AMERICAN BEE JOURNA3 



591 



C. Grimm — I will admit that there is 

 not as much profit in bee-keeping as 

 there was years ago. There was a time 

 when bees could be sold for $50 a col- 

 ony, and honey, that is, the comb honey, 

 sold for 50 cents, and extracted, for 

 about the same. And my brother sold 

 queens from Italy at $20 apiece. There 

 was then a good deal of profit, and my 

 brother made in bee-keeping about $50,- 



000 clear money. There was no ques- 

 tion about it. He had it when he died. 



1 made a little money, but I was not " in 

 it "as he was. We shipped honey by 

 the carload to New York, two or three 

 carloads at once, but we lost money on 

 that. At the present time, when you 

 have to sell a good colony of bees for $5 

 in the spring, it is rather low, and honey 

 at a shilling a pound is not much money. 

 I am not discouraged. My wife has told 

 me a good many times to give up bees, 

 but I don't intend to do it. I will keep 

 it up all my life. I think it is a good 

 business. 



R. F. Holtermann — I think that as 

 Mr. Root and Dr. Miller said, there are 

 conditions under our control, and others 

 not under our control, in connection 

 with our failures. It appears to me 

 that every season we find more and 

 more that there is a premium on under- 

 standing our business, and in using that 

 understanding in the right way. One 

 man cannot do another man's thinking. 

 In the past season I have gone through 

 Ontario, and I do not know how the sea- 

 sou has been with you, but with us the 

 season has been good. The bees built 

 up strong. Then we had wet and cold 

 weather so that in every instance the 

 queen stopped laying entirely, and then 

 the drones were about killed oft. In a 

 season like that I found that those men 

 who practiced stimulative feeding to 

 keep the queen laying, had very strong 

 colonies, and secured far better crops 

 than the men who did not do it. I am 

 one of those men who say I do not be- 

 lieve in stimulative feeding, but this 

 last season was an extraordinary one, 

 and under those conditions it was neces- 

 sary. The difificulties are greater at the 

 present time, but we are still able to 

 secure and make a living. We find peo- 

 ple in all directions claiming that one 

 thing does not pay, and another thing 

 does not pay, and that it does not pay 

 to do this or that, and go from one thing 

 to another. What little experience I 

 have had, I think it pays to stick to one 

 thing. The men who were careful in 

 bringing their colonies through the win- 

 ter, and watched out in the spring, are 

 going to fare better than if we had had 



a really good spring. In regard to our 

 profits, we are making a great mistake 

 in trying to enlarge our markets. We 

 should produce a good article and put it 

 before the public in the right way, and 

 we can increase the consumption of 

 honey in our own territory very consid- 

 erably, and before I go away I hope I 

 may show you a copy of a paper that 

 devoted a whole page to bees and honey 

 in the Toronto Exposition. If that was 

 done throughout the country, we would 

 find a greater sale for our honey, and 

 better prices, and we could increase our 

 markets at home. 



Spring Stimulative Feeding — Breed- 

 ing for Color. 



Dr. Miller — I would like to ask Mr. 

 Holtermann how much he thinks was 

 the advantage of stimulative feeding 

 last spring. 



Mr. Holtermann — Before I answer 

 that question, I would like to say I ata? 

 one of those people who have condemned 

 stimulative feeding, but under these 

 conditions I am sure stimulative feeding 

 gave fully 30 per cent, more in honey. 

 I don't know exactly, but I think there 

 is that much of a gain. The weather 

 was cold continuously for three weeks 

 every day, and wet ; there was no honey 

 coming in, and the colonies would prob- 

 ably have starved unless attended to in 

 that way. There was very little honey 

 and much brood, and not much uncapped 

 stores. This continued for at least two 

 or three weeks. The queen ceased de- 

 positing eggs, and in this condition 

 stimulative feeding was of great advan- 

 tage. 



P. H. Richardson — What flowers were 

 your bees gathering from ? 



Mr. Holtermann — The early flowers, 

 of course — clover. I am one of those 

 who have taken the stand that I want to 

 get all the bees I can before the early 

 bloom comes. Some say that they do 

 not want to get bees strong before the 

 honey comes. That is absurd. 



Mr. Root — Mr. H. R. Boardman told 

 me he was pretty sure he would have no 

 crop at all unless he fed his bees with 

 sugar syrup until up to the honey-flow. 

 He would have the brood-chamber well 

 filled so that ail surplus honey that came 

 must go into the sections. He crowded 

 his brood-combs so full of feed that the 

 bees had no other place to put the sur- 

 plus. He had about two tons, mostly 

 from basswoood, and in his opinion if he 

 had not fed them as he did, he would 

 not have had any crop at all. 



Mr. Richardson — Stimulative feeding 



