THE AMERICAN APIC UL TURIS T. 



267 



A STROLL AMONG THE HONEY DEALERS 

 OF BOSTON. 



On Saturday, Sept. lo, we were in 

 Boston and took a notion to go a- 

 mong the honey dealers. I must 

 confess that, after reading all the re- 

 ports in the Api and other bee pa- 

 pers of a failure of the honey crop, 

 I was much surprised at what I saw. 



We saw in one store about seven 

 tons of honey in nice i-lb. sections 

 from beekeepers in Vermont. Some 

 of the crates were marked "Light 

 Weight." These crates I found 

 contained sections which were not 

 quite filled, and, in ordinary years 

 would not be sent to market. All 

 the first-class honey was in splendid 

 condition and very fine. The apiary 

 of A. E. Manum, of Bristol, Vt., was 

 well represented by the large lot of fine 

 honey. We concluded that brother 

 M. had but little time the past sum- 

 mer to spend in mourning over the 

 failure of the honey crop. 



The prices, also, surprised me as 

 much as the quantity and quality of 

 the honey. The second quahty is 

 selling at wholesale at 18 cents, and 

 the best section honey at 2 2 cents, and 

 is retailing at 25 cents per pound. 

 Not a very heavy boom in honey after 

 all. The demand for honey is fair but 

 not brisk. We are of the opinion 

 that prices must advance in the course 

 of a few weeks, as nearly all the 

 honey, we learn, is on the market, 

 and long before spring the entire 

 crop will be sold. Therefore those 

 who have forced their crop on the 

 market will be losers to a consider- 

 able amount. 



An experiment. — For a long time 

 we have been tliiiikiiig to test the mat- 

 ter regarding tlie length of time a bee 

 would live after its sting wasextracted, 

 If the fact has been stated in any book 

 or other publication, it has never come 

 to our notice, so we concluded t ) test 

 the matter ourselves. Accordingly, the 

 sting was removed Ironi seven t)ees 

 with no apparent injury at the time. 

 All the bees were bright and lively 



from noon till we had retired at night. 

 The next morning two of tlie number 

 were dead, but the live remaining alive 

 were active and seemed all right. On 

 the second morning all had died but 

 one bee ; and although that one seemed 

 as smart as ever, it soon died. 



These little experiments, although 

 of no account, add to the general lund 

 of uiformation and facts, concerning 

 the honey bee. We intend to try some 

 further experiments in this same direc- 

 tion. One is to remove the sting from 

 a number of bees, and then give them 

 a strange queen. Should think it would 

 he kind of funny to witness some sting- 

 less bees trying to sting a queen bee. 



When the bees finti tliey cannot sting 

 a queen they will try to bite her. We 

 have often been stung and when the 

 bee found it could punish its victims 

 no more by stinging, then it would 

 try and bite. 



Generally, when a bee has stung 

 some one it seems to appear as tiiough 

 it had done something it was ashamed 

 of. The fellow who gets stung don't 

 feel that way. He generally makes a 

 lew remarks which indicate that he is 

 mad clear through. To what use could 

 a bee put his sting unless he can tiad 

 a felhjw's nose to insert it in? We 

 have been stung so many times that we 

 rather like it. Everybody would keep 

 bees if it were not lor the stings and 

 we poor fellows who publish bee jour- 

 nals would be worse otfthan now. 



The Apiculturist.— When we took 

 charge of the x^Pi in August, 188G, we 

 did so under circumstances most dis- 

 couraging. We never had had much ex- 

 perience as a publisher, but we thought 

 tliat as inanayer, the Api," if rightly 

 conilucted, could be made to pay its 

 running expenses at least. Well, un- 

 der the present management the Api 

 has appeared for fourteen months ; and 

 with one exception every issue has 

 been placed in tlie hands of its reailers 

 on the first day of each mouth and so 

 it will continue to appear as long as 

 its hosts of friends help us to tlo^so. 

 Our subscription list has more than 

 doubled within a year, and although 

 the profits derived from the Api are 

 small, yet we are content with what 

 we get. 



Several persons who had predicted 

 that the Api would soon be numbered 

 with the things of the past, have had 

 reason to change their minds. Some- 

 how we have got along very well ^vith- 

 out their aid. One man, and an old 



