1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



177 



feelings between nations, as some 

 publishers are doing all the time, 

 ought they not to be punished as 

 criminals? Many people are inclined 

 to believe as gospel truth everything 

 they read in the "paper." Yet there 

 is probably "more fiction than truth" 

 in the statements of the average 

 newspaper, and whenever a piece of 

 news looks too fanciful, better dis- 

 credit it till it is proved. 



The Miller Fund 



Don't forget the C. C. Miller Me- 

 morial subscription. We will publish 

 the list in July. 



Changinsr Styles of Hives 



In spite of the fact that we wrote 

 persistently that it is not advisable to 

 change one's style of hives, when suc- 

 cessful, we get letters almost daily 

 asking advice about it and showing 

 that the wi-iters of those lettei-s are 

 desirous of adopting the deeper 

 frame. Let us repeat, here again, 

 that there are plenty of very success- 

 ful men who use small, shallow hives 

 and manage to overcome the difficul- 

 ties which they present. At this time, 

 especially, when hive material is so 

 very high in price, we cannot advise 

 any one to cast aside his outfit, un- 

 less he is actually unsuccessful with 

 it. Economy is at the bottom of the 

 pyramid of success. 



We do not wish it understood, how- 

 ever that the box-hive beekeepers 

 should i-etain the old gums, boxes, 

 skeps, etc. It is imperative for the 

 beekeeper to control his apiary and 

 to be able to examine every hive 

 thoroughly as often as possible. This 

 cannot be done with the immovable- 

 frame hives, whether they be modern 

 hives, with the combs built crooked in 

 them, or skeps, or plain boxes. A 

 movable-frame hive with crooked 

 combs is worse than the old box or 

 gum. But there is no excuse what- 

 ever for crooked combs, in these days 

 of comb foundation. The removal of 

 the excess of drone combs which the 

 movable frame hive pex'mits, is a 

 sufficient economy to pay for the cost 

 of a very expensive hive. — C. P. D. 



About Changing Hives 



There are times when I find it nec- 

 essary to disagree with the boss. The 

 above editorial by C. P. Dadant ap- 

 plies to the man who is well estab- 

 lished and who has full equipment for 

 a particular system of honey produc- 

 tion. In my opinion it does not apply 

 to the beginner who has started with 

 the wrong hive and who expects to 

 extend his apiaries. There is room 

 for a difference of opinion as to 

 which style of hive is best , and the 

 one which is best for one person 

 might not always be best for another. 

 In my own case I started beekeeping 

 with the eight-frame Lang.stroth hive 

 and found that it paid me to change 

 to the ten-frame, even after I had a 

 full outfit of equipment for a fair- 

 sized apiary. Later I again changed 

 a good-sized apiai-y from the ten- 

 frame hive to the deeper frame, and 

 believe that this paid also, because of 

 the saving in time and labor in ma- 



nipulation. As a producer of ex- 

 tracted honey I am very sure that I 

 secured enough larger crops with the 

 ten-frame hives than I did with the 

 smaller ones to make it pay. The 

 difference in the crop secured be- 

 tween the ten-fi'ame hives and the 

 larger ones was not so noticeable as 

 the saving in labor in manipulation. 

 I must add, however, that supplies 

 were cheaper then than now. — 

 F. C. P. 



Opening the Hive 



Let us say that we do not agree at 



all with those of our friends who 

 think that the opening of a hive while 

 the bees are at work will disturb the 

 colony sufficiently to make it lose a 

 day s harvest. If a colony of Italian 

 bees is properly handled, it may be 

 opened, examined and closed, with 

 very little disturbance. Many experi- 

 enced beekeepers will agree with us 

 in stating that field bees often start 

 for the field from an open hive, with- 

 out apparently being at all disturbed. 



