ISM 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



St5 



sight of a familiar objpct in an unfamiliar 

 place is sure to create interest. 



Having in this way secured your audience 

 and an occasional sale, it remains with yon to 

 have the goods as nearly uniform and as uni- 

 formly perfect as it is possible by human inge- 

 nuity to make them. If the apiary is large, and 

 the sales reasonably so, it would be most prof- 

 itable to raise regular patches of white clover, 

 etc.. convenient to the hives, for the double pur- 

 pose of economizing the time of the bees, and 

 to prevent their introducing honey from oilier 

 sources and producing a mixture. 



It is not the work of a single season only, to 

 build up a reputation, but one of years. Never- 

 theless it is time well employed. The reputa- 

 tion of A. I. Root, built up by advertising, and 

 sustained by fair dealing, is an example of suc- 

 cess in this line that has cost time, hard work, 

 and money. Ikit, without consulting him, I am 

 not afraid to leave it to him to say whether he 

 would not, even from a purely commercial 

 standpoint, rather lose his present worKing- 

 plant than his present reputation and eminence 

 in his line of business. The former could be re- 

 placed much more readily than the latter. 



It is evident, then, that, with a reputation 

 once secured or growing in the locality desired, 

 the greatest care is necessary that no inferior 

 goods are ever allowed to creep in as first class. 

 That trade-mark is a personal guarantee of the 

 producer, the failure to sustain which would be 

 as much of an impeachment of his reputation 

 as a failure to meet commercial obligations. 



There are, however, different tastes in people, 

 and consequently may be several classes of 

 what may properly be called first-grade honey. 

 Some people prefer clover, somebasswood, some 

 buckwheat. I plead guilty to the last myself. 

 "But few like a mixture. If it is buckwheat 

 honey, label it as such, and guarantee its purity 

 with your trade-mark. If it is clover, ditto. 

 Clover honey is as objectionable in buckwheat 

 as buckwheat is in clover. Keep them as well 

 separated as possible, and put no mixture on the 

 market as first grade. Then as to prices, it is 

 worth more than the common store grades; 

 charge more. People will pay it after they 

 have been convinced that it is of superior qual- 

 ity, and worth the extra cost. 



It always happens that some honey, other- 

 wise entitled to first rank, is in ragged or irreg- 

 ular combs. This, if absolutely pure and un- 

 mixed, may be extracted, and handled in the 

 jiame wiiy the first-grade comb honey is; for as 

 extracted honey it really is first grade. I usu- 

 ally select the supplies for personal use from 

 this grade, though never if the comb is broken 

 enough to allow the honey to escape. Then it 

 is only fit for the extractor. 



The lower grades are those composed of mix- 

 ed honey, uncapped combs (although the latter 

 may be fit to put into the extractor if allowed 

 to ripen), combs in which brood had been start- 



ed, etc. Their disposal depends on individual 

 conditions and the demands of the surrounding 

 country. I'oorer people are sometimes glad to 

 purchase this grade. Some will do for a second 

 quality of extracted, and some I prefer to feed 

 back to the bees. 



JAKE SMITH'S LETTER. 



Mr. A. I. Gleeninrjs: 

 deer .sir;— I like them 

 dovetail hives first 

 rate. They go to- 

 gether so slick. You 

 doant have to hold 

 p- one piece careful on 

 s?-«a^ mother, and then 

 when the nail isdruv 

 find you didn't hold 

 it just right; but 

 when you drive them 

 dovetails logelher they're bound to be right. 

 And it's a great thing to have movable combs 

 soze you can git at the innards of a hive. 



First time I used that Crane smoker. Zed he 

 said he'd blow for me. So he got up steam in 

 good shape, so the smoke was thick enough to 

 cut with a knife. I took off the lid of the hive, 

 and Zed he let em have it good and strong. It 

 was so black you could scarce see through it. 

 Piny soon I noticed the bees was just a pourin 

 out the mouth of the hive. 



" Hold up. Zed," says I; " you're a makin em 

 swarm." 



" You're right," says Zed. " Well, now, isn't 

 that a new idee? Just see em come! Now 

 we'll know how to make bees swarm after this. 

 But isn't a smoker the thing!" 



But they didn't swarm. They justspred all 

 over the^front and'side of the hive, and bimeby 

 they went back in. The way we do now, we 

 just puff the least bit of smoke in at the iliouth 

 of the hive, then raise the lid a little bit and 

 puff a little smoke in, then take off the lid and 

 blow the least bit all over the top, but not down 

 into the bees. Anytime they git obstreporous 

 they git anothi'r little touch, but we never 

 make it look like a pillow of smoke. When I 

 git my eyes full of smoke I feel sorry for the 

 little bees, for Zed was a readin that a bee has 

 5000 eyes, so it must hurt the bee 2vt(X) times as 

 much as me with only 'I eyes. 



With these new hives so you can lift out a 

 sash of comb any time, it's ever so much han- 

 dier than with the old scaps where you had to 

 brimstone the bees and split up the scap before 

 you could see what was inside. But it was a 

 little to handy for Zed, for he kep a pullin out 

 the combs so many times a day ihat the bees 

 had no chance to work. We finally settled 

 down to the idee that, if you want the bees to 

 do their level best, you mussent pull out the in- 

 sides of a hive only just when you hefto. 



