776 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



sold at the same price that comb hnney will bring, 

 also all broken pieces of comb honey, honey in large 

 boxes that can not be sold for its value in any o*her 

 way. You need no section boxes, no wide frames, 

 crates, separators, and many other expensive fix- 

 tures. The honey may be built in any large boxes 

 where all the bees can work naturally and to the 

 best advantage, thereby securing more honey by far 

 than ever can be had by the use of sections, sep- 

 arators, and all these costly arrangements, that 

 must come from either the bee-keeper or the pur- 

 chaser of his honey. 



I see honey put up in 2-lb. sections glassed that 

 is selling very slowly at 25 cts. per lb., or 50 cts. 

 for the package, and there is one-fourth loss to con- 

 sumer in weight of glass and wood; the package, 

 unlike the tumblers, is a clear loss to the consumer. 

 He can neither sell nor make use of it. I am glad to 

 see that consumers of honej^ are learning to give 

 this glassed honey the go-by. 



John A. Buchanan. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va. 



KEEPING BEES IN SEPARATE API- 

 ARIES. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT RATES FOIt SnifPING EX- 

 TRACTED HONEY. 



E went into winter quarters one year ago 

 w/ with 293 colonies of bees, in 4 apiaries-, or 

 yards, as we call them, all out of doors. 

 They were reduced in the spring to 311, mostly by 

 swarming out in April. And just here let me say 

 a word in favor of double-walled hives, stuffed with 

 chaff. Out of the 85 lost, only 2 were in the chaff 

 hives, and we had 80 colonies in them. They were 

 in 2 yards. We did not see much difference with the 

 blacks and Italians — losses about equa', other things 

 considered. 



We started another yard last spring, making 5 in 

 all; ran them all for extracted honey. All were 

 worked by the same set of hands, going with a team 

 from 4 to 9 miles to work, and coming home at night 

 Avith our honey. We extracted every 8 days, as 

 nearly as we could. Commenced June 10th at home. 

 Extracted all 4 times; quit July 25th, but did not 

 take out much after July 19th. It rained then every 

 day for a week. The basswood had just opened; 

 but it was so wet we did not get any surplus from it. 

 The bees made their winter supply from it between 

 showers. We increased to a little over 300 colonies 

 by artificial division. Our bees are part Italians and 

 part blacks, or brown bees. We weighed all the 

 honey as it was brought in, and each yard got credit 

 for all the honey we got from it. 



NAMR. 



NO. AND KIND. | NO. LBS. | AVRRA6E. 



Home Yard 

 No. 2 Yard 

 No. S Yai-d 

 No. 4 Yard 

 No. 5 Yaid 



i CO Italians 



35, all blacks 

 I 48, '• 



I o.'?, mixed It. and hi 

 I :5, 



7M8 

 4:i'S 



.•fl.-)S 

 3:,9ri 



128 4-ie 

 153 3-35 

 (i9 47-18 

 9i> 22-33 

 1(12 ■■'ti-3'} 



Total, 211 2-.0.W lOi;^ 



We have sold about half of the honey, and the de- 

 mand is getting belter all the time. We sold 4V00 lbs. 

 at 7 cts. per lb., barrels returned, to a cracker facto- 

 ry. That included all of our flrst extracting and 

 dark honey, and a lot of old dark honey that 

 we had on hand, some of it 2 or 3 years old. Our 

 home market takes about 10,000 lbs. a year. I sell at 

 10 cts. per lb.; $9.50 per 100 lbs.; 9 cts per lb. by the 

 barrel. Barrels hold 3G0 lbs. Barrels and kegs to be 



paid for, or returned. We have sent honey to par- 

 ties in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, and 

 Nevada. We can do better selling in this way than 

 we can to wholesale dealers. 



FREIGHT ON HONEY. 



There is one thing about shipping extracted honey, 

 that wants to be changed in some way; and that is, 

 about the freight. I wrote to A. I. Boot about the 

 matter, and he printed what I had to say about it. In 

 Gleanings, about bringing the matter before the 

 American Bee-keepers' Convention, at Toronto. 1 

 guess he forgot it. It seems there are no rates of 

 freight for extracted honey; and if it is shipped as 

 honey, the rates are first-class— about twice as much 

 as it is on molasses or syrup, which are 3d class. 

 Our station agents, here allow us to ship our honey In 

 keers and barrels as "honey syrup," and gives us 3d 

 class rates; but I don't like it. It doesn't look well, 

 and is likely to injure the sale of extracted honey. 

 Why, you see if I send a man a lot of honey marked 

 " honey syrup," he opens up and goes to selling 

 honey out of those barrels. Will his customers think 

 they are getting pure honey out of those barrels 

 maiked syrup? Doubtful. The public are very 

 much afraid of extracted honey, any way; and we 

 don't want to do any thing to make them more so. 

 Still, we want cheap freight; and honey in kegs and 

 barrels should go as cheap as syrups. 



Now, what can we do about it? I don't know that 

 we can do any thing; but I do believe we can get 

 rates on extracted honey as cheap as on molasses 

 and syrups. Just how we can bring it about, 1 don't 

 know; but if I were living about the railroad cen- 

 ters, I would have a talk with the bosses about it. 

 I think if thej' were approached in a friendly spirit, 

 and given to understand that the extract ed-honey 

 business is getting to be quite a trade, and that there 

 is a great dilferencein handling extracted and comb 

 honey, they would give us the same rates as on mo- 

 lasses or sugar ej'rups. My idea was to have our 

 big bee-keepers' convention appoint a committee to 

 talk with the railroad managers about it. I don't 

 know how our other honey-producers feel about It, 

 or how they ship their honey. We ship it as honey 

 syrup, and get 3d-class rates; but, as I said before, I 

 don't like that way of doing business. I should like 

 to hear from others on this subject. 



Edwin France. 



Platteville, Grant Co., Wis., Dec. 3, 1883. 



We are glad to hear, friend F., that you 

 have made a business success of having your 

 bees kept in several different apiaries. It 

 seems to me this is much better ihan trying 

 to keep as many bees as you have, in one lo- 

 cality, or even two localities. — In regard to 

 rates of freight on honey, our tariff places 

 comb honey as first class, and honey in kegs 

 or barrels at 3d class, which, it seems to me, 

 is pretty nearly right. It is true, molasses 

 in barrels goes at bth class ; but it is express- 

 ly stated that it goes at the owner's risk of 

 leakage, and molasses is probably shipped 

 in immense quantities over regular routes, 

 while honey would have to be shipped from 

 isolated points, as it were, a few barrels at a 

 time, comparatively. We are very glad of 

 your report. — We notice in your table that 

 the home yard did the best. Now, was that 

 because the locality was better, or was it be- 

 cause you gave them better care ? I should 

 guess the latter. 



