168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to pay freight, etc., and sell without 

 dictation, is what spoils the market. 

 Have control of the car ; load it your- 

 selt ; sliip to yourself ; pay your own 

 freight ; unload it yourself ; deliver it 

 to four or six of the best houses in the 

 city in good condition ; set your own 

 price, and hold it as long as you 

 please. The retailer that buys honey 

 for 12 or 13 cents per po»nd, and sells 

 it for 25 cents per pound is the worst 

 man connected with the business, 

 keeping half or more of the people 

 from buying any, and the rest from 

 using half they want. 



Sell your honey to somebody, or 

 buy somebody else's. All should 

 not go to market ; ten men with one 

 ton of honey will break down the 

 market more than one man with ten 

 tons. Commission men are a part of 

 the community, and probably about 

 an average; somebody must handle 

 the honey between the producer and 

 the consumer or retailer. I produce 

 a few tons of nice comb honey every 

 year, and will sell it as it comes from 

 the hive for one-half what I should 

 ask for it in a distant city, with cur- 

 ing, crating, shipping, freight, dray- 

 ing, commission, carrying, risk, etc. 



Let every man sell as much honey 

 as he can at home, and as many as 

 desire to do so, let them peddle it, 

 and there will yet be hundreds of 

 tons to be marktted. Let us hear no 

 more about the commission men— 

 they are a necessity, and are what we 

 make them. 



Nashua, (^ Iowa. 



For tbe American Bee JounmL 



Feeding to Stimlate Broofl-Rearing. 



C. THIELMANN. 



A great deal has been written in 

 the bee-periodicals about stimulating 

 bees, but so far as my experience has 

 taught me, stimulative feeding of 

 bees in early spring does more harm 

 than good, and therefore, of late 

 years, 1 have fed my bees in the fall 

 instead of in the spring, provided 

 they had not plenty of stores to winter 

 on and for the spring. 1 intend that 

 they shall have enough food the mid- 

 dle part of October to last them until 

 May. 1 let them do their own feed- 

 ing in the spring.and they will "make 

 their nest " just as it suits them best ; 

 also put their stores where it is most 

 convenient for them to use it. 



By so doing the cluster is not 

 broken up, no excitement is created 

 by which many of the most vigorous 

 bees are lost in going too far from 

 the hive, getting chilled, and never 

 return; no heat (which is so much 

 needed) is lost, and the colony, if let 

 alone, is progressing faster than we 

 imagine. 



I fully agree with Mr. Heddon's 

 idea, given as follows: "The best 

 way to build up weak colonies in the 

 spring (supposing they have plenty of 

 honey and pollen in the hive) is to 

 keep them as warm as possible I" 



It is an unquestionable fact that 

 warmth for a weak colony, or any col- 

 ony, is indispensable for good progress 



in the spring ; the more warmth the 

 better, especially at nigbt, after they 

 are on their summer stands. All 

 stimulative feeding will be in vain, or 

 even is harmful, if the colony is not 

 kept warm, and every unnecessary 

 disturbance or excitement is damag- 

 ing at any time of the year, but 

 mostly so in the spring ; and we can- 

 not feed bees in the spring without 

 creating more or less excitement and 

 disturbance. 

 Thielmanton,cx Minn. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



larsliall Co., Iowa, Conventiou, 



■I 



The Marshall County Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at Marshalltown, 

 Iowa, on Saturday, Jan. 15, 1887. The 

 morning session was spent in a social 

 way, and no doubt the time was well 

 employed. 



At 1 p m., the President and Vice- 

 President being absent, Mr. A. Pink- 

 erton was called to the chair. The 

 usual order of business being disposed 

 of, Mr. Pinkerton made a few re- 

 marks on the subject of surplus ar- 

 rangements. 



He uses the one and two pound sec- 

 tions, preferring the open-top sections 

 so as to tier them up, by placing 

 empty ones under those just being 

 filled or finished. For his retail 

 trade he prefers the five-pound box, 

 for he finds it about as easy to sell a 

 five-pound box to many of his custo- 

 mers as to sell one and two pound sec- 

 tions. Tor producing extracted honey 

 he uses the two-story Langstroth hive. 



Mr. L. Koeper opened the discus- 

 sion on spring management of bees. 

