THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



91 



short of stores. I took 1 ,000 pounds 

 of comb honey in 1 and IJi pound sec- 

 tions. My first 150 pounds of honey [ 

 sold for 15 and 16 cents per pound. 

 Afterward honey was crowded into 

 the city, so that it was sold as low as 

 8 and 10 cents per pound, and in trade 

 at that. I have sold the most of mine 

 for 14 and 15 cents per pound. I think 

 that I can sell what I have left for 

 that price. I built a bee-cave in the 

 side of a hill. I put up boards in 

 front to keep up the bank, and then 

 put logs on for a roof, laying the logs 

 close together. I then put 2 feet of 

 straw and 2 feet of earth on the logs, 

 then a shingle roof over all. It is 

 10x16 feet, 7 feet in the clear, with a 

 hall 6 feet leading into the cave, with 

 two doors. The temperature is from 

 20° to 30" below zero outside ; in the 

 cave it is now 10° above zero. I have 

 a box in it 3x4 inches, inside measure, 

 for a ventilator. The bees are very 

 quiet. I had always wintered my 

 bees in the cellar. There is nothing 

 to disturb them in the cave. 



Dry Season in Missouri.— J- W. 

 Johnson, McFall,^^ Mo., on Jan. 26, 

 1887, writes : 



The past season was a poor one here 

 for bees. I have nearly 40 colonies 

 in the cellar in good condition. We 

 are hoping for a good season this 

 year, for we need honev, and that 

 means money. 1 think "that only a 

 few bees will winter, because it was 

 so dry last season, and the most of 

 the bees are kept in logs or box-hives, 

 and their keepers robbed them too 

 close in the forepart of the season. 

 My health is so poor that I cannot 

 tell whether I will get any honey or 

 not next season, although it may be a 

 good season for the bees. It is said 

 by some that bee-keeping is a good 

 thing for invalids. I was in the late 

 war, and I sometimes wonder whether 

 any of my old comrades keep bees. 



[Yes ; hundreds of them are en- 

 gaged in keeping bees and producing 

 honey.— Ed.] 



Severe Weather, etc.— S. W. Ilieh, 

 Hobart,OHN. Y., on Jan. 31, 1887, 

 says: 



We have had some very severe 

 weather here this winter, but as our 

 bees were in excellent condition in 

 the fall, I predict that they will win- 

 ter well, as they appear to be doing 

 nicely now. Last season was very 

 unfavorable here, as the crop was 

 very light and of poor quality. We 

 hope for a better crop next season. 



Fixing the Price of Honey.— Wm. 

 H. Balch, of Oran,0 N. Y., writes : 



A year ago last fall a well known 

 egg-buyer told me that he had found 

 a few hundred pounds of honey in a 

 back place that he could buy for a 

 small sum for cash. He wrote to a 

 certain prominent commission mer- 

 chant in New York city, telling him 

 what honey could be bought for in 

 central New York. One of my fel- 



low-bee-keepers wrote to this same 

 commission merchant, asking him 

 what honey was worth. He named a 

 mere pittance, and referred him to 

 what the egg-buyer said that honey 

 could be bought for in central New 

 York. Again, a man with a few 

 pounds of inferior honey, and in bad 

 shape, will take it to town, and haul 

 it around and shout, " What will you 

 give for honey V" Still another, with 

 a few colonies of bees will have his 

 honey in proper shape, and take it to 

 the grocer and say, " I must have 

 some groceries ; give me what you 

 can for my honey." The grocer is in 

 direct communication witn the New 

 York commission house ; of this I 

 have had them tell me, in the better 

 days of bee-keeping. I think that 

 Mr. B. n. Standish, on page 25, is 

 about right. 



Clipping Young Q,ueens' Wings.— 

 Jno. D. Gehring, Parkville,^ Mo., 

 writes ; 



In all the bee-books which I have 

 read, and in all the bee-papers to 

 which I have had access, I nowhere 

 have found any noticeable mention 

 made of this most important fact, 

 viz: Queens' wings clipped before 

 they are fertilized, are utterly worth- 

 less ! Old beekeepers may laugh at 

 this statement, so strongly made, 

 until they reflect tliat there was a time 

 when they, too, had to learn this 

 from expensive experience ; but it 

 seems to me these same old bee-keep- 

 ers were a little dull when they forgot 

 to caution beginners not to clip a 

 queen's wing before she has begun 

 to lay. 



Young Bees Hatching. — J. A. 



