THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



249 



on with sections for surplus honey. I 

 had a colony last sunnner that had five 

 twelve-frame hives on full of honey. It 

 coinuienced to swarm, and immediately 

 set two of them off and put on another 

 hive with emptj- combs, also taking out 

 a few frames of honey from one of the 

 liives. I had set off and put in frames of 

 foundation, and they immediately quit 

 coming out, and those who were out came 

 back and went to work as though noth- 

 ing had happened. For section honey I 

 use the wide frame holding eight frames. 

 In a heavy flow a ten or twelve frame 

 hive will be filled in a remarkably short 

 time; and then if another is not added 

 they will swarm, no difference how many 

 hives of honey they have on. In a heavy 

 flow I have known them to bring in 20 to 

 30 pounds in a single day, while those in 

 an eight-frame hive were bringing 7 to 10 

 pounds per day. I have eight-frame hives 

 continually in my apiary for experimental 

 puposes to show the great difference to 

 other bee-keepers. 



I had two last year, one with a queen- 

 excluder and another without in the same 

 yard. Where others made 400 lbs., this 

 one with an excluder gave me 60 lbs. of 

 chunk honey; and the one without, pro- 

 duced no lbs. I had another that did 

 not give a single pound of surplus, al- 

 though they had a fine queen; but they 

 were weak in the spring, and had very 

 poor combs in the brood-nest, which I 

 did not discover until the heavy flow was 

 over. 



Now, of course you will ask about the 

 disadvantages of my system, and I will 

 tell you. In breeding queens their full 

 capacity they sometimes fail the second 

 year, and are usually not good after two 

 years, although I have had some very 

 good at three years of age. I always 

 change them by inserting a new queen 

 whenever they begin to fail, without re- 

 gard to age. 



And now we come to another feature in 

 the success of our Western friend, and it 

 is no small factor either. It is the selling 

 of the crop. Peculiar circumstances and 

 good management have contributed much 

 to his success in this line. Here is what 

 he has to say on the subject: — 



In conclusion I will say a few words 

 about selling honey, as that is about as 

 important as its production. Of course, 

 I could sell !ny honey at 5 cts. per lb. and 

 make plenty of money out of it; but I 

 think it is really worth 15 cts., and is 

 cheaper at that price than anything else of 



its kind we buy to eat; and if I sold at 

 that price my neighbors who keep bees, 

 and many of them very poor, would have 

 to go out of the business, and that would 

 create a monopoly. I aim to buy all the 

 honey produced I can hear of for miles 

 around, and pay 15 cts. cash per lb. for it 

 — just what I sell it at — and this prevents 

 farmers running it in and glutting the 

 market. Storekeepers will try to buy 

 honey, especially of small producers, just 

 as cheap as they can. Now I make a uni- 

 form price for each kind, and furnish a 

 good article, and never have any com- 

 plaints. I have my 60-lb. cans made to 

 hold 64 lbs. ; and when a person takes 20 

 of them I give them an extra can — they 

 pay for only 60 lbs. in a can. I usually 

 sell comb honey by the case, and guaran- 

 tee 20 lbs., but I never fail to get in at 

 least 22 lbs. I always give liberal weight 

 and have all kind of honey in my office, and 

 invite all who come in to inspect it and 

 eat all they want, especially women and 

 children. This will create a taste for hon- 

 ey, and the children will insist on their 

 parents buying it. We make cakes out 

 of honey, and can much fruit with it, and 

 this sets an example which others will 

 follow. 



You see our friend has been able to 

 practically "corner" the market in his 

 locality . No small producer would take 

 his honey to the stores and sell it at a low 

 price when he could get 15 cts, cash for 

 it by taking it to Mr. Gandy. The deal- 

 ers, however, must have been different 

 from some dealers, or they would have 

 been investigating other markets, and 

 found that they could bu}' extracted hon- 

 ey at a much less figure than 15 cts. 



In conclusion I can only repeat that 

 there are some things about this story 

 that seem improbable: P'irst, that such 

 enormous yields, from such large numbers 

 of colonies, should be obtained, largely 

 as the result of artificial pasturage. Next, 

 that such enormous quantities of honey 

 shoidd have been sold at such an extrava- 

 gent price, in a home market, year af- 

 ter year. Still more improbable is it that 

 this should have been going on all these 

 years, upon this magnificent scale, and 

 the bee-keeping world never have received 

 a hint of it. Let us wait until we know 

 more about it before we say it is a fable, 

 or before we — buy catnip seed. 