 He winters his bees in the cellar, puts 

 them out as soon as the weather per- 

 mits in the spring, which is generally 

 not until some time in April. This is 

 done in the afternoon. He closes the 

 hive-entrance to suit the colony. In 

 two or three days he examines all, 

 and unites weak colonies, if any are 

 found. He does not keep queens over 

 three years, for a young queen lays 

 the best. By close attention he makes 

 his queens lay to their greatest capac- 

 ity, so as to have all colonies strong 

 by the time the white clover crop 

 comes. To simulate breeding he feeds 

 liquid honey, which he warms and 

 places in troughs two or three rods 

 from the bee-yard. He puts cut-straw 

 on the honey to prevent their drown- 

 ing. The feed is put out in the after- 

 noon, and he has never had any 

 trouble with robbmar by placing feed 

 out in this way. He also uses rye 

 flour for pollen, and thinks that a 

 little feeding of this kind for two or 

 three weeks, or until the bees begin 

 to store from the fields, is agreat help. 

 He feeds inside the hive if the 

 weather does not permit the outside 

 feeding. He examines the hives 

 often, and assists the bees by placing 

 empty combs in the centre of the 

 brood-nest as needed ; and as more 

 room is required he enlarges the size 

 of the brood-chamber. If the pollen 

 becomes spoilt he cuts it out, and 

 does not leave the combs in after they 

 become a little old. He said that it is I 



best to have new combs occasionally, 

 for they are more healthy, and tfie 

 bees will be larger in size. 



Mr. Diller said that he does not 

 feed his bees, but when he puts them 

 out he keeps them as warm as possi- 

 ble by covering the hives with cloths 

 or quilts; that is all the spring care 

 he wants his bees to have. He does 

 not manipulate them much, as he be- 

 lieves the disturbance injures them. 



A. Pinkerton said that his bees 

 worked while he was disturbing them, 

 and did not care for it. Others pres- 

 ent took the same view, that the dis- 

 turbing or manipulating was no detri- 

 ment, but an advantage when prop- 

 erly done. 



Mr. Koeper stated that he had an 

 extra large colony build up in the way 

 discribed by his spring management ; 

 that he did not allow it to swarm, but 

 worked it for honey, and duriug our 

 good honey harvest of 188S, he took 

 600 pounds of surplus from it. It was 

 mostly extracted. He has a large- 

 sized hive, so that he extracts from 

 tlie body of the hive. He extracted 

 every third day. He also had a case 

 of sections on top of the hive. Mr. 

 Koeper is anative of Germany, where • 

 he received a good training in apicul- 

 ture and horticulture. He made the 

 same report to me once before, giving 

 the exact number of pounds, which 

 was a little over 500. 



The subjects for discussion at the 

 next meeting are: "Summer man- 

 agement of bees," W. P. Cover; 

 " Honey-plants," L. Koeper ; " Sur- 

 plus arrangements," A. Pinkerton. 



The society then adjourned to meet 

 on Saturday, April 16, 1887. at 10:30 

 a.m., in the Court House at Marshall- 

 town, Iowa. J. W. Sanders, Sec. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Open Cider-Mills and Bees. 



J. R. UOEBUCK. 



I am glad that Mr. J. Lee Ander- 

 son has noticed my article on page 9, 

 and partly replied to it on page 42. 

 His opposition to my views proves 

 that the subject is not one-sided so 

 far as we are concerned. The reader 

 will please notice that in my first 

 article I referred to " open cider- 

 mills," and not to "cider-mills" 

 only, as Mr. A. has it. I attempted 

 to show some of the injuries bees sus- 

 tained by having access to open cider- 

 mills ; these he has not denied. Then 

 1 asked, what shall be the remedy V 



The remedy impliedly proposed by 

 Mr. A. is for an apiarist to " keep his 

 bees on his own premises," and then 

 says that he is " not interested in any 

 cider-mill," but in nearly 100 colonies 

 of bees, but that that does not pre- 

 vent him from using " reason and 

 common sense." Whom he is quoting 

 as using reason and common -sense I 

 no not know. What Is the difEerence, 

 or who cares who is interested in 

 cider- mills V 



This, with me, is not a question as 

 to which we will have, or which shall 

 go to the wall, but how to legislate so 

 as to have the benefit of both cider- 



