744 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 26, 190S 



money. Not many of us can afford to invest our hard-earned 

 coin in philanthropic enterprises ; we must get some in return. 

 As the League now stands, it offers its members little direct 

 returns. Now, a trade-ma^rk on a member's product would 

 raise the market value of it.^provided, of course, the trade- 

 mark be properly advertised. When a bee-keeper sees that 

 he gets two dollars for the one he invests, the League will 

 not have to work for subscribers. Oh, no 1 they will simply 

 rush for admittaiice. Advertising a trademark will produce 

 direci retarns] for the League's members, without a trade- 

 mark (understand by this some distinct brand of some kind), 

 your advertising is sure to reach an end, for such advertising 

 feeds itself little, so has no means of growth. If the League 

 does not give its members some benefits over and above what 

 the outside gets, they will be very slow to subscribe, and e.x- 

 tremely hard to get. 



Appeal to thle Women. 



I do not know what plans the League has for advertising 

 its product; but it surely can not fail to see the need of plac- 

 ing the bulk of its advertising before the women. It's the 

 women that set the table, and it's the women that buy, so its 

 the women that the League must reach. Woo the women ! 

 Tell her your story, Mr. Honeyman, and you will not complain 

 of slow markets. 



Wanted at Sight, and Will Bring High Prices — Quality 



AND AtTR.^CTIVBNESS THE TwiN SiSTERS OP SUCCESS. 



Honey has the quality. But don't let honey without 

 quality get on the market if you can help it. Don't make the 

 fatal error of letting the League's trade-mark cover a poor 

 product. Make sure of this matter in some way. What is 

 more disgusting than unripe extracted honey ? It will spoil 

 ten sales where one is made. Make it a very serious offense in 

 the League to market such honey. Show the outsider where 

 he is penny wise and pound foolish in doing this. Give good 

 weight. If the section doesn't weigh a pound, do not allow 

 this impression to be carried. When a section doesn't weigh 

 the full pound, honestly say so, and charge less for it. 



Honey is attractive, and attractiveness is a great selling 

 force. Market the best grades only, and see to it that,grad- 

 ing is done right. Don't, don't allow your trade-mark to mar- 

 ket an inferior article. Strictly grade your comb honey ; and 

 bottle and neatly label the extracted ; carefully sack tbe can- 

 died. Expect and ask a good price for your product, and you 

 will get it, and have no trouble in doing so. 



Establish Your Brands and Your Trade-Marks. 



To sum up, spend your money in judicious advertising in 

 magazines, newspapers, etc. Get all the free advertising 

 possible, you using your influence at home and abroad. Talk 

 honey yourself, and be enthusiastic over it. Get a trade- 

 mark, and make it stand for something. Then The Honey- 

 Producers' League will be on the road to success, and be a 

 powerful factor in the honey markets. 



The problem is a complex one, and I have not by any 

 means touched all the points. It will not be completed in a 

 day. Mistakes will be made. But don't make the greatest 

 mistake — not doing any thing. There is abundant material 

 in beedom — brains and product — to make the League a great 

 success. Don't wrangle among yourselves. Forget your 

 little differences in the ^re at cause. Make your motto, "Co- 

 operate and advertise." Yon may then rightly expect a 

 bright future for honey. — Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



# 



Wintering: Bees on Solid Sealed Combs of 

 Honey 



BY .J. L. BYER 



WHILE it is always with a degree of pleasure and profit 

 that we peruse anything from the pen of so practical 

 an apiarist as Mr. C. P. Dadant, nevertheless I feel to 

 take issue with part of his article on page 679, entitled, 

 " Work in the Apiary for October." I refer to the oft-quoted 

 statement which Mr. Dadant sanctions; in effect, that " a 

 colony will not winter well on combs that are entirely filled." 

 By way of preface, let me say that while such teaching 

 maybe orthodox, it is entirely erroneous as far as wintering 

 bees outdoors in our cold Ontario winters is concerned. As is 

 well known by most Ontario apiarists, so successful an out- 

 door winterer as Wm. McEvoy, is an enthusiastic exponent of 

 the system of wintering on entirely sealed combs of honey ; 

 and, I may add, what experience I have had in the matter was 

 prompted by Mr. McEvoy's teaching. 



