43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JUNE 18, 1903, 



No. 25. 





Editorial Comments 



] 



AVriting I'p Honey in the Local Papers is strongly 

 urged by Wm. M. Whitoey. He says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture: 



Now, it seems to me that the surest and best way to create a de- 

 mand for honey, and thus enhance the price, would be to get the local 

 press interested; /. c, publish through the local papers instruction or 

 information regarding the uses and benefits of honey as a food, a 

 medicine, etc. It is surprising how little is known by the majority of 

 people, even in the country, of the value of honey in numberless ways 

 in a family. If we who are interested in this matter (and all bee- 

 keepers ought to be) would thus place before the people in a judicious 

 manner the ways in which honey maybe used to great advantage, 

 many families that have considered it a luxury in which they could 

 not indulge might be induced to try it. 



For instance, here is a family fond of warm biscuit and honey, or 

 pancakes and honey, but think they can not afford it, but would adopt 

 it if they were told that a syrup of granulated sugar, costing about 'A 

 cents per pound, mixed with good, thick, extracted honey, costing in 

 bulk, say 13 cents per pound, made a very tine syrup for the purpose, 

 with all the flavor of honey, and making the average cost only about 

 7 cents per pound. How much better this would be for the consumer 

 than to buy the stuff put on the market by the trade generally, with 

 nobody responsible for its manufacture, and composed principally of 

 glucose or something worse ! When mixed at home we know what we 

 are using. 



The above is simply an illustration of what might be done were 

 we to turn our attention in the direction of the local papers. We may 

 talk till doomsday through the bee-journals, that nobody sees but the 

 bee-keepers (and but few of them, I'm sorry to say), and it will never 

 create a demand for honey one iota. What would we think of the 

 business sense of a manufacturing establishment that exploited its 

 goods and wares through the medium of a publication that fell into 

 the hands of its competitors only ? That is substantially what bee- 

 keepers are doing in their efforts to market their honey. They talk in 

 the bee-journals; they talk in conventions, where there is no one to 

 hear but themselves. Why, it almost seems like lying awake at night 

 to talk to one's self. 



Mr. Whitney, in the above, gives some very good suggestions 

 about creating a larger demand for honey. We hardly favor, how- 

 ever, the idea of suggesting to consumers that they could mix granu- 

 lated sugar syrup with honey. We do not see the necessity of it. 

 Why not eat the pure honey alone, instead of adulterating it with 

 sugar? Certainly, extracted honey is cheap enough now without mix- 

 ing it with a cheaper article in order to dispose of more honey. We 

 think that greater headway will be secured by urging people to u.se 

 more honey alone. They will do this as they become better acquainted 

 with its value as an article of food. It bee-keepers were producing 

 sugar also in connection with keeping bees, it might do forthenito 

 urge the use of sugar. We really think that it is better for bee-keepers 

 simply to urge a wider consumption of honey, and it people wish to 

 use sugar let them do so without any suggestion on the part of bee- 

 keepers. 



Mr. Whitney certainly is correct in saying that it is poor policy 

 for bee-kepers to try to increase the consumption of honey by writing 

 about it in the bee-papers. But that is all right so far as it goes, as it 

 helps the producers, in that it educates them on the use of honey, 

 when they can in turn pass the information on to their neighbors and 

 friends. Perhaps a good way would be to pay the publishers of local 

 newspapers for a certain amount of space, and then use it in calling 

 the attention of people generally to the value of honey as a food. It 



can hardly be expected that the local newspapers are going to use a 

 lot of their space for the benefit of bee-keepers who have honey for 

 sale. It is not just to ask them to use their valuable space in that way, 

 without offering to pay them something for it. 



We have thought for some time that the National Association 

 could not better.invest a few dollars than in advertising in the leading 

 daily papers of this country. Something like the National Biscuit Co. 

 does with their Uneeda Biscuit and other bakery goods that they turn 

 out. It might be well for the bee-keepers to create an advertising 

 fund, letting each. one contribute something toward it, as such adver- 

 tising would be for the benefit of all who produce honey. A National 

 honey exchange could do something of this kind very profitably, we 

 think, as it would create a demand tor their honey, especially if they 

 sold it under a certain brand or label. 



Honey will not sell itself, any more than anything else. Every- 

 thing these days has to be pushed, and pushed vigorously, in order to 

 receive the attention of the masses. Witness the advertising of the 

 various breakfast foods. One can scarcely pick up a newspaper or 

 magazine of any kind that does not contain a number of breakfast- 

 food advertisements. The persistency with which the manufacturers 

 of these brands of food continue their advertising, shows that it must 

 pay to do so. Nearly everybody eats some kind of breakfast food. 

 Nearly everybody should also eat honey, and we believe they will do 

 so it they ever have an opportunity to learn as much about honey as 

 they now know about breakfast foods. 



Honey has never been brought to the attention of the consuming 

 public in a manner to recommend it for general use. Perhaps one 

 reason is that it can not be produced in imlimited quantities, as can 

 be done with breakfast goods and other food preparations that are 

 manufactured. When the honey of the country is all cleaned up, 

 there will not be any more until the next season, and when the crop 

 is short the end is soon reached. A National honey exchange, with 

 ample funds, could buy up a large quantity of honey and store it, so 

 that, it likely would be able to supply all its demands from year to 

 year. And yet, we have always contended that there is not enough 

 honey produced in the whole country to supply the demand that would 

 arise if everybody was as familiar as they should be with honey as a 

 daily table article. 



We think this is a subject worthy the best thought of honey-pro- 

 ducers everywhere. With the proper demand among the people for 

 pure honey, we believe that the price would be much higher tor all 

 grades. Most people like to eat good things, and if they can be 

 assured of purity at all times, they are willing to pay a good price. 



A Plan for Rearing- Queens and Starting Xuclei. 



Nuclei may be started in different ways. A plan of getting nuclei 

 started that is easy of accomplishment for the beginner, at the same 

 time resulting in a laying young queen in each nucleus, is as follows: 



Take from a strong colony of choice stock its queen and two 

 frames of brood with adhering bees, putting them in another hive on 

 a new stand. In place of the removed frames two empty combs may 

 be given. The hive in which the queen has been put may also be 

 filled up with empty combs, or with frames filled with foundation. 



Nine days later take the old colony from its stand, and put in its 

 place the hive with the queen. The field-bees, when they return from 

 foraging, will join the latter, and it will soon be a good colony. 



The contents of the old hive may now be divided up into nuclei. 

 The bees being queenless, they will stay wherever put much better 

 than will bees taken directly from a colony with a laying queen. Two 



