8 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



very well — in fact, had deserted her 

 hive. It seems tljat he had put her 

 with the few bees sent with her in the 

 ruailina; cage, into a large, cracked 

 box into which he had fastened a one- 

 pound section containing comb, but 

 no honey. He said that there were 

 just 9 bees with her, and that he 

 thought 4 of these were a plenty to 

 stay with the queen while the other 

 5 went out to gather honey and wax ! 



At the risk of incurring the charge 

 of being " enthusiastic " in regard to 

 the immense protits to be derived 

 from purchasing bees by the pound, I 

 will close by giving an extract from 

 a letter received from an Iowa custo- 

 mer; it soimds a little extravagant, 

 but it is by no means an uncommon 

 report— he probably had an extra 

 good run of honey. Here it is : 



"I kept 11 of those one-pound 

 nuclei, put each into a full-sized 

 chaff hive with empty combs ; this is 

 all the help they had, except a little 

 feed when they tirst came, and a little 

 foundation. "They tilled up their 

 hives, increased to -0 good, strong 

 colonies, and gave me about 400 

 pounds of nice comb honey. A swarm 

 from one of them took the tirst pre- 

 mium (§10) at our District Fair." 



Kansas City,+o ilo. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Nortlieasterii Kansas Coiiyentiou, 



The annual meeting of the North- 

 eastern Kansas Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation was held in the Court House 

 at Hiawatha, Kans., on Dec. 11, 188-5, 

 Pres. J. W. Margrave in the chair. 

 The minutes of the previous meeting 

 were read and approved, after wliich 

 experiences in keeping bees were ex- 

 changed, which was interesting to all. 



>Ir. II. J. Ward gave his method of 

 producing comb honey. The colony 

 should first be in good working con- 

 dition—strong in bees- as soon as 

 possible. He prefers to have them 

 swarm, as he can get more honey 

 from the first or prime swarm than 

 from a colony that does not swarm. 

 He hives the swarm on combs or full 

 sheets of foundation, or i)uts them 

 in with a weak colony. He places 

 the section-cases on immediately, and 

 uses a slotted honey-board; as but 

 few queens go through the two bee- 

 spaces to lay in the sections, he 

 thinks that a bee-space should not be 

 more than 5-16 of an inch. He uses 

 tin separators, and puts full sheets of 

 foundation in the sections. 



Mr. M. J. Dickason said that the 

 production of extracted honey is more 

 profitable than comb honey, as he can 

 get from two to three times as much 

 extracted honey as comb honey, and 

 at no greater expense or labor. By 

 way of example he said that two 2- 

 frame nuclei, being last spring as 

 nearly equal in all conditions as pos- 

 sible, both having productive queens 

 and active workers, were built up and 

 seemed to work with equal vigor; 

 one of them produced .S.i pounds of 

 comb honey, which at 20 cents per 

 l)ound amounts to $7; the other pro- 

 duced 140 pounds of fine extracted 



honey, which, at 10 cents per pound, 

 amounts to $14, or if retailed at 1.5 

 cents per pound, would amount to $21, 

 or three times as much as the first; 

 colony. 



Mr. .J. W. Margrave made a few 

 excellent remarks on marketing 

 honey. He would first try to have 

 the home market consume all that he 

 could produce. Comb honey should 

 be in one-pound sections, and ex- 

 tracted honey m attractive packages 

 from 1 to 10 pounds each, and be 

 peddled the same as market gardeners 

 peddle their produce. When people 

 refuse to buy, he would leave a sam- 

 ple of honey and Leafiets, " Why Eat 

 Honey," and " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine." and then he would be 

 almost sure of a sale the next time. 

 Once a customer, always a customer — 

 if honey is sold at a reasonable price ; 

 if held so high as to be considered a 

 luxury, but few sales will be made. 

 He said that bee-keepers should com- 

 bine and hold honey of the same 

 grade at uniform prices, and prevent 

 a glut of honey in the home markets. 



Mr. H. .J. Ward does not believe in 

 combinations, and said that only poor 

 honey can glut the market. He sells 

 all the first-class honey that he can 

 produce, at a fixed price, and sells no 

 inferior honey. In this way he has 

 built up a reputation for honest goods, 

 end does not need to reduce his price 

 in order to sell. 



