THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



43 



3 colonies, doubled back one, and put 

 33 into winter quarters, 15 in straw 

 hives placed in brick cases 4 inches 

 thick, with 15 inches of hay over the 

 top ; and 17 colonies in straw hives 

 cased on the outside with %-inch 

 lumber, well painted, and % of an 

 inch space between the straw and the 

 casing. I got about 800 pounds of 

 comb honey, and about 100 pounds of 

 extracted. I have one colony in a 3- 

 comb observatory hive packed in dry 

 sawdust. My bees are all on the 

 summer stands, and I think they 

 have plenty of honey to last until the 

 latter part of March. Good comb 

 honey sells, at wholesale, for 15 cents 

 per pound. The price of honey is too 

 low, and we ought to combine to raise 

 the price. I sold honey 20 years ago 

 at 40 cents per pound, wholesale, and 

 I can now buy as much with 10 cents 

 as I could then with 40 cents. Then 

 I would have had, altogether, 100 ; 

 now I have 800 pounds as the result 

 of the season's work. 



Milk-White Honey.-M. G. Mad- 

 dock, Marion,o* Iowa, asks the fol- 

 lowing : 



Is unadulterated candied honey 

 ever of a milk-white color V 



[Yes; we have had pure, linden 

 honey, which, when granulated, ap- 

 peared very much like lard. Its qual- 

 ity was excellent. — Ed.] 



Contemptible Conduct.— J. M. A. 



Miller, Galva,x) Ills., writes : 



My 50 colonies of bees are all in the 

 cellar, and seem as quiet as on a sum- 

 mer day. I notice that the winter 

 problem has dually largely settled 

 down to cellar wintering, and in my 

 opinion it will so remain. Our honey 

 market was nearly ruined last fall, by 

 men that happened to produce some 

 honey, and then coming to town and 

 selling at the groceries all they could 

 at a nominal figure, and then ped- 

 dling it all over town ; thus not only 

 injuring the market, but destroying 

 the grocery trade that they first sold 

 to. Is not such conduct contempti- 

 ble? 



colonies, had one given to me, and 

 bought a pound of bees, and with this 

 help I increased my apiary to 16 colo- 

 nies, besides a small log hive and a 

 glass one for curiosities. I took the 

 glass hive and some honey to the 

 town "cattle show." It attracted 

 much attention, and has helped me 

 to dispose of my honey. I sell my 

 honey at 25 cents per pound for clover, 

 apple, goldenrod and aster honey, and 

 20 cents per pound for buckwheat 

 honey. I am building up a home 

 trade, and the trade as yet keeps up 

 with my supply. The Bee Journal 

 comes regularly, and I could not well 

 get along without it. Its regularity 

 bears a great contrast to certain other 

 bee-papers. 



Bee-Keeping in Arizona.— J- H. 

 Brown, Prescott,© Arizona, on Jan. 

 7, 1887, says : 



I obtained 50 pounds of honey per 

 colony, fall count, and one-half 

 swarm per hive. Our honey is dark, 

 and some of it is strong, but improves 

 with age. Our mixed bees are a ter- 

 ror, and if the Holy Land is like the 

 bees, I do not want to go there. But 

 bees with less energy might not pay 

 at all. I think they go 8 or 10 miles 

 at times for honey. 



Wintering Drones— Selling Honey. 

 Allen Latham, Lancaster,© Mass., on 

 Jan. 8, 1887, writes : 



Bees seem to be in good condition 

 so far, and bid fair to winter without 

 loss. They have had one flight since 

 the advent of winter (the middle of 

 November, here). That flight was a 

 little before Christmas. We are now 

 having a cold spell, it being 18= to 20° 

 below zero some mornings. When 

 they had their flight I saw drones fly 

 from one hive, thus showing that 

 drones can be wintered. In this hive 

 was a late swarm that became queen- 

 less, and reared a queen late in the 

 fall, and, it seems, having kept the 

 drones so long, it concluded to keep 

 them forever. Though as to that, I 

 saw one of the drones giving a free, 

 but not willing, ride to one of the 

 workers. I started the season with 5 



Eesults of the Season.- W. F. Koe, 

 Candor,? N. Y., on Jan. 7, 1887, 

 writes : 



I commenced the season with 60 

 colonies in 10-frameLangstroth hives, 

 in fair condition. I increased them 

 to 100 colonies, and took 2,000 pounds 

 of comb honey in 1-pound sections, 

 about one- half white and one-half 

 dark, and 50U pounds of extracted 

 honey. I worked some of my neigh- 

 bor's bees on shares, and got 15 

 swarms for my share, making me 115 

 colonies. They are all heavy with 

 natural stores ; 05 colonies are in the 

 cellar, and 50 are packed in sawdust 

 on the summer stands. I am selling 

 my honey at 7 cents per pound for ex- 

 tracted, and 8 to 10 cents for comb 

 honey. 



