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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 20. 1905 



water will serve a good turn. Give plenty of 

 chance for air. Some practice leaving the 

 hive partly uncovered for two or three days. 

 Some give two stories to the swarm, taking 

 away the lower story after two or three days. 

 Either of these plans provides to some extent 

 against an overheated dwelling. Some prac- 

 tice giving a frame of brood to the swarm, 

 with the idea that the bees will feel they can 



not aflord to abandon so valuable a piece of 

 property. 



In any case, it all laying queens are clipped 

 no prime swarm can abscond unless it joins, 

 or is joined, by some other swarm having a 

 queen with whole wings. The queen with 

 clipped wings may be lost, but it is better to 

 lose the queen alone than to lose both queen 

 and swarm. 



r 



iniscellaneous Hctps 3tcms 



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A "Visit to Dadant & Sons. — For many 

 years we have had a desire to visit the leading 

 bee-supply manufacturers and dealers in the 

 United States, who are also our leading adver- 

 tisers, and finally the opportunity to begin 

 doing so came last fall. We started out in 

 October, and, as most of our readers know, 

 we have had the pleasure of visiting quite a 

 number of such firms, and also of telling 

 something about them in the American Bee 

 Journal. We believe that these personal and 

 often somewhat minute introductions have 

 been appreciated both by the firms visited and 

 by those who read this paper regularly, who, 

 very likely, are their patrons in a business 

 way. 



The last firm that it was our good fortune 

 to see was that of Dadant «fe Sons. For more 

 than a quarter of a century it was " Chas. 

 Dadant & Son." (Doesn't that look and 

 sound familiar?) But since the elder Dadant 

 passed away. In 1902, his son " C. P." has 

 taken into partnership with himself two of 

 his sons — Louis C. and Henry C, the former 

 being in his 26th year and the latter in his 

 23d. 



The first home of the Dadants, and also 

 their factory, are located right in the woods, 

 about two miles from Hamilton, 111., for they 

 began by growing grapes and keeping bees, and 

 their present business has developed slowly 

 from these. There are so many trees around 

 their factory and other buildings that it is 

 impossible to take a good view of them from 

 any side, however we succeeded in getting a 

 snapshot of the main factory, or at least the 

 smoke-stack, as shown herewith. 



One of the buildings, constructed of iron, 



Prof. A. J. Cook and Wife, of Los 



Angeles Co., Calif., called at this office last 

 week when on their way to spend a year of 

 travel and study in Europe. Their daughter, I 

 Miss Bertha Eldredge, will accompany them, 

 and devote herself to music while abroad. They 

 expect to sail Aug. 19, in the meantime visit- 

 ing relatives in the East. Prof. Cook holds 

 his 63 years wonderfully well, scarcely look- 

 ing a day older than when we first met him. 

 California climate and other things seem to 

 keep him young in looks and spirit even if 

 they can not stay the passing years. 



Prof. Cook will continue to write monthly 

 for the American Bee .Journal while he pokes 

 around various places in Europe. So we can 

 all anticipate some interesting articles from 

 his kindly pen during the ensuing year. 

 And, meantime, all will join us in wishing 

 the three globe-trotters a safe journey across 

 the Atlantic, and a pleasant and profitable 

 year on the other side. 



and then painted, contains only beeswax, and 

 holds something like 20,000 pounds. It is 

 usually kept full, for the Dadants believe in 

 having on hand a large supply of beeswax so 

 as not to run out of the only suitable material 

 for making their excellent comb foundation. 

 The original firm of Chas. Dadant & Son 

 was founded in 1803, and began the manu- 

 facture of comb foundation in 1878. When 



the milling of the foundation, which position 

 he has held for 23 years, and he figures that if 

 all the sheets of Dadant foundation be has 

 made were put end to end, they would reach 

 two-thirds of the way around the earth. In 

 a few more years Dadant's foundation will 

 encircle the globe. 



The bulk of the foundation made by the 

 Dadants is the " Weed process," which refers 

 to the method of sheeting the wax before 

 milling it. Mr. Leon Saugier, Mr. Dadant's 

 sOQ-in-law, and also brother of Joseph 

 Saugier, is in charge of this part of the work. 



They have a certain foreign trade that for 

 some reason will have only the foundation 

 made by the old or dipping process of sheet- 

 ing the beeswax. 



The Dadants have always been famous as 

 bee-keepers also. For 40 years they have run 

 several hundred colonies for extracted honey 

 at the home as well as at out-apiaries. For 12 

 years— from 1872 to 1884— Mr. C. P. Dadant 

 alone managed 550 colonies in 5 or 6 apiaries. 



THE LATE CHAS. DADANT. 



MAIN FACTORT OF DADANT & SONS. 



they began it was the intention to make only 

 for their own use, as they were extensive bee- 

 keepers. The first year they made 500 

 pounds, but they made it so good that others 

 wanted some of it, so the second year they 

 made 2000 pounds, the third year 6000, and so 

 kept on, some years making more and some 

 years less, until during the year from July 1, 

 1903, to July 1, 1904, they made and sold over 

 115,000 pounds, which put them away up at 

 the head of the manufacturers of comb foun- 

 dation. If this season should continue as did 

 that of 1903, they may again reach their ban- 

 ner record. 



One secret of the wonderful success of the 

 Dadant foundation is that every inch must be 

 equal in every way to sample. We saw how 

 they make it, and were surprised at the ex- 

 treme care with which every part of the pro- 

 cess is conducted. The least defect is de- 

 tected by the quick, clear eye of the young 

 lady who lays each sheet on the paper put 

 down by another young lady. Thus it is 

 sorted and papered as it comes from the mill. 

 These young ladies exchange places occa- 

 sionally to relieve the monotony of the work. 



Mr. Joseph Saugier is the man in charge of 



One year (1884) they had 45,000 pounds of 

 extracted honey. This was their largest crop, 

 from which they realized $2800 net of all ex- 

 penses. They use a very large hive, taking 10 

 Quinby loose-hanging frames, size ll^^xlS)^ 

 inches, outside measure. Their hives face 

 south, and on the west inside of the hive is 

 a division-board or dummy, and the back end 

 is made of two boards. On each of some of 

 the best colonies (when we were there, June 

 21), there were 3 and 4 shallow extracting- 

 supers nearly full of honey. And they had 

 had only one swarm in their 4 apiaries of a 

 total of 250 colonies, so far this season ! They 

 have practically no swarms. They run their 

 apiaries for huney, and not for swarms ! They 

 believe in large hives — big colonies— and then 

 they always get the honey — if it is to be had 

 from the fiowers. Their methods are success- 

 ful, and they know it. When we enquired 

 why they did not push the sale of their spe- 

 cial or Dadant hive, Mr. D. replied, " Oh, 

 bee-keepers think it is too expensive." We 

 found it costs only about $1.00 more than the 

 ordinary hive. Surely, that should not pre- 

 vent business bee-keepers from buying them, 

 if by their use and following the Dadant sys 



