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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 15, 



queen and her escort has to undergo from two to four days' 

 staging after a weeks' journey before, where the mail-bag is 

 generally thrown on the stage coach to lie in the hot sue the 

 rest of the way. The only wonder is, that bees can live at all 

 under such circumstances ; but they do, and, strange to say, 

 have mostly gone alive for the last three or four years. 



In no one thing have we made greater strides during the 

 past, nor come nearer perfection, than we have in this busi- 

 ness of shipping queens in the mails ; and as Mr. G. well says, 

 it has become an " important matter ;" for through this has 

 come the improvement of our bees, and a zest which has 

 placed bee-keeping among one of the important industries of 

 the age. Borodino, N. Y. 



Productiou of Comb Honey vs. Extracted. 



BT HON. GEO. E. HILTON. 



Perhaps there is no subject in apiculture, excepting win- 

 tering, that is worn as near threadbare as this. Comb honey 

 is my specialty in the production of honey, and my large crop 

 this year is a fancy article, and because it is not a staple in 

 our markets it is a drug. Extracted honey comes nearer being 

 a staple article than does comb, and I believe if we exert our- 

 selves more in the introduction of extracted honey the future 

 will see the greater portion of our honey sold in the liquid 

 form. It costs so much less to produce it and prepare it for 

 market, and we can produce so much more per colony that we 

 can sell it for about half what we get for comb honey and give 

 us the same profit. 



Then it can be put to so many more uses. With a little 

 educational effort our bakers can be induced to use it by the 

 barrel instead of the cheap syrup they buy. There never was 

 a "jumble" or a cooky made with molasses that equaled in 

 flavor or richness, or that kept as well, as those made of ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Our wives, both upon the farm and in the cities and 

 villages, should learn that it is better for nearly all their 

 pastries and a thousand times more wholesome than the 

 " cooking molasses " they buy, and of which the children, 

 whose appetites crave the sweet thing, consume. No sugar- 

 cured ham was ever so effectually cured as the ham cured in 

 extracted honey. 



I suppose tobacco will always be used (I hope not), but, if 

 it is, here is another source where tons of the extracted honey 

 can be used in the place of syrups now used for that purpose, 

 and so I could continue to enumerate the uses that the ex- 

 tracted honey could be put to that comb honey cannot, but it 

 needs a special effort of the parties living in close proximity 

 to these different institutions ; but the still broader field is the 

 family or home market. 



The reader knows by this time that I have more confidence 

 in our home markets than " the markets of the world," and 

 that I believe the American markets should be the markets of 

 Americans. This is as true of the neighborhood, county and 

 State as of the Nation, and the bee-keeper himself is more to 

 blame than any one else that the tables of the masses are not 

 supplied with this God-given, health-promoting, "nectar fit 

 for the Gods." I think I have said before that it was one 

 thing to produce a crop of honey and another to dispose of it 

 successfully, and the bee-keeper who cannot sell a crop after 

 it is produced will make a failure. 



I have had some experience as a salesman, and I know of 

 nothing that requires a more persistent effort than the intro- 

 duction of extracted honey, simply because its merits are so 

 little known, and in many localities it is still associated with 

 the old-time "strained" honey, and I occasionally find a bee- 

 keeper calling it by that misnomer. 



Of course we must study the wants of our customers, the 

 kind and size of package, keep the different grades of honey 



distinctly by themselves, and sell each kind or quality upon 

 its merits ; by doing this we will establish a certain line of 

 customers for a certain kind or grade of honey, and it will be 

 surprising what a large amount can be disposed of in a com- 

 paratively small area. I believe that in ten years my sales in- 

 creased ten times in my home and closely surrounding markets. 



There is a 32-page pamphlet by Thomas G. Newman, en- 

 titled, " Honey as Food and Medicine," just the thing to be 

 scattered freely for the purpose of creating a demand for ex- 

 tracted honey ; it contains recipes for honey-cakes, cookies, 

 puddings, foam, and uses of honey for medicine. I believe it 

 would pay bee-keepers to give away 100 of these to every 

 100 pounds of extracted honey they desire to put on a new 

 market. What would you think of your merchant, whose 

 name never appeared in your local paper, and who never em- 

 ployed other means to inform his patrons of what he had and 

 where and how he kept and sold it ? Why don't we bestir our- 

 selves and endeavor to extend and increase our business? It 

 certainly is as legitimate as that of the grocer, the dry-goods 

 man or the banker. 



Let us read up during the coming winter, get ready for 

 the next season, increase our production wi:h a determination 

 to increase our sales and profits ; do this, and we will be hap- 

 pier, wealthier, and the community in which we live will be 

 benefited as the result. — Michigan Parmer. 



Newaygo County, Mich. 



Introducing Queens — Various Methods. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



I tried the experiment the past summer, of introducing 

 queens according to directions accompanying the queen given 

 by the breeder, and attached to the cage. The directions were 

 to place the queen-cage and all, as she was received, in the 

 hive, after making the colony queenless, and allowing the 

 bees to liberate the queen by eating out the candy, and on no 

 conditions to open the hive under five days. 



Well, I received queens from two different breeders by the 

 same mail, and introduced the cages according to directions. 

 On the third morning I fouud dead and wounded bees in front 

 of the hives. I got a pan of water, table-spoon, and smoker 

 ready ; opened the first hive, spooned out the ball of bees, 

 and dropped them in the pan of water, and caged the queen. 

 She was all right again. I opened the next hive, went through 

 the same performance, and the last queen was so nearly dead 

 that she only lived about two hours. I dropped the ball of 

 bees in the pan of water to prevent the bees from stinging her 

 before I could get her liberated, and then she might fly away 

 before I could cage her. 



I have lost queens by having them stung right before my 

 face, trying to liberate them by smoke or other process. I 

 have lost queens by having them fly away. I never have lost 

 one by introducing with tobacco smoke. I once had a queen 

 balled by introducing in the middle of the day when there 

 were lots of bees in the field. Those returning that had es- 

 caped the smoking were the ones that did the mischief, but I 

 discovered their trick in time to save the queen. I now intro- 

 duce either in the morning or evening, when the bees are all 

 at home. I do not smoke the queen, but roll her in honey be- 

 fore dropping her into the hive to preveut her from flying, 

 and also to keep her more quiet, as a timid queen dodging 

 about might induce the bees to attack her, when they other- 

 wise would not. A strange queen that has been once balled 

 Is apt to be very timid. 



In old box-hive times years ago I drummed out a swarm 

 of bees, hunted out the queen, and as soon as they had dis- 

 covered the loss of their queen I liberated the Italian queen 

 in the mass of bees, and she was all right, providing the bees 

 were filled with nectar, recently gathered ; or by thoroughly 