Buchanan, Ilolliday's Cove, 5 W. Va., 

 on Jan. 22, 1886, writes : 



Bees are having a grand " romp " in 

 the open air. The temperature is 65° 

 above zero in the shade, with the sun 

 bright and warm. The bees are in 

 splendid condition. I opened a few 

 hives and found that the queens were 

 all laying, and in a few instances some 

 1887 young bees were hatching. Clover 

 is not yet injured by the winter, 

 which makes good prospects for the 

 coming season. 



Extracted Honey in Glass Pails.— 

 John Rey, East Saginaw ,0 Mich., on 

 Jan. 21, 1887, writes: 



For selling extracted honey I would 

 like to have every bee-keeper in or 

 near a city, try glass pails. It is a 

 nice way to put up extracted honey, 

 and it will almost sell itself. Of course 

 a label with the bee-keeper's address 

 should be on every pail. It is the 

 best way for me to handle choice ex- 

 tracted honey in my home market, 

 and it brings the price of extracted 

 honey up from 12 cents to 14 cents 

 per pound. I use pails holding Jij 

 pint, 14 pint, and 1 pint. The % pint 

 pail holds 10 ounces ; the J^ pint pail 

 holds 1 pound, and the 1 pint pail 

 holds 1}^ pounds. There is no daub- 

 ing, no waste, and no dipping honey 



out of a can, for the store-keeper, but 

 it is all clean work, and the glass 

 buckets make a nice appearance. I 

 always have them placed in a show- 

 case, or where they may be easily 

 seen. The pails have bails, and are 

 handy to carry. I also put up honey 

 in pint fruit-jars, but I sell five dozen 

 glass buckets where I sell one dozen 

 of the fruit-jars. I sold more than 

 my entire crop of extracted honey last 

 year in this way. My crop for 1886 

 was 4,000 pounds of extracted and 

 2,000 pounds of comb honey, from 118 

 colonies. Last fall I was in Detroit, 

 and I did not And one store that had 

 extracted honey put up in glass pails. 

 O, how I wished that East Saginaw 

 was as large as Detroit ! It is a little 

 hard at first to work up a trade, but if 

 I found a store-keeper that I could 

 not sell to, I would let him take one 

 dozen of each kind of pails and tell 

 him that when the honey was sold I 

 would call for the money for them ; 

 and in this way I worked up a nice 

 home market. In order to hold the 

 market, I would alwiiys exchange 

 other honey for that which was can- 

 died ; for if it stands any length of 

 time it will get hard and not sell well. 

 Do the fair thing with your custo- 

 mers, and you can always sell your 

 honey. 



Bee-Cellar Lined Overhead. — 



Frank A. Eaton, BlufEton,x) O., on 

 Jan. 26, 1887, writes : 



I notice in the answers to Query, 

 •No. 365, that it is generally conceded 

 that the lining overhead in a bee-cellar 

 is not necessary. My experience is 

 different. I consider it very neces- 

 sary, not only to prevent noise, but to 

 help regulate an even temperature. 

 Lath the joist overhead with common 

 plastering-lath, and pack it as it is 

 lathed with good oat-straw; this will 

 absorb the moisture of the cellar and 

 help to regulate the temperature. I 

 have wintered over 100 colonies with- 

 out any loss (except from starvation), 

 in this sort of cellar for the past four 

 winters. 



Bees Playing in Mid-Winter.— 



Jonas Scholl, (70-72), Lyon's Station, 

 o Ind., on Jan. 29, 1887, writes : 



Bees have come through the long 

 cold " snap " in fine condition. After 

 six weeks of confinement to the hives 

 they had a good flight on Jan. 22. It 

 is quite a satisfaction to see the bees 

 play in the sunshine in mid-winter. 

 In the last ten years I have made no 

 material change in the manner of 

 wintering bees, because it has been 

 so satisfactory. This winter one- 

 third of the colonies have " Hill's de- 

 vice " over the frames instead of 

 square sticks. This gives the bees 

 room to cluster more compactly under 

 the blanket, and easy access to their 

 stores. For convenience and utility, 

 but few inventions have been given 

 to the bee-keeping public that excel 

 this simple arrangement. 



ty The Pan-HuiKlle Bee-Kccpprs' Association 

 will inci-I at WhcclinK. W.Va., in the K. of P. Hall, 

 1 laK Main St., on Mar. 3 auU 4, ish7. 



W. 1,. KINSKT, Set. 



