516 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey in the comb. I found the 

 (jueen next day all right ou the combs. 

 Portland, Oregon, Oct. 1, 1883. 



Bees and Honey at the Maine Fair. 



This is the first time for seven years 

 that a full line of bees, honey and bee 

 implements has been on exhibition at 

 the Maine State Fair, and it was very 

 successful. Mr. Jerrard's exhibit was 

 among the best. By an ingenious 

 contrivance the packages containing 

 a hundred weight or so, are placed 

 upon springs, thus insuring safe 

 transportation with ordinary care in 

 handling. Two colonies of bees from 

 Mr. Jerrard's apiary confined in ob- 

 servation hives, form an interesting 

 exhibit. The farming of this class 

 and awarding premiums for bees and 

 apiarian supplies, is a new feature of 

 the State society, and, as the entries 

 and exhibits in this line shows, struck 

 the bee men in the right spot. The 

 exhibits in this class are quite nu- 

 merous, and comprise a large collec- 

 tion of hives and fixtures that, to the 

 practical bee man, has much interest. 

 Mr. E. P. Churchill, of North Au- 

 burn, makes a good exhibit of his 

 chaff hives, division boards and bee 

 fixtures. lie also makes a good exhibit 

 of honey put up in various tempting 

 formSj a bee tent of simple construc- 

 tion, by which one can manipulate 

 bees to exhibit, transfer, etc., without 

 fear of robbing by predatory bees. 

 His exhibits also comprise a colony of 

 bees in observation hives. 



Piscataquis' veteran bee-keeper, Mr. 

 Lucian French, of Sangerville, makes 

 a large and interesting exhibit of tools 

 for the apiary, and honey and wax. 



Among the curiosities, was Mr. 

 French's foundation machine, where- 

 by the comb is started for the bees, 

 and taking hold where the machine 

 leaves off, the bees find the labor 

 greatly curtailed in getting the sum- 

 mer stores. Mr. French gave a prac- 

 tical illustration of the working of 

 the machine, showing how sheets of 

 wax were parsed through and came 

 out with the cells perfectly formed. 



Mr. French makes a tempting dis- 

 play of comb and extracted honey in 

 jars and in 1 lb. sections. 



Next to Mr. French's is Mr. Rey- 

 nold's exhibit. Mr. Reynold lives in 

 Clinton, and handles Ids bees with 

 great skill. His exhibit shows to fine 

 advantage, his honey being put up in 

 nice shape in one to three pound jars, 

 and nicely labeled; also comb honey 

 In sections temptingly white and nice. 

 Mr. .J. B. Mason, of Mechanic Falls, 

 makes a large exhibit of tools and 

 fixtures used by bee-keepers. Mr. 

 Mason is .one of the most intelligent 

 bee-culturists in tlie State. Among 

 the curiosities of Mr. Mason's exhibit 

 is a collection of bee literature com- 

 prising old and modern works. The 

 collection comprises 14 bound volumes 

 and some 20 pamphlets. Another 

 original idea is the life of the bee from 

 the egg to the mature insect, larvae 

 preserved in alcohol in its various 

 stages of growth, comprising 19 per- 

 iods, that being the daily changes in 

 life in coming to maturity. 



Mr. Mason makes a good display of 

 honey put up in various forms. A 

 number of Italian queens are shown 

 in cages, also an observatory hive in 

 which the bees are seen as living in 

 the hives. — Maine Farmer. 



For the American Bee Joamal. 



Home Markets for Honey. 



DK. J. R. BAKEB. 



I notice in the Bee Journal that 

 the Editor, Prof. Cook, James Iled- 

 don, etc., urge upon bee-keepers to 

 create home markets for honey. At 

 Keithsburg, 111., where I had the most 

 of my experience as an apiarist, there 

 was an excellent home market estab- 

 lished, largely by Mr. .Martin Wirt, 

 who, for a number of years, was en- 

 gaged in scientific apiculture in that 

 locality. I found no trouble to dis- 

 pose of two and even three thousand 

 pounds of comb honey a year, at from 

 1.5 to 20 cents per pound, in the 

 Keithsburg market ; and the village 

 only contains about 1,200 inhabitants. 



