1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



23 



package trade, that must have early 

 bees to succeed. 



What I am doubtful about is 

 whether the bees would be worth the 

 sugar they cost. The heat cost would 

 not amount to very much when the 

 beekeeper is near a power line. At a 

 pro rate of So per k. w., a si.x-candle- 

 power carbon lamp burning steadily 

 for three weeks would cost SOc. The 

 wiring would be extremely simple, 

 consisting of a pair of wires running 

 along the back of the row of hives, 

 and weatherproof sockets inside the 

 hives, with their two wires coming 

 out through a hole and attached one 

 to each of the mains. If there were 

 some good early honey flow, such as 

 fruit bloom, etc., the results might be 

 all right, as we all know the differ- 

 ence between strong and weak colo- 

 nies at such times. This system 

 would have to be carried out in a 

 country where the bees could fly now 

 and then during the time the heat 

 was applied. At any rate, it would be 

 worth while trying it out accurately, 

 on enough colonies to be sure of the 

 results. 



Of course, the better protected the 

 bees were, the less heat would be re- 

 quired inside, and the distribution 

 would be more uniform. 



One would also have to make sure 

 there were enough bees to protect the 

 brood before switching ofif the heat. 



British Columbia. 



(Of course, this thing would have 

 to be tried comparatively before one 

 could make sure whether there was 

 anything in it. But we can testify 

 that the most successful colonies that 

 we ever had were located in a hot- 

 house. They came through the win- 

 ter so strong that they were powerful 

 enough to make surplus honey from 

 fruit bloom. But as we had them 

 only one year, we were unable to find 

 out whether such a scheme woutd 

 succeed every season. Try your 

 scheme on half of your colonies and 

 report results in bees or honey. We 

 will be glad to publish the report. — 

 Editor.) 



Marketing 



By C C. Baker 



I am very much pleased to note 

 that in your last issue you took the 

 liberty to give the producers who re- 

 tail honey a little lecture on the folly 

 of their ways. Heretofore I had been 

 reading "cultivate your home mar- 

 ket" so much in the different journals 

 that 1 had about given up all hopes 

 of ever seeing these retail producers 

 "get theirs." 



It is my opinion that if we can get 

 the big jobbers to handling honey 

 e.xclusively, that there will be a much 

 better market created for it, for this 

 reason : these big fellows, like the 

 packers, have thousands of live sales- 

 men on the road all the time. These 

 salesmen call on all the grocers daily, 

 as well as on hotels, restaurants, and 

 every business house in existence 

 that could use the honey. They are 

 taking orders for all kinds of food- 

 stuffs, and while the retail buyers are 

 giving orders to these salesmen they 



are certainly in the right mood to 

 order honey. Honey producers 

 haven't the time to cover the retail 

 trade like these salesmen do, and if 

 they did have the time, they are not 

 salesmen — not one in a thousand. 



How much did the farmer get for 

 his pork before the packers took hold 

 of it? And how much for his eggs, 

 and his beef, and his fruit, and his 

 everything he raises — but honey. And 

 honey is the only thing not handled 

 by big packers of some kind. 



Let these big buyers do the dis- 

 tributing for us, that is their busi- 

 ness; producing honey is our busi- 

 ness. We get paid for our business, 

 let the other fellow get paid for his 

 business. Why should we worry 



what the other fellow lakes on our 

 honey, as long as he does not invade 

 our territory with bee yards. 



When one of your neighbors comes 

 to you for some honey, send him to 

 your local grocer; if your grocer does 

 not handle it, let the neighbor do 

 without. There will soon be such a 

 fuss kicked up that it won't be long 

 until your local grocer will ask you 

 to sell him some honey — then stick 

 by him. 



I worked this very scheme to per- 

 fection,, and less than two weeks ago, 

 following the purchase of several 

 small lots of honey from me; this 

 very local grocer of ours purchased 

 a ton, in bulk. 



Washington. 



(T 



DR. MILLER'S ANSWERS 



=^ 



jf 



Miscellaneous 



I am a farmer with a part interest in a 600- 

 acre farm on which I have lived for 12 ye.s. 

 I have been running an apiary as a side line, 

 but am about to dissolve my partnership on 

 the farm, and as I think of taking up beekeep- 

 ing as a business, thought I would tell you 

 my experience and ask some advice. I had 10 

 colonies until the year 1917, when I bought 

 15 more colonies from some neighbor boys. I 

 tried to buy some of another man; he had 30 

 stands, but they were in old dry goods boxes, 

 and he wanted $150 for them, and i consid- 

 ered that was too much for them so I didn't 

 take them and he sold them to a neighbor for 

 $50. The neighbor's sons then bought them 

 and billed them to sell at public sale. 



