isyi. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



629 



numerous and strong in numbers that they became a nuisance 

 in the neighborhood, in robbing the neighbor's bees. When- 

 ever there was a scarcity of forage, they would go in a body 

 and clean out an ordinary colony in short order. I was em- 

 ployed to clean them out of the house and destroy them, and 

 found a good-sized barrel of bees. The colony that I saw in 

 Decorah, Iowa, a few years after that, had been In a large 

 box for years ; also a colony that I took out of a hollow bass- 

 wood log for a Mr. Drake, that had been there a number of 

 years— the log was about 1 8 inches in the clear, and six or 

 seven feet long, and we took out bees enough to fill four 

 Langstroth lO-frame hives, all they would hold. Now, mind, 

 those were black bees, with the exception of the Decorah col- 

 ony which were hybrids, and the largest honey-bees I ever 

 saw. Those black colonies were large bees. 



Then, colonies in my large hives, that I built in Iowa the 

 first and second seasons did not swarm, and the third season 

 they were the first colonies to swarm, and the second season 

 they had superseded their queens. When they sent out 

 swarms they were so large that if they had been grain, they 

 could not all have been put into a bushel basket at once. Of 

 course, the queens were very prollflc, but this led me to study- 

 ing, and I came to the conclusion that the workers must be 

 longer-lived than ordinary bees. 



Adam Grimm and myself had a long and interesting talk 

 on that question at the Cincinnati convention years ago. We 

 did not disagree at all on the subject. I helpt him to a sale of 

 §51,000 worth of bees to go to Prove, Utah. When we parted, 

 and shook hands, he said ; "Next June I shall send you a 

 queen that is a queen," and he did. That queen lived to be 

 six years old, and kept up her vigor until into June, when she 

 was superseded, and soon after died. Her progeny were large 

 and long-lived, and great red-clover honey-gatherers. 



I introduced a queen from J. W. Sharp, of Wisconsin — 

 one of your light ones, and light-colored workers — to the ad- 

 hering bees and hatching brood from my (irimm colony, six 

 Gallup combs, and set them on the opposite side of the house 

 from my other bees, so that none of tiie young bees from other 

 colonies would get in with them. The Sharp queen was in- 

 troduced about May 20. On the first week in November, be- 

 fore putting the bees into the cellar, they had a fine Bight, 

 and the Grimm bees showed up quite numerous in that colony. 

 They must have been at least five months old. On putting 

 them out in the following spring, none of them showed up 

 alive. 



The following June, after receiving the Grimm queen, I 

 received one from Dr. Hamlin, of Tennessee, and she lived to 

 be five years old, and kept up her vigor until into June the 

 fifth season. She produced lighter colored bees than the 

 Grimm colony, but not quite so good honey-gatherers, and 

 perceptibly smaller, still they were good queens. 



Now, please recall the fact that Mr. Grimm went to Italy 

 and selected his own queens before they had begun to rearing 

 queens in small nuclei boxes, under unnatural conditions, as 

 many of them do now. Consequently his queens were all 

 reared under the swarming impulse, and he selected young 

 queens from old colonies, where the old queen had led out a 

 swarm. He succeeded in bringing, and safely introducing, 43 

 or 45 out of 5() started with, and not believing in the small- 

 box theory, or unnatural theory of rearing queens, he kept 

 up a good strain of bees. 



As I get farther along, you can begin to see what I am 

 driving at. There will be plenty of time for any of you to 

 kick after I get through. Orange Co., Calif. 



y^ 



How to Sell Honey Near Home at Good Prices. 



BY FRED H. LOUCKS. 



1 am more and more imprest as to the necessity of dispos- 

 ing of our honey near home as the best and surest way of 

 maintaining prices, and the good of all concerned. I am sure 

 that nine-tenths of all the bee-keepers could get more money 

 out of their honey if only they would drum up a home trade 

 Instead of shipping to a congested city, saying nothing of dis- 

 honest commission merchants. 



