THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



189 



I have endeavored to give these 

 prices on the basis of fair pay for hon- 

 est work, 



2. This VFill vary in different locali- 

 ties and seasons, and with different sys- 

 tems of management. 



My experience would be from one- 

 half to twice the amount of extracted 

 more than box. 



3. At present we have no better way 

 than for our journals to publish full 

 market reports from best dealers in all 

 of the leading cities. The subject of 

 marketing our honey is one that must 

 receive more attention if we are to re- 

 ceive remunerative prices. 



I was pleased with the answer given 

 to question No. 2 in the July number 

 by Mr. Pond and Mr. Demaree. 



If more of us would dispose of our 

 honey at home instead of sending it in 

 bulk to the city market where it is sold 

 at prices which are often below cost of 

 production, the market reports would 

 soon be found to change. 



4. My advice to such beekeepers as 

 allow this condition of things to occur 

 is to adopt a system of management 

 that will prevent it. 



See answer to No. 6. 



5. I disturb the bees of both colo- 

 nies until all are induced to fill them- 

 selves with honey. I then place a hive 

 wliich neither of the stocks has occu- 

 pied in the spot where 1 desire the 

 united stock to stand. In this hive 

 place the combs from the two to be 

 united alternating the combs as they 

 are placed in the new hive. 



The preferable time to perform the 

 operation is at night after the bees 

 have stopped flying. 



6. I have had no experience with 

 natural swarming for several years. 



I would not allow my bees to swarm 

 naturally even if I were to go back to 

 the box hive and brimstone pit. I 

 Avould supply a stock of bees with 

 empty boxes at the earliest possible 

 date they would enter them and work 

 freely. 



Muhawk, N. Y. 



ANSWERS BY E. E. HASTY. 



1. My home price to those who come 

 and get honey is 16 cts. for white 

 comb, and 10 cts. for extracted. I aim 

 to keep my liome price steady at these 

 figures, thinking it more to my interest 

 to encourage the use of honey, and cul- 

 tivate a home demand than to get "top 

 notch" prices. In a city market, of 

 course one has to vary witii the market. 



2. If he finds a satisfactory market 

 for extracted honey let him produce 

 that kind wholly. Otherwise nearly all 

 comb, and just what extracted his home 

 market calls for. 



3. The bee papers. 



4. It strikes me that the bees of one 

 apiary differ from those of another, 

 very much as one tribe of Indians dif- 

 fers from another. At any rate my 

 bees are very prone to kill all queens 

 when they mix up in swarming. My 

 procedure is as follows : I take down 

 swarms from the tree in a simple five 

 cent basket with short legs tacked to 

 it. A mingled mass is divided as 

 nearly equally as may be into two or 

 )nore baskets. Into each basket I lay 

 a chunk of honey or a damaged section. 

 Next, the basket is set into one of the 

 handy little pits near by, the cover is 

 turned down, a few shovelfuls of earth 

 are thrown over them, and there they 

 are left to meditate upon their manners 

 for two or three days. On being re- 

 moved from the pit, the bees in each 

 basket are hived as usual except that a 

 frame ofcomb containing newly Jiatched 

 larvae from some appmved stock is 

 given them from which to raise a queen. 

 The queens in such masses, if attacked, 

 fall to the ground in a small bunch of 

 bees a few moments after the swarms 

 are settled. With a smoker in hand 

 one can, if fortunate, rescue some of 

 them alive, and make use of them. 



5. As may be imagined from the 

 above, I am averse to uniting bees, as 

 a general thing. Let them paddle their 

 own canoes, live or die ; and if they die, 

 take it philosophically, and set them 

 down as unworthy to live. Strengthen 

 colonies by giving sealed brood, or 

 downy young bees, rather than by turn- 

 ing in entire weak colonies. 



I unite a queenless colony in spring 

 with its companion colony in the same 

 hive (I winter two and "two). Very 

 friendly relations spring up between 

 two colonies only separated by an en- 

 amel cloth partition ; and often the 

 first notice one has of queenlessness will 

 be finding that the bees have nearly all 

 deserted one side and gone in on the 

 other. To unite such colonics all that 

 is needed is to close the entrance ou 

 the queenless side, and pull out the lit- 

 tle block that closes the rabbet where 

 the partition comes across. 



Weak colonies and late swarms are 

 also united in November. Five wide 

 frames full of sections of inferior honey 

 are put in a hive, leaving wide spaces 

 between of course. The bees to be 



