822 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sudden jerk and the remaining bees 

 will immediately roll out. If tlie 

 work is done rightly, I think it is the 

 quickest and best "method of hiving 

 bees, as there is no smashing of bees, 

 no trees to climb, and the bees can be 

 carried as far as desired. A bee- 

 keeper, to whom I described my 

 swarm -catcher, and whom I induced 

 to try it, told me that if the box were 

 put up among the flying bees as soon 

 as the swarm issues, in nine cases out 

 of ten, they would cluster in it. 

 Taylor Centre,©^ Mich. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Honey Production and Consumption. 



WJI. CA3I3I. 



I wish that Mr. Ileddon would 

 turn his attention to economics for a 

 year or so before he waites another 

 article such as that on page 750, in 

 which he advises us to cease con- 

 demning and exposing adulterations. 

 Indeed, it would be well if all of us 

 would remember that we cannot, as a 

 class, have the world all to ourselves ; 

 but we must share the fortunes and 

 the fate of all otlier classes. 



Economics should be considered 

 under three divisions or heads, viz : 

 production, distribution, and con- 

 sumption. Bee-keepers liave an im- 

 munity in the lirst division wliich no 

 other class, unless it be Hshermen, 

 can be said to enjoy ; but in the divis- 

 ion of distribution, they have a privi- 

 lege which other classes have not, 

 only in some places ; while in the 

 third division, consumption, they 

 meet a drawback whicli neutralizes 

 every advantage that they otherwise 

 possess. 



We produce only that we may con- 

 sume. To increase consumption is 

 to encourage production ; to limit 

 consumption, discourages production. 

 We have, like every other class, done 

 all we could to increase the produc- 

 tion of honey ; we have done some- 

 thing to induce others to consume ; 

 but we have done nothing to enable 

 others to buy. I have not yet sold a 

 pound of honey in a city market, but 

 have done all I could to develop the 

 local market in the country and town 

 about me, and I have found that my 

 best customers were not the wealthy 

 with plenty to spend, but the working 

 men and women, whose consumption 

 was limited by their wages, or their 

 ability to buy ; and I have naturally 

 asked myself how it was that those 

 whose labor moved the world, were 

 forced to stint themselves in buying 

 what is usually considered a luxury, 

 but which, when healthfulness is con- 

 sidered, may be regarded as a neces- 

 sity. 



To-day there are tens of thousands 

 out of employment ; and, on account 

 of their enforced idleness, unable to 

 obtain even the necessaries of life, 

 to s-iy nothing of luxuries; but in 

 looking over the division of produc- 

 tion, I hnd notlung lacking; tliere is 

 the labor, and here is the land ; and 

 all wealth is produced by the applica- 

 tion of labor to land. Our ware- 

 houses and granaries are so full that 



superficial thinkers are crying out 

 over-production. There can be no 

 such thing as over-production, though 

 relative over-production there may be, 

 and now is. Some men have labored, 

 some have not ; and those who have 

 been idle have no products to ex- 

 change with those who have worked ; 

 hence those who have produced 

 honey, or corn, or pork, say that there 

 is too much produced; while those 

 who get no remunerative employment 

 say not enough is produced, and that 

 bread and meat are beyond their 

 reach ; while such a luxury as honey 

 they dare not think of. Consumption 

 being thus limited, production be- 

 comes profitless because exchange is 

 forestalled. Now, where is the 

 trouble ? 



After all oiu' boasting it is clear 

 that we could not attain to half the 

 population per square mile which 

 China has supported for centuries, 

 so bad are our laws of distribution 

 that thousands and tens of thousands 

 are forced into want and suffering 

 while ware-rooms and elevators are 

 crammed. 



I have just taken my last honey to 

 market ; it went to grocerymen al- 

 most under the shadow of a woolen 

 factory ; the last two crates went to 

 a man to whom I have never sold be- 

 fore, and who whistled when I named 

 the price. Behind us stood a factory 

 woman, and the grocer, lifting a sec- 

 tion and turning it before her, " How 

 pretty !"' The woman looked at it 

 longingly, and in a soliloquizing voice, 

 as though her thoughts reverted re- 

 gretfully to her children, " O ! how 

 nice !" But she did not buy. My 

 wife wanted some blankets which I 

 could not afford to buy. Here was 

 producer and consumer face to face, 

 but there was a barrier Ijetween them. 

