442 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cost of cle<ining and repairing tliem 

 (■without talking about selling the 

 cans by weight at the same price as 

 the honey), and would agree not to 

 sell any Iioney unless this demand was 

 complied with, they might accomplish 

 their object, although I well know 

 that it is very diflicult, if not impossi- 

 ble, to get a large body of men, com- 

 peting with, and more or less jealous 

 of each other, to sign such an agree- 

 ment ; and without concerted action 

 it would be useless to try this remedy. 



But there is, in my opinion, a better 

 way of doing it. "Producers of pre- 

 served fruit, meats, fish and other 

 canned goods, as vyell as of wine, j 

 tobacco and many other articles which i 

 enter into the daily consumption of 

 the public, do not place their wares : 

 on the market in bulk. True, some ! 

 of the articles are re-handled by pack- : 

 ing tirms, but many of them are put ' 

 up in retail packages by the producers ; 

 themselves. Why cannot the bee- 

 men do the same ?" They have a large 

 amount of leisure time during the 

 winter which might be well employed 

 in making cans. They are all used 

 to handling the soldering iron. and. 

 with a little practice, can do such 

 work as well as a professional tinner. 

 Material in the flat can be procured j 

 at one-half the cost of ready-made 

 cans, and. considering the small bulk, 

 at much less freight. For sealing- 1 

 wax, made of equal parts of rosin and 

 beeswax, with which to close the 

 cans, they have one-half the material 

 at home and do not need to buy it. 



I will give a little of my own ex- 

 perience when I first settled in this 

 part of the State. I put most of my 

 honey up in new ten-pound, screw- 

 top cans, charging 25 cents extra for 

 each can, as the actual cost of the 

 cans laid down here. I never heard 

 any complaint of this extra charge, as 

 I advertised that customers ruight 

 bring their own vessels, and thus 

 avoid paying for the can. But after 

 awhile the honey would granulate, 

 and some would object to the trouble 

 of melting it. or the difficulty of get- 

 ting the liquid, but thick honey out of 

 the can in cold weather, while others 

 who preferred the candied honey, dis- 

 liked cutting the can and thereby 

 spoiling it for future use. To obviate 

 this trouble I adopted the "Jones' 

 honey cans," made like ordinary fruit 

 cans, having a large cover which can 

 be secured with sealing wax. As be- 

 fore, I charge the cost of the cans, 

 get fair wages for my time and work 

 In putting them up, and obtain a liv- 

 ing price for my honey. As the cans, 

 after being ernptied, are useful for 

 preserving fruit, and for many other 

 purposes, nobody objects to "paying 

 for them. The handsome labels, with 

 which the cans are adorned, no doubt 

 help the sales considerably, and my 

 name and address on the label are a 

 guarantee that the contents are as 

 represented, and not adulterated. 

 Some may put up honey in irregular 

 sizes of second-hand, picked-up cans, 

 and a certain class of customers will 

 buy them, thinking that— the contents 

 being the same— it does not matter 

 about the style of the can, if they can 

 get it a little cheaper. But the ma- 



jority will insist upon having my 

 lioney, because the irregular style 

 and size of the package assure them 

 that they get what they pay for. 



The sizes, which I have found most 

 suitable for the retail trade, are 2}4 

 and o-pound cans, the difference in 

 favor of either being almost impercep- 

 tible. I have shipped such cans in cases 

 holding a dozen of the former, or one- 

 half dozen of the latter, by team, rail 

 and pack-animals, without any loss 

 by breakage or leakage; and, as the 

 honey always granulates here in the 

 fall, there would he no danger, even 

 if the sealing-wax should get broken. 

 For home storage, or when short of 

 small cans. I use 60pound cans, but 

 never sell any unless ordered or called 

 for at the apiary. If the bee keepers 

 as a class would follow my example, 

 I am sure they would have the same 

 experience to the mutual satisfaction 

 of themselves an<l the public at large. 

 Let them once agree to use a- few 

 standard sizes of small packages, and, 

 when found suitable for their market, 

 forever after strictly adhere to them, 

 and I have no doubt that they will 

 wonder at and regret that they did 

 not try it long ago, and thereby es- 

 tablish a good reputation, a lively 

 demand and a fair price for the honey. 