When I came to this city, this 

 spring, broken down in health and 

 purse, I was unable to engage in api- 

 culture at all, but having a brother 

 here who is engaged in the grocery 

 trade, I persuaded him to handle 

 honey. We found a gentleman about 

 8 miles in the country, who was 

 raising comb honey in good shape, 

 and we engaged to take all he could 

 raise during the season at 17 cents per 

 pound. We made mention in the 

 daily paper of the city, that we had 

 nice comb honey for sale, and people 

 soon callecL to make purchases ; and 

 in a short time we were selling quite 

 fast. Every one who called to see our 

 honey was delighted with its fine ap- 

 pearance. We had it all nicely ar- 

 ranged in a large handsome show 

 case, and had the show case setting 

 on tlie end of a counter near the en- 

 trance door, 



After other grocers learned how 

 eagerly people bought our honey at 20 

 cents a pound, they would hail our 

 honey man whenever he came to the 

 city, and want to buy honey of him ; 

 but he told them that they were too 

 late, as he had engaged it all to our 

 house. 



Good honey, nicely put up, will sell 

 well anywhere, but the good old- 

 fashioned way of cutting out of the 

 brood-chamber honey, pollen and 

 brood, and casting tiie whole mess 

 into a pot, jar or pan and taking the 

 stuff to market, was not well calcu- 

 lated to get up a boom in the honey 

 trade. 



A farmer brought a dish-pan of this 

 kind of medley to us this summer, 

 and I asked him how much he wanted 

 a pound for it, and his price was the 

 modest sum of 15 cents per pound. I 

 told the vender of much filth and 

 little honey, that I would not take the 

 stuff as a gift, and he went away 

 feeling hurt over my ignorance as a. 

 judge of honey. This gentleman told 

 me that he had much better " luck " 

 in log gums than in '• patent" hives. 



Mr. Ileddon was exactly right in 

 his brief article a few weeks since, in 



urging honey producers to not sell 

 their honey at a sacrifice. There is 

 no use for apiarists to become alarmed 

 at the prospect or rumor of a big 

 honey crop, and .sell at a sacrifice. 

 The better plan, I take it, is too keep 

 cool and be governed by soberness. 

 Last summer, every few days the 

 grocers, who handled the most of my 

 honey, would say to me that honey 

 was so very jjlenhful that I wimld 

 have to sell at smaller figures. When 

 I W'Ould ask them where they got 

 their informatimi, they were com- 

 pelled to tell me that some farmer or 

 farmers told them so. I knew that 

 neither the farmers nor the grocers 

 took any bee journal, and had no 

 means of knowing anything about the 

 honey trade or prospects throughout 

 the country. 



These scares in the local markets 

 are gotten up through the ignorance 

 of persons who keep a few bees, and 

 who think that if their bees swarm 

 much, and they have a starch box or 

 two filling with honey, that they are 

 doing -'splendid." With this mag- 

 iiilicent (V) bonanza right under their 

 noses they will make haste to 

 offer the grocers large lots of honey 

 at from 10 to 12 cents a pound, and 

 the grocers in their innocent ignor- 

 ance hasten to collapse the scientific 

 honey raiser with their ox-load of in- 

 formation. 



Last season I was selling honey to a 

 lady for her own use at 20 cents a 

 pound. She told me one day that she 

 liad engaged honey of Mr. S. at 1.5 

 cents a "pound. I asked her how 

 much, and she said any quantity that 

 she might want. I told her that when 

 she got through using jNIr. S.'s 15 cent 

 honey to let me know and I would 

 then "sell her some for twenty cents 

 per pound. 



Time rolled on, and she called on 

 me for honey. I asked her how much 

 she got from Mr. S., " Not a pound," 

 she replied. I told her I knew it just 

 as well before she told uie as I did 

 after, and she wanted to know how I 

 knew. "Easy enough," I said, and 

 then I told her that Mr. S. started in 

 the spring with 5 colonies, and that 

 they had swarmed so mucli that he 

 then had 30 colonies, and in his ignor- 

 ance he based his large prospects on 

 the number of colonies he possessed ; 

 but that all scientific apiarists kn^w 

 that it was impossible to have such a 

 heavy increase and a large crop of 

 honey the same season. That the bees 

 of Mr. S. had kept themselves so 

 weakened by their excessive swarm- 

 ing, that they could not possibly 

 gatlier surplus honey. 



This case is simply one given to 

 illustrate how silly it is for honey 

 raisers to become alarmed over the 

 ignorant grape-vine rumurs about the 

 tremendous honey yield in the coun- 

 try, based on the statements of log- 

 gum, box hive and starch-box bee- 

 keepers. 



Do not give your honey away my 

 friends, nor sell it at ruinous prices, 

 tor a careful review of the reports of 

 honey raised througiiout the country 

 leads" me to the conclusion that the 

 crop, this season, is rather light. 

 Warsaw, Ind.. Oct. 3. 1883. 



