384 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



The upshot of the whole matter was that 

 Fowls gave up farming, moved to town, and 

 has joined the ranks of a class of bee-keepers 

 who are few in numbers, and far between ; 

 namely, specialists — that is to say, those whose 

 whole means of livelihood comes entirely from 

 the bee-business. 



But Mr. Fowls' specialty, in his specialty of 

 keeping bees, is selling honey at about double 

 the prices bee-keepers generally secure. He 

 has already explained how he does this, on 

 page 152 of Gi^Eanings for March 1st, last 

 year, and he has something more to say on 

 that same point. 



Out of the material that he furnished me for 

 a write-up, I have selected the following, giv- 

 ing it in his own words. — Ed.] 



With varying fortune the bees have always 

 paid better than farming, as a rule. I gener- 

 ally kept from 60 to 100 colonies until about 

 three years ago, when, owing to continued ill 

 health, I gave up farming altogether and 

 bought 50 colonies more of bees. Since then I 

 have made it my exclusive business. Two 

 years ago it was a rather poor season here, and 

 I raised 5600 lbs. of honey from 125 colonies, 

 spring count — 1200 lbs. comb and the rest ex- 

 tracted. The comb sold at an average of near- 

 ly 14 cents, and the extracted at 10 cents. 



Last season's crop was a fair one, but not of 

 the largest, as the drouth struck us in July, so 

 we got nothing after the first week. We had 

 8000 lbs. from 136 colonies, spring count — 2000 

 lbs. comb, the rest extracted, and all but 400 

 lbs. choice white-clover honey. The comb 

 sold at an average of 12 cents; the extracted 

 at nearly 10. My comb honey is raised with- 

 out separators, on full sheets of foundation, 

 and always brings the top price. The extract- 

 ed honey is ripened on the hive, and always 

 weighs 12 pounds or more to the gallon, and 

 is nearly all sold in my own and adjoining 

 towns. I now have 175 colonies in three api- 

 aries. My main help is my oldest daughter, 

 Violet. Through the swarming season my 

 wife helps in the home apiary. My bees win- 

 tered well. I have lost only two colonies up 

 to date — one by starvation and one by queen- 

 lessness. 



I want to call your attention to the prices I 

 get for my extracted honey. I described my 

 methods of marketing in Gleanings about a 

 year ago. As my article was copied in the A. 

 B.J., I concluded it must have attracted con- 

 siderable notice. At any rate, it was criticised 

 in an article by Mr. McKnight, of Canada, at 

 the time. As I was very busy I paid no atten- 

 tion to what he said. Among other things he 

 said that very much honey could not be sold 

 at the price I mentioned. Well, "the proof of 

 the pudding is in the eating. ' ' My last season's 

 crop of extracted honey, 6000 lbs., has been 

 sold, nearly all in my home market (that is, 

 my own and neighboring towns), at but a 

 slight reduction on those prices. It is a sig- 

 nificant fact that in Elyria, a town of about 

 10,000, every one of the grocers handles my 

 extracted honey, paying cash on delivery, and 

 they will not buy of others, even when offered 

 at a lower price. Now, I submit it to you if 



there can be any thing very far wrong in my 

 methods of marketing when I can get nearly 

 double the prices for my crop that some others 

 do. I imagine my family would fare pretty 

 poorly if my honey brought only half as 

 much, as we have no other income excepting 

 the small amount derived from the sale of bee- 

 keepers' supplies to our neighbors. 



THE LATEST GOLDEN SECTION-CLEANER. 



Why the Belt Machine is Better than one using a 

 Solid Disk. 



BY. J. A. GOIvDEN. 



In presenting my section-cleaner to the 

 public I did not expect it to be understood 

 that an old sewing-machine was the only way 

 in which a machine could be made. That old 

 machine being my first idea of a cleaner, I 

 used it to illustrate how a machine could be 

 made, first, by a revolving wheel faced by 

 gluing sandpaper on it, and operated by foot 

 power, by which over 1000 sections were 

 beautifully cleaned, and by only the one coat- 

 ing of sandpaper. 



There was one thing overlooked when 

 writing my former article, which is in regard 

 to propolis sticking or gumming up the sand- 

 belt. I will here state that, if a section con- 

 tains much propolis, when soft and sticky, or 

 honey is on the section, it is almost sure to 

 stick on the belt or wheel; at least, that was 

 ray finding ; and when I lifted sections from 

 the crates I would take my old knife and 

 shear off any bulky particles, if there were 

 any; but as I use nothing but a bee-space over 

 my crates, I am seldom bothered with an over- 

 plus of propolis; then if I want to dress some 

 sections I set that amount in our cellar, some- 

 times over night, and dress in the morning; 

 then there need be no fears as to gumming 

 the belt. But I want to say there is much in 

 how a section is held on the sand-belt or 

 wheel. If it is held crosswise of the grain of 

 the wood there is but little danger of gmn- 

 ming or sticking if using No. 3 sandpaper; 

 then turn the section, merely touching the 

 revolving wheel or belt ; thus a better polish 

 is secured. However, one must be careful not 

 to press too hard, for the sandpaper would 

 soon cut the section through at the corners. 

 In using the wheel, one nmst be very careful 

 when applying a section to any revolving 

 solid substance, or the delicate comb will 

 receive a jar that will crack it unobserved; 

 but you would find it later on when handling 

 your honey; but by being careful the wheel 

 does grand work, and beats hand scraping a 

 thousand times over. This unnoticed crack- 

 ing of the comb was what led me to devise the 

 belt arrangement, of which this cut will fully 

 explain its adaptability to the cleaning of sec- 

 tion honey; and no fears need be entertained 

 as to cracking the delicate comb in any shape 

 or form; and I am satisfied that three times, 

 at least, more work can be accomplished with 

 the belt device over that of the wheel. 



Some one may say, ' ' How can that be ? " 



