be well satisfied ; but when it comes to the 

 basswood honey they will not take it at all, if they can get 

 any other ; and a mixture of even ten percent basswood 

 honey with any other kind I get will spoil the flavor of the 

 whole lot. If they have to take basswood honey because I 

 have no other kind for them, they are sure to tell me, when 

 they buy honey of me the next year, that they do not want 

 any more basswood, and they frequently tell me that they 

 gave away what they had, or else say they have most of it 

 on hand, because they did not like it. 



Basswood honey is the whitest honey I get, and looks 

 very nice, and would sell well if it even had a fair flavor, 

 but its nice looks are a damage to the honey market, for 

 persons who are not in the habit of buying much honey will 

 buy some of that once, because it looks so nice, and, by the 

 time they have eaten that, they have concluded that their 

 folks " don't like honey, anyhow ; " and the chances are ten 

 to one that they will not buy honey again even when they 

 can get the choicest clover or buckwheat. 



A large number (perhaps 40 percent) of my customers 

 prefer the buckwheat honey, but if they cannot get that they 

 will take any other kind I happen to have — except the bass- 

 wood — and be ready to buy again next year. 



If a beekeeper desires to develop a good home market 

 with basswood honey he must have a different quality of 

 basswood honey from that which the bees get in this part 

 of New York State, or else have a different lot of customers 

 than those who buy honey of me year after year. 



Perhaps some may think I am too much prejudiced 

 against basswood honey, but I have simply given the facts 

 as I have found them while developing my home market. 



Sullivan Co., N. Y. 



[See editorial comments on page 36. — Editor.] 



«^ 



More on the Queen-Rearing Question. 



BY DR. E. GAI,LUP. 



IT seems that Mr. Alley is getting hot under the collar. 

 He saw his first queen in 1859, while I saw mine in 1835 

 — 24 years before. 

 I received two queens from him which he says were per- 

 fect in every way, yet in another place he says that they 

 were reared by a method he now condemns. First, they 

 were small and inferior in size, but the two Mr. Doolittle 

 sent were at least one-third larger than Mr. Alley's, and the 

 shape of the Doolittle queens was much more nearly perfect 

 than Alley's. The shape of the queens has a great deal to 



