AUGUST 1, lyib 



Heads of Grain From Different Fields 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER 



Beats all, the way the bees are working this sum- 

 mer. Mother says she don't know what to do, for 

 the artist hasn't left enough space in this picture for 

 more than two more supers. 



Bees an Aid to Honey Sales. 



A public demonstration in front of a 

 grocery, showing a case of bees, with an 

 interesting continuous talker on the life of 

 the bee, will always draw a crowd of inter- 

 ested listeners who will take the wonderful 

 statements of the beeman and tell these 

 tales to theii' friends, that they may come, 

 see. and hear. 



The queen will always be found interest- 

 ing, and the people will want to see her. The 

 wonders of nature interest people when they 

 can get the knowledge in an easy way. Some 

 will go to the books to verify the state- 

 ments. Should the sample of honey please, 

 they come for more and for a larger quan- 

 tity. Then they give some to their friends, 

 and tell of the wonderful find. 



The talker explains that the bees visit 

 flowers, gather nectar, which, before being 

 placed in the comb, must be evaporated- — 

 that is. ripened l)y the heat of the hive, and 

 all water removed. 



Groceries are poor places to sell honey, as 

 the clerks lack the int&cest and energy to 

 talk friendly with the public, and never 

 know enough to tell of the food value of 

 honey nor to keep the honey and jars look- 

 ing bright and clean so as to be inviting. 

 Therefore honey is sold only to regular 

 users, and they gradually fall away. 



Labels, to be a help to honey sales, should 

 be plain, as a beeman 's work should look. 

 Flashy labels give the appearance of a man- 

 ufactured article, and the government guar- 

 antee has a wrong effect on sales. 



One of the largest packers of honey in Los 

 Angeles twentj' years ago sold from the 60- 

 Ib. can, but was induced to pack in jars. 

 Now his sales are $50 a day, or 1000 cases a 

 year. Every jar sold makes a friend of the 

 buyer, and is a standing advertisement for 

 the store — a powerful aid in the develop- 

 ment of the business generally. 



Los Angeles, Gal. , S. K. Bennett. 



This Plan would Sell Honey Anywhere. 



Last September I had a lot of extracted 

 honey left over — ripe, rich, and fragrant, but 

 very dark. T should have been glad to get 

 5 cents a pound for it; but I sold it all for 

 about 8 cents a pound, and could have sold 

 more. This is how I did it: 



I took about three dollars ' worth of short 

 advertisements in three local papers, and 

 paid for them in honey (extracted) at ten 

 cents. I suggested that the readers would 

 be interested in the strange natural history 

 of the honeybee, and the papers gave me all 

 the space I wanted. 



I also shipped some to Mobile, and spoke 

 to the editors of the Register, one of the 

 biggest and best papers in the South, and 

 they were glad to get the articles. Then I 

 gave the sale to just one firm which adver- 

 tised the fact, and the honey soon vanished. 

 It was only a few hundred pounds all to- 

 gether, but the experience was illuminating. 



Mobile, Ala. H. A. Moody, M. D. 



Cells Completely Covered with Comb. 



I had prepared a Hoffman fi-ame for rais- 

 ing some queens from brood of two choice 

 queens. The frame had a strip of brood 

 foundation in the upper part, then a thin 

 bar about midway, coated with wax on 

 which the cell cups were fastened with wax. 

 Royal jelly was put in each, and young 

 larvro introduced as near two-day larvse as 

 I could get. Just as I got the bar prepared, 

 a large swarm came from one of my best 

 hives. I had trouble in getting it, because 

 it settled in the fork of an apple-tree. I 

 sprayed the bees with water and removed 

 two-thirds of them into a half-bushel basket, 

 and emptied them in front of a colony with 

 queen-cells only. Most of the bees refused 

 to go in. The queen must have gone in but 

 was killed. Within two hours practically all 

 the bees of the swarm had gone back to the 

 old stand. It was a bouncing colony. I 

 opened it up carefully, cut out every queen - 

 cell, and introduced my queen-cell frame. I 

 thought I had a choice place. The next 

 morning the bees had drawn out six cells 

 beautifully, and the larva? had tripled in 