My Cashel apiary is in a splendid clover location, but with 

 absolutely nothing after the clover quits yielding. With large 

 10-frame Quinby hives and Carniolan bees, for three or four 

 falls I was confronted with the problem of fitting up colonies 

 in big, empty brood-chambers for winter, after the supers were 

 removed. During those years no combs of clover honey had 

 been saved, and so to save the bees from starvation, of course 

 I had to do the next best thing — feed sugar syrup. To feed 

 30 or 40 pounds direct into those big brood-chambers gave 

 anything but best results, as it was too much scattered 

 through the hive, and a large proportion was always left un- 

 sealed. 



Now for the " better system " and its results: Half of 

 the combs (the lightest ones) were removed from each colony 

 needing feed, and a common division-board placed next to the 

 • last comb; a Miller feeder was placed on the hives, and suffi- 

 cient stores fed so that each of the S combs was sealed to the 

 bottom. Often large clusters of bees would be outside of the 

 division-board until quite cold weather, but when real severe 

 weather came on, somehow they always seemed to get " inside." 



Every colony so treated always wintered in grand condi- 

 tion, which could not be said of colonies left with ihe full 

 number of combs, even when they had sufficient honey. Out- 

 door winter losses in cold climates are generally brought 

 about by one or two causes : Either the honey near the clus- 

 ter is all consumed during a protracted cold snap, and the 

 bees starve, or else a strong colony starts a brood-nest early 

 in the winter during a warm spell, and the vitality of the 

 bees is so worn out that they are unable to stand the latter 

 part of the winter, and die of dysentery, or, perchance, later 

 on fall a prey to that mysterious " spring dwindling " — the 

 nom-de-plume of " bad wintering." 



On solid sealed combs the bees care nought for cold snaps. 

 They don't have to move to the honey. They are "there" 

 all the time ; as friend Mr. McEvoy says, they just have to 

 " lean over and help themselves." No brood-nest is started 

 early in the winter, from the simple fact that there is prac- 

 tically no empty comb at that time for the queen to deposit 

 eggs in. The vitality of the bees is thus saved, and the bees 

 are healthy and strong to rush things in the spring when the 

 brood will be of use. 



While I would not advise any one having hives heavy in 

 stores to go to the trouble and expense of putting on entirely 

 sealed stores, yet I would unhesitatingly urge all who may 

 have light colonies to give the system a fair trial. While I 

 haven't money to burn, yet I would have no fear in offering 

 compensation for cases of poor wintering following such 

 treatment, provided usual protection was given to the bees. 

 It is needless to say that no matter how successful it may be, 

 the system will never be popular, because of one factor— labor. 



In conversation with Mr. J. B. Hall, I was told that from 

 his experience there was no question but that bees wintered 

 in splendid condition on solid sealed stores, but because of 

 the extra work in spring and fall he did not follow the plan 

 extensively. 



Perhaps it is just as well that the system is not more in 

 vogue, as it would mean winter losses practically nil, and a 

 consequent overstocking all over the country. This may seem 

 like extravagant language, but I am thoroughly convinced 

 that in our climate, where the temperature often drops to 20 

 degrees below zero (I would have no fear if it was 30), and the 

 bees are frequently confined for 5 months without a flight, 

 that colonies in normal condition, i. e., with good queens and 

 plenty of bees, will winter 99 cases out of 100. 



As to cellar-wintering, I have had no experience, but at 

 least one successful cellar-winterer — Mr. H. G. Sibbald — has 

 told me that " solid sealed stores are just as successful and 

 necessary for cellar-wintering as for outdoors." 



With all due respect, I would ask if Mr. Dadant, and 

 others who advance the theory of poor wintering on "solid " 

 combs of honey, have ever really tried the plan. 



If they have, and report from experience, it might be well 

 to compare notes and see why such vastly different results are 

 obtained by different apiarists. If the teaching has nothing 

 to substantiate it, by all means let it be relegated to the waste- 

 basket (already pretty well filled), where many other exploded 

 theories have been consigned in times past. 



In looking over what I have hastily written, I was led to 

 think that I might have given the impression that it was nec- 

 essary to feed sugar syrup. For reasons not necessary to 

 enumerate here, I would say that we feed practically no sugar 

 now, but, when colonies are light, solid sealed combs of honey 

 are given to make up the deficiency, 



York Co., Ont., Canada, Oct. 11. 



