648 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 14, 19C5 



tory has had to run night and day quite often in order to make 

 the hives as fast as they are called for. and they are often Ije- 

 hind witli orders. I suppose other factories are also kept 

 pretty busy. Now, if my customers would just be as anxious 

 after my honey as the bee-keepers are after the factory-made 

 hives, so that I would have to work both night and day to 

 supply the demand for honey, I am a little afraid that I should 

 have "to raise the price of honey a little— in fact. I would prob- 

 ably charge 18 to 20 cents for the very finest. Fellow bee- 

 keeper, would you condemn me for this ? Would it be a very 

 great wrong? Would there be anything wrong in my raising 

 the price of my honey if the demand was so great '? Say, fel- 

 low hee-keeper, we are in luck that prices are no higher than 

 they are. If the ordinary Wall Street capitalist controlled 

 the hive industry we would probably have to pay $1.00 for the 

 inside furniture of an empty super. 



Several years ago I tried to make a few hives in swarm- 

 ing-time. I had only store-boxes to make them of, and my 

 tools consisted of a hammer, ax, and a cross-cut saw that had 

 not been filed or set for about 10 years, and a square that the 

 horses had stepped on. It is needless to say that my hive- 

 making was not a success. The supers acted as if they were 

 drunk — when one corner came down the other went up, and 

 they persisted in staying in a whin-wha shape. I had to mark 

 the corners to tell how to get the supers back as they were, 

 and if I put the wrong super on a hive I had to introduce it 

 before the body would accept it, and I am sorry to say I some- 

 times said. " Darn it !" 



Well, I quit hive-making, and stayed quit for about IS 

 years. But 1 have begun again, and I find it all depends upon 

 knowing how. I now make a good hive that fits, and gives 

 good satisfaction, for about 50 cents for an 8-frame, 1>2- 

 story hive, complete except fences. I'll try to tell how [ do it. 



First, I procured a good cross-cut, fine-tooth saw, a rip- 

 saw, a square, and hammer and plane. I buy a fairly good 

 grade of lumber for $30 per 1000 feet. I get the boards 10 

 inches wide, planed on both sides. This lumber contains a 

 few knots, but only small ones. I cut the hive-lengths first. 

 All clear length is used for cover and body, the poorest going 

 for bottoms. One 10-inch board and one ripped in two makes 

 a cover. One 10-inch and one 4-inch makes a bottom. For 

 the body I have to rip off about '2 inch, and this makes a 

 good top- bar for shallow frames. 



Now if you will take a factory hive and use it tor a pat- 

 tern, and cut everything not pretty near square, but exactly 

 square, the hive will nail up square, and be as good as any 

 factory-made hive. I use 2-inch strips for cleats for cover 

 and bottom, by ripping a 1x4 in two, so the only kind of lum- 

 ber I buy is 1x10 inch boards, 12 feet long, and 1x4 inch 12 feet 

 long. I also make shallow extracting supers from 1x6 inch 

 boards, planed on both sides. I make frames in a mitre-box, 

 which is a square trough with a sguare-cui across for the saw 

 to run in. The bottom of this box is marked in lengths for 

 top-bars, bottom-bars and end-bars. I get store-boxes of soft, 

 fine lumber of proper thickness, and the rip-saw will rip it 

 into strips, like cutting cheese. I run the plane over the 

 edges and then lay in the mitre- box and cut. This insures a 

 square cut, and the frames will be square, and as the marks 

 are on the mitre-bov. that saves marking in length. I can 

 make 300 in a day if I have proper material. 



There are lots of store-boxes to be had for almost nothing, 

 but don't use anything but good pine or it will warp. 



Now, it is not a great job to make 100 hives, and almost 

 any bee-keeper can find time during the winter and on rainy 

 days to make all his hives, if he doesn't want over 100, and 

 they won't cost over SO cents each, complete, for material. 

 Figure it up yourself: Cover, 2M feet; body and super 7 1-9 

 feet; bottom-boards and cleats, 3 feet— total. 12 1118— say 

 13 feet. At 3 cents a foot— 39 cents. Material for frames, S 

 cents ; nails, 6 cents— total, 50 cents. 



Now, let all who want to do so make their own hives, and 

 all who prefer to buy let them buy and pay their money. As 

 for myself, 1 will make my own hives and some for my neigh- 

 bors. 