My comb honey is put into three grades, according to 

 the following rules: No. 1 white — straight, clean, nicely 

 capt and filled boxes, retail selling price, 14 cents; in large 

 lots, not less than 100 pounds, 12}-^ cents. No. 2, slightly 

 colored, corners not filled or capt, and small imperfections of 

 the comb, retails at 12J.2 cents. No. 3, dark, crooked, half 

 filled or half capt, retail price, 10 cents. I have private cus- 

 tomers enough to take all of grades 2 and 3 at my house. 



Now crate No. 1 in nice, clean crates, with paper under 

 each layer of sections, so there can be no dripping of honey 

 Inside, or out of the crate. Drum the grocery trade first, and 



If you strike a man who will take 200 pounds, or contract for 

 100 or 200 pounds, sell to hlni, allowing a discount, which 

 you can afford to do on an order of that size. I usually allow 

 13^ cents per pound on such size lots for cash. All other 

 lines of trade give discounts to heavy buyers, why should not 

 the honey-trade ? If you succeed In getting an order from one 

 of the best grocers, then go to his competitor and tell him Mr. 

 So-and-So has bought 200 pounds of honey of you at 12K 

 cents cash, talking to him as a drummer should, and the 

 chances are that you will get a duplicate order from him, as 

 he will furnish his customers the same article at the same 

 price. If you cannot get sales started in this way, leave 

 crates with two or three reliable grocers, seeing that they 

 keep them in a prominent place, where people entering the 

 stores will be sure to see it, and you will soon get a trade 

 started. 



As to the lower grades, if you have not a market already 

 establisht for them, I believe the best way is to peddle them 

 the first year, for these are the grades that sell the most 

 readily to the country people. Load .50 pounds each of Nos. 

 2 and 3, also one case of No. 1, and as much extracted honey 

 on your road-wagon and start out early in the morning 

 through a section where good, thrifty farmers live, and you 

 will not be disappointed when night comes. These peddling 

 trips will advertise your honey more than any other way I 

 know of, and people will come year after year to your house 

 to get these grades of honey, expecting to get a dollar's worth 

 of 10 or 12,S' cent comb, and the same with the extracted. 



To my mind most bee-keepers should produce both comb 

 and extracted honey. I usually have rather more extracted 

 than comb. That which is not sold direct to the consumer in 

 bulk at 10 cents per pound Is put up in Mason's improved 

 fruit-cans, pints in size, and nicely labeled and crated in the 

 same boxes the cans came in from the manufacturer. These 

 cases hold one dozen, and I sell them to the grocers at $2.40 

 per dozen in small lots, and give a discount on large orders. 

 At $2.40 per dozen the honey nets the producer nearly or 

 quite 10 cents if the cans were bought right. 



In conclusion I would say, produce a fancy article, put it 

 on the market in a neat, tasty package, so that it will be tak- 

 ing to the eye ; then push it, advertise it, let people know you 

 have honey to sell, impress them that your honey is fine — that 

 they can depend upon its purity and quality every time, and 

 make it your " legal tender " whenever possible. What is 

 most essential is brains, energy and push, the very same ele- 

 ments that make other lines of business successful. These 

 put into your home market will produce results you never 

 dreamed of. — Review. 



Xtae Horse— Ho-w to Break and Handle.— 



This is a pamphlet of 32 pages, giving complete instructions 

 for breaking and educating colts, teaching horses to drive, 

 and for use under the saddle, together with many instructions 

 which have never before been publisht, and which are the re- 

 sult of the author's experience covering a period of 20 years. 

 By Prof. Wm. Mullen, with whom the editor of the Bee Jour- 

 nal is personally acquainted. Price, postpaid, 20 cents ; or 

 given as a premium for sending us one new subscriber to the 

 Bee Journal for the rest of the year at 50 cents. 



A Ne'w Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 20 cents. It is called "The Wood 

 Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should get it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get It yearly. 



■*-»-¥■ 



Lang-strotta on the Honey-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadanis, is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete 

 work on bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound 

 elegantly. Every reader of the American Bee Journal should 

 have a copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions 

 that arise about bees. We mail it for 81.25, or club it with 

 the Bee Journal for a year — both together for only .$2.00. 



The nicEvoy Foul Brood Treatment Is 



given ill Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



