1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



75 



tide, " Blacks v. Italians," on pag-e 13; and, publicly 

 expressed, it is, that he is honest nnd fearless in ex- 

 pressing: his convictions; that Lo keeps bees for 

 profit; that he is going to "get there;" that we shall 

 hear from him again; that he will soon be in accord 

 with just what you state on p. 21; that there are in- 

 dications that a dash of black blood improves the 

 Italians, especially for comb honey. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 11, 1883. James Heddon. 



Well, friend II.. you have got neighbor 

 Harrington's idea for nucleus hives, exactly. 

 He has had them in use two seasons, and I 

 believe likes them pretty well, although he 

 has not as yet got round to pulling off the 

 top-bars, and hanging them two in an L. 

 frame. The little frames seem to work 

 right ; but still there is an inconvenience in 

 not being able to exchange a single comb in 

 these little hives with any comb in any of 

 the larger hives at any time. AVhen stock- 

 ing them with bees and brood he just cut the 

 brood out of a large frame, divided it in the 

 middle, and it just tilled two small ones. 

 His plan to keep them from starving was 

 to keep granulated sugar all the time on 

 the bottom-boards. These half-sized frames 

 liave been advocated and tried a great many 

 times, but no one keeps them more than two 

 or three years, so far as I have been able to 

 determine. I confess I like the idea; but 

 then, again, I don't like the idea of more 

 than one regular frame in any apiary, and, I 

 can almost say, or anywhere else. 



CAN WE AFFOKD TO ISE THE HALF- 

 POUND SECTIONS? 



WHAT WILL IT COST US TO DO IT ? 



-UGH is being said of late relative to our using 

 the i4-lb. sections, what the size shall be, 

 whether they can be used without separa- 

 tors, etc.; but I have failed to see much, if any 

 thing, said regarding their profitableness to the pro- 

 ducer. Much is said about our catering to the wants 

 of the consumer, and about the demand regulating 

 the supply, etc.; but I wish to say, right here, that 

 the consumer would never have demanded a ^- 

 pound section had not the producer placed such be- 

 fore him. It is this strife, regardless of cost, going 

 on among our bee-men, to see which can put some- 

 thing upon the markets a little different from what 

 his neighbor uses, that has caused ii-pouud sections 

 to be quoted in our markets, and not the demand of 

 the consumer. The same thing can be truthfully 

 said of all the different styles of packages since the 

 Rev. L. L. Langstroth gave us the 0-lb. box. The 

 demand for a smaller box containing but a single 

 comb of honey would doubtless have sprung up in 

 due time; but the sequel shows it was the ever- 

 restless dlsposition'of those keeping bees that pre- 

 ceded the demand, and thus educated the consum- 

 er, or caused him to call for a smaller box. Thus, a 

 few of our bee-keepers have sent sections holding 

 about V2 lb. of honey to Crocker & Blake, of Boston, 

 and the result is, quotations from them which have 

 nearly upset the bee-keeping world, and set them 

 crazy over the subject, without a single demand 

 from theconsumer upon them. 

 I said, a little while ago, that these things were 



gone into regardless of cost, and the object of this 

 article is to show those, not entirely bereft of rea- 

 son on this point, what it will cost us to produce a 

 pound of honey in these ',z-\b. sections. As our bees 

 could work in the 2-lb. box or section to just as good 

 advantage as in a larger 6-lb. box, I will take that as 

 a standard. As this section sells in market (as quot- 

 ed by D. W. Quinby, of New York) at 33 cents (his 

 lowest quotation), I will take that as the standard as 

 to price. After careful experiments and a large cor- 

 respondence, besides talking with many of our most 

 practical bee-keepers, I have come to the conclu- 

 sion that, by the use of the 1-lb. section in prefer- 

 ence to the 2-lb., we sacrifice '3 of our crop of hon- 

 ey on account of cutting the cluster of bees up so 

 much, making a disadvantage to them which 

 amounts to ^8 of our crop. Then we have twice 

 the number of sections to buy or manufacture, and 

 put together, and twice the number of pieces of 

 fotindation to prepare, saying nothing of the larger 

 amount to use. Then comes the extra amount of 

 handling, from the time they are ready to put upon 

 the hives till they are ready for market. Without 

 going into further detail I will say that, after care- 

 ful figuring, I have decided that the loss we sustain 

 by using the 1-lb. section instead of the 2-lb., 

 amounts to at least 1-6 of our crop, which, taking 23 

 cents as our standard, would be nearly 4 cents. 

 Hence, it will be readily seen that the 1-lb. section 

 should sell at 37 cents, to warrant us in using that 

 style of section. 



There are many points of minor importance which 

 could be urged on both sides of the question; but 

 after summing them all up they would not ma- 

 terially change the above conclusion. When the 

 1-lb. box or section first came into notice I looked 

 over all these points, and find minuted down in my 

 diary these words: "When the l-lb. sections sell at 

 35 cts. per lb., I can make the same profit from my 

 bees by raising honej' in 3-lb. sections and selling 

 the same at 20 cts., that I could to adopt the 1-lb. 

 When the 1-lb. sell at 20 cts., I can do as well by sell- 

 ing the 3-lb. at 16 cts.; and if the 1-lb. sell at 15 cts., 

 I will hold to the 3-lb. section, if I can get 13 cts. If 

 a greater difference in price exists, I will change 

 sections; but not before." Hence, to-day finds me 

 still in favor of the 2-lb. section, as the difference 

 in price is, as a rule, not over 3 cents per lb. in favor 

 of the 1-lb. section. 



Now, if we adopt the same line of reasoning to 

 arrive at the truth regarding the JJ-lb. section, 

 we shall find that, by its use, we shall lose near- 

 ly one - half of our crop. At the North Eastern 

 Convention recently held in Syracuse, Mr. F. C. Ben- 

 edict and Mr. Newman, of Wyoming Co., N. Y. (the 

 parties who have furnished Crocker & Blake most 

 of their honey in V4-lb. sections), when asked, said 

 that they thought they could get only about ?i as 

 much honey in the Vi-\h. section as in the 1-Ib., and 

 that they used it only in the greatest flow of honey, 

 as the bees would not work in them to any advan- 

 tage when honey was coming in moderately. Now, 

 if we add to this the extra cost for sections, and the 

 time necessary to handle them, from the time they 

 are taken in the flat till they are ready to go to mar- 

 ket, we shall see that the placing, of the loss at ]i 

 is not far out of the way. Then if we apply this to 

 our standard, we shall sec that '/i-lb. sections of 

 honey should sell at 46 cts. per lb., to warrant our 

 going into them. As there is no prospect of our get- 

 ting this, why discuss the best size, etc., instead of 



