538 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAi 



Aug 3. 9?S 



Honey Results Not All in Management 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



I have read with much interest the article by ray good 

 friend, G. M Doolittls, page 453. .lust a little bit hard not 

 to feel envious because he can do 30 pounds better with a 

 colony than I can, but I've concluded to be good and congrat- 

 ulate him. I want, lowever, to warn beginners not to con- 

 clude too hastily that the difference in the plan of manage- 

 ment is solely responsible for the difference in yields. 



Remember, I'm not discussing the point as to which man- 

 agement is better. I'm only saying that Mr. Doolittle's 

 greater yield does not />roz/« that he has the better plan. A 

 number of things might play a part. With the same manage- 

 ment, Mr. Dooiittle might be more skilled and more careful in 

 carrying out details. He might have hetter bees. He might 

 have a better season : for seasons differ, and it may be that 

 next year 1 shall have a better season than I've ever had be- 

 fore. (But I'm hardly expecting it.) 



There's another item that probably makes more difference 

 than all other things combined. Mr. Dooiittle got one colony 

 to store 66 pounds in three days. I can't do that. I never 

 did it. I don't expect ever to do it. 1 haven't the basswood 

 trees. I haven't some of the other things Mr. Dooiittle has. 

 I am in what is called a poor honey region, with white clover 

 as the only source of surplus, although of late years cucum- 

 bers or something else seem to help out in the fall. So far as 

 I know, Mr. Dooiittle has as much white clover as I, but I 

 think the greater part of his surplus comes from other things, 

 basswood looming up as the greatest producer. Without bass- 

 wood I don't think he could get 22 pounds a day. I think 

 that's at least 12 pounds a day more than any colony ever 

 stored for me, or could store from white clover. 



It may do no harm to dream a little about what I might 

 do if I could turn my bees loose on Mr. Doolittle's pasturage 

 during the basswood harvest. It would be Lardly reasonable 

 to count on 12 pounds a day extra throughout the basswoiid 

 season, but I suspect that if the bees of that best colony of 

 mine had had the chance upon that basswood that gave Mr. 

 Dooiittle 22 pounds a day, they would not have ruptured any 

 blood-vessels in storing 6 pounds a day more than they could 

 on clover. If they had done that for a week it would have 

 made a difference of 42 pounds, distancing Mr. Doolittle's best 

 by 12 pounds. 



Aside from advising beginners not to draw hasty conclu- 

 sions, a moral of the lesson is not to be too hasty about set- 

 tling in a place of poor pasturage, especially not to settle in a 

 place with only one honey-plant for surplus, where the bot- 

 tom falls out a good many years because of the failure of that 

 one plant. 



Most likely some one would like to ask why I settled in 

 such a place. I didn't know any better. For years bee- 

 keeping was an avocation, and by the time I decided to make 

 it a vocation so many ties had bound me to the place that I 

 couldn't break loose. Even now I sometimes dream that if 

 an earthquake or something else should tear me loose from 

 this " locality,"' so I could be free to form new ties elsewhere, 

 I should begin to look for a bee-keeper's paradise just as soon 

 as I could wipe away the tears enough to see clearly where I 

 was alighting. McHenry Co., III. 







The Honey-Producers' League and Section 

 Honey 



DV DU. G. BOHREK 



On page 596 of Gleanings, Mr. Virgil Weaver states a truth 

 which, in my opinion, should not be overlooked or ignored 

 by The Honey-Producers' League. He says, "The sec- 

 tion has done more harm to the comb honey market than all 

 other agencies combined." He claims that the comb-honey 

 lie was caused by section honey. I do not know just how 

 nearly correct this statement is, but I do know that all who 

 believe the artificial-honey and artiticial-comb falsehood in- 

 variably point to the section as the chief support of their 

 position. 



If this embraced all the harm the section has done, we 

 might hope that, in time, the masses would learn that there 

 never was, in all time past, is not now, and probably never 

 will be, such a thing as artificial comb honey. But the so- 

 called pound sections, which seldom ever contain a pound of 

 honey, cause many persons to let them severely alone, for 

 the reason, as they very truthfully say, they do not weigh a 

 pound, but are sold at pound prices, and that they do not pro. 



pose to pay for a pound and accept from 1 to 4 ounces less 

 than a pound. 



