November, 1907. 



727 



American Hae Journaij 



)^=.^tg^ I 



scale. Indeed, he thinks that a bee- 

 keeper with 100 colonics cannot afford 

 to do withoitt such nn engine, whose to- 

 tal riinniiiK expense is less than I'/i 

 cents an hour, which is always ready to 

 work, and never complains of being 

 tired. He says irt Gleanings: 



"Now the question is, in your mind, 

 'Can I afford to buy this outfit?' Well, 

 I will tell you what it is doing for us, 

 then you can answer that question your- 

 self. One year ago, with about the 

 same number of colonies, we employed 

 two men during the season, and a third 

 man part of the time. Now we can do 

 the work much better and easier with 

 one man. You can figure out the 

 amount here saved.. During the extract- 

 ing season we usually extract our combs 

 6 times, and we now find that such sets 

 of combs, when taken from the extrac- 

 tor, arc about 2 lbs. lighter than they 

 have ever been before. Here we gain 

 at least 10 lbs. per colony during the 

 season. I leave this also for you to 

 figure out — the many dollars' worth of 

 honey saved on nearly 700 colonies." 



Deutscher Imicerbund. 



Under this title has been formed a 

 grand union of practically all the differ- 

 ent org'anizations of German-speaking 

 bee-keepers — at least it is the expecta- 

 tion that those societies which have not 

 yet done so will give in their adher- 

 ence — and German bee-papers are en- 

 thusiastic over the matter. Well they 

 may be, for the organization at its start 

 numbers 100,000 members, with the 

 prospect of increase to i.so,ooo or more. 



And our National Association has 

 only 2,500 members ! 



Prices of Honey. 



Something out of whack about quo- 

 tations in "Honey Markets." A differ- 

 ence of 6 or 8 cents a pound between 

 places so near together, and a higher 

 quotation in Frisco than New York 

 don't look right. Fact is, the dictum 

 of those men who make quotations has 

 almost everything to do with settling 

 the price, and those l6-cent men are not 

 doing the square thing by us producers. 

 With the advance in prices in general, 

 and a shortage in the supply, anything 

 like 16 cents for comb honey is out of 

 all reason. Talk about honey being a 

 luxury, and anything more than 16 cents 

 being prohibitive 1 The fact is, honey is 

 an economical article of food, and with 

 our pure-food laws there's no reason 

 why it may not take its proper place as 

 a staple article — ■ at 25 cents much 

 cheaper than butter, even if you call it a 

 luxury. Years ago 25 or 30 cents was 

 not a prohibitive price, and it wouldn't 

 be now. Luxuries are cut out when 

 pinching hard times come, but times are 

 • not pinching. Never, perhaps, was there 

 a time when people in general were 

 more able to indulge in luxuries than 

 now — never more willing, and they're 

 willing to pay the price. The whole 

 thing is. that a few men set the pace and 

 we producers stand it. Gentlemen who 

 do the quoting, pl-ease give us a square 

 deal. — [That's right. Doctor. These men 

 mean to give us a square deal ; but they 



do not appreciate the fact that the crop 

 is very short; that fruit is scarce; that 

 adulterated honey can not pull down the 

 price of good honey as formerly. There 

 has been a marked advance in all food 

 products except honey. While it has 

 advanced in some markets to a fair price 

 it has made only a slight gain in others. 

 This is not as it should be. — Ed.] — Stray 

 Straw in Gleanings. 



Natural or Artificial Supersedum — 

 Which ? 



R. L. Taylor discusses this question in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review, and thinks 

 the answer depends upon which pays 

 best financially. In artificial supersedure 

 the first item of expense is, say for lOO 

 colonies, not less than $50 for queens. 

 He does not fancy the job of looking 

 through the 100 populous colonies to 

 find their old queens. Mr. Taylor con- 

 tinues thus ; 



"Then, there are 100 queens to be in- 

 troduced ; and after all is done, what has 

 been gained? Colonies with queens that 

 possibly, (but by no means certainly), 

 may average a little better, and that is 

 all. Sorrie of these queens, as with any 

 introduced queens, will disappear after 

 beginning to lay ; occasionally one will 

 not be accepted at all. It is quite prob- 

 able that 2 or 3 of the colonies, unless 

 looked after closely, may go into winter 

 quarters queenless; and if the bees have 

 wintered badly the queens will keep 

 perishing in the spring just as the .re- 

 jected ones would have done in the same 

 circumstances. Queens in colonies that 

 have wintered well, even though such 

 colonies have not been requeened, do 

 not disappear by the half-dozen in the 

 spring. In an apiary of from 150 to 200 

 colonies I seldom find more than 2 or 

 3 queenless colonies — in fact, as many 

 colonyless queens as queenless colonies. 



"I will not deny that one may keep 

 his apiary a little more uniform 'in 

 strength by the requeening of an oc- 

 casional colony, but I cannot escape the 

 conviction that his care and time might 

 be more profitably employed in a finan- 

 cial point of view. If the gratification 

 of a sentiment is of more value in his 

 estimation — of more value than a thicker 

 wallet — well and good. 



