Sept. 



1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl. 



615 



vention, I fell in with one of New York's most successful 

 bee-keepers, and an arranj^-ement was made for the holdirif^ 

 of a convention at 10 o'clock at nig-ht, after the main ses 

 sion was over, the later convention to consist of two, 

 namely, Samuel Snow and C. M. Doolittle. 



At this meeting I told Mr. Snow of what I had seen in 

 New York city, and of my resolves, but how, as yet, I had 

 not come to any plans in the matter. He then told me how 

 he had used drip-catchers made of paper for the prevention 

 of leakage thru shipping-cases, telling minutely how he 

 made them, kind of paper used, etc. The next season found 

 me buying what is called matiilla papers, of a quality cost- 

 ing about 7 cents a pound, in quantities sufficient for all of 

 tlie cases I expected to use. I now took a %-inch board and 

 from it cut a piece that would lit the inside of my shipping- 

 cases, a little loosely, say 1 16 of an inch play each way. 



The paper was cut l-'^ inches larger each way than this 

 board, so that when folded up evenly all around it, the sides 

 of the paper pans or drip-catchers was just "s-inch deep. 

 The pan was now slipt inside the case and little strips of 

 wood, just as long as the case was wide, and '2-inch wide 

 by 31(> thick, were placed at such distances along the inside 

 of the paper tray as was necessary, so that the ends of the 

 sections rested on these, thus keeping the sections up 3-16 

 of an inch from the paper, this allowing the drip to fall be- 

 low the sections so that the outside of the cases were never 

 soiled, while the bottoms of the sections were kept clean 

 also, if anything should occur to start the honey in them to 

 leaking. This, of course, requires the cases to be made 3-16 

 of an inch deeper than they would be were it not for these 

 little pieces of wood. But, according to my thinking, the 

 keeping of the sections clean is of fully as much importance 

 as the preventing of the drip thru the cases. I have kept 

 leaking honey standing all winter in such cases with paper 

 trays, and this raanilla paper seemed sufficient to stand a 

 wetting of honey that length of time, as none of it soakt 

 thru so as to be sticky on the under side. 



I am well aware that it takes considerable time to fold 

 the paper for each case separately, and would prefer to buy 

 them already folded by machinery or otherwise, provided I 

 could buy them that way as cheap, or cheaper than I could 

 buy the paper and fold them myself. While I have put con- 

 siderable thought on the matter and done some experiment- 

 ing, yet I have found no better way to fold them than doing 

 it one by one as given above, where anything like a decent 

 tray was to be made. 



Several have told us to lay the .paper on the top of the 

 case and then place the board on top of the paper, push- 

 ing the whole to the bottom of the case, but with me the 

 corners are sure to tear more or less, especially where slats 

 are used at the sides so the honey is shown thru the glass. 

 With the board plan as here given, I can fold from 80 to 100 

 an hour, and as each case holds 20 sections, it is not so seri- 

 ous a job as it looks to be at first thought, unless one pro- 

 duces honey up into the tons. However, if there is a 

 quicker way that will give as neat a job every time, or one 

 where several drip-catchers can be folded at once, I, as well 

 as other readers of the American Bee Journal, would like to 

 know of it. 



I have taken up considerable space with this matter, 

 but I thought that, if I said anything on the subject, it 

 should be made so plain that any one who wisht could make 

 and use these drip-catchers. Any and all of these little 

 things which have a bearing on putting our honey in mar- 

 ket it#the best shape, should be lookt after, if we wish good 

 prices for our product. And if we do not do these things, 

 we are not only injuring ourselves, but every one else who 

 has honey to sell. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Brace and Bur-Combs— Drone-Comb. 



BY S. '. PETTIT. 



RECENTLY in some of our bee-papers a very good thing 

 was suggested, when the writer, in speaking of re- 

 moving sections from supers, said : Set the super on 

 edge, and with a sharp, thin knife, cut any bur-combs or 

 brace-combs that may fasten the sections of honey to any 

 other object. In my experience I have found that, espe- 

 cially if the weather is a little cool, the capping is quite lia- 

 ble to break and cause a leak, but if the knife be hot it will 

 do the work safely and with satisfaction. 



