Feb. 28, 1907 



American ^ee Journal 



for extracted honey, I will add a sec- 

 ond story if the season and the numeri- 

 cal strength of the colony demand it. 

 Such a hive must be occupied by a col- 

 ony headed by a prolific queen. In fact, 

 any colony to be profitable must have 

 a good queen, if profitable results are 

 expected. These hives will, of course, 

 be heavy to handle. But they will re- 

 quire very little handling. For after 

 the bees have been set to work in the 

 upper story, the hive will require but 

 little if any lifting. But in case they 

 do, two persons can, of course, do the 

 work more easily than one. 



These hives will be very heavy for 

 ladies; but such ladies, I will suggest, 

 should "commit matrimonv," and be 

 sure to "catch on" to a p'artner who 

 IS not afraid of bees. And in case a 

 bachelor or widower keeps bees in this 

 sort of a hive, let him also look up a 

 "honey;" not smaller in avoirdupois, I 

 will suggest, than So pounds, nor larger 

 than 300. And my word for it, such an 

 " outfit " can manipulate a 14-frame 

 Langstroth hive even when well stored 

 with honey. 



Some practical bee-keeper, who pre- 

 fers to run for comb honey, can put sec- 

 tions on a 14-frame hive, with both a 

 good colony and a good queen, during a 

 good honey season, and see how far it 

 will outstrip an 8, or even a 10 frame 

 hive. 



Let a number try the foregoing sug- 

 gestions. It won't cost much, and may 

 benefit us in points of desirable knowl- 

 edge, more money, and, best of all, more 

 contentment. And, finally, as such hives 

 will cost a little more than a small one, 

 see to it that in making them, good 

 lumber is not ripped into common paste- 

 board thickness, and used as either a 

 dummy or a bottom-board. 



Please, Mr. Editor, don't think I am 

 on the war-path, and after any of our 

 manufacturers, farther than to let them 

 know what I find to be next to worth- 

 jess about any of their products. I hold 

 it to be our duty to let them know 

 what we want, and to ask them to sup- 

 ply the need. Mr. Hasty, in his "After- 

 thoughts," will endorse all I have said. 



Lyons, Kans. 



Lower Freight-Rates East 

 and West 



BY P. GREINER, 



It would be difficult to deny the fact 

 that the interests of the Eastern honey- 

 producer are in opposition to the in- 

 terests of the Western producer as to 

 the lower freight-rates; and when the 

 National is making a fight for lower 

 freight-rates on honey, it is doing it 

 for the interests of the Western fellows. 

 These, of course, are looking to the 

 Eastern market to dump their product 

 upon it, and the higher the rates are- 

 yes, if they were prohibitive, the great- 

 er would be the benefit the Eastern pro- 

 ducer would receive. 



The more Western honey that can 

 be kept out of the Eastern market, the 

 better in all probability would be the 

 price the Eastern producer would re- 

 ceive. It can therefore hardly be ex- 



pected that the Eastern producer will 

 become vey enthusiastic over the pros- 

 pect of having low rates for the West- 

 ern honey-producer, who is enabled by 

 virtue of the better bee-pasturage, cheap 

 lands, etc., to produce cheaper and to 

 undersell the Eastern fellow. 



Railroads discriminate between West- 

 ern shippers of grain, etc., and the East- 

 ern shippers, so that a car of wheat 

 will come from Chicago to New York 

 about as cheaply as from some points 

 inside of New York State to New York 

 City. It is expected that they (the 

 railroads) do the same with the honey- 

 producers. I can say that the farmers 

 did not like the idea of competing with 

 the Western grain-producers when the 

 tariff is the same, and perhaps the East- 

 ern honey-producers will feel a good 

 deal the same way, and will not hail 

 the day with great delight when honey 

 can come to New York at the same 

 price from California, Texas and Colo- 

 rado as it does from inside the State. 



I realize that this is a very selfish 

 view to take in the face of the fact that 

 honey is selling a great deal too high, 

 and that all of us Eastern honey-pro- 

 ducers are becoming rich; nevertheless, 

 such is man. 



I am glad to learn from Mr. Muth 

 that railroads sometimes pay damages. 

