Dec. 10, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



789 





Sketches of Beedomites 





HOMER H. HYDE. 



Homer 11. Hyde, whose picture with thai of his IjriJe adorns the 

 first page of this uuniber of the Americao Bee Journal, was born in 

 Dawsonville, Ga., May 7, ISSl. At the age of three years, his father 

 went to Texas, following his trade of a carpenter, aiid also farming 

 for some years. 



At the age of about 10 years, through hisgood mother's inlluence, 

 his father bought his first colony of bees, and from that day to this, 

 " Homer '' has not ceased to have an active interest in bees, which 

 seems to grow stronger as the years go by. 



Mr. Hyde has read about all there is published on the subject of 

 bees, taking all the apiarian papers regularly, besides spending a large 

 part of his lime the last ten years right in the apiary with the bees. 

 The past season, liowever, he was kept pretty well closed in on ac- 

 count of the demands of the otHce-work, but he hopes to arrange 

 matters so that another season he will be able to spend more time with 

 the bees again. 



Mr. Hyde secured his edacalion in the common schools of Texas, 

 and also took one course in Taylor University, at Waco, Tex. He 

 was married .lune l.s, 1903. His wife was born in Conway, Ark., Aug. 

 12, 18S3. She is a lineal descendant of John Adams. -Mrs. Hyde re- 

 ceived her education in the high school of Floresville, Tex., and a 

 little later was won " for better or for wor.se " by H. H. H. Mrs. Hyde 

 is very much interested in her husband's work, and in the bee-indus- 

 try, though itiis said she is very much afraid of the bees themselves. 

 However, Mr. Hyde thinks if .she succeeds in holding the reins on 

 him, she will have done her part. And that's so! 



Both Mr. and Mrs. Hyde are members of the Missionary Baptist 

 church, and are active in its services. 



Mr. Hyde was one of the car-load of bee-keepers that crossed the 

 continent recently to attend the Los Angeles convention of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association, of which he is a member. We thus 

 had opportunity to get acquainted with him. If all the other Texas 

 bee-keepers are as energetic and enthusiastic as he is, we wouldn't 

 object to forming the acquaintance of some more of them. We don't 

 know what the middle initial " H." stands for in his name, but it 

 might very appropriately be Homer Mustier Hyde. 



Referring to three of the pictures shown on the first page, Mr. 

 Hyde wrote us as follows : 



Mk. York : — Enclosed are .some partial views of two of our api- 

 aries. In No. 3 you will notice that the apiary is situated in a grove 

 of mesquite trees. However, this ground was a great mass of prickly 

 pear and other growth, so that the open space is literally hewn out. 

 In the lower part of the picture you will see some of the pear, showing 

 its outline. The men in the apiary are helpers, and constitute our 

 force, with the exception of myself. The men are, from left to right, 

 O. P. Hyde, L. B. Wiseman (visitor), Wm. Sedding, Milton West, 

 Emmett Hyde, and Chas. Wurth. We have 100 colonies of bees in 

 this apiary. 



No. 4 is a view of another yard taken some rods from the bees. 

 This is taken to show the profusion of wild spring Howers that cover 

 the pastures everywhere at that season of the year. In this yard we 

 had neglected to use the scythe for about three weeks, and you ob- 

 serve the results. The shrubs in the picture are mesquites. We have 

 90 colonies in this yard. 



No. 2 is a picture taken in our Holy-Land apiary, showing our 

 men worliing with a full colony of pure-bloods without veil or smoke. 

 These men are, from left to right, E. J. (Jarlton (foreman of apiaries;, 

 Emmett Hyde, and Chas. Wurth. 



These three pictures were snapped by myself, and are among my 

 first efforts in amateur photography. 



We have about 1100 colonies of bees, located in 10 apiaries, from 

 1 to 9 miles from home. Each location will stand easily 200 colonies, 

 and we expect to increase to that number at each yard. Our cold, 

 late spring knocked us out on catclaw honey this year, giving us a 

 frost on April 2S, coming at just the lime the catclaw was beginning 

 to yield. 