Removal of Drone Comb 



In most of the northern tempera- 

 ture latitudes, the month of May is 

 the proper one to remove arone 

 combs from the hives that have more 

 than desired. At this time, there is 

 less honey in the hive, than before or 

 after. The temperature is usually 

 right to examine the colonies. Dx'one 

 combs, in undesirable spots, should 

 be cut out and pieces of worker 

 combs of the same size inserted in 

 their place. If worker comb is se- 

 cured from colonies that have died 

 during the winter it may be used for 

 that purpose, by cutting it so as to 

 fit closely in the place of the removed 

 drone comb. If a neat job is done 

 the joint will be hardly perceptible, 

 after the bees have repaired the dam- 

 age. If wires or twine are used to 

 hold the comb in place, they may usu- 

 ally be removed within a week, for if 

 the bees cover the combs thus repaired 

 they will soon fix them up. Comb 

 foundation is not so desirable as built 

 comb, for this patching work, for it 

 is less readily adjustable. If comb 

 foundation is used, it may be best to 

 remove entire combs, and this is not 

 always advisable. But it is well to 

 remove a comb entirely when it is 

 mainly drone comb. 



Dr. Brunnich, of Switzerland, tells 

 us that, in order to secure as large 

 and useful males as possible, he be- 

 lieves in allowing the bees to rebuild 

 their drone combs every few years, 

 for he says, and will show us, in a 

 coming contribution, that drone 

 combs are much more quickly soiled 

 and thickened, by drones, than 

 worker combs of similar age, by the 

 breeding of workers. 



In the second place, it shows that ex- 

 tracted honey is coming to be recog- 

 nized by the brand under which it is 

 sold, the same as other package prod- 

 ucts. 



The following packages were found 

 offered by Baltimore grocerymen: 



"Airline," put up by the Root Com- 

 pany. 



"H. & H.," Hoffman & Hauck, 

 Richmond Hill, N. Y. 



"Miss North," Genesee Jam Kitch- 

 ens, Geneseo, N. Y. 



"Premier-," Francis H. Leggett Co., 

 New York. 



"Pure Brand," C. H. Weber, Cin- 

 cinnati, O. 



Sunbeam," Austin Nichols & Co., 

 Brooklyn, N. Y. 



"Tea Garden," Pacific Coast Syrup 

 Co., San Francisco, Cal. 



An interesting portion of the re- 

 port is the list of 68 retail grocery 

 stores that carry NO honey. Only 17 

 cari-y "Airline" and 15 carry Weber's 

 "Pure Brand." Two stores carry 

 "Premier" and four others each carry 

 honey from one of the othei's listed. 



From the above it is apparent that 

 but for the bottler, honey would 

 hardly be available to the housewife 

 in the city of Baltimore. With 68 

 retail stores which do not carry honey 

 it is still apparent that honey is not 

 available to the large number of fam- 

 ilies who depend upon those stores 

 for their supply. 



This report should open our eyes 

 to the fact that the marketing of our 

 product has been neglected too long 

 and that unless more effort is ex- 

 pended in this direction our industry 

 will not prosper as it should. 



Baltimore is probably representa- 

 tive of conditions in most of the 

 cities of the eastern States. We 

 hardly need fear an over supply when 

 more than half of the stores are with- 

 out honey on their shelves. Under 

 present-day conditions the housewife 

 depends upon the gi'ocer t^ supply 

 her table, and unless he has a product 

 in stock, she goes 'without. 



From the above report it is very 

 evident that thex-e is an unlimited 

 market for sevei'al times the honey 

 now produced, if pi'oper attention is 

 paid to getting the product before 

 the consumer. 



Selling Honey in the City 



We have before us a survey of the 

 extracted honey trade in the city of 

 Baltimore, prepared by the "Balti- 

 more News." It is interesting for 

 several reasons. In the first place, it 

 shows very plainly that honey is no 

 longer a staple product as it was once. 



Colorado Teaches Beekeeping 



The College of Agriculture at PT;. 

 Collins has recently provided for a 

 two-year course in apiculture, com- 

 bined with poultiy raising, small 

 fruit culture or gardening. Prof. C. 

 R. Jones, of the Entomology Depart- 

 ment, is in charge of the course. 

 Twenty-one students have already 

 registered for the course, six of whom 

 are regular students and the others 

 vocational men. 



The 1919 Honey Crop 



Preliniinai-y figures issued by the 

 Census Bureau estimate the total 

 honey crop for the U. S. in 1919 at 

 49,100,000 pounds, with a value of 

 $12,800,000. Considering that bees 

 in cities are not counted, this prob- 

 ably approaches the actual figure. 



