THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



105 



say anything, for they had paid me 

 for my honey, and they had a perfect 

 right to do as they liked with it. 



Comparing the sale of extracted 

 honey with that of comb honey, I 

 have sold each year 5 pounds of ex- 

 tracted to 1 pound of comb honey. I 

 always carry a sample jar, and hll it 

 out of my bulk of honey, so I can 

 truly say it is an exact sample of all 

 of my linden honey, or white clover, 

 or what variety it represents. 



Our merchants are generally shrewd 

 business men, and one can expect 

 them to ask some questions ; hence 

 one must be posted, and have an an- 

 swer ready for every question. When 

 you once have a trade established 

 with a merchant, and the merchant 

 with his customers, on your brand of 

 extracted honey, you will have no 

 difficulty in selling. 



In this manner I have sold, this 

 season, 25 barrels of nice extracted 

 honey. 1 have sold just about one- 

 fourth as much comb honey. About 

 the only way to successfully control 

 the honey market, in my opinion, is 

 to have one buyer in each market, 

 and every store in that town or city 

 to buy honey only from that one 

 buyer. 



In that way all stores can avoid 

 being overstocked with a lot of 

 broken and inferior lots of honey. 

 These mess lots can be bought cheap 

 by this buyer.and sold to some factory 

 so as not to ruin the general market. 

 In this part of the country there is too 

 large a percentage of the people gen- 

 erally keeping a few bees, to make it 

 profitable for any one. 



Colfax,© Iowa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



The Season Of 1886, 



J. M. HAMBAUGH. 



In the fall of 1885 I put into winter 

 quarters 101 colonies of bees in my 

 home apiary, and 17 in another apiary. 

 My home apiary contains 85 Simplicity 

 hives, and '16 Quinby hives', a la 

 Dadant ; the other apiary has all 

 Quinby hives. I wintered all on the 

 summer stands, removed all surplus 

 combs from the sides, and confined 

 the bees on from 5 to 9 combs ; re- 

 moved the burlap on the top of the 

 combs, and placed strips % of an inch 

 thick every 3 or 4 inches crosswise of 

 the brood-frames, to admit the bees 

 over the top of the brood-frames, 

 which gives free circulation of air, 

 etc. I then tucked side burlaps close 

 and snug around the outside frames, 

 letting them lap over the top of the 

 brood-nest; and packed dry, hard 

 maple leaves at the sides, and filled 

 the can. I also put long slough-grass 

 around each hive, being careful not 

 to obstruct the entrance. 



Quite a number of my colonies were 

 80 strong that I could not confine the 

 bees on less than 8 or 9 frames, in 

 which instance I would place the 

 division-board on the north side of 

 the hive, and simply fill the caps with 

 absorbents. I should have said be- 

 fore that the rear end of each hive 



was raised 2 or 3 inches higher than 

 the front end. 



The winter, though quite rigorous, 

 was not so severe on bees as the one 

 previous. There was intervals of 

 moderation, that gave the bees a 

 chance for flight. On Feb. 8 and 

 Feb. 22 they had good flights; also on 

 March 6 and March 15. I removed 

 the wind-breaks, packing, etc., from 

 March 15 to March 17, and found 6 

 dead colonies out of 101 ; generally 

 speaking, I found the bees in splendid 

 condition. Those that had gone into 

 winter quarters strong in numbers, 

 were in the best condition. Quite a 

 number were found very scant of 

 stores, and had to be fed. Two had 

 died of starvation, 2 from being rob- 

 bed in my absence, and 2 were too 

 small numerically, and succumbed. 

 One was in a Quinby hive, and 5 in 

 Simplicity hives ; the one in the 

 Quinby hive was a mere nucleus when 

 it began the winter. 



The 17 colonies at my out apiary 

 were simply prepared by putting the 

 division-board on the north side of 

 the hive, until the bees covered the 

 combs fairly. I put %-inch sticks 

 under the burlap, and filled the cap 

 full of dry leaves. These 17 came 

 through in splendid condition. I 

 equalized each and every hive with 

 from 15 to 30 pounds of stores, accord- 

 ing to their strength prior to packing, 

 and I noticed, when overhauling them 

 after all packing was removed, that 

 while some of the colonies seemed to 

 have an abundance of stores, I could 

 scarcely notice any difference in their 

 weight, many being scant and some 

 destitute. Can any one give a reason 

 for this (to me) strange phenomenon ? 