On page .583, Mr. Doolittle, in answering the question, 

 "In the production of comb honey where a tirst or prime 

 swarm is hived on comb-foundation starters, say two or 

 three inches deep, and with sections on top filled with sheets 



of foundation, what is the best method of preventing the 

 building of drone-comb ?" says : 



" But suppose a frame or two of drone-comb should be 

 built, this can be removed from the hive the next spring-, 

 and frames of worker-comb substituted for it." 



I beg to say that I remove such in the fall, after all the 

 brood is hatcht. Years ago I found that whatever portion 

 of such combs were of worker-comb, were very likely at 

 clipping-time to contain brood ; and I never for a moment 

 think of going thru my hives before that time. 



If there are any good reasons for leaving such combs 

 in until spring, I should be pleased to have Mr. Doolittle 

 tell us what they are. Ontario, Canada. 



Disposing of the Honey Crop-Some Good Advice. 



HT W. Z. ni'TCHINSON. 



SO many bee keepers, after having workt all summer, and pro- 

 duced a good crop of honey, almost "fool it away " when it 



comes to the marketing of the crop. Some lose it entirely by 

 sending it to some irresponsil)le party. It all of the losses of this 

 kind were known. I think some of us would be surjirised. In my 

 travels among beekeepers, I am often surprised to learn how men 

 of apparently good judgment have lost hundreds of dollars by 

 sending a crop of honey to some swindler. Where is the bee-keeper 

 who ships his honey to distant markets and has ikivi- been swin- 

 dled ? My losses in this direction have been very small— 25 pounds 

 of comb honey. This happened several years ago, when I lived at 

 Rogersville, Some firm in Detroit wrote and wisht to buy my 

 crop of honey, but before making an offer they wisht to see a 

 sample. If my honey was nice, white honey they would pay 1.5 

 cents a pound for it. They askt me to send them, by express, a 

 couple of cases; upon its arrival they would send the pay for it, 

 and make an offer for the whole lot. Tbey referred me to Brad- 

 street or Dun, or, if I preferred, I could send the honey C O. D. 

 Mr. West, who then lived here, sent seven cases of honey. Another 

 man living here sent them 30 barrels of cider, having new barrels 

 made expressly to ship the cider in. This firm of swindlers got a 

 large amount of produce from all over the State in just this way. 

 They sold it for cash as soon as it arrived, or else re-shipt it to 

 another State. If one of the dupes went to Detroit he could not 

 find his goods, nor anything else, for that matter, as nothing was 

 stored. It was either sold or shipt at once. Of course, this firm 

 soon found it necessary to seek a cooler climate than Detroit, but 

 they had plenty of money with which to buy winter clothing. 



Above all other considerations towers this one of knowing, 

 positU'ehj, within the range of human possibilities, that the firm to 

 which you send your produce is absolutely honest and reliable. 

 Better sell your comb honey at 10 cents to a firm that you know 

 will pay you 10 cents, than to a firm that offers you 15 cents, but 

 about the honesty of which there is the slightest doubt. This is 

 so self evident that it seems almost like folly to repeat it, but the 

 transactions of every year show that such advice is abundantly 

 needed. The strong point of these swindlers is that tbey offer just 

 a littlf more than the market price. Not enough more to arouse 

 suspicion, but just enough to lead the unsuspecting victim to be- 

 lieve that, all things considered, this market is the best. There is 

 usually some plausible story goes with this offer— some apparently 

 reasonable reason why this slight advance in price can be made 



Before sending honey to a firm, see how they are quoted in the 

 commercial agencies. Consult their references if tbey give any. 

 If they don't, then ask for references. This alcin' will not answer. 

 Swindlers have a way sometimes of getting a fair rating in com- 

 mercial agencies' books, or of getting good references from some 

 bank by depositing money that may be withdrawn later. A good 

 rating and good reference count; but. as I have said, they are not 

 everything. In addition to this. I would advise a shipper who is 

 in doubt, to write to the bee-journals. A great mass of corres- 

 pondence goes thru the hands of an editor. If a firm is shaky, or 

 is not dealing fairly with its customers, the editor is sure to get a 

 hint of it right away. If a firm does not pay, or is unfair in any 

 way, the first thing the victim does is to write to his editor and 

 ask him what to do. A great many things come to an editor in 

 this way that he may not feel at liberty to publish. If he did. he 

 might lay himself open to libel ; but he can give to a subscriber, 

 privately and confidentially, what it would never do to publish, 



I think that there have been very few, if any, losses where the 

 shipper has consulted the editors of the bee-journals, and they have 