In the meantime my honey trade had grown 

 so that I couldn't supply the demand, so 1 

 saw the boys and bought the 15 colonies of 

 them at private sale for $3.50 per stand. Of 

 course I had to change all of them, so I put 

 them in 10-frame standard hives and I found 

 it quite a task, as they were so heavy for one 

 man to lift, 



1. Do you think I gave too much for them, 

 considering the shape they were in? 1 had 

 always sold the section honey, but fou J that 

 it took too much of my time just when I was 

 busiest with the farm work, so I changed to 

 produce extracted honey. The year of 1918 1 

 had 25 stands of bees and I sold $300 worth 

 of honey. 1 put it in half-gallon Mason fruit 

 jars and sold it at $3 per gallon. About the 

 time to harvest my crop I was called to go to 

 Camp Grant, so had to leave my honey for ray 

 family to harvest and sell for me, and I may 

 have lost some that way, for the extracting 

 wasn't linished until after I was discharged 

 and got home. 



Early this year I bought 30 more colonies of 

 a man who said that the old ones didn't do 

 anything but swarm, and that all the honey he 

 got was from the new swarms. Some of them 

 were in S-frame hives and some in 10-frame, 

 but they were all old hives, so I bought them 

 at $3 per hive. I only had four swarms issue 

 from ray 53 stands of bees last summer. I 

 consider that pretty good. 



I have not finished extracting this year's 

 honey crop yet, but will have about 3,000 

 pounds of extracted honey, and about 300 

 pounds, of section honey, which sells at 25 

 and 30 cents per section in this locality. 



2. Is that a good crop for that many colo- 

 nies, or should they do better? 



The majority of my honey is white clover, 

 though 1 have some darker fall honey. My 

 bees are mostly black, but the last two springs 

 I have secured golden Italian queens 

 for some of them. Une queen 1 have is very 

 prolific, so I gave her two stories for brood; 

 then after she had filled the upper story with 

 brood 1 caught her and put her back in the 

 lower story and put on an excluder. 



3. Would it have been better to have di- 

 vided this hive? 



4. To divide the hive should I take the up- 

 per story with brood and eggs and set it about 

 two feet away? If 1 did that would they hatch 

 them a queen from the brood? Or would it 

 be better to put the upper story on the old 

 hive sUnd and move thft old hive away? 



5. Do you think one could make a good 

 living on 20 or 40 acres in this section, with 

 some fruit and about 500 stands of bees? 

 Could one man take care of that many bees? 



6. About how many colonies of bees would 

 two acres of sweet clover and two acres of 

 buckwheat make pasturage for? 



7. Would it be better to run a home apiary 

 for section honey and the outapiaries for ex- 

 tracted honey? 



8. In producing section honey is it better to 

 clip the queen's wings? 



ILLINOIS. 

 Answers. — 1. No; at the present time this is 

 a reasonable price. 



2. An average of 50 pounds per colony, 

 year in and year out, is generally considered 

 a good average. Yours was 6C pounds. So 

 that its a very fair crop. 



3. If you wish increase it is better to make 

 it from colonies that are not likely to give you 

 much honey, raising your queens from your 

 very best colonies. 



4. The first method you mention is good, 

 but not so good as the second. Taking away 

 a hive of brood and bees, leaving the queen 

 and all the old field workers on the old stand 

 is likely to give you a colony too weak in bees 

 to take care of the brood. 



5. There is a very good living in 500 colo- 

 nies of bees aside from the yield of 20 to iO 

 acres of land. One can care for 500 colonies, 

 but they ought not to be all in one apiary, and 

 one could not do much with the land without 

 hifiitg help. 



6. That is a bard question to answer, and 1 

 doubt whether anyone can answer it correctly. 

 It is a guess at best. 



7. Yes. 



8. Yes, certainly. 



Bees Leaving Hive — Disease — Rear- 

 ing Queens 



l.What is the matter when the bees go out of 

 their hive and go in another hive with bees in 

 it? 



2. What is best to do if the bees have dis- 

 eases? 



3. When is the best time to rear queens? 



4. What kind of a bee is brown and has 3 

 snow-white bands? 



5. Do you think there is any chance to get 

 pure Cyprian queens or bees? 



TEXAS. 

 Answers. — 1. Bees may "drift," that is, go 

 into the wrong hive, when they are out for 

 the first time and are attracted by the greater 

 noise of the bees of another hive; also when 

 their hive has been moved from its position. 

 Bees may also leave their hive entirely and 

 join another hive when they arc starving, or 