Early in the spring I removed the 

 15 colonies in Quinby hives to the 

 out apiary, a distance of three miles, 

 making an apiary of 32 colonies in 

 Quinby hives ; I kept each kind sep- 

 arate as nearly as I could. During 

 fruit-bloom I bought 17 colonies of 

 bees in box-hives, and transferred 

 them to movable Simplicity combs. 

 These 17 additional colonies I added 

 to my out apiary, making 49 colonies 

 in all, spring count. Vegetation was 

 from a week to 10 days in advance of 

 the previous two years. From April 

 25 to May 7 bees built up rapidly and 

 gathered some honey from willow and 

 fruit-bloom. White clover bloom 

 made its first appearance on May 7, 

 and bees gathered honey from it on 

 May 12. 



I worked the out apiary for ex- 

 tracted honey, and during the season 

 I took 5,700 pounds from it, and in- 

 creased the apiary to 56 colonies by 

 natural swarming. The average per 

 colony was 116 16-49 pounds, spring 

 count. 



Our fall harvest was almost an en- 

 tire failure. My home apiary did not 

 produce nearly as much as the out 

 apiary, from the fact that within a 

 radius of three miles it is surrounded 

 with over 500 colonies of bees, and, 

 besides, linden pasturage is not so 

 good, and the bees in the Simplicity 

 hives did not build up to the strength 

 of those in the larger hives. This 

 much has been gained from practical 

 experience, and my conclusions are I 



irresistible, that a hive is not perfect 

 in its construction that does not give 

 the queen her full capacity of egg- 

 laying, and uninterrupted power of 

 reproduction; and the surplus de- 

 partment must be made to accommo- 

 date the needs of the most populous 

 colonies, or contracted to meet the 

 requirements of the smallest. 



The production of my home apiary 

 was 3,416 pounds of extracted,and 400 

 pounds ot comb honey in 1 and 2 

 pound sections. I worked 66 colonies 

 for extracted honey, 11 colonies for 

 comb honey, and 3 for queen-rearing. 

 The increase was made by division 

 and natural swarming, and amounted 

 to 92 colonies. 



Spring,+o Ills. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



SBCCial LeEislatioB for Bee-KeoDers. 



N. N. BETSINGEE. 



When Dr. C. C. Miller introduced 

 this subject in the International con- 

 vention held at Indianapolis, to the 

 most of us it was a surprise that a 

 man of so much thought and study 

 should take the position of the de- 

 sirability of obtaining special legisla- 

 tion for bee-keepers. Without pre- 

 meditation, I found myself on the 

 negative side of the question,staunch- 

 ly denouncing such a course ; but,upon 

 reflection, and after reading all that 

 has been written on this subject, I 

 am conscious of the feasibility of such 

 legislation, for the following reasons : 



1. Because it is just and right, and 

 we should demand protection from 

 the Government. 



2. We are public benefactors, pro- 

 ducing a sweet by means of our 

 profession that cannot be excelled 

 for its usefulness, for the sustaining 

 of both body and mind. 



3. The production of the honey 

 crop would be much larger, and 

 could be produced at a less cost than 

 at the present time. 



4. The price of our product would be 

 more uniform and mOre easily regu- 

 lated, not by monopoly, but by the 

 amount produced, and thus be more 

 remunerative to us. 



5. Bee-keeping is a science, and 

 should therefore be upheld by our 

 Government, which would encourage 

 the attainment of perfection in our 

 pursuit. 



Marcellus.O N. Y. 



For the American Bee Jonmali 



Resnlts of tlie Season. 



S. VALENTINE. 



In the vicinity of Hagerstown and 

 southwest of it, the bee-keepers are 

 jubilant over the results of the past 

 season, whilst north and east of this 

 place it was another failure. In the 

 fall of 1885 my bees were put into 

 winter quarters weak in numbers and 

 very short of stores, and came out 

 weak in the spring ; but April being 

 warm and pleasant, they built up 

 very fast. May brought with it an 



