43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, NOV. 19, 1903, 



No. 47. 



c 



Editorial Comments 





Don't Feed Syrup Now. 



If you have been wise you will not be feeding anything now; 

 the time for that was earlier; but if you have been improvident 

 enough to leave some colonies till now with insuflicient stores, let the 

 deficiency be supplied with combs of sealed honey or with candy. 

 Don't think of feeding syrup now. 



The Varying Value of Honey-Plants. 



This is one of the curious things in bee-keeping. It is well known 

 that alfalfa Is one of the most valuable honey-plants in Colorado and 

 other Western regions, while, uniil lately, there has been no report of 

 honey gathered from alfalfa east of the Mississippi. Now hopes are 

 entertained that by means of inoculating the soil with the proper 

 bacteria, alfalfa may flourish in localities where hitherto it has been a 

 failure, and that in such places it may become valuable as a honey- 

 plant. But what will account for the widely differing values of the 

 goldenrods and asters? Surely, there can hardly be lacking some 

 bacterium in the soil of northern Illinois, where several varieties of 

 these plants grow luxuriantly and abundantly, yet they are reported 

 worthless as honey-plants. Why wt)rthless here and excellent else- 

 where ; 



The Use of the Uneapping-Knife. 



An old bee-keeper writes : 



" What T. F. Bingham says, on page "12, about the use of the 

 honey-knite, is worth all the long discussion about it in the Los Ange- 

 les report; but can it be possible that there is anything like I'J.") pounds 

 pressure on the knife* It doesn't seem to need a strength of many 

 pounds to move the knife."' 



Mr. Bingham is attributing to the pressure of the atmosphere 

 what really should be attributed to the viscidity of the honey. The 

 atmosphere is 1.5 pounds to the square inch, but that cuts no figure; 

 the pressure is there on both sides alike, even if one side is immersed 

 in honey. Try the flat side of the knife on a comb of very cold, thick 

 honey, and then try it on one of warm, thin honey. The pressure of 

 the atmosphere is the same in each case, but the knife will move with 

 much greater difficulty in the case of the cold honey, because of its 

 greater toughness. 



This, however, does not take anything away from Mr. Bingham's 

 argument in favor of having the '4 -inch bevel rather than the 1 '4-inch 

 blade next the honey. For the blade being five times as wide as the 

 bevel, it will take five times the force to -overcome the friction, so to 

 speak, of the honey. 



Selling Small Crops of Honey. 



Recently we received an inquiry from a bee-keeper who had only 

 about a ton of extracted honey, asking where he could sell it, and 

 also what it was worth. 



As to its value, of course we referred him to the market column 

 the American Bee Journal. Any one who gets this journal regu- 



larly would hardly need to write to us to know the market price of 

 honey. That is what the honey quotations are publishedifor. 



Now, about where to sell honey. In the particular case referred 

 to, we suggested that as he had only a small amount of honey to dis- 

 pose of, we believed he could realize the most for it by working up a 

 home market, or in near-by towns. If he should ship his honey to a 

 large city market he would likely get about 6 cents per pound for it. 

 If he put forth some effort, by offering it direct to families in say 6 or 

 8 pound pails or cans, he would doubtless get at least 10 cents a pound 

 for it. if not more. 



We would like to see bee-keepers get more for their fine honey, 

 but in order to do so, a great many more of them will have to work up 

 their own market. Of course, the bee-keeper who has a number of 

 tons of honey can not usually dispose of it in a home market. Such 

 will have to ship it to the larger city market. But there are thousands 

 of small cities and towns that do not use a tenth of the honey they 

 should use, and would use, it they were offered^the honey direct by 

 the producer. 



We believe this matter will bear investigation and development. 

 We would like to hear from those who have made a success of the 

 home-marketing plan. ^^^^^__^^^^ 



Prices and Profits in Bee-Keeping. 



The following is a sample of some of the correspondence that has 

 come to this office lately and within the past few years : 



Mr. York: — I believe the common bee-keeper is the milk-cow of 

 the big bee-supply factories, and the commission houses of the big 

 cities. I can see no profit in bee-keeping. And it looks to me funny 

 when factories advertise in the bee-papers that the bee-keeper should 

 borrow money and send it to the factory to get the goods early. Those 

 people like to get all the money out of the bee-keepers, and let the 

 latter have only the bee-stings in the summer-time. 



I believe there is a great, big humbug in comb foundation. It 

 will stand the heat of an ice-box but not the heat of a hive full of bees. 

 It must be more than half profit. Of course, there is more profit in 

 that kind of foundation. I wouldn't use any foundation without wir- 

 ing the frames. Baptist Beck. 



Being entirely out of the bee-supply business now, we feel that we 

 can offer a few comments on Mr. Beck's letter without being accused 

 of having " an ax to grind." 



In the first place, we learned enough about the bee-supply busi- 

 ness, while we were in it, to know that there is no fortune in it for any 

 one, be he manufacturer or dealer. Why, if the profits in making and 

 handling bee-supplies were equal to those in many other lines, bee- 

 keepers would be compelled to pay about double the present retail 

 prices for the supplies they use in their apiaries. We feel that we 

 know something about this matter, for we are in a city where there is 

 a great variety of business done, and we know that the profits in a 

 number of other lines of trade are far in excess of those connected 

 with handling bee-supplies and honey. 



As to the intimation of Mr. Beck, that comb foundation is adul- 

 terated, we can only say that the bulk of the comb foundation sold 

 to-day is made by the Weed process, and the fact is that the sheeting 

 method of that process will not work adulterated wax. So that idea 

 of Mr. Beck is entirely wrong. Almost any bee-keeper knows that on 

 a very hot summer day, with a heavy swarm of bees in a hive not ven- 

 tilated, any kind of comb foundation will likely melt down if nol 

 wired in the frames. 



As to there being no profit in the bee-business at the present price 

 of honey, we suppose that can also be said of any other farm products 

 at different times during a series of years. But we venture to say that 