An average crop of honey for this locality is 100 pounds of bulk 

 comb honey. We have the largest number of bees kept by any one 

 company in the Slate. We are expansionists, and expect lo increase 

 our bees as fast as possible. Our methods of management will be 

 given later on, when the writer has the time lo write them up. 



H. H. HvuE. 





Convention Proceedings 



in$s J 



ta aM igi Tf 'i «»i T i .-, 



THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 34th Annual 



Meeting of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, Held at Los Ang'eles, 



Calif., Augr. 18, 19 and 20, 



1903. 



[Continued from page 775.) 

 The next on the program was a' paper by Homer H. 

 Hyde, of Texas, on the 



PRODUCTION AND SALE OF BULK COMB HONEY. 



A few years ago bulk comb was practically unknown, 

 but to-day there is scarcely a bee-keeper in the United States 

 that has not heard of it, and how it is produced. It is now 

 the principal product of the southwestern Texas bee-keepers. 

 Its production is rapidly gaining ground not only all over 

 Texas, but is gaining a footing in Nebraska, Colorado, 

 Utah and California. 



Since the publication of my articles in the'bee-papers, 

 inquiries have come from all over the country, and many of 

 them state that they have already commenced the produc- 

 tion of bulk comb honey. The production of the article 

 will soon be universal. 



The demand from the consumers for this article is rap- 

 idly growing, and is keeping far ahead of its production, 

 and to this fact the bee-keepers are rapidly catching on. 

 There are many reasons why it is gaining a hold with both 

 the consumer and the producer, especially the former. 

 When he buys a can of bulk comb honey he feels sure that 

 he is getting a pure sweet, just as the bees made it ; he feels 

 that he is getting full weight ; and he knows he has bought 

 it at a less price per pound than he could have bought sec- 

 tion honey. Then he has his honey in a nice bucket where 

 it can not break or lose out when cut in two ; and when he 

 has eaten out the honey he has a useful pail left. 



These are some of the reasons why the consumer pre- 

 fers bulk comb honey to section honey. I am talking of 

 the majority of the people. Of course, there are the wealthy 

 who will always buy a limited quantity of section honey be- 

 cause it is high in price, and has to them a fancy look. 



Now, let me quote Editor Root's foot-note to one of my 

 articles : 



" In my southwestern trip of a year and a half ago, I 

 was fully convinced that bulk honey, or chunk honey, was 

 getting to be more and more in vogue, both among progres- 

 sive beekeepers and the consumers themselves. Still, I 

 found some bee-keepers who thought it would be better to 

 educate the consumer to the use of section honey, believing 

 there would be more money in the production of such an 

 article. But I must admit that Mr. Hyde has advanced some 

 very strong arguments in favor of chunk honey ; and why 

 should we bee-keepers not cater to the various demands ? 

 One locality will use large quantties of candied extracted 

 honey ; another will use nothing but crystalline liquid ex- 

 tracted ; still another, fancy comb honey : still others dark 

 honey, almost as black as blackstrap itself. Cater to what 

 the locality calls for." 



Yes, friends, let's give people what they want, and if 

 they want bulk comb honey give it to them. Simply pro- 

 duce some of the article and take it around to your custo- 

 mers and give them a choice of the two honeys— section or 

 bulk comb honey — and your customers will soon all call for 

 the latter. Now, gentlemen, if this can be done, why not 

 doit? We are sure it is the most profitable, as all will 

 admit. 



Bulk comb honey is produced in either full bodies or 

 shallow Ideal supers. If the former is used it is hardly 

 practical to fasten in full sheets of foundation, as the frames 

 can not be wired, because we expect to cut the honey out ; 

 but with the Ideal frames we can use full sheets if we so 

 prefer. Ideal supers and frames are preferred generally 

 because they are not so large, are not so heavy to handle, 

 I they are nearer the right amount of room to give a colony 



