524 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



a difference in the sale of honey as in any- 

 thing else. Some men will try to provoke 

 the ill humor of a salesman, thinking that 

 he will go away provoked. It works well to 

 stick to it until such people buy. 



For eight years all of niy attention has 

 been given to bees and the sale of honey. 

 When I first vmdertook to dispose of my 

 lioney, it was in small towns and to farmers. 

 I sooii discovered that they had been swin- 

 dled so often that some of them could not 

 be persuaded that my honey was pure and 

 that it was not manufactured from sugar. 

 •One man even quoted an instance of a gal- 

 lon of honey he had once bought, in which 

 there were some peppermint lozenges. This 

 ^vas conclusive evidence to him that all 

 honey must be counterfeit. 



Later I invested in a covered wagon, sim- 

 ilar to the laundry wagons used in the city, 

 and then went with my honey beyond the 

 limits of the county. I carried from two to 

 three hundred quarts put up in glass jars, 

 nicely labeled, selling at fifty cents per 

 quart. 



Several times I shipped ten or twelve five- 

 gallons cans of honey to the city forty miles 

 from home. As soon as I reach the city, 

 after stopping at the small towns on the 

 way. I rent a room, buy quart glass jars by 

 the gross, and have them delivered at the 

 room; and when the load I started with is 

 sold out I proceed to i)ut up the honey that 

 1 shipped there. People always enjoy watch- 

 ing the process of filling the jars arid it soon 

 draws a crowd of interested spectators whom 

 I invite to taste it. Many remark that ev- 

 erything seems so clean; then, after inquiring 

 the price per quart, will buy one jar, saying 

 that if the folks at home like it they will 

 want more. Usually buyers of that kind 

 return and take from' three to six quarts. 



As soon as the honey is all put up and the 

 cans labeled, I carry with me enough to last 

 one day, usually about two hundred jars. I 

 never go from house to house, but visit 

 ' bankers, lawyers, merchants, and business 

 places. At one hardware store where I stop- 

 ped, I asked the proprietor if he wanted 

 some good honey. He replied that he had 

 just bought two quarts of a neighbor who 

 sold honey by going from house to house. 

 "How many quarts does he average each 

 day?" was my inquiry. "Six," he replied. 

 "AVhy," I said, "that wouldn't pay my ex- 

 penses. If I can't average one hundred each 

 day, 1 will quit." He smiled; but that noon, 

 wlien the whistles blew, I had sold seventy- 

 five quarts. 



One time I got into a nest of seven law- 

 yers, one of whom was writing, and the oth- 

 ers were engaged in conversation. The 

 former asked me if I had honey, and said he 

 didn't want any, and wouldn't take any as 

 a gift. When I insisted that they should 

 sample it, the one who tasted it first, pro- 

 nounced it fine honey, then they all tried 

 it; and the scribe, who at first didn't think 

 he would care for it as a gift, began to ques- 

 tion me about bees. I took their bantering 

 about "hayseeds" good-naturedly, and when 



one of them told me that he would buy some 



honey if I would vote for Governor at the 



next election, I told them that I was a Re- 

 publican, and that I had voted for Governor 



once; and that if they could tell me a 



single good thing he had ever done for the 

 farmers I would \ote for him again. They 

 laughed, and then I told them a good story 

 about the candidate for that year, and each 

 one bought a can of honey. The stenograph- 

 er in the next room stepped to the door and 

 said she wanted one can. .Just then a police- 

 man came up to inquire what was the ex- 

 citement and said, " AVell, if that is the case, 

 I will take two cans." 



Perseverance always helps in the sale of 

 honey; for if one can be induced to buy, 

 others will follow. Last fall my sales for 

 two months amounted to over 61 cwt. 



Seville, Ohio. 



DIFFERENCE IN BEES WHEN INTRODUCING. 



Introducing a New Queen Before the Bees Realize 

 the Loss of the Old One. 



BY SELVIUS J. MORRISON. 



I want to tell how I use the candy plan to 

 introduce queens without loss, into colonies 

 full of open brood. .Just at dusk I go to a 

 colony that I wish to requeen, and kill the 

 reigning queen, putting the new one at once 

 in a cage. I take one frame from the mid- 

 dle and put the cage with wire cloth next to 

 the comb on the bottom-bar, being sure that 

 the candy end of the cage touches the brood- 

 comb. The queen thus detects the ccmb 

 odor of hatching, and she is on the brood- 

 comb at once when released by the bees. 



As queen-cells are alw ays nearer the bot- 

 tom of the combs, I have found this the 

 best way to introduce queens. With this 

 method the bees hardly realize theii loss, 

 and very seldom build cells. Italians rare- 

 ly build cells. Blacks are the worst, for 

 they will do things that one does not like. 

 Carniolans and lianats are the best, as their 

 queens are accepted more quickly than 

 those of any other races I know of. I never 

 find a cell started in colonies where I have 

 put them. 



C'hico, Cal. 



The A. I. Root Co.: — I know but very little about 

 bees, my experience being only such as 1 received 

 from your A B C of Bee Culture, and from what ex- 

 perience I received from a nucleus which I bought 

 of you last ISlay, from which 1 took off 5(5 boxes of 

 very fine honey, which was only about half as much 

 as I should have received had not a drouth occur- 

 red in the middle of June, which burned up every 

 thing, and the honey-flow stopjjed, the fall not be- 

 ing much better. However, my 1910 bees went into 

 winter quarters in a ten-frame hive with every 

 frame full of honey, overflowing with young bees, 

 no swarm having issued from them, as I had given 

 them sufficient room. They came out this spring 

 in fine condition, being wintered on their summer 

 stand with but very little loss. They are now (May 

 10) doing well. 



Crafton, Pa. W. O. H. Elliott. 



