AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL- 



SOS 



their favor, which I had partly over- 

 looked until I obtained these black bees 

 for these experiments. 



I am well aware that this trait of the 

 black bees makes it easier to take the 

 combs free of bees when working for 

 extracted honey, yet I could not think 

 of tolerating this "running nuisance" 

 for the sake of getting them off the 

 combs a little more easily, especially 

 now that we have the bee-escapes, which 

 largely do away with this shaking of 

 bees off the combs. 



In only one thing do the black bees 

 excel the Italians, according to my ex- 

 perience, that is, they will cap their 

 combs a little whiter than any other 

 race or variety of bees with which I am 

 acquainted ; but they use much more 

 wax in doing it, so that, while the combs 

 look prettier, there is a loss in wax to 

 nearly balance the looks. 



The claim that they enter the surplus 

 apartment more easily than any of the 

 other races, has no weight with me, for, 

 with my management, any of the varie- 

 ties do 'hot hesitate to go into the sec- 

 tions as soon as honey is to be had from 

 the fields in sufficient quantity for prac- 

 tical work there. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Honey Prospects and Marieting. 



THOS. JOHNSON. 



In answer to several inquiries regard- 

 ing the prospects for honey, etc., I will 

 say that I have written to several East- 

 ern bee-keepers, and but few have an- 

 swered, so I have taken for granted that 

 silence means that they have no surplus 

 honey. One man from Ohio says that 

 he has no surplus, but expects to get 

 enough honey for his bees to winter on. 



After watching the reports from dif- 

 ferent sections of the country, I sum it 

 up in this way : 



Minnesota, Iowa and Northern Mis- 

 souri had a white clover flow of honey, 

 but not much linden and basswood. 

 Bees worked two days in this locality on 

 linden, then the south winds began to 

 blow, and soon cooked the bloom until 

 it did not furnish much nectar. 



In regard to prices for white clover 

 honey, I would say to those that have 

 had the good luck to secure a first-class 

 article, they need not be alarmed but 

 that they will receive a good price for 

 the same, because there is less quantity 

 on the market this year than in 1891. 

 If this is not true, then the reports 



which I have received through corres- 

 pondence and through the different bee- 

 papers are not true. 



Some three weeks ago I took 144 

 sections of comb honey and three dozen 

 3-pound Mason jars of extracted honey 

 to Guthrie Center, and they offered me 

 12% cents a pound for comb honey, but 

 they did not want extracted honey at 

 any price. They said that they were 

 buying at 12% cents, and selling at 15 

 cents per pound. 



I then made arrangements with a 

 bakery firm to sell the 3-pound Mason 

 jars at 50 cents each, and told them 

 that if they could sell the comb honey a* 

 18 cents per section, to sell it ; and if 

 not, to let it stand until fall, and then it 

 would sell at 20 cents per pound. 



Ten days after I left the honey, I was 

 there, and I intended to bring it home, 

 but lo, and behold ! he had sold over 40 

 sections of the comb honey, and about 

 half of the Mason jars of the extracted 

 honey. 



Now, the reader will like to know why 

 my honey sells for 3 cents per pound 

 more on the market than the honey of 

 other bee-men. I will say that I first 

 select the best and whitest sections that 

 I can find for sale, and brand them with 

 my own perfect brand, when the bees 

 fill them with honey. On some cool 

 morning I scrape all the propolis from 

 them, and after I am through with my 

 honey, they look as clean and neat as 

 when I prepared them for the bees, ex- 

 cept the nice, clean honey that adorns 

 the inside of them. How often have I 

 heard this expression made when I have 

 been exhibiting the honey for the mar- 

 ket : " That is the cleanest and whitest 

 honey I ever saw !" 



Now, fellow bee-keepers, it is just as 

 easy to prepare your honey clean as to 

 pack it in a haphazard shape, as many 

 of the bee-keepers do in this part of the 

 country, and I suppose all over the 

 United States. I know very well a bee- 

 keeper, who ; for the last six years, has 

 had no honey to speak of, and a few 

 days before I took my honey to Guthrie 

 Centre he brought his from the southern 

 part of the county, but all he asked was 

 12% cents. The groceryman told him 

 that he would buy it, if he would clean 

 the propolis from the sections, so at it he 

 went, in the store. Think of it, the 

 thermometer registering 90°, and an 

 experienced apiarist in a grocery store 

 cleaning sections of honey ! If it had 

 been down to about 50°, I think the 

 groceryman would have had a nice lot 

 of groceries to sell customers afterwards. 



