212 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aprils 1900. 



Our manner of proceeding was to go to the grocer, 

 make ourselves acquainted with him, then offer him our 

 honey, guaranteeing its purity, and offering to take back 

 any lot that would not be entirely satisfactory. We askt 

 him to give the same guarantee to his patrons. We never 

 sold on commission. The few times that we tried it we had 

 cause to be sorry for it, either because the goods would re- 

 main on the shelves without attention, or because we did 

 not get returns for all we delivered under some excuse or 

 other. 



We slowly built up a very good trade, for we always got 

 rid, very readily, of exceedingly large crops, harvesting as 

 much as 45,000 pounds during' several single seasons, tho 

 we must say that we never but once got two large crops in 

 succession — in 1883 and 1884. 



For 25 years we have sold very little comb honey, and 

 the bulk of our crops has been extracted. For 12 or 15 years 

 past the condition of the market, as far as we are concerned, 

 has totally changed, for the home competition of honey- 

 producers has well nigh driven us out of the home market. 

 It appears that the producers in our neighborhood have 

 thought it impossible for them to sell at our prices. So 

 they have, some of them, ascertained our rates, and have 

 invariablj' undersold us to get the home trade away from us. 

 As there are a number of bee-keepers who follow our 

 methods in this vicinity, they have produced enough to 

 crowd us almost out. But, of late years, there has been no 

 trouble in getting rid of the crops anywhere, and we have 

 oftener than otherwise sold our honey at very remunerative 

 prices in large lots. The past season, while one of our 

 home bee-keepers insisted on retailing his honey at 7 cents 

 per pound in small packages to beat us out of the home 

 trade, we have not sold a single pound at less than 7 cents 

 "Wholesale, and have sold some as high as 9 cents. We have 

 bought all the honey we could hear of among our friends, 

 and it is all gone, and more is wanted. 



Our advice to beginners is to seek home sales. Sell to 

 your grocers for cash or for trade, as conditions may re- 

 quire. Do not sell on commission, but have it clearly un- 

 derstood that your goods are just what you represent them 

 to be, and that you stand behind them with your guarantee. 

 Occasionally you will find a man who will be displeased 

 because he got clover honey when he wanted basswood, or 

 basswood when he expected fall honey. Again, some time 

 or other a little of your honey will prove too watery to keep ; 

 this happens in wet seasons with the very best of care, and 

 it will ferment and have a sharp taste. Do not hesitate to 

 make this good, if the honey has been sold before you knew 

 it. Fermented honey, unless it is actually soured, can 

 usually be returned to a very good qualitj' by simply heat- 

 ing it to evaporate the gases that have formed in it. We 

 have often done this, and used the honey afterwards. 



Does it pay to produce extracted honey ? That ques- 

 tion has been askt us many a time. It was put to us by our 

 foreman one day, after sone four or five bad seasons in 

 succession. He had seen how great were our expenses 

 when the bees had to be fed, and wondered whether there 

 was anything in it. We turned to our books and found that 

 in the eleven years that had just elapst we had sold some 

 $16,000 worth of honey of our own crop. An average of 

 $400 to $500 per year would have covered the cost of man- 

 agement and labor. So you can see there is something in 

 it. The cost of extracting is very nearly, if not quite, cov- 

 ered by the beeswax in the cappings. During our best sea- 

 son we made some 600 pounds of first-class beeswax from 

 the cappings. At present prices this would make over $150. 

 Wax from cappings is the very best that can be had. 



It is impossible to set a price on honey for any one to 

 use as guide. Prices depend on supply, on demand, on 

 quality, etc., and we can only advise bee-keepers to be 

 ruled by their own judgment. If it is thought best to sell 

 honey on commission, offer 10 percent to the retailer. A 

 wholesale dealer ought to be satisfied with half as much. 

 You can always sell honey in trade to the grocer of whom 

 you buy your supplies, and to many of your townsmen with 

 whom you have any business dealings. But the key of 

 success in selling is in your guarantee of the quality of your 

 goods. Hancock Co., 111. 



" Painted or Unpainted Hives— Which ?" 



BY H. M. lAMESON. 



THE above appeared in the American Bee Journal last 

 December, as a text from which C. Davenport preaches 

 us bee-keepers a truly valuable sermon. There exists, 

 as he says, a diversity of opinions in the matter of painting 



bee-hives. I fully agree with him as to the advisability of 

 painting hives, even as fully as to the painting of houses. 

