8i2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Oct. 



laying. Another thing : Is not the competi- 

 non in any kind of business something in 

 the same line V When one gets a big trade 

 started in the clothing business, for instance, 

 somebody else takes a big part of it by run- 

 ning opposition. Jf the second man who 

 comes in is a keen, go-ahead Inisiness man, 

 clothier No. 1 frequently buys him out, with 

 a written agreement not to go into business 

 again for a'term of years. Why should not 

 a bee-man do tlie same thing ? In defense 

 of your position, however, I have very often 

 thought I should like to pnrchase the privi- 

 lege of keeping all the bees within, say, a 

 radius of three miles in every direction. I 

 should theia have control of foul brood in a 

 way that I have not got it just now. —Thanks 

 for your suggestions in regard to remodeling 

 the common cheap wheelbarrow. I am in- 

 clined to think, however, that w^hen you 

 come to see our $4.00 wheelbarrow you will 

 relent a little— see if you don't, friend M. 



THE LOW PRICE OF HONEY. 



WFIAT ARE WE TO DO TO STIMULATE THE TRADE '? 



T NOTICE in the bee-jouinals that honey quo- 

 §^ tations all say they have more than they can 

 ^l sell, and tell us not to ship just now, as it is 

 '*' slow sale. So it continues all the year, and 

 from year to year. It won't bear shipping-, 

 the sales are too slow and' too low. I shipped four 

 barrels of extracted honey to Galveston a year 

 ago. The merchant to whom I shipped it saj's 

 that he has not sold an ounce of it yet. I see by 

 the reports that the honey crop is large in the 

 North this season, more people going into the 

 business every year, doubling yearly or more. The 

 fact is, people don't eat honey. They are very 

 fond of it if it is given to them; but if they have to 

 buy it, it gives them the. toothache— makes them 

 sick; in short, they don't like it. Well, we are in 

 the business very extensively, and the question is, 

 how to get out of it or get our money back. I 

 have 400 colonies of bees in the Langstroth hive, 

 and have extracted 600 gallons— a very light crop. 

 I have to keep from three to four men nearly all 

 the time to help me. I pay them 75 cents per day, 

 they boarding themselves. That is very low pay 

 for work among bees, yet I»can't sell honey 

 enough to pay the hands, not counting my time as 

 anything. There is no "letup" in the business. 

 Bees don't care for Sunday. I can handle any bee 

 that I ever saw, with a smoker, without gloves or 

 veil, with my sleeves rolled up, yet it doesn't pay. 

 The more honey I have, the less it pays. If I 

 could get along without barrels to put it ia, it 

 would pay a little better. We shall have to put it in 

 some other shape to sell. Can't it be made into 

 candy? Can it be made so as not to run tog'ether 

 like stick candy ? 



I have thought, that if we could get the news- 

 papers to talk honey it would do much in aiding iis 

 In selling honey; there is not one man in ten thou- 

 sand who ever reads a bee journal, yet all read the 

 common papers. I notice some bee-brother says 

 that no bad reports of bees and honey are ever 

 published. This will satisfy him that 1 am badly 

 in the ditch, and I suppose that I am not alone, by 

 many hundreds. You will have to put me low down 



in Ulasted Hopes if some brother can't help me 

 out in disposing of my hor.oy. We all want help. 



J. W. Park. 

 Columbia, Brazoria Co., Texas, Aug. 17, 1886. 



Friend P., I am inclined to think your 

 honey is not tirst quality ; that is, it proba- 

 bly does not commanit first price in the 

 market. When we get a real nice article of 

 either clover or linden honey, we seldom 

 have it remain very long on our hands ; but 

 a lot that is a little off in color, or off in 

 taste, goes off at a very low price, i am 

 afraid, also, the merchant to whom you 

 shipped it does not make much of an effort 

 to sell it in the way of getting it before the 

 people in attractive shapes. I do not believe 

 much can be done in the way of making- 

 honey into confectionery. The honey-jum- 

 bles I have mentioned on former pages seem 

 to be the best outlet for honey to be used in 

 the way of refreshment. We are just iinish- 

 ing the ten-barrel lot we mentioned a few 

 months ago, and the whole ten barrels have 

 been sold in our own town. They will keep 

 months, or even years, and are just as nice a 

 cake when a year oltl as when first made. 

 People don't seem to tire of them. Tlie fla- 

 vor of honey is very perceptible in these 

 jumbles; but even a poor quality of honey 

 seems to go off well when worked up this 

 way ; that is, I mean such honey as golden- 

 rod, Spanish needle, or even buckwheat, 

 when it is in the form of a cake, is not objec- 

 tionable. Friend P., if you will send a sam- 

 ple of your honey to friend Muth, of Cincin- 

 nati, I think he can take it off your hands at 

 a pretty fair price ; that is, if the quality is 

 fair. Your suggestion is a good one, about 

 getting the newspapers to talk about honey. 

 They are getting to, to some extent, but not 

 very much as yet. Now, then, brethren and 

 neighbors, can't some of us help friend Park 

 out of his dilemma ? It seems to be too bad 

 to hear him say, that the more honey he 

 gets, the less the business pays. That is 

 certainly a queer turn of affairs in the bee- 

 business. 



BOTTOMLESS HIVES. 



HOW THEY ARE USED BY M. BROERS. 



■JIp S I wrote you some time ago that I was exper- 

 gfl^ Imenting on a hive without a bottom, and 



J^' promised you I would report later, I will 

 "''^^ now give you the result of mj' experiments, 

 and the advantages to be derived from the 

 use of a hive without a bottom. In the tirst place 

 (and I consider it of the greatest importance), there 

 is no possibility of losing the queen when hiving 

 a swarm by her getting under the bottom-board; 

 and in the next place, I can put in a swarm in 

 about half the time it takes to put them in a hive 

 any other way, as the hive can be left open all 

 around, so they can get in from all sides. I have 

 not put in a single swarm from the top of the hive 

 this season, and have not had one swarm to leave 

 me, which, I think, is often caused by being com- 

 pelled to go into the hive after the swarm is all in, 

 to straighten things up. 



Another advantage is, that you can give a new 

 swarm all the air they need, and you know they 

 need a great deal. Where the yard is located on a 



