564 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 9, 



market go to work and supply this aud keep it up, which 

 plan will be found to give, in the outcome, the best and most 

 permanent satisfactions as well as profit. — Gleanings. 



(Editor Root then follows the foregoing article with these 

 paragraphs :— Editor.] 



I believe I have already said — at all events I will say It 

 now — that Mr. Buchanan has probably .«old more honey, in a 

 retail way, and has done more in the way of developing local 

 markets, than any other bee-keeper in the United StatPS. He 

 annually produces large crops of honey, and not only sells his 

 own, but sells for a good many others. 



Mr. Buchanan's experience with regard to candied honey, 

 and replacing the same with liquid, will probably not work 

 satisfactorily with him ; but Mr. Chalon Fowls, of Ohio, has 

 workt on this plan for years, and considers it profitable. 



I was struck particularly with one paragraph where Mr. 

 Buchanan says he has often bought beekeepers' crops of 

 honey, and sold it right around their homes, and doubled his 

 money, while they (the bee-keepers) had all along claimed 

 that there was bo use of trying to sell honey in their markets. 

 Granting that Mr. Buchanan is a natural salesman, and 

 knows the art of selling, this does not explain how he should 

 be able to double on his money, unless, at least, those bee- 

 keepers who complain of their home markets have made no 

 effort to develop them. Perhaps they are not read up — or at 

 least have not read the series of valuable articles that have 

 been running in Gleanings and the other bee journals of late. 

 Understand, I do not question Mr. B.'s right to double'on his 

 money. It is his privilege and right, if the other fellows won't 

 post up and do something. 



Mr. Buchanan calls attention to another significant fact; 

 namely, that in nearly every case he has been able to buy 

 honey of a given quality from commission merchants in the 

 large cites chenper than he could buy the same honey direct 

 from the protiuccr. This is too true. It can be explained only 

 on the ground that so much honey is sent to the cities that it 

 gluts the markets ; and the consequence is, the bee keeper is 

 glad to get anything if he can only get snwethini;. Too often 

 he is deceived by quotations that are above the market. Big 

 promises for immediate returns at glittering figures allure 

 him. Why will not beekeepers learn to be careful ? Nine- 

 tenths of the producers know the art of sccurinij honey ; but I 

 almost believe that nine-tenths of them do not know the art of 

 scUiny. Why, we are to-day having the finest qualities of 

 comb and extracted honey offered to us at prices that are 

 ridicuously low. Sometimes we buy and sometimes we do not. 

 We very much dislike to be lugged into the " general swim " 

 with those who are trying to buy closely, at the expense of 

 the hard-working bee-keeper. It is too bad, but need not be 

 if producers would not be so fast to lump their honey off in 

 large lots for the sake of getting a "big pile" all in one lump. 



A Canadian Report for 1897. 



BV A. BOOMKU. 



I see no late reports from any in Canada, and any report 

 from me would perhaps be of little interest to American read- 

 ers, but as the editor asks for such I will venture to give mine. 



I started the season with 43 colonies, all In fairly good 

 condition, but owing to a wet, cold spring I had to feed some 

 of them, and only regret that I did not feed more. But the 

 profits of beekeeping are so suiaii that we are tempted to get 

 through with as littla expenses as possible. 



When swarming commenced, I took no particular means 

 to suppress it, as I had some (iO empty hives and a great 

 quantity of combs that I wanted filled up. When the hot 

 weather of June set In, swarming became very prolific, and 

 two or more swarms would issue together, and of course 



unite, and, believing that I would in any case get my hives 

 filled, I did not attempt to divide, but whether there were two 

 or three, I ran them all into one hive, put on a queen-excluder 

 and a case of sections or surplus combs at once, and all went 

 well. 



I had fully 100 swarms, sold a couple, used up two or 

 three hives of brood (after swarming) in strengthening weak 

 colonies, and have increast to 102. So nearly all my swarms 

 have been doubled, and are all strong. 



White clover yielded abundantly, but basswood only lasted 

 a week, and most of this time was cloudy, wet and cold, so 

 that we have no real linden honey this year. 



I will have over 3,000 pounds of extracted, and about 

 1,000 pounds of comb honey, which, taken with the large In- 

 crease, is a very satisfactory crop. 



White clover is still abundant, and we may get consider- 

 able more. During the heaviest How my bees were unusually 

 cross, so much so as to be discouraging, but on the first day of 

 the opening of the basswood bloom, all became serene and 

 lovely, and I could extract without veil or gloves— a thing I 

 could not previously do without suffering too much. 



I do not think I lost more than one small swarm by ab- 

 sconding, and only one swarm left the hive after being hived; 

 that I attributed to the want of shading, as the day was very 

 hot. 



I have sold the greater part of my crop, realizing 8 and 

 12X cent-! for extracted and comb, respectively. S)me other 

 small bee-keepers who did not want to take their honey out and 

 sell it, sold at home as low as 6 cents. I would not, however, 

 have any trouble in disposing of double the quantity I have, 

 at the prices stated. I think that more money can be made 

 with extracted at 8 cents than with comb honey at 12j<, but 

 I have colonies that have produced over 100 pounds of fine 

 comb honey. 



I use queen-excluders, and cannot see any difiference in 

 the working of the colony with them or without, but it Is a 

 great pleasure, when extracting, to have all the combs free 

 from brood, and as a large part or my combs are drone-comb, 

 I could not do without excluders. 



I expect to winter 100 colonies, and next season (if they 

 winter successfully) I shall have to adopt some heroic meas- 

 ure to keep down increase, as I have no room for it, nor could 

 I attend to any more. 



I was greatly interested in Mr. Edwin Bevins' racy epistle 

 in a late issue of the Bee Journal, and it will be a matter of 

 regret, I am sure, to all the readers of this paper, if he cannot 

 be induced to change his mind and write many more such 

 spicy articles before the lapse of 20 years. 



Ontario, Canada, Aug. 16. 



[Mr. Boomer, we do not think that Mr. Bevins will suc- 

 ceed In making a Rip Van Winkle of himself. He'll wa'.<e up 

 long before he has put in one of his 20 years' snooze. — Ed.] 



How to Render Small Amounts of Beeswax. 



BY MR.S. EMMA I. ABBOTT. 



Many who have only a few bees and do not own a wax- 

 extractor, miss one of the sources of profit in bee-keeping by 

 not saving the odd bits of comb and the old combs that are no 

 longer of any use to the bees. Have a receptacle into which 

 all such may be thrown until the end of the season, or until 

 there Is suflicient to make a good-sized cake of wax. 



Some day when you have a fire In yonr cook-stove, and 

 will not have use for the ovei:, tie these pieces of comb up in 

 an old cotton-cloth. Place In the oven a tin or granite iron 

 pan with about an inch of water in It ; lay two slender sticks 

 across the pan, and on them the cloth containing the combs, 

 In such a way that it will not dip down into the pan, nor drip 



