1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



659 



sprinkling with diluted sweet. In half or three-fourths of an 

 hour shake the bees on a blanket in front of the hive, and let 

 them run in the same as when hiving a swarm. I learned 

 this kink from Mr. Wellhouser, over 50 years ago ; also the 

 introducing with tobacco smoke, the true theory of artifical 

 increase, rearing queens, etc. 



I have practiced another method of introducing, with 

 success. For a cage I use wire with the mesh just right so 

 that a worker can crowd through into where the queen is — I 

 think about 3/16 mesh, but I am not now sure of the size. 

 Bees never meddle with a queen inside of such a cage. Intro- 

 duce the cage between two combs by crowding the combs 

 together so as to hold the cage in place ; stop the upper end 

 of the cage with a cotton rag, made into a ball large enough 

 to fill the end of the cage. Place the cage low enough so 

 there is room for the queen to pass out below the flat cover. 

 On the third day remove the cover of the hive carefully, pull 

 out the rag from the end of the cage, and carefully replace 

 the cover, and the thing is done. 



In smoking with tobacco, I puff in the smoke at the en- 

 trance of the hive, then wait two or three minutes and give 

 them another dose, etc., until they are drunk enough to be- 

 have themselves. An ugly, cross hybrid colony I have smoked 

 until many of the bees were kicking and sprawling on the 

 bottom-board. I have had such colonies that I could not get 

 to accept a queen by other processes. If this is done early in 

 the morning, or middle of the day, look out for robbers. 

 Therefore, the evening is the best time. 



An old, experienced bee-keeper can almost always intro- 

 duce by some method that he has adopted, but a great many 

 queens are lost every year by using the method recommended 

 by the shipper, and then the receiver finds fault with the 

 shipper, and attributes all to wrong directions, etc. Beginners 

 are apt to be nervous and excited, and they handle their bees 

 so as to make them excited and cross. In all my tinkering 

 with the bees this summer, I have no cross bees. I can pass 

 all around among the hives, and so can my little children. 



By the way, my youngest boy is a perfect drone-trap. I 

 tell him what hive to catch the drones from, and he will squat 

 down by the side of the entrance at the time when drones are 

 flying, and soon clean them all out. He never gets stung, and 

 of course it is the hybrid colonies that I set him at. In exam- 

 ining and manipulating my bees I light the smoker (usually, 

 not always), and have it on hand in caseof a mishap. I never 

 puff smoke into the entrance, but let the workers keep right 

 along at work. I open the hive carefully, without jar, take 

 out combs, and do whatever I have to do without using a veil 

 or smoke, always being very careful never to crush a bee. My 

 bees are pets — they are never abused, only when I use tobacco 

 smoke in introducing queens. But they forget that insult in 

 two or three days. Santa Ana, Calif. 



Marketing Honey to the Best Advantage. 



By L. P. ABBOTT. 



A matter of considerable importance to bee-keepers is 

 how to market their honey to best advantage. Most of the 

 older bee-keepers can remember when there was no delay in 

 selling what surplus honey they had to spare at a good price. 

 The grocery-man then easily excused himself for asking a 

 quarter of a dollar a pound for honey, even in broken combs 

 and very dark-colored at that. 



Now methods in bee-keeping and honey-production are 

 very much changed. There is not only more honey produced, 

 but it is put upon the market in finer condition and more at- 

 tractive forms. The facilities of transportation are such that 

 the products of Western apiaries, and the almost spontaneous 

 crop of California's sage-bush, find their way to Eastern mar- 



kets and lower the price for the Eastern bee-keeper's some- 

 what superior product. 



But this is nothing in comparison with the evils resulting 

 from adulteration — spurious products put up by unscrupulous 

 vendors and palmed off upon the unsuspecting public as pure 

 extracted honey. Large amounts of this stuff, made princi- 

 pally of glucose, floating a small piece of honey-comb, have 

 been sold in all our markets. Like everything of this kind, 

 the cheat is sooner or later found out, but instead of the real 

 transgressors having to suffer, the honest bee-keeper who sells 

 the pure article of honey has the fraud saddled off onto him. 

 There is only one thing for the bee-keeper to do, viz.: produce 

 a good article of honey and put it upon the market in nice 

 shape, putting his name upon every package of extracted 

 honey, and show the public that good extracted honey is truly 

 a reality. 



I have looked over the markets of some of our cities, and 

 I find that dealers — the grocerymen — do not want this glucose 

 stuff, and I also find that the prejudice of the public has been 

 so aroused that dealers are slow to take hold of the genuine 

 extracted honey and pay anything like a fair price for it. 

 With comb honey the case is different. This speaks for itself, 

 in a measure, and any nice, white section honey need not go 

 begging for a market. 



To hit the market — pleasing both the dealer and consumer 

 — we must adopt a plan whereby our goods can be handled by 

 both without breakage and leakage ; be kept clean and in 

 nice condition, and present an attractive appearance; and 

 above all, in the case of extracted honey, that it be just what 

 the label on the package affirms it to be. Of course every 

 bee-keeper is desirous of obtaining a fair price for his honey. 

 A few years ago 30 cents a pound satisfied him. After awhile 

 25 cents proved a satisfactory price. Of late years California 

 and Western bee-keepers have set the price for Eastern honey- 

 producers, at first at 20 cnnts a pound for comb honey, and 

 latterly at 18 cents as the wholesale price, which is low 

 enough for the nicest grade. Extracted honey can be afforded 

 for somewhat less a price. 



But in selling honey in either form, give honest weight. 

 The consumer, whose palate we wish to tickle, naturally ob- 

 jects to paying the price of honey for glass bottles or white- 

 wood sections. And again, if one buys a pound of honey he 

 wants what he pays for and he is entitled to it. It is better 

 to keep both the goods and price at a fair, honest level, than 

 to lower both to a suspicious minimum. 



In putting extracted honey upon the retail market, use 

 some small packages. A glass package is preferable to all 

 others. Jelly tumblers — two sizes — do very well ; the main 

 objection is their cost. The smaller sizes hold 10 ounces of 

 honey, the larger exactly a pouud. Square white glass jars — 

 discard the amber-colored, as they discount your white honey 

 — something like a pickle-jar, close with a cork, make a good 

 and clean package. Such jars hold about 15 ounces of honey 

 and, bought by the gross, cost about 1^4 cents apiece, if you 

 are fortunate as to breakage on the railroads. 



Either of these make a neat and attractive package, with 

 a colored label neatly printed with the name of the apiary and 

 owner's name and " pure honey " on it, neatly pasted upon 

 each. Lithographic labels I would discard. Honey is good- 

 looking enough of itself without embellishment by printers' 

 art. 



One fault with jelly tumblers as a package for extracted 

 honey is their liability to leak, and this may be easily remedied 

 by running a ring of melted wax above the rim upon which 

 the covers shut. Warm the tumbler, turn on a few drops of 

 hot beeswax above the rim, holding the tumbler at an angle 

 of 450, and slowly turn it around ; the wax will flow, making 

 an even, narrow ring of wax. Done before the glasses are 