 It is news to me. I have shipped honey 

 for 30 years, and some lots were bro- 

 ken, but I have never yet had one cent 

 of damages paid me by a railroad com- 

 pany. I have shipped tons of comb 

 honey at an exhorbitant rate ( i % cents 

 per pound), and before the railroad ac- 

 cepted the shipment I always had to 

 give them a release of all responsibili- 

 ties. In view of this fact, of course the 

 rate was a great deal too high. Of late 

 years we obtain rates on the basis of 

 fruit, and so freight counts very little. 

 My admitting that some of my honey 

 shipments arrived in broken condition 

 may be considered as pleading guilty 

 to the charge Mr. Muth makes, that 

 many honey-producers (myself includ- 

 ed, perhaps) produce honey illy fitted 

 for transit. I admit that I, and many 

 others, do not use a great deal of comb 

 foundation in sections, and no bottom- 

 starters whatever. Still we produce 

 honey as good as Mr. Muth can pos- 

 sibly wish for. It is not desirable to 

 use comb foundation except as small 

 starters, and absolutely not necessary 

 to produce a honey that will ship. I 

 am sorry that Mr. Muth misleads the 

 bee-keepers by such advice as he gives. 

 It can not fail to hurt the honey-trade 

 if followed. 



Honey is of a fragile nature, and it 

 will always be injured in transit when 

 not handled properly. We can not pos- 

 sibly produce a honey that will with- 

 stand such usage as bricks or cordwood 

 do, even should we use cast-iron comb 

 foundation. And when we do produce 

 it, it will not be wanted. If railroad 

 men could be induced to handle honey 

 with more care, much loss would be pre- 

 vented. 



A friend of mine bought a case of 

 honey of me last fall, and I defy Mr. 

 Muth, or any other man, to produce 

 anything better than that case was, as 

 far as being well built out and securely 



fastened all around; (the weight was 

 26 pounds for 24 pound boxes), and yet 

 that case was smashed in transit, be- 

 ing shipped 50 miles; there were but 

 4 or 5 sections unbroken in the lot, 

 veneering being between the combs at 

 that. Did the Railroad Company pay 

 for that honey? No! Railroad com- 

 panies are in it to make money, not to 

 pay damages ; that is my experience, 

 and I would not want to go to lawing 

 with them. It might result in throwing 

 away good money. It does not pay to 

 go to lawing with a railroad company 

 or a commission man ; or with any one, 

 for that matter. 

 Naples, N. Y. 



Requeening Colonies in the 

 Fall 



BY EDWIN BEVINS. 



In September ist Gleanings, I find the 

 following from J. A. Green: 



"Now is the time to requeen your 

 colonies. If you have only one apiary, 

 and do not mind having your bees 

 swarm, it may be as well to let the bees 

 do the superseding themselves." 



I have only one apiary, and do not 

 mind letting the bees swarm, but un- 

 der no circumstances would I leave the 

 bees to do the superseding wholly them- 

 selves. In the time of the white honey- 

 flow, and sometimes earlier, the apiar- 

 ist will learn where his poorest queens 

 are to be found. If found only a little 

 before the beginning of the flow, there 

 is generally nothing to be gained by 

 requeening at that time, and when the 

 flow is on, the man who does not mind 

 having his bees swarm should let them 

 alone as much as possible. But when 

 the white flow is over, and there comes> 

 a season of comparative leisure, then 

 is the time for replacing his queens 

 known to be inferior, with queens reared 

 for the purpose during the flow. 



Under circumstances generally pre- 

 vailing in yards cared for by one man, 

 there is no need, and but little excuse, 

 for the apiarist to send to a distance 

 for his queens to be used for supersed- 

 ing purposes at the time indicated. His 

 queens should be supplied from cells 

 built in strong colonies under the 

 swarming impulse in the early stages of 

 the swarming period. Every bee-keep- 

 er is supposed to know how to care for 

 these cells. In order that he may re- 

 inforce the supply, lest it be insufficient, 

 he should use one or more of his colon- 

 ies for queen-rearing, and begin with 

 the beginning of the honey-flow. My 

 experience proves to me that queens 

 thus obtained are the superiors of any 

 obtained from a distance, with rare ex- 

 ceptions. 



It is doubtless a fact that some of 

 the queens that one has marked for 

 destruction will be superseded by the 

 bees some time in the course of the 

 season. It- is equally certain that some 

 of them will not. The cost of substitut- 

 ing queens reared under the conditions 

 above mentioned, to take the place ot 

 the queens supposed or known to be 

 failing, is not great. If one makes the 

 change he may be tolerably sure of re- 



