GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



cause a difference of two to three cents was 

 reached, that became the reason of my chang- 

 ing, and for my preference for the pound sec- 

 tion. As the prize section was a tall section, 

 I still adhered to the tall form when I came to 

 use a pound section. 



'^^^rfi.mi§ 



THOSE HONEY-CAKAMELS IN GLEANINGS, PAGE 

 899. 

 I made a sample lot of honey-caramels, as you 

 described in Gleanings, but I put in granulat- 

 ed sugar instead of the glucose, seasoned with 

 wintergreen. A party here this evening was 

 so taken with it that he is going to get me to 

 make him 100 pounds, and put on a label tell- 

 ing exactly what they are made of. I believe 

 if all bee- keepers take hold of those recipes Dr. 

 Miller is getting up it will, if well worked, be 

 of great value to bee-keepers in general as well 

 as a good pure food. Douglas D. Hammond. 

 Malone, la., Jan. 6. 



TALL sections; LAYING THEM ON THE SIDE 

 IN THE SUPER PREFERRED. 



I am at a loss to understand why Mr. Doo- 

 little would place oblong sections on end. Of 

 course, you can place more in one super, but we 

 think this a disadvantage for several reasons. 

 One is, we often put these shallow supers on 

 colonies at the beginning of the honey-flow; 

 also on swarms that would object to a larger 

 and deeper super. Again, our experience is 

 that the bees will finish these oblong sections 

 sooner, and, either from retaining the warmth 

 or from their preference for beginning work 

 close to the brood-frames, or both, the bees cer- 

 tainly begin work more readily on these shal- 

 low sections. It is an easy matter to examine 

 these shallow sections without removing from 

 super, and they can be readily tiered up to suit 

 the requirements of any colony. We bought 

 our first oblong sections of A. I. Root in Feb., 

 1893. They were Zli inches high and ^-/^ long. 

 They overweighed. Since then we had several 

 thousand made 33sx5":i, 7 per foot; 31 of these 

 sections cover the same space, about, that 28 of 

 the 4J^x4^ do. Our grocers prefer them. They 

 make a handy package; and by placing a few 

 of these sections of honey on the counter or in 

 the window tiered up like brick, your lover of 

 honey will hardly pass them without buying. 



I wish to say that many of our bee-keepers 

 could dispose of several thousand pounds of 

 their comb honey at towns within driving dis- 

 tance, greatly to their and their brother bee- 

 keepers' advantage. You do not need expen- 

 sive cases to show in; have your sections and 



crates clean. Do not leave the grocer too 

 much at one time. Tell them it is pure, from 

 your own bees; and that when the honey is 

 sold they can pay a certain price for it. 



T. S. COMSTOCK. 



North Manchester, Ind., Jan. 26. 



HOW TO FIGURE INCOME ON 300 COLONIES IN 

 WISCONSIN. 



There is one question upon which I should 

 like the expert opinion of some member of your 

 firm; viz.: What would be a fair or medium 

 income from 300 colonies of hybrid and full 

 Italiau bees per year if managed by a man of 

 long experience and very considerable skill in 

 bee culture, allowing a reasonable sum for em- 

 ploying competent assistants as need, and pro- 

 vided the bees are in a very fair honey country, 

 and so divided that not more than 7.5 colonies 

 will forage from the same territory? 



Winneconne, Wis., Jan. 7. G. R. Frye. 



[This is a very hard question to answer, as 

 so much depends upon conditions, such as the 

 apiarist and the locality. Wisconsin is one of 

 the greatest honey -producing States in the 

 Union; but I doubt not that there are localities 

 in that State that are practically good for 

 nothing, even though not very remote from 

 other localities where plenty of honey is pro- 

 duced. A difference of only ten miles makes all 

 the difference in the world. 



In the first place, everything depends upon 

 the locality and the season. Assuming, then, 

 that the man who is to operate the yards is one 

 of long experience, the locality might yield, on 

 an average, about 40 lbs. of comb and extract- 

 ed honey. Some years the amount will be 

 about 10 lbs., and others perhaps 75. During 

 the last five years the average would perhaps 

 be nearer 25 than 40. This is speaking general- 

 ly of the'State. Three hundred colonies, with 

 an average of 40 lbs. each, would produce 12,000 

 lbs. of honey. Suppose that this honey aver- 

 ages 8 cts.; that would mean $960. If the aver- 

 age proved to be 25 lbs. (which would be safer 

 to figure), the gross amount would be 1675. 

 Before you could get at the amount of your 

 own labor you might have to figure on at least 

 two months of time for a helper— it is possible 

 you might manage without one; then there 

 would be interest on the valuation of 300 hives 

 and appliances, a certain amount for hauling 

 the bees back and forth, carrying of sections, 

 supplies, etc., from one apiary to another, and 

 your own trips to and from each yard. As you 

 could figure better the cost of these items, you 

 could arrive at about the amount you ought 

 to expect under fair conditions. 



You will need to figure also that there will 

 be some years when, perhaps, your averages 

 will be only about 10 lbs. per colony, and occa- 

 sionally a year when you will get absolutely 

 nothing. Perhaps there will come a year when 

 the balance will be clean the other way— when 

 you will have to feed perhaps 10 or 15 lbs. of 

 syrup per colony. 



I have put the average price of honey at 8 

 cts. If you produce an equal amount of each, 

 this will be figuring 10 cts. for the comb and 6 

 cts. for the extracted, both first quality. Per- 

 haps some bee-keeper from your State can give 

 us a set of figures that will give us an idea of 

 the expenses we need to figure in; but from 

 this standpoint I can hardly give you any thing 

 more definite than the above. — Ed.] 



