THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



219 



High Hill, 3Io. 

 Our bees have done very poorly this 

 season. Started with 308 colonics in 

 the spring; have not received a single 

 swarm yet, nor takcu one pound of 

 surplus honey. Hives are full with 

 bees and brood but no linncj'. White 

 clover and basswood did not yield any 

 honey in our locality. We hear of 

 like complaints from all the adjoining 

 counties. 



Yours truly, 

 Jno. Nebel & Son. 



Midland, Mich. 

 Prospect is good for a crop of honey 

 here. 



S. E. Boyd. 



The Honey Market. As honey 

 will not be in such abundance the 

 present season, would it not be a good 

 idea to try and work up prices, say 

 about 15% or perhaps 20%. 



If one has a quantity of honey for 

 sale, bj'^ all means have some leaf- 

 lets printed instructing people how to 

 use honey, whether for preserving- 

 fruit, as a medicine, or to work into 

 confections. Scatter these leatlets 

 everywliere. Get your local papers 

 to publish them. Keep the fact be- 

 fore the people that honey is health- 

 ful as well as one of the cheapest lux- 

 uries in the market. Have your name 

 and full address on each package, and 

 also in large letters say: " I warrant 

 this package to contain, so much, pure 

 honey." By doing so no one will be 

 afraid to purchase honey, and the per- 

 son who buys it and rinds it good will 

 call for that i)articular brand every- 

 time. 



Don't be afraid to acquniut your 

 friends, neighliors, and all the people 

 within several miles of your apiary 

 that you have honey for sale. 



NOTES FROM THE 

 STATE APIARY. 



BAT 



Hekky alley. 



SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT ONE MAN 



CAN DO. 



Some of our readers have an 

 idea that we have a large factory 

 and employ lots of men to make 

 up supplies for the trade ; such is 

 not the fact, we employ several ex- 



perienced hands during the winter 

 and keep thorn at work till aliout 

 June 10 ; after which date we man- 

 age to do the work alone. This 

 however, we could not do alone, 

 did we not work during the winter 

 months getting e^■ery thing in or- 

 der, so that nothing will be want- 

 ing during the bus}' season. 



The principal business going on 

 at the Bay State apiary from 

 June 1 to Oct. 10 is queen-rear- 

 ing. There are in full operation 

 at this time in our apiary over 260 

 nuclei and 60 full colonies of bees. 

 "We are rearing about 100 queens 

 each week ; of this number about 

 75 queens are shipped to customers 

 in ever}' state in the Union. The 

 work required to rear 100 queens 

 each week is no small affair, as any 

 queen breeder can testif}'. It is 

 not quite as much work to care for 

 260 nucleus hive while the bees are 

 gathering honey, but Avlien this 

 number of colonies must be fed as 

 often as twice each week, one can 

 have a faint idea of the work to be 

 done in such an apiar}'. P^very 

 morning one or more colonies of 

 bees are taken into the bee house 

 and every bee removed from the 

 comlis and treated according to di- 

 rections given in the "Handy Book," 

 — l)roparatory to cell building. 



The brood and combs are then 

 placed in the hive again and taken 

 into the beej^ai'd and other bees 

 that have just built and capped a 

 lot of cells from eggs given them 

 but four da3's previous are shaken 

 from the combs in front of the lat- 

 ter hive, and the queen given them, 

 when all goes on as usual. This 

 same performance is gone through 

 Avith each day from May 8, or 10, 

 till Aug. 15, after which time uo 

 more cells are "started." 



OTHER AVORK WE HAVE TO DO. 



Each day we receive about 

 twenty-five letters and postal cards. 

 All of these have to receive per- 



