836 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



down and thus be ruined, or the extracted- 

 honey packages may leak, and in that way 

 cause loss. 



I fully believe that the best solution of the 

 question will be found in the home market, 

 where the producer can personally look after 

 the details of the work; and, although unable 

 to do the actual retailing himself, he can so 

 supervise it as to realize the largest proceeds 

 from the sale of his crop of honey. 



Of course, it requires a good talker to sell 

 honey, as well as any thing else that has merit 

 which needs to be shown to the desired pur- 

 chasers. But as nearly everybody likes to eat 

 honey, it should not be such a difficult task to 

 dispose of some in nearly every home visited. 



As to the price to be asked, certainly the city 

 market quotations should not govern; for, as I 

 have shown, that market may have become 

 overstocked, and for the time being the price 

 lowered to such an extent that there could be 

 no profit whatever to the producer. 



It has been suggested that, unless a good price 

 be asked, it will not be secured. And there is 

 more truth than poetry in that him, though, 

 if the price asked be too high, there will also 

 be fewer sales, and consequently less money ob- 

 tained, but more honey left on the producer's 

 hands. It seems to me that comb honey, in 

 mosi home markets, should bring not less than 

 20 cts. per single section, or six sections for $1. 

 Extracted honey should retail, per single pound, 

 at 15 cts., or 8 pounds for $1. These prices cer- 

 tainly are not high, and yet probably large 

 enough to sufficiently reward any reasonable 

 producer in a fair honey season. 



There is much in education in this matter of 

 the price of honey, as well as to its constant 

 use in the family. By starting out rightly, a 

 better price can be secured and maintained, 

 and also more sales be made"; while if there is a 

 wrong beginning, it will be well nigh impossi- 

 ble to correct it later on. By all means, study 

 the consumer's ability to pay; supply a pure 

 article of honey, put up in an attractive form, 

 and there will be little trouble about future 

 orders after the first purchase is made and used. 



I think that bee-keepers who have a home 

 market well worked up often make a very great 

 mistake when they allow themselves to get out 

 of honey for sale at any time of the year; for if 

 a regular customer can get no more honey from 

 the producer who has been supplying him, he 

 will likely apply at the grocery store, where he 

 may be supplied with a mixed article at a less 

 price, and also correspondingly inferior in qual- 

 ity, though it may, after a time, give partial 

 satisfaction. The result will be, that, the next 

 time the honest producer wishes to sell that 

 customer more honey, he will expect to furnish 

 it at very nearly "store prices," for a superior 

 article. To avoid such an unfortunate condi- 

 tion of things, I would always have honey on 

 hand, even if it be necessary to get it from a 



bee-keeper at a distance, but always being as- 

 sured of his honesty and reliability. 



I am sure that the home market for honey 

 has undreamed-of possibilities for successful 

 development; and the wide-awake, progressive 

 twentieth-century honey-producers will find in 

 it a veritable gold-mine in exchange for their 

 pure golden honey — nectar fit for the gods, and 

 hungry humanity's best food and medicine. 



KINGBIRDS. 



THEY EAT DRONES KATHER THAN WORKERS. 



By C. ir. Daytoji. 



Referring to your editorial about kingbirds, 

 on page 767, I would say that none appeared in 

 my locality until about the first of April, and 

 then they came in numbers almost equal to 

 blackbirds, and began a raid upon the drones 

 and kept it up until about the 15th of July. I 

 shot two or three hundred; and in examining a 

 dozen or more I found drones in their crops 

 every time, but no workers. But I found that 

 they took workers occasionally from the flowers 

 a distance from the apiary. About the middle 

 of July they ceased catching bees entirely, and 

 only bugs were found in their crops, although 

 drones were flying at the same time. The Cal- 

 ifornia kingbird is about the same size as in the 

 East, but is of an entirely different color, and 

 has a very different song. They were here a 

 month before I recognized them as old compet- 

 itors in the bee-business. They seem to depend 

 upon bees for a living here more than in the 

 East, probably because of the dryer climate 

 and consequent scarcity of other insects. 



QUEENS GETTING THROUGH EXCLUDERS. 



Regarding queens getting through excluders 

 (page 7(56), I would mention the rearing of sev- 

 eral batches by the DoolittleAtchley method, 

 with 18 to 20 queens in a batch. Although the 

 cells were very regular and uniform in size, 

 nearly always there were from one to four 

 queens which were small and slim. After fer- 

 tilization, their bodies became fully as long as 

 any of the others, but preserved their original 

 slimness. These queens are excellent layers, 

 but I have my doubts as to their holding out to 

 long usefulness. 



BROOD IN SHALLOW CHAMBERS. 



I also notice what you say on page 758 about 

 difficulty in rearing brood in shallow chambers. 

 That has been my experience — takes pressure 

 to induce them to occupy the second one. I 

 give each colony a full-depth storv. and also 

 have one or more half-depth stories. In the 

 spring, give the full story for brood-nest, and at 

 the opening of the harvest raise the full story 

 for surplus, and confine the queen to the half- 

 depth story below. This does well in working 

 for extracted honey, but for comb honey it is 

 not so favorable. It pays me best to work for 

 both comb and extracted honey. In a long 



