532 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL- 



Atig. 24. 1899. 



pound net. ••Can't buy g-enuine 

 honey in Cliicag-o I"' they say. A 

 little ridiculous, isn't it ? 



Some one will ask if I have 

 no competition in -sellinff honey. 

 Yes, but that doesn't matter 

 much. There is plenty of room, 

 and customers for all. Make a 

 reputation for square dealing and 

 selling a good article, and custo- 

 mers will wait for you. If some 

 one undersells you, and gets some 

 of j-our customers, never mind — 

 there is a very large market al- 

 most entirely undevelopt. 



Think of this matter, brother 

 bee-keepers. Plan to produce a 

 crop of good extracted honey 

 next season, and then get all 

 there is in it. Don't divide with 

 transportation companies or mid- 

 dlemen. A crop of extracted 

 honey is much surer than a crop 

 of comb, and, in most localities, 

 two or three times as great. Ask 

 a fair price for your honey (all 

 you can get is a fair price), and 

 adhere to it. It is much easier to 

 lower prices in a good year than 

 to raise them in a poor one. If there 



Jacob Huffiiij 



I large or small 

 crop of grain or fruit, every one knows it. Not so with 

 honey. --Gleanings in Bee-Culture. Van Buren Co.. Mich. 



Poor Apiarian Conditions in a Vermont County. 



BY G. W. FASSETT. 



EDITOR YORK :— I .send you a clipping from our local 

 paper for Aug. 4, which reads as follows : 



NO HOXEV THIS SE.\SON. 



The lonjr drouth in June had an indirect resuU on oni- Addison 

 countj- industry not noted at the time— honey-producinir. (i. W. Fassett. 

 of this place, who owns UK) colonies of bees, informs us that he will 

 secure only about 500 pounds of honey this year. He notes the fact tliat 

 Ij. O. Thompson, wlio last year secured 13 to'.is. will have none tiiis sea- 

 son, and J. E. Crane, who 'marketed 14 tons in 1S')S, will j,ret about 5<'(i 

 pounds this year. The two latter gentlemen will have to feed their bi-es 

 until ne.vt spring, and this will require about eij^ht tons of sugar each. 

 This season has been the worst Mr. Fassett has ever known, and he has 

 been a bee-keeper since his youth. The five largest bee-keepers in Addi- 

 son County are J. E. Crane," L. O. Thompson, V. V. Blackmer. R. H. 

 Holmes, and W. G. Larrabee. Together they own about 2,000 colonies of 

 bees, or one-third of all owned in the county. Last season over loO tons 

 of honey were shipt out of Addison County: this year there is not enough 

 for home demand. In some parts of the county owners for several weeks 

 have been feeding their bees to keep them from st.arving. Reports of 

 actual starvation have been received. It is .a notable fact that the worst 

 season for maple sugar Vermont lias experienced in many years should 

 be coincident with a like failure in honey-producing. 



In addition to the above I would say that our county is 

 small, and contains quite a variety of soil and climate for 

 so small a territory. The western part lies on Lake Cham- 

 plain, and extends east over the range of Green Mountains. 

 The loss in bees last winter in the mountain towns was 

 over 50 percent, and in -the towns not over 10 or 15 percent. 

 The earlj' spring promist fair ; bees filled their hives with 

 both honey and brood ; clover lookt as fine as I ever saw, 

 but it came on dry, and the clover did not yield honey 

 enough to keep the bees from starving; only a few bee- 

 keepers put on an)' sections. One of the largest bee-keepers 

 said he put on a few supers to see if the bees would draw 

 out the foundation. He said they did. /. c. they drew most 

 of it out of the sections. 



When the clover failed then all the bee-folks lookt for- 

 ward to the basswood bloom for their surplus honey. (We 

 get verv little fall honey.) Basswood blossomed full, all 

 the little trees were full of blossoms, and I am at a loss to 

 know what kind of weather it needs to make basswood 

 yield nectar. We have a long spell of basswood bloom from 

 the lowland to the height of the mountains where the bass- 

 wood grows, and we had all kinds of weather. There came 

 plenty of rain, but no honey; then cool weather followed 

 by more hot and dry weather, but no honey in the basswood. 

 which means a good many dead colonies before next spring. 

 And not only that, but there will be a good many tons of 

 sugar fed to keep bees from starving. 



It has been a hard season for those that make a practice 

 of requeening their bees ; they have had to feed to get the 



' .', hiiilt ivil/i one season's Honey Proceeds. 



bees to build queen-cells, and have also had to feed to get 

 the bees to rear drones. 



be;es starved for waxt of poi.lex. 



I see on page 450, Prof. Cook speaks of some finding 

 dead brood in hives with plenty of stores. We find it in 

 hives with plenty of honey, but fail to find pollen in the 

 hive, and I think it is starved brood, the same as when 

 there is no honey. Addison Co.. Vt.. -\ug. 8. 



Mr. Jacob Huffman and Apiary. 



Wisconsin is one of the great honey-producing States 

 of our country. A few weeks ago we gave a picture of Miss 

 Pickard's apiary, and this week another. Mr. Huft'man'has 

 this to say about it and his work with the bees : 



The view of the bee-)-ard shown here was taken with- 

 out any preparation whatever, shortly after taking the bees 

 from their winter quarters. I would have been glad if the 

 \'iew could have been taken a month later in the season, if 

 to be placed in the American Bee Journal. 



I have been in the bee-business about 25 years, begin- 

 ning upon a small .scale, and I consider myself as yet an 

 amateur. I have had successes and also .some small fail- 

 ures. There have been years that I have realized more 

 clear profit from my bees than oft the farm. Those who 

 have followed bee-keeping understand that we have occa- 

 sionally dry seasons, and sometimes those too wet to rea- 

 lize a profit. Only one sca.son in my experience was feed- 

 ing for winter found necessary. 



The illustration of the barn will give an idea of my 

 profit for the year 1885. 



In my immediate locality the honey season is much 

 shorter than it was a few years ago. Basswood, which is 

 one of the best honey-producers, has been cut off. as the 

 timber is being cleared away, and farms are everywhere 

 instead. It has become necessary for bee-keepers to be 

 ready for the honey sea.son if they expect any surplus as 

 a recompense for their labor. The prospect for this year is 

 not so flattering, but considering the hard winter we past 

 thrit, I am very thankful for present prospects. 



Green Co..' Wis. Jacob Hcffmax. 



In further explanation we might add that the year Mr. 

 Huffman's honey crop paid for his nice barn, 36x40 feet, he 

 had 140 colonies, which produced 14.000 pounds of extracted 

 and 6,000 pounds of comb honej', which sold for SI. 280. 



In the first picture Mr. Huffman is shown operating a 

 McCartney section-press and foundation-fastener. The 

 building at the left is an old house used as a shop, and the 

 one near the left is an extracting-house located in the cen- 

 ter of the apiary. 



Wc had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Huft'tnan at an 