If the section were consigned to eternal infamy, and 

 comb honey in shallow-super frames substituted, and sold 

 strictly by weight, very much more honey in the comb would 

 meet with ready sale than is sold as matters are now. 



I have made it a rule to sell section honey by the pound, 

 and get 14 cents per pound for it, and I sell comb honey 

 stored in shallow super or extracting frames at the same 

 price, the honey being cut out of the frames, which makes of 

 it what is known as '-chunk honey." In this shape I am free 

 to admit that it is shorii of much " cosmetic ornament," which 

 is all that the section does for honey, by keeping the cell-cap- 

 pings intact, as a rule, so that the honey does not escape from 

 the cells and run over tlie comb surface and muss the section 

 or shipping package. That is, in case the shipping package is 

 not so roughly handled while in transit as to break the honey- 

 combs. In such an event the dealer can not stand the loss, 

 and must sell what does reach him in safety at a higher price, 

 in order to save himself. Thus it will be seen that the con- 

 sumer pays dearly for the useless ornament furnished by the 

 section. 



I suggest that The Honey-Producers' I^eague advertise the 

 so-called pound section as not a pound, and urge both honey- 

 producer and honey-dealer to sell section houey by actual 

 weight, and not by the piece and under the name of a pound 

 at pound prices, when it is not a pound by perhaps several 

 ounces. 



In a brief period of time the masses will let the section 

 honey severely alone, for they will soon learn it to be an ex- 

 pensive luxury, and will call it " dude houey," leaving out the 

 term " pound section." 



I am fully aware of the fact that it is claimed by our bee- 

 papers that there is no such thing as a measurement for an 

 exact pound section, which is true, but the term "pound" 

 sticks to the section tighter than propolis, and serves the pur- 

 pose of causing the public very largely to denounce it as a 

 deception and a fraud. Lighter sales of honey are the natural 

 and legitimate result. Most of the counters of our honey- 

 dealers bear computing scales. Let tiiem ' uy and sell honey 

 by weight. If they refuse, let The Honey-Producers' League 

 not only advertise to do so, but actually buy and sell by 

 weight, and other dealers will be glad to follow suit. 



In addition to this, advertise extensively the fact that 

 bee-comb or beeswax is not at all digestible, and that in the 

 extracted form honey is the most wholesome as food. 



Also, labor incessantly for a national pure food law which 

 will impose a severe penalty for adulterating honey with glu- 

 cose, keep on nailing the artificial comb honey lie, and edu- 

 cate the masses to the extent of knowing that comb honey has 

 never been manufactured by man. Rice Co., Kans. 



Selling Honey in the Home Market 



EV J. -M. HOBBS 



I will explain how I dispose of my honey in the home 

 market. I sell nothing but comb honey, and have sold all 

 I could produce for the last 14 years right in this city and 

 vicinity. I get 12J4 to 15 cents a pound, or a section. 



I sell about 1,300 pounds or sections a year, and it is all 

 sold by Dec. 1st. When the last pound is sold I have re- 

 ceived the cash for every pound sold, each year, so far, and 

 we keep some 150 to 200 colonies right in the city. 



This is how I have done it: In the first place, I don't 

 use any separators in the supers. I use the standard sec- 

 tions, which will weigh a pound, and I always make them 

 clean and attractive. I never sell a case of honey that does 

 not weigh '24 pounds net. My customers know this, and they 

 ki.ow that they get from 4 to C pounds more from me than 

 they do from those who use separators ; and they know that 

 no other man in this state sells a better grade of honey in 

 the comb. They also know that I always give 16 ounces, or 

 more, to the section, and that when they buy of those who 

 use senarators they seldom get over 14 ounces for a pound. 



The most of the bee-keepers who use separators do not 

 use them always for the reason they say, that is, to make 

 the honey of a uniform appearance, but. as I have said be- 

 fore, it saves them 4 to 6 pounds to the case. Those who use 

 separators for short weights also want as many supers as 

 they can get in one season, therefore they cannot see a super 

 remain on the hive a moment after it is capned. They want 

 it off so another can be put on. 



My customers have learned that unless honey is left on 