I also have a home-made solar wax-extractor made from a 

 store-box of proper size. A window-pane 16x32 inches, and a 

 sheet of galvanized iron for a bottom, and it works fine. By 

 its use I get from 10 to 20 pounds of wax each year. I have a 

 Rietsche-(;etaz press which makes fairly good brood-founda- 

 tion, and costs only $1.S() and freight. 



So, while bee-supplies are high we don't really have to 

 buy them unless we want to. Some supply dealers deny the 

 existence of a "trust," but they have admioted tome that 

 there is an understanding between them not to compete in 

 prices with each other, and when there is a raise of prices 

 those in the agreement all raise at once, just like the curtain 

 on a stage. Of course, all there is to any trust is an under- 



standing between the members of the trust to raise prices. 

 All trusts are an evil, because the most powerful manufac- 

 turers compel other manufacturers to sell higher than they 

 would if no trust were in existence, and thus poor and needy 

 people are compelled to pay unjustly more than they ought to 

 pay for goods. The President is after the trusts with a sharp 

 stick, and possibly he will investigate the bee-supply trust. 



The argument used by the manufacturer, that expensive 

 machinery is the cause of high prices, is nonsensical. AVe all 

 know that the reason modern expensive machinery is used is 

 to cheapen the cost of the production by labor-saving ma- 

 chinery, not to make it cost more. If it were not so why use it ? 



However, we should always remember that the great 

 demand for bee-supplies is the cause of the high prices, as it 

 makes a trust possible, and we are the ones who have been 

 demanding the goods, so, in a measure, the manufacturer is 

 justifiable in raising prices. The rise of prices of raw mate- 

 rial is responsible only for a part of the raise in prices of 

 hives. The manufacturer ought to buy lumber much cheaper 

 than the bee-keeper, by buying in large quantities. However, 

 if our honey customers were as eager to buy our honey as the 

 bee-keepers are to buy factory-made hives, and if some bee- 

 keeper in our locality would persist in selling honey real 

 cheap, would we not make it a business of ours to ask that 

 bee-keeper to charge more for his honey ? In fact, we would 

 probably all agree to raise the price of honey. Then what 

 would we be? Some people would call it a " trust," others 

 would say there was merely an understanding, and if the de- 

 mand still continued great, and our customers would take our 

 honey at a good price as fast as we could produce it, we would 

 not, I think, put honey down in price of our own accord, nor 

 could our customers expect it. Neither can we expect lower 

 prices for hives as long as we demand so many of them at 

 present prices. Knox Co., III. 



=^ ^ 



(£onr>cntton 

 Procccbings 



^ 



Report of the Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held at Chicago, 111., 

 Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1904 



(Continued from pag'e 633.J 



EVENING SESSION. 



At 7 :30 o'clock p. m. Pres. York called the convention 

 to order and stated that before proceeding with the business 

 they would be favored with some music and a couple of 

 readings. 



Master Ferdinand Moore and Miss Esther Wheeler, fa- 

 vored the convention with instrumental solos ; Mrs. Dittmer 

 pleased them with a reading entitled, "A Lullaby," while 

 Dr. Miller convulsed the audience by a reading showing how 

 a certain Geniian was cured of rheumatism by the bee-stings. 



ADVERTISING HONEY AS A HEALTH FOOD. 



"What can this Association do in the line of advertising 

 that will show the value of honey as a health food in the 

 newspaper press?" 



Dr. Miller— I think perhaps the Association will do 

 about as much as it can be expected to do in that direction 

 by the publication of this report, in getting in the things 

 that were said here to-day and encouraging the publication 

 of items in the local press. 



BREAKING DOWN PRICES OF HONEY. 



"What can this Association do along the lines of pre- 

 venting bee-keepers themselves from breaking down the 

 prices of honey early in the marketing season?" 



Mr. Wilcox — That is the most important question we 

 have to consider ; at least it has been with me all my life. 

 We have never found a solution, and I don't believe we 

 ever will. I believe that the best advice we ever had on 

 that subject was that given by our late friend, Thomas G. 

 Newman, when he advised us to work the home market, to 

 see it was always supplied with all the honey it could take. 

 The aim should be to increase the consumption. It is quite 

 certain that there is not as much honey consumed as there 