"Who dare affirm that, not better but 

 as good queens can be supplied colonies 

 by any interference of the hand of man 

 as by natural supersedure, where all is 

 accomplished without any excitement or 

 disturbance? The bees, it must be ad- 

 mitted, attend to this very well, as was 

 to be expected, for it is nature. There 

 will be a few failures, no doubt, but if 

 my own experience is a safe guide, $ 

 percent would easily cover the whole of 

 them. How easy, then, becomes the so- 

 lution of the whole matter; simply keep, 

 with almost no trouble or expense, S 

 percent more colonies. 



Bee-Keeping on the Danube — Honey 

 IN Vienna. 



The following is a translation of an 

 article in Bicnenvater, made by Fr. 

 Greiner of New York, for Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture. It is entitled, "Bee-keep- 

 ing on the Shores of the Danube ; Price 

 and Market of Honey in Vienna" : 



I commenced bcc-kccping in 1890 with three 

 box hives. Mow I increased my apiary during 

 the following 14 years, partly by purchase, 

 p.lrtly by n.itural swarming, need not be told. 

 During the first three years there was no 

 honey to sulh but during the next three years 

 the crops ran between 140 and 200 pounds 

 from the yard. This amount was easily dis- 

 posed of in my little village at 40 cents per 

 pound. It appeared that 200 pounds was 

 about the maximum I could find sale for in the 

 place. The bees, however, kept increasing, so 

 did the honey crops, and soon I had a surplus 

 of 200 pounds, yes, even 300, above what I 

 could sell to my neighbors, and the question 

 arose: "What can I do with it?" I put out a 

 sign, "Honey for Sale." I advertised in the 

 papers, putting my advertisement on wrapping- 

 papers of the groceries; I left some honey at 

 the stores, canvassed bakeries, druK-stores, etc., 

 and always carried samples of honey in glass 

 vials with me, but I failed to make sale for 

 such a quantity of honey. I succeeded, how- 

 ever, in increasing the sale in my home mar- 

 ket by 120 pounds, and this was the limit. 

 VViiat now? Must 1 sell cheaper or reduce the 

 nutiiber of colonies? 



It happenetl just at this time that an old 

 schoolmate of my wife, then living in Vienna, 

 called on us. After taking in the situation 

 she suggested, "Bring your honey to Vienna, 

 I warrant you a sale of five pounds in the 

 house where I live." This was considered, 

 and after a few days my wife went to Vienna 

 and took five pounds of honey with her, which 

 she had no trouble in selling at our old estab- 

 lished price. After one week she made a sec- 

 ond trip and took 10 pounds w-ith her which 

 she sold; and after four weeks more a third 

 trip was made, and another ten pounds was 

 disposed of. One family recommended our 

 honey to another, till finally we about monopo- 

 lized the honey market in this street, having 

 honey customers in as many as twenty differ- 

 ent houses. Today, after five years of persis- 

 tent efforts, my wife has sold, from June 16 

 to Dec. 10, as much as 1,072 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey, all at 40 cents. It seemed pret- 

 ty hard for the first two years to peddle honey. 

 It went somewhat against our grain. Still, 

 wife was always courteously received every- 

 where, even invited to take meals, etc. She 

 enlightened people, and overcame the mistrust 

 and the notions held by the general run of 

 people. To think that she succeeded selling 

 nearly 1100 pounds of honey in one year! — 

 what honey-producer could make a better show- 

 ing? 



Vienna has a population of 1,300,000. There 

 are 3000 streets and 3300 houses. A great deal 

 of honey could be disposed of here in this 

 city if the bee-keepers would go to work sys- 

 tematically. But one must not be ashamed 

 of hard and honest work. 



Comments by the Tk.\nslator. 



It is an undisputed fact that there is not 

 honey enough produced, either in Germany or 

 Austria, to supply the demand; and still the 

 great problem is not how to produce but how 

 to sell. European conditions are such that 

 "honest work" is just enough humiliating and 

 degrading so that hundreds of bee-keepers 

 shi-ink from peddling the product of their bees. 

 It is next to an impossibility for the city con- 

 sumer to meet the producer face to face. The 

 more refined, the laetter posted and educated 

 the latter is, the greater the barrier that sepa- 

 rates him from the first. He would be ashamed 

 to look other people in the face if it were 

 known he "peddled." The American may do 

 any kind of work and preserve his dignity. 



A late article of F. Dickel, in Die Biene, 

 "Proposition how to make Bee-keeping more 

 Popular and Better Paying," concentrates its 

 force upon the sale of honey in particular. 

 There seems difficulty in reaching consumers. 

 On the other hand, consumers have difficulty 

 in finding the producers of honey. They would 

 like to purchase a pure article, but have no 

 way of finding out where to get it. Dickel 

 has the idea of establishing a honey-exchange, 

 and advertising the same in the city papers, 

 also appointing agents in the different cities 

 to make the sales, for which service the agent 

 is to receive nothing. A price is to be agreed 

 upon. The publishing of articles on bees, of 

 general interest, he also recommends. 



From all the above it will he seen that bee- 

 keepers in other lands are wrestling with the 

 same problem we are in America, and are con- 

 sidering the same means to solve it. 



A Score of Commonly Asked Ques- 

 tions. 

 I. Should supers be left on the hives 

 during the winter? 



