18 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 11, 1900. 



colony at all times, and thereby replace any queen which 

 begins to fail. This objection being^ overcome, I think the 

 plan is worth considering- by those who keep bees on roofs, 

 or where chaff hives are considered the best to use. 



VENTILATING LANGSTROTH HIVES. 



The proper ventilation of regular Langstroth hives 

 with tight bottom-boards during the hot summer daj's is 

 something which bee-keepers using this style of hive have 

 thought of more or less. This is the way a Cincinnati bee- 

 keeper does it — another idea caught on a different occasion. 

 This also did not escape my camera, but it was a close call 

 — cloudy day, 4 p.m., moving bees, quick exposure, and, as 

 a result, trouble in the dark-room — understand, amateurs ? 

 Well, to get down to my subject. 



You will notice that the front of the brood-chamber (see 

 photograph) is made of two separate boards, the top one 

 being permanent and coming down to within three inches 

 of the bottom-board. The lower half is movable, and slides 

 up and down just in front of the top one. The stick fast- 

 ened to this movable board is used to regulate the hight of 

 the entrance. When warm weather approaches, and the 

 bees begin to hang out and loaf, this movable lower half is 

 raised somewhat, and the stick acts as a prop, and holds it 

 in place. If the bees still continue to hang out, it is raised 

 still higher, until the desired amount of ventilation is ob- 

 tained, which seldom requires the full hight. The entrance 

 can be completely closed by turning the stick slightly, 

 which allows the lower half to come down and rest on the 

 bottom-board. 



This arrangement has been used for a number of years, 

 and the bee-keeper says it gives complete satisfaction, as it 

 ventilates the brood-chamber without allowing the heat to 

 escape from the supers, which is of such vital importance 

 in the production of comb honey. 



One objection which may arise from using this method 

 of ventilation is this : If it is used in a locality where the 

 temperature is subject to sudden changes, the bee-keeper 

 may be troubled somewhat with chilled brood if the en- 

 trance is left open the full hight during a cool night. But 

 there are bee-keepers who say "useless consumers" are 

 reared at this time of the year, when ventilation is needed 

 the most, and, even if the brood is chilled, nothing would 

 be lost. Well, I am not going to start an argument by say- 

 ing there is no such thing as a "useless consumer," as ap- 

 plied to the worker-bee, but I will say I have often noticed 

 that the hives containing queens which rear the most of 

 these so-called "useless consumers" always come thru the 

 winter strong in bees, and have more honey to their credit 

 at the end of the season. 



But coming back to our subject again, we should, never- 

 theless (even if these bees are considered useless), choose 

 the lesser of the two evils caused by ventilation, and un- 

 doubtedly the greater of the two is upward ventilation thru 

 the supers, which method often leaves us with little or no 

 surplus at all. Bees need a uniform heat in the supers for 



-^ 



Simple Device /or Ventilating Hives. 



the production of fancy comb honey, and it is impossible to 

 get such an article with a draft passing thru or directly 

 beneath the supers — a fact which is being acknowledged by 

 more and more bee-keepers every year. 



One more thing I would like to mention before closing. 



and that is, I noticed that this entrance saves the bees lots 

 of time, for the incoming bees would alight on the ends of 

 the frames and then pass quickly between them, while the 

 bees in hives having the ordinary entrance spent several 

 seconds before reaching the combs. 



Hamilton Co., Ohio. 



Marketing- Extracted Honey— Making' It a Staple. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



PERHAPS the readers of the bee-papers will think me 

 cranky on the marketing question — I have written so 

 much on this topic. A crank is a very useful thing. 



" Oh, we are the cranks to turn the earth 

 Into the wajs of peace atid mirth; 

 Happy side up, sunuy side up — 

 We will ever turn till it's right side up." 



That the marketing of extracted honey is yet in its in- 

 fancy is true, at least as a table sweet. Recently a buyer 

 who handles much honey told me the great bulk of the ex- 

 tracted honey they handled went to manufacturers. If this 

 is true — and I believe it is — is there not a big field for opera- 

 tion in placing extracted honey on the tables of the masses ? 

 We have but to recall that when we eat at restaurants, and 

 such places, we do not find honey on the table, and rarely 

 do we find it on the tables of private families outside of 

 bee-keepers. Honey is indeed a luxury, and extracted hotiey 

 more so than comb. 



Must we acknowledge that there is by all odds more of 

 comb honey eaten as a sweet than of extracted ? It surely 

 looks that wa)'. Mr. E. R. Root, in a paper before the 

 Philadelphia convention, estimated that the annual product 

 of comb honey was perhaps 50,000,000 pounds, and that of 

 extracted probably twice as much, or 100,000.000. I also 

 glean from the bee-papers of late, that there are single 

 firms that consume from 200,000 to 300,000 pounds. If such 

 large quantities be used by single manufactories, surely the 

 great number of firms consuming in baking, and the many 

 other uses to which honey is put in the arts, there must be 

 but a small portion of the 100,000,000 pounds that gets to the 

 table as a syrup. Knowing that the great bulk of comb 

 honey is used on the table, and yet it is a very rare article 

 among the masses, we must conclude that extracted is com- 

 paratively unknown to the great bulk of consumers of 

 sweets. 



I began here about eight years ago to sell extracted 

 honey, and a few hundred pounds was all that was sold in 

 the community, but now I can sell almost as many thou- 

 sands as I then did of hundreds. My local trade has in- 

 creast year by year, until now I can sell almost a carload a 

 year to a village of less than 2,000, together with the sur- 

 rounding- farm community. Even at this rate there are 

 many families who do not use honey, and many others that 

 use it only as a luxury now and then. 



That there is a very large percent — yes, the great ma- 

 jority — of our population who do not use honey, is a fact. 

 Those people who do not would use it if it were as accessible 

 as other sweets, and compared favorably in price. I make 

 this statement without fear of successftil contradiction. I 

 have proven it right here, and others have done the same 

 thing in other localities. 



■WHY IS HONEY NOT USED ? 



A business man who is always out of certain goods can 

 not expect a good trade in that line. Honey is not kept by 

 even the majority of stores, either comb or extracted, regu- 

 larly and at prices to compare with other sweets of the 

 same grade, while the other sweets are in all stores. How 

 long would a store do business if sugar and syrup were not 

 kept in stock, except in cities large enough to run with a 

 limited line in any one store — the various stores making a 

 specialty of certain goods ? A common country or village 

 store, and as well the greater part of city stores, could not 

 hold their customers if they did not keep staple sweets. 

 Honey must be kept in stock and offered regularly as other 

 goods to be regularly used. These are self-evident truths. 

 Any one who attempts to make a staple sweet of honej', 

 and not keep it in stock, will surely fail. Failure along 

 this line is common — very common — with grocers as well 

 as with bee-keepers, in working up a honey-trade. 



Another reason why people do not buy extracted honey 

 is because it is too expensive — there is too much expense 

 between production and consumption. From here to Chi- 

 cago the present rate on extracted honey is 97 cents per 

 hundred pounds. Suppose I ship 10 cases of honey to any 

 dealer there, and charge him 6 cents f . o. b. here, he paj's 



