1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



95 



fellow, out west, at least far enough 

 west from here to be safe, proposes 

 to make bee brushes with bristles of 

 white or pink or blue oir gimlet color, 

 because he thinks black bristles irri- 

 tate the bees. I presume he will scent 

 the bruslies with lavender water and 

 tie a dainty ribbon on the handle of 

 the brush. I suppose he would be 

 equally fussy when kicked over and 

 over by a mule as to the color of the 

 mule who elected to do the kicking. 



To return to smokers. Quinby 

 later affixed a small can to the nozzle 

 of a common fire bellows. This was 

 an advance, but necessitated the use 

 of both hands, or to be operated by 

 another person. Did you ever have a 

 kindly novice try to "help" you by 

 operating the smoker while you were 

 at work? It's lots of fun — for the 

 novice. 



From the fire bellows tin can ar- 

 rangement it was but a step to affi.x- 

 ing a can directly to the side of the 

 bellows, and about 1873 Quinby made 

 a small bellows, much like those now 

 in use, and affi.xed a very small can 

 to one side, and behold, the bellows 

 bee smoker was born. The can or 

 tube was a tiny affair only about an 

 inch in diameter and five or six inches 

 long. A stick or pencil of rotten 

 wood was cut to fit it, and after being 

 ignited on one end was slipped into 

 the tube, and was ready for use. Un- 

 less the bellows were frequently op- 

 erated the fire would go out. Little by 

 little it was changed, permanent draft 

 arranged, firtpot enlarged, and today 

 we have a nearly perfect implement, 

 the one indispensable implement of 

 •our craft. All praise to Moses Quinby. 



Rhode Island 



(On page 47 of the "Dadant System 

 of Beekeeping" the author speaks of 

 having been often dizzy from blowing 

 smoke over the bees, before the in- 

 vention of the bellows smoker. — Ed.) 



PEDDLING HONEY 



By G. W. Leckenby 

 Mr. Foster, in January, speaks of 

 peddlers being missionaries to intro- 

 duce the honey to consumers. He 

 has hit the right point to sell honey. 

 I have been peddling honey in a 

 town not far from him, with beans 

 and vegetables, for nine years. The 

 town has grown to a small city, and 

 my trade has grown with it. 



We only had a few stands of bees 

 until two years ago, when my son 

 decided to give up chickens and go 

 to bees. The first year he produced 

 about three tons of extracted honey. 

 We peddled it and had it sold in No- 

 vember. I have bought a lot more 

 and give half a day now and then. I 

 am so impressed with the plan that 

 one can do well even on a small 

 profit that I am now making my plans 

 to give all of my time this fall to 

 peddling honey. I shall make my 

 specialty of S and 10-pound pails. I 

 found people were prejudiced against 

 strained honey and granulated. I 

 even found one of Mr. Foster's per- 

 sonal friends who had half of a 10- 

 pound pail candied and felt he had 

 been cheated, whereas he had been 



given something extra good. I took 

 the pail and explained to him that he 

 had the best of honey, and also how 

 to bring it back to a liquid state. 



The people must be shown why 

 honey is a cheap food, a cheaper food 

 than syrups, and even if it is more 

 per pound. 



Beekeepers are not producing, nor 

 ever can, at a good fair price, one- 

 half the honey people would use if 

 they, knew how good a food it is. I 

 know, for I have customers who use 

 ten 'pou«ds now who used one pound 

 or none three years ago. As a 

 writer in the December number says, 

 the small package makes it cost too 

 much and the customer is apt to 

 gauge the price by it, never thinking 

 a 10-pound pail costs only a trifle 

 more tiian a gallon of Karo corn 

 syrup. 



I have always contended that a 

 house to house peddling was the only 

 system to sell honey. But a poor ped- 

 dler hurts. There is only one consola- 

 tion, he soon starves out. The bee- 

 men in ome section could afford to 

 keep a good man out all the time. Mr. 

 Foster says there is lots of honey 

 not sold. It is because you are try- 

 ing to sell a jelly glass full instead of 

 a S or 10-pound pail. 



Colorado. 



G. H. CALE TO HAMILTON 



G. H. Gale, formerly of the Mary- 

 land College of Agriculture, and more 

 recently of the staff of Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips in the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, joined the force of Da- 

 dant & Sons on February 1. Mr. 

 Gale will have charge of all work in 

 the Dadant apiaries, now numbering 

 about 800 colonies, and will be on the 

 .\merican Bee Journal staff as Ex- 

 perimental Apiarist. During the life 

 time of the late Gharles Dadant ex- 

 tensive experiments were carried on 

 for many years. The younger gen- 

 eration of Dadants have long felt the 

 need of more practical experiments 

 in methods of commercial honey pro- 

 duction on a large scale. An effort is 

 being made to determine the actual 

 cost of production of honey as well as 

 the comparative value of different 

 systems of management. 



It is expected that Mr. Gale's 



thorough training along scientific 

 lines, together with the many years 

 of practical experience in honey pro- 

 duction by members of the firm, will 

 make possible some developments 

 which will be of interest and value to 

 beekeepers generally. The thing to 

 be sought for especially will be the 

 method which will produce the larg- 

 est crops of honey with the least la- 

 bor and the smallest cost. 



G. H. Cale, 



EXPERIENCE ON REARING AND 

 PURCHASING QUEENS 



By Phillip Rudolph 



In May, 1912, I sent to a Southern 

 well-advertised golden quetn breeder 

 for 3 of his best golden breeders, for 

 which I paid $15 eaih. I introduced 

 them to fairly strong colonies. When 

 the young bees made their appear- 

 ance they were beautiful, bright 

 goldens. I at once placed my order 

 for 58 more. This time 1 ordered un- 

 tested queens to be sent to me in 

 August of the same year. 



Everything went along fine. The 

 goldens bred up fairly. When the 

 honey flow opened, I was very anx- 

 ious to see the work aside of my own 

 bred queens. The goldens were slow 

 to start for the fields, and my own 

 bees started at least two hours earlier. 

 About 5 o'clock in the afternoon you 

 would scarcely see a golden start for 

 the fields. My own bred bees, at that 

 hour and later, were doing^ their best 

 work. I watched these three colo- 

 nies day after day during the honey 

 flow. Their movements were slow, 

 they would cluster on the outside of 

 the hive. There was no reason for 

 this, for they were well supplied with 

 supers of drawn comb. 



I commenced to feel cold toward 

 the goldens. I discovered I had not 

 the bees that were expected. These 

 queens produced beautiful bees. It 

 seems as though the queen breeders 

 are losing sight of what we Wiscon- 

 sin honey producers are looking for. 

 We want bees that will fill the supers 

 quickly. We don't care much for the 

 fancy points of a bee; we want 

 hustlers. 



Last year I called on an old Mil- 

 waukee Gounty beekeeper. He had 

 138 colonies in his yard, spring count. 

 He had the best goldens I ever saw. 

 We had a long talk on bees. I asked 

 him how he liked the goldens as 

 workers. His answer was this : "If I 

 was a young man I would at once re- 

 queen back to the kind I always had. 

 I haven't seen anything yet that 

 would beat the three-banded Ital- 

 ians. I know I am short fifteen or 

 more pounds per colony each year." 



Let us see what fifteen pounds per 

 colony would mean in dollars and 

 cents: 138 times 15 would mean 2,070 

 pounds. At the present retail price of 

 30 cents per pound, 2,070 pounds equals 

 $621. 



I regretted that I had ordered these 

 58 queens. They came to me on time. 

 I introduced them at once, not losing 

 a single one, hoping they would turn 

 out to be workers. But the following 

 year, during the best of honey flow, 



