THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



99 



miinljcr of pounds they contain and the 

 price. You need not hesitate to ask 

 two cents per pound more for your ex- 

 tracted honey if well ripened. 



The sizes of cans that I find best 

 suited for the trade, are two, five and 

 ten pound. You can go through the 

 country and sell a large number of 10- 

 pound pails to farmers. 



Explain to customers that honey is 

 an excellent food, with many medicinal 

 properties, and that it should be on 

 every table daily. In many cases you 

 receive an order for a small quantity, 

 which shows that you have made a 

 good impression and a beginning. If 

 not, leave a card with your name and 

 address printed on the front, and on 

 the back the sizes of the cans and the 

 prices. If you have comb honey, that 

 may be quoted also, in single comb or 

 case lots. Tell the customer that in 

 ordering it is only necessary to sign the 

 card, mark what is 'wanted and mail it. 



The giving of a post card apiary 

 scene or swarm of bees, either at the 

 time of calling or after some time has 

 elapsed, has worked well. This brings 

 in many orders as it creates interest and 

 talk about bees and honey. At the time 

 of delivering an order a little booklet 

 giving recipes for making medicine 

 from honey, for cooking, and telling 

 the food value of honey will create an 

 increased consumption of honey. Such 

 booklets entitled, "Food Value of 

 Honey," or "Honey as a Food," can 

 1)6 obtained at low prices from bee sup- 

 ply houses. 



A small town can thus be made to 

 use up a very large amount of honey 

 and at a better profit to the producer 

 than if sent to cities. The cards cost 

 little and the booklets need only be 

 used once. The second year you will 

 be surprised how readily your crop can 

 be disposed of. — N. F. Cute in Michi- 

 cian Farmer. 



Colorado State Bee-Keepers' Associ- 

 ation Convention. January 

 21, 1911. 



Artificial Bee Pasturage. 

 W. L. Foster. 



It is the nature of the busy bee to 

 secure all the honey that is within its 

 reach. Thus it commences early in the 

 morning, and never lets up on its busy 

 search for honey until the sun lowers 

 behind the mountains, and darkness 

 drives it from its toil. To make a 

 success in the bee business, it is first 



necessary to have a large amount of 

 bees ; second, they must be located 

 where there are plants growing that 

 have honey-producing flowers. The 

 man that decides to make honey pro- 

 ducing his business, usually locates 

 where the greatest number of honey- 

 producing flowers grow in a natural 

 way. 



But when we look at the best condi- 

 tions that exist in any locality, we find 

 that the period of time in which any 

 one species of plants are in bloom is 

 short, and in the best of locations there 

 are only a few varieties of plants that 

 secrete honey in abundance. 



While these honey-producing plants 

 are in bloom, the bees are havmg a 

 great harvest ; we call it the honey 

 How. In most localities there are only 

 a few plants that jaeld honey in a 

 commercial way. In Colorado we have 

 the alfalfa and clover; in the East, 

 white clover and basswood, and in some 

 localities buckwheat; in California, 

 sage and orange. While these plants 

 are in their prime of bloom, the bees 

 are having a bountiful harvest, and are 

 filling the hive with the delicious nec- 

 tar; but as soon as the blooming time 

 is over, the bees are taking a rest — 

 business is suspended; not much honey 

 coming in, the bees are consuming 

 what honey they have on hand, and 

 waiting for the next species of plants 

 to begin to bloom, when the bees take 

 hold again and have another period of 

 honey gathering. 



To make beekeeping as profitable as 

 it should be, we should have a succes- 

 sion of honey-producing flowers that 

 would last from spring to fall, and if 

 the bee-keeper goes into bee-keeping 

 with the intensity he should, he may be 

 able to produce this succession of 

 bloom. In the bee business we depend 

 too much on nature to produce the 

 flowers. If the farmer waited for na- 

 ture to raise him a crop of corn or 

 other grain, would he receive a crop? 

 We all answer, "no." He must first 

 till the soil and plant the seed and as- 

 sist nature. The bee-keeper is in the 

 same kind of busines ; he is a producer, 

 and must also assist nature. He has 

 it in his power, and should see to it 

 that there is a continuous bloom of 

 honey-producing plants flowering from 

 early spring to fall, so that bees are 

 rearing brood and hatching more and 

 more hone}'' gatherers, and are continu- 

 ously adding to the stores of the hive. 