 While some of the greatest bee-masters in our country advo- 

 cate unpainted hives, on certain grounds which I will not 

 attempt to dispute, no man can successfully hold forth the 

 doctrine that lumber exposed to the weather peculiar to any 

 State of the Union, will endure a longer time unpainted 

 than will such lumber well painted. 



Mr. Davenport kindly tells us how to obtain a good base 

 as a perservative, as well as one thatl s cheap. There is 

 probablj' none better. However, there are some beginners 

 who will be putting up some new hives ; they will have but 

 little or no cash to pay for even the cheapest paints. I will 

 say to these, that I paint all my hives with crude oil, just as 

 it is pumpt from the wells in Los Angeles (costs here $1.50 

 per barrel). Mix with this enough red ochre to give a good 

 coat, and to each gallon add one pint of coal-oil (or more if 

 it is too long drying) ; and by giving two coats your hives 

 will stand any kind of weather, and will be in good condi- 

 tion at the end of one or two years to take a coat of white 

 paint. 



The bees take kindly to this black crude oil. I have 

 even boiled the lumber of dovetailed hives in this stuff be- 

 fore being put up, and yet the bees like it. More than this, 

 I believe it likes the bees. All will understand that some 

 shade will be needed in summer with these dark red hives. 



We have the magnificent redwood here for hives, which, 

 in my estimation, cannot be excelled, and only equalled by 

 Oregon and Washington cedar. One of our trees makes a 

 few hives, too. I have helpt cut a giant that would make 

 more hives than the A. I. Root Co. ever sent out in one sea- 

 son ; and there would not be a knot or shake in one of them. 

 Covers and bottom-boards could be one piece, and 25 .feet 

 square if saws were big enough to cut them. 



Riverside Co., Calif. 



Is it " Long' Idea " of " Long Ideal " Hive ? 



BY WM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



THE Boiler is wrong in his nomenclature, on page 40, 

 and is evidently not conversant with the earlier vol- 

 umes of the American Bee Journal. There is no " Long 

 Ideal Hive." In the April number for 1873, the "New Idea 

 Hive " was first advertised for sale, and the first mention 

 of it is in an article from the inventor, D. L. Adair, Vol. 

 VII (1872), page 253. Previous to this it was known as 

 " Adair's Section Bee-Hive," but the sectional feature (by 

 cross partitions) was eliminated, and the name changed to 

 " New Idea," not "New Ideal." 



On page 250 of Vol. VIII (1873), in an article from R. 

 M. Argo, is a complete description of this hive. Subse- 

 quently some one in a joking manner called it the " Long 

 Idea Hive " on account of its shape, and this nickname has 

 clung to it since then. I think that I have recently seen 

 several allusions to the " Long Ideal," and have wondered 

 that the editor or some one of the veterans did not correct 

 the misnomer. Inyo Co., Calif. 



[Upon receipt of the foregoing, and remembering an 

 interview we had with Mr. O. O. Poppleton on this subject, 

 we forwarded to him Mr. Muth-Rasmussen's criticism, and 

 have received the following in reply : — Editor.] 



Editor York : — The history Mr. Muth-Rasmussen 

 gives of the " New Idea Hive," and how its name became 

 corrupted into " Long Idea Hive," is, so far as my recollection 

 goes, correct, and agrees with what I have already written 

 in two or three communications. Gen. Adair's hive differed 

 in an essential particular from the long, single-story hives 

 now in use, the outside or shell of the hive only being alike. 

 If the name, " Long Idea Hive," was given to the one de- 

 scribed by Gen. Adair, then it doesn't belong to the one now 

 in use, and there is no ready way of distinguishing between 

 the two, unless another name is used for the later form. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the name has been used for 

 both styles of hives, and is an ample reason for making the 

 slight change of name for one of them. 



The name " Long Idea " has always seemed to me to be 

 a misnomer when applied to anything. What is its mean- 

 ing, anyhow ? What definition would a dictionary give to 

 a " Long Idea?" I have long thought that this name, 

 which was first given to the hive in derision, was an 

 offense to good taste in nomenclature, and should be 

 changed if an appropriate name could be found, not too dis- 

 similar from the one hitherto in use, and not too long. The 

 proper name would be "Long Single Story Hive ;" but that 



