102 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



only occasionally looking in at door to see 

 that the rats or any thing else have dis- 

 turbed quilts. Our cellar has no ventila- 

 tion, except what it gets when members 

 of the family go into it for vegetables, 

 murcury usually ranges from 40 - to 45^, 

 perhaps for a short time, dropping once 

 or twice in winter to 85 degrees. Well 

 Mr. Editor we have " spun our say," out 

 to a greater length than any idea of at 

 start. 



We trust you will pardon us if we have 

 tried your patience, but having once been 

 beginners ourselves we realize how necess- 

 ary are the details to assist in understand- 

 ing, after all, success depends more on 

 attending to the details and giving your 

 attention closely, than in a mere attention 

 to general principles alone . 



Believing as we do, that there is more 

 of a science in successfully "springing" 

 an apiary than in wintering same, we 

 will, if you so desire, give you an item on 

 our course of spring treatment. 



Dundee, 111. J. Oatman & Co. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Marketing Honey. 



I find the best method of marketing 

 my honey, both comb and extracted is to 

 sell direct to the consumer or retail deal- 

 er, and not send to honey dealers for them 

 to adulterate. Last year I put a half bar- 

 rel of extracted and about oOltis of comb- 

 honey into my spring wagon, and went 

 among the consumers and sold to them 

 atl2i to 15 cts. per. ft. for extracted and 

 25 cts. for comb honey, and in a short 

 time I sold all my extracted honey, and 

 could have sold as much more in about a 

 week, as the people found out that it was 

 genuine honey and not glucose, sugar 

 syrup, itc, with a little honey added, as is 

 most of the so-called honey sent out by 

 the city honey dealers, and besides the 

 spui'ious honey is so high in price that it 

 is beyond the reach of many people that 

 would like honey. 



If the producer would take a little time 

 and trouble to furuish the consumer with 

 the genuiue honey at a moderate price, 

 and thus get a market established, he will 

 be surprised at the amount he could sell 

 and not be swindled oat of his money by 

 honey dealers. Parties that ouly got a 

 few pounds of me last year, are beginning 

 to speak for 50 to 150 lt)S of ext honey, 

 and the prospect is that I cannot half sup- 

 ply the demand, another year, without ; u 

 extraordinary yield of honey, and I will 

 have 80 coloni«s ( if I do not lose any) to 

 commence the season with. By the pro- 

 ducer selling his own honey at a reasona- 



ble price to the consumer, he will drive 

 out all of the doctored honey, as the re- 

 tail grocers will not handle it. One of 

 our grocery men got some from Chicago, 

 put up last year, and it soured on his 

 hands. He says, no more Chicago honey 

 for him, as he thinks the only honey in it 

 was what little some small pieces of comb 

 contained that was put in and pressed 

 against the glass. 



I sold of my own raising last year ext. 

 honey 1700 ttis. comb honey 300 pounds, 

 and comb honey I bought from a man 

 six miles from me, 1000 pounds. 



Fulton, 111. R. R. Murphy. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Tall and Shallow Frames. 



As Mr. R. J. Colburn takes exception 

 to the shallow frame, in the March num- 

 ber, page 55, I would like to give some of 

 my experience with tall and shallow 

 frames. Mr. Colburn seems to reason a 

 good deal from theory ; but I find in 

 practice, they pay but little attention to 

 keeping brood in an exact circle, but have 

 a wonderful adaptability to circumstances, 

 and will place their brood where they can 

 care for it and keep it warm the easiest. 

 If stocks come out all strong, and keep 

 so through the spring, they will probably 

 breed up well enough in most any kind of 

 hive, but if they get reduced down to a 

 mere handful, as many did the last two 

 seasons, that is what tests the shape of 

 the frame for breeding up. The frames 

 generally used here, takes a comb about 

 8 inches deep by 17 inches long, and 

 we think that we don't want a comb 

 that will breed up better in the spring ; 

 I have used the same frame stood on end, 

 that is 17 inches deep, and found that 

 when I got a stock reduced in those early 

 in the season, I was completely swamped, 

 no amount of cuddling would induce 

 them to breed bees of any consequence, 

 till hot weather and warm nights, they 

 would have a little brood in the top end 

 of two or three combs, and the ouly way 

 they could s'iread their brood was to carry 

 it downward, and they could not do that, 

 as they were not numerous enough to 

 carry the heat down. Tlie same amount 

 of brood and bees, started in the middle 

 of the shallow frame, would increase to 

 quite a nice colony, by the time the tall 

 one would begin to do anytliing. In the 

 long shallow frame, they will spread the 

 brood each way, along the tops of two or 

 three frames, and they have the heat with 

 them, and will raise a great many more 

 bees than they will in the tall one. With 

 strong stocks, or in warm weather, the 