 What was that liarrier V She wanted 

 honey, and though she made blankets, 

 she could not afford it ; I wanted 

 blankets, and produced honey, but 

 could not exchange. Why y Our 

 landlords wanted neither honey nor 

 blankets, but money, and we had to 

 raise that before we could supply our 

 own necessities. 



I have long ago learned why our 

 system of distribution was so bad. 

 Dealing in a local market, and often 

 directly with the consumers, my own 

 neighbors, with whose circumstances I 

 was more orlessacquainted,! sawthat 

 it was the price that productive 

 labor had to pay to non-productive 

 ownership that constituted the barrier 

 between producer and consumer, and 

 which rises as fast as we approximate 

 those conditions which we are all 

 striving to gain. Carlyle has put it 

 well : '" A widow is gathering nettles 

 for her children's diimer ; a perfumed 

 seignior, delicately longing on an 

 (Ell de Bceiif. hath an alchemy where- 

 by he will extract from her the third 

 nettle, and call it rent." 



To eliminate the unearned incre- 

 ment, rent, is the task before us. It 

 is easy to do where once the evil is 

 pointed out, but I am glad that bee- 

 keepers cannot do it by themselves, 

 but join with every other producing 

 class to effect the reform. I wish that 

 every periodical would devote a rea- 



sonable space to economics. Until 

 we do something in this direction, we 

 are only beating our brains against a 

 wall. I have more trouble and 

 anxiety indisposing of my honey than 

 I have in producing it. Should I suc- 

 ceed in getting a competency, or 

 something more, I must use it in 

 preying upon others as I am now 

 preyed upon. I shall continue to con- 

 demn adulteration and fraud, and 

 I desire no knowledge which iS 

 not as good for my neighbor as for 

 myself ; but I shall hereafter devote 

 more time to the removal of the evil 

 which robs me and every worker in 

 the human " hive " of more than half 

 of what my labor produces. 

 Murrayville,'KD 111., Dec. 13, 1884. 



For the Amertcan Bee Journal. 



Rearing and Introducing ftueens. 



C. W. DAYTON, 114. 



As I am a stickler for business- 

 queens, and believe the best if not 

 the only practical method for the 

 honey-producer to obtain them, is by 

 the swarming-impulse, early in the 

 season, I begin building up a few 

 colonies in order to obtain early 

 queen-cells. Soon after I lind the first 

 capped queen-cell, I divide an ordi- 

 narily populous colony by inserting a 

 division-board near the centre of the 

 brood-nest, which causes queen-cells 

 to be built on the part not containing 

 the queen. This colony I use as a 

 queen-nursery. 



As the first swarms issue, I hive 

 them on empty combs in hives on the 

 old stands, and after taking the queen- 

 cells from the combs in the old hives, 

 I put them into the cellar for a couple 

 of days, after which I unite as much 

 of them as is advisable, with the 

 swarms, and use what is left where it 

 is most needed. I fasten the queen- 

 cells into cages which I tie in bundles 

 and place (with the cells pointing 

 downward) under the enameled cloth 

 of the nursery-colony, after withdraw- 

 ing the division-board. This prepares 

 the nursery-colony to accept an un- 

 fertile queen, though it contains a 

 laying one. 



The cages which I use are made of 

 one piece of wire-cloth, and are 1}>4 

 inches long by 1 inch square, and 

 have a pi*ce of wood for a stopper, 

 to the inside of which is fastened, by 

 means of a tack, a small amount of 

 the "Good " candy. 



Knowing the age of the queen-cells 

 in each bimdle, from a slate hanging 

 in a corresponding position on the 

 outside of the hive, I know just when 

 and where to look for queens. As the 

 queens hatch, I remove the empty 

 cells and put 3 or 4 young bees into 

 each cage. In the evening, when the 

 queens are 7 days old, and having at 

 my side a hive large enough to hold 

 one standard frame, I open the nur- 

 sery-hive as quietly as possible, using 

 just enough smoke to quiet the bees, 

 and no more ; then I lift a frame of 

 brood with adhering bees (without 

 the queen) and set it edgewise on the 

 alighting-board, and lean it against 

 the hive. I then draw the stopper 