Mr. T. B. Dickason, in speaking of 

 wintering bees, said that the best 

 place is the cellar, and that enough is 

 saved by cellar-wintering to iuore 

 than pay the cost of handling. If no 

 cellar were near, he would raise the 

 hive on a section-case so that if dead 

 bees should fall they would not clog 

 the entrance, and also to give better 

 ventilation. He would invert a 

 honey-board over the hive, place a 

 porous cloth on the honey-board, and 

 then a section-case, and fill the case 

 with leaves or chaff ; also give outside 

 protection. He put his bees on shelves 

 in a cellar, so that any one hive could 

 be moved independently of the rest. 

 He raises the hive on a'band 2 inelies 

 high, and turned the entrances to the 

 wall to exclude light, puts on an in- 

 verted honey-board to give double 

 bee-space over the combs, and leaves 

 the hive-cover on if the temperature 

 of the cellar is at 40" or less. 



]\Iessrs. J. A. Johnson, J. W. Mar- 

 grave, C. B. Weaver, and others, pro- 

 tect their bees on the summer stands. 



The question arose as to how much 

 honey is needed to winter the average 

 colony, the opinion prevailing that 2.5 

 pounds is little enough ; and as to best 

 method of increase, natural swarming 

 was prefered. 



Mr. C. B. Weaver asked, " In what 

 sized sections is the nicest combs 

 secured V" lie favors the 4>4x4}^ and 

 1}4 inches wide. 



ilessrs. T. B. and M. J. Dickason 

 also prefer that size. They dispense 

 with separators, and get nice, straight, 

 well filled combs, which average 

 about 12 ounces, and more of tliem 

 are sold at 1.5 cents than full pound 

 sections at 20 cents. They thought 

 that being narrower, they are filled 

 and sealed much more quickly, and 



are consequently more salable than 

 combs in 2-inch sections, which are 

 apt to be bulged. 



Mr. H. J. Ward uses tin separators 

 and wide sections, and likes them 

 very much. He never used the nar- 

 row sections. 



An election of officers was then held 

 resulting as follows : President, Ilinim 

 J. Ward, of Farmington, Kans ; Vice- 

 President, J. A. .Johnson, of Everest ; 

 Treasurer, T. B. Dickason, and Sec- 

 retary, M. J. Dickason, of Hiawatha. 



A motion then prevailed to send a 

 condensed report of the meeting to 

 the AMEiiiCAN Bee Journal and to 

 OleaninQs, after which the convention 

 adjourned to meet upon the call of 

 the executive committee. 



M. J. Dickason, Sec. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



How I Managed jnyjees last Season. 



JNO. A. THORNTON, (74—108). 



On June 1, 188.5, I had 74 colonies of 

 bees, some in splendid condition and 

 some in poor condition for honey- 

 gathering. Forty of the best ones 

 were supplied with surplus arrange- 

 ments for producing comb honey ; the 

 balance for extracted honey. Thirty- 

 three of the colonies worked for comb 

 honey cast one swarm each, while 

 only one colony cast a swarm of those 

 that were worked for extracted honey, 

 and that was caused by the removal 

 of their queen and not getting another 

 properly introduced. 



The yield of clover honey ceased 

 on July 1, and during the forepart of 

 June the weather was very bad for 

 honey-gathering, so I secured only 

 about 2,000 pounds of white honey ; 

 the basswood failed altogether. 



During the latter part of August, 

 and until Sept. 1 or 2, it was cool and 

 rainy, but when nice weather came 

 again, the bees commenced work, 

 and filled their brood-chambers and 

 stored 2,000 pounds more of surplus 

 honey of good quality and light in 

 color, and for which I always secure 

 as good a price as for clover "honey. 



From the 40 colonies worked for 

 comb honey, I secured only 1,800 one- 

 pound sections suitable for market, 

 while from the 34 weak colonies, and 

 increase, were taken something over 

 2,200 pounds of extracted honey." The 

 swarms were left on the old stands 

 with the brood-combs removed, and 

 supplied with empty frames or full 

 sheets of foundation. Right here let 

 me say that the swarms that were 

 hived "on empty frames stored the 

 most honey in the sections, at the 

 first ; but when the fall \ ield came, 

 the ones that were hived on full 

 sheets of foundation, stored almost 

 all the crop in sections, while those 

 swarms that were hived on empty 

 frames stored nearly all the honey 

 below, and built about one-half of 

 their frames full of drone-comb, while 

 the colonies supplied with full sheets 

 of foundation had their frames full of 

 nice worker-comb and clover honey 

 for winter. 



I increased my apiary to 108 colo- 

 nies, which are on the summer stands, 