Independence, Cal. 



Norfolk, Ont., Convention. 



The 14th regular meeting of the 

 above association was held in Simcoe, 

 Out., on .June 7. The 1st Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Moses A. Kitchen, in the 

 chair. The minutes of the last meet- 

 ing were read and adopted. 



Questions were answered as follows: 



1. Which is the better for bees, dur- 

 ing the time of breeding, honey or 

 pollen V After a full discussion, it 

 was decided that both are absolutely 

 necessary. 



2. What is the cause of so many 

 bees leaving their hive in the spring V 

 There are various causes ; but the 

 principle one is a need of supplies. 



3. When a colony finds itself oueen- 

 less, and then rears a queen of its 

 own, is it advisable to leave this 

 queen with the colony ? No ; for 

 when the bees find that they are with- 

 out a queen, they are sure to set about 

 rearing one from a larva already S or 

 9 days old, and which has previously 

 received no special nourishment ; and 

 the result is sure to be an imperfectly- 

 developed queen. 



The next question that came before 

 the association, was one concerning 

 adulterated honey. Some one had 

 said that a bee-keeper liad placed 

 adulterated honey on tlie market. A 

 sample of the article being produced, 

 was examined by experts, and pro- 

 nounced to be undulterated, but of an 

 inferior quality ; having been gath- 

 ered late in the season, and not prop- 

 erly ripened. 



After discussing other matters, the 

 meeting adjourned to meet at 2 p. m. 

 on Saturday, Sept. 6, at the residence 

 of Mr. Moses A. Kitchen, on the 

 gravel road between Bloomsburg and 

 Waterford. All are cordially invited 

 to attend. Elias Clouse. Sec. 



Wih'iXt and Uotu. 



ANSWERS BY 



fames Htddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



How to Clean Barrels for Honey. 



I have some liarrels to clean, and I 

 have been trying to clean them with 

 hot water, but I cannot get the smell 

 out of them. Would whisky Ijarrels 

 need to be free from smell so as not to 

 injure honey '? Can wine barrels or 

 other barrels be cleaned through the 

 bung hole so as not to sour or" taste 

 the honey V The spring has been very 

 poor for bees in this part of the laud. 

 We had a veiT heavy frost and killed 

 all the fruit bloom." Bees wintered 

 well here last w inte. Geo. Kemp. 



Navan, Ont. 



Answer.— Yes ; hot water persisst- 

 ently used will cleanse .vour barrels 

 fit for honey. 



Why do the Bees do so? 



On the 19th we had a swarm from 

 one of our hives, and on the 26th we 

 cut out all the queen-cells but one ; 

 to-day the bees acted, for quite awhile, 

 as if they were going to swarm, flying 

 in and oiit of the hive, making quite 

 a noise. Please tell me the cause of 

 this commotion. A Novice. 



Jerseyville, 111., June 30, 1884. 



Answer.— I think that you must 

 have left a second cell, orelse the bees 

 concluded that they must have one, 

 and thought of swarming with the 

 queen that hatched. 



Swarming Fever. 



Bees are now working lively on 

 white clover, of which we have an 

 abundance. Where allowed to swarm 

 they are making good use of it. One 

 of my neighbors had one colony that 

 swarmed and returned five times, 

 having been hived 2 or 3 times. The 

 owner is a beginner in bee-keeping, 

 and did not imderstand how to man- 

 age them to save such trouble. I was 

 there the other morning, and they 

 were hanging out in abundance. I 

 told him if the queen could be found 

 the colony could be divided so as to 

 make it the same as if it had done its 

 own swarming. So we went at it and 

 found a mystery that I would like to 

 to have solved." We found plenty of 

 queen-cells in different stages of de- 

 velopment, but could find no queen, 

 and the age of the brood showed that 

 there had been no laying queen for 4 

 or 5 days, for there w'as no eggs nor 

 fresh hatched larvse. It had swarmed 

 the day before, and I believe every 

 day preceding for •") days. So we di- 

 vided it by making a division of the 

 bees, giving eacli part some queen- 

 cells, supposing the queen was lost. 

 But to our surprise, the next day, the 

 part that contained the greater part 

 of the bees swarmed again; it being 

 the part that was set away, and the 

 part that we supposed contained the 



