68 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April 



with good shingle roof and lock on 

 door. The hives were arranged for 

 storifying and I put on 30, 60 or 90 

 sections per colony as circum.stances 

 seemed to. indicate. The locality had 

 what I had not at home, the benefit of 

 a large range of red raspberry-blos- 

 soms. The only labor or expense of 

 the laud owner was to hive, the 

 swarm^s as they came off. as I could 

 not be with them much in vswarming 

 time. 



A verbal agreement between Mr. — 

 and myself as tO' his reAvard remained 

 unbroken and unqiiestioned for 16 or 

 17 years, until he sold his jiroperty 

 and moved from the place. The new 

 man knew nothing of bees, so I re- 

 turned them to the home yard and 

 sold the building to be used for other 

 purposes. But the enterprise was a 

 success. And the only reason I give 

 it here is the quite prevalent opin- 

 ion that house apiaries are a thing of 

 the past, and indeed as they used to' be 

 made, I think so myself. In such a 

 building as I have hastily tried to de- 

 scribe, the bees and honey are secure 

 from night prowlers, whether beast w 

 human. Cases of filled sections after 

 removal from hives can be piled up 

 where it is kept warm. I still use a 

 smaller house away from home that 

 holds but 20 colonies. I cannot too 

 highly recommend the house apiary if 

 properly constructed, and especially as 

 an out apiary and where the bee-mas- 

 ter can secure a suitable man to look 

 after the swarms that may issue. 



Before the inti'oduction of the one- 

 pound section I used a small frame 

 made of one-fourth inch pine lumber. 

 The frames were made to hold one 

 and two pounds and hung oiu rabbets, 

 but spread a little wider than brood 

 frames. In the sixties honey in such 

 frames brought 30 cents per pound. 

 It would lend a charm to bee-keeping 

 if such prices could still be realized. 

 It would also lend another charm if 

 the prices of bees and queens were 

 about what the.y were a third of a cen- 

 tury ago. In the early seventies 

 there was a brisk demand for Ital- 

 ian bees, and in one season I sold 

 $1,200 worth in full colonies and .$500 

 worth of Italian queens. I used 100 

 nucleus hives for the fertilization of 

 young queens; said hive held four and 

 some six of the two Twund sur]ilus 

 frames and a feeder to each little hive. 

 Queens brought $2 each when ferti- 



lized and full colonies $15 in oigh 

 frame L hives. Its a good thing, youn; 

 man, to have your dish right side uj 

 when tlie shower comes. The prevail 

 iiig prices at that time stimulated tb 

 rearing of bees and queens and com 

 petition brought the prices below Avha 

 they ever should have been, and bee 

 keepers, like some owners of othe 

 kinds of stocks, saw their suppose 

 wealth vanishing into thin air. 



But the pendulum swings on an 

 every fellow said, honey is an articl 

 of commerce, and the watchword was 

 get every pound possible, some worl 

 ing for comb and some for extracts 

 "Sling it every drop, and feed sugar ( 

 West Indian honey for winter stores." 

 The result could soon be seen, a pL 

 thora of the city markets. One coj 

 mission firm in one of our large 

 cities started the plan of putting 

 piece of comb honey in a glass vess 

 and then filling the vessel (or can)wi 

 something else" sold large quantit 

 both at home and in Europe. I 

 member one of their circulars shw 

 ing a large man with can under U 

 arm runnin.g at full speed showiii 

 No. 12 on the bottom of his shoe, wi' 

 these words: 

 "On wings of love my soul would S 

 From gToceree to grocery for honej 



The selling was all/ right and 

 would have cleared the markets 

 time if it had not been for the "son 

 thin,g else." 



HANDLING BEES AND TB 

 HONEY CROP "WITH PROFI 



The Most Extensive Bee-keeper in Micliigan T 

 IVIr. Johnson How to Do It. 



By E. D. Townsend. 



THE FEBRUARY BEE-KEEPI 

 is received, and I note what J. 

 .Tohnson says, pa.ge 25. about 1 

 in,g persuaded by the Bee-Keepers' I 

 view to "keep more bees," and how 

 had taken that advice to the extent 

 increasing five hundred per cent 

 two years, and harvestin.g a crop i 

 colony spi'ing count of 250 pounds o 

 season, and 64 1-2 ponnds the other 

 That is .good (?). I think after ref 

 in.g this report, we are all ready 

 admit that Mr. Johnson is a practii 

 up-to-date bee-keeper, as no tenderf(| 

 in the business would be likely to it 

 such results. In fact, all hl-s troiull 



