THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



251 



If we get the big crop of honey 

 that is promising it will mean extra 

 good quality, for, it can be de- 

 pended upon that where a good lib- 

 eral flow of honey is had that 

 the quality will be good. 



If we get the looked-for good 

 crop of honey, it will .not necessar- 

 ily mean low prices, for we will 

 let the newspapers know we have 

 a good crop of extra good quality 

 of honey to offer this year and all 

 will want "a little more of that 

 fine honey, please" and the crop 

 will disappear as usual. We antici- 

 pate the buyer being "on his job" 

 nammering down the price, as us- 

 ual, and it behoves the producer to 

 have a mind of his own, and ask a 

 fair price for his well earned pro- 

 duct, or you may wake up some 

 morning (later) and find the deal- 

 er is pocketing a considerable of 

 the proceeds of your hard labor. If 

 you have never studied the sales 

 end of your business, begin this 

 year. 



Wires Electrically Embedded 



Tally one more for the founda- 

 tion fastened in brood frames by 

 use of an electric current. 



Within the past month we have 

 fastened wires in light brood foun- 

 dation in more than a thousand 

 frames, using a current from the 

 electric power wires that enter the 

 shop through a switch board. As 

 the current was too powerful we 

 "toned it down" by using 4 32- 

 candle power incandescent lamips as 

 a resistance coil. The current is 

 then slowed down sufficiently and 

 instead of melting the small wires 

 of the frames merely heats them, 

 melting them quickly into the very 

 midrib of the foundation. Then 

 the iron points of contact are lifted 

 Irom the wires and the cooling wire 

 hardens the wax around it immed- 

 iately. The wire is left firmly 

 melted in the wax at every point 

 of contact where it crosses a cell- 

 wall. We moved 75 hives full of 

 such frames, in hot weather, a 

 distance of 50 miles, in a heavy 

 auto-truck solid tires in three hours 

 and only one sheet of foundation 

 was entirely out of the frame, that 

 due to the fact that the wooden 

 strip had fallen out of the kerf 

 from the heavy jolting. In some 

 places the rough road would lift 

 the entire pile of hives two inches 



off the floor of the truck and 

 bump them down with a solid 

 THUD. That made us wince, but as 

 we have stated no serious damage 

 resulted. We feel sure that, had 

 the foundation been put in by the 

 usual pressing methods, the loss 

 from tailing out would have been 

 much more severe. And the work 

 is SO easy! A touch, a sizzle and 

 snap and lo, the wire is melted in 

 for good. — E. G. B. 



A Heart to Heart Talk From the Producer 

 to the Producer 



In i-egard to your Honey Crop 

 repoi-t both for the U. S. Crop Re- 

 port and the crop report blank to 

 be filled out that will he found in 

 the back part of this number of 

 the Revie^v. 



Producers seem to be reluctant 

 about reporting their crop of 

 honey especially is this true if the 

 crop be large. Wish we had words 

 to convince the producer of honey 

 that this is all wrong, why ! the 

 buyer or dealer has a hundred 

 ways of finding out what the crop 

 is, while the producer has but few. 

 Admitting that the dealers knoM' 

 what the crop is, don't you see 

 the importance of the producer 

 knowing! If the crop is large the 

 producer should know it to sell 

 intelligently. If the crop is small 

 the producer should know it at 

 once so no one can impose upon 

 him, he being as well posted as 

 the buyer. Many of you will be 

 asked to furnish a crop report for 

 the Government. You should avail 

 yourself of this privilege to spread 

 the condition of the crop, whether 

 large or small as the case may be 

 and take the word of the Editor, 

 the fraternity will be the gainer. A 

 crop report blank will be found in 

 the back part of this number of 

 the Review and we earnestly urge 

 all to fill out this blank faithfully, 

 tear out and return to this office 

 as soon as the main honey flow is 

 over. It is not necessary that the 

 one reporting count their colonies 

 by the hundred, as it is facts we 

 are after and in many cases the 

 small bee-keeper can furnish this 

 as well as the larger one. 



Let me repeat! It is for the best 

 of the producer to know whether 

 the honey crop is large or small at 

 the earliest possible moment, lest 

 in case of a short crop the buyer 