Home Market for Honey, etc.— D. 

 Y. Kennady, ]5atavia,(x Iowa, on 

 Jan. 6, 1887, writes : 



In the fall of 1885, 1 had 28 colonies, 

 18 in chaff hives with tops packed 

 with straw, and 10 in Langstroth 

 hives well packed in straw. On Feb. 

 16, 1886, I moved tbem 2-5 miles on 

 the cars. They all wintered nicely 

 except one late swarm that starved, 

 and 1 lost 2 in April. I do not know 

 the cause. They left plenty of honey 

 in the hives. That left me 25 colonies 

 in good condition, but, owing to the 

 drouth, one-third of them did not 

 swarm. I increased them to 48, and 

 secured 1,500 pounds of honey in one- 

 pound sections, which I sold for 12}^ 

 and 15 cents per section in my home 

 market. It was all sold by Nov. 15, 

 and I could have sold three times 

 that amount at the same price. I 

 hope that I will be able to supply the 

 demand next year. I now have 28 

 colonies on the summer stands in 



chaff hives, packed the same as last 

 year ; and 20 colonies in the cellar in 

 the Langstroth hive, with two-ply of 

 carpet over them. The cellar ranges 

 in temperature from 36° to 42°. They 

 all seem to be in good condition at 

 this time, and each has from 30 to 50 

 pounds of natural stores for winter. 

 All that I know about the business I 

 have learned in the American Bee 

 Journal in the last two years. 



Drones Flying on Christmas.— Col. 

 R. Walton, Industry ,*o Pa., on Jan. 

 10, 1887, says : 



My bees did very well the past sea- 

 son. I sold all but 15 colonies, and 

 they increased to about 40. I ob- 

 tained a splendid yield of comb honey, 

 and sold the most of it at home for 20 

 and 25 cents per pound. It was a re- 

 markable season for nectar. The bees 

 that I had out on shares did better 

 than they have for 6 or 7 years. One 

 or two colonies are carrying their 

 drones through the winter. This is 

 something new to me. They had a 

 flight on Christmas, the drones and 

 young bees flying and roaring as if it 

 were in June. I should like to know 

 if others have ever had such to hap- 

 pen. My bees are in prime condition. 

 VVell, Mr. Editor, I would like to en- 

 ter my protest against taxing bees, 

 and also against bee-legislation. 



Selling Honey at Home.— Uriah 



Stephenson, Gladstone,*ollls.,onDec. 

 12, 1886, wirtes : 



Eighty colonies, spring count, have 

 produced 7,100 pounds of honey, 

 mostly extracted, and I increased 

 them to 107 colonies. By properly 

 grading it, putting it up in suitable 

 packages, and taking it around, it 

 recommended itself, and I am satis- 

 fied that I could sell three times as 

 much if I had it, and at much better 

 prices than commission men can. 

 Talk about there being an over-pro- 

 duction of honey — surely there is not 

 as much produced as would be con- 

 sumed in the country around our api- 

 aries, if we would only go around and 

 present it in proper condition, and not 

 wait for them to come to us. As for 

 those inexperienced bee-keepers, I 

 made my best sales all around them, 

 to their nearest neighbors. I have no 

 fault to find with commission men. 

 Bee-keepers are to blame. If we 

 would go around the country, I affirm 

 that we can sell all our honey, and 

 every vear the trade will be better, 

 instead of throwing it all on the com- 

 mission men's hands, and making it 

 a drug. I have 115 colonies in a good, 

 dry cave, 40x8 feet, and 10 feet high 

 in the centre, with all apertures 

 closed as tightly as I conld make 

 them ; and while the mercury is far 

 below zero outside, it is at 47° in the 

 cave. I put the bees away in the 

 latter part of November, and I expect 

 to be able to make a good report next 

 spring. 



One Dollar invested for the weekly visits 

 of the American Bee JotJRNAi, for 1887, 

 will richly repay every apiarist In Anieri«a. 



