Various

“ There are but few of us that realize the benefits of the exertions put forth by this great firm in finding a market for our products. Their undertaking has been crowned with success, and to them we owe our sincere thanks if nothing more. The markets of the world are open to our products, and it is now our duty to see that those markets are not ruined through any fault or neglect on the part of the American producer. We must also have united action looking toward the prevention of adulterations.
We must have co-operation in marketing honey, to produce the most satisfactory results. ”

“ What unity and action has done for dairying and other branches of industry it may also accomplish for apiculture. Association and unity of action are the great mainsprings of power and progress in the world. I am pleased to know that the bee-keepers of this country are awakening to this principle in marketing their products.
While in New York city last October I devoted one whole day investigating the honey market, and I must say that I was completely disgusted with the workings thereof. ”

“ Many a bee-keeper after having obtained a class of bees that did credit to America and which bid fair to become worthy of the name Apis Americana, not content to let “well enough alone,” has ruined his stock by introducing foreign blood that was as worthless as it was cheap. For the improvement of our present strain of bees I would suggest that queen breeders exchange queens from their working stock and make a careful record of the result of the cross. When they get a cross that is an improvement on their own bees let them breed from it and introduce the blood into their apiary. ”

“ All of those having honey had brood and some of them young bees; such had soiled the combs. The one that is alive is strong and has plenty of brood. I thought that bees did not commence to raise brood until a warm spell, but it seems I was mistaken. ”

“ Every bee-keeper in making up his report should be very careful not to over-estimate his yield. In the past this has worked injury to our markets, many bee-keepers making a fictitious and an exaggerated report for fear that some neighboring apiarist may lead them in the amount of honey produced. This is all wrong and I trust we shall soon see the end. Remember that honey buyers keep their eyes upon all reports regarding the amount of honey produced in the country. That from these reports they fix the price to be paid; and when we go to sell our honey we are compelled to face the reports. ”

“ So long as queen breeders in Italy know that any queens they may see fit to send to America will be accepted just because they came from Italy, just so long will some of them take advantage of such knowledge to ship to this country queens they would not be willing to use themselves, and which American bee-keepers would not accept as a gift if they knew what stock they sprang from. ”

“ We keep our colonies in a condition so that the queen can breed up to her full capacity. The Italian queens we received from the Bee Journal apiary last fall, wintered well, and we now have several nuclei started for queen-rearing, as we mean to Italianize all of our bees by the end of the present season. The prospects were never better than now for a booming good year.
At some future time we will give our experience in wintering bees in a cold climate on 4 lbs. 2 ounces of honey per colony, before chaff packing was invented. ”

“ I think that now all fear of loss is past, for my bees are doing as well as could be desired. They are breeding considerably, and are all bright and healthy. The snow is going off slowly, at last, and we may look for spring soon. The maple trees are full of swelling buds—it is too early to say anything about fruit bloom; I don’t know whether it is killed or not. White clover looks well where the snow is off, and it promises well for the coming season. ”

“ Hives so constructed that chaff could entirely surround the bees to the depth of 4 inches. To sum up, we should winter one-half of our apiary one way and one-half the other, inasmuch as our winters vary so that one winter has come out the best on summer stands, and another the best from the cellar. ”

“ A Visit Every Week, Very Pleasant.—My bees have been at work on the soft maple for the past week. I commenced the winter with 31 colonies; I now have 21; many of them are very strong; some died with plenty of honey in their hives. Last season was a poor one, giving no surplus. I think there will be a heavy loss of bees here. I thought I would not like the Weekly Bee Journal as well as the monthly, but I would not exchange it now for any monthly, because I can hear from my bee-keeping friends every week. ”

“ Double-Walled Hives.—A large proportion of bees have died in this vicinity this winter. I have lost 6 colonies out of 16. I am using Hill’s double-walled winter bee hive. I lost none wintered in these hives, but every one in Langstroth hives died. I wintered on summer stands and one hive had as much protection as another. I feel sure I should have saved all if I had used the double-walled hive; those that died had honey enough in the hive to have wintered them through, if they could have got at it. My bees are carrying pollen every day they can be out. ”

“ I supposed that the younger bee-keepers, who keep posted, knew that many old producers on a more extensive scale never used separators at all, and of that class who did many others are laying them aside. Bees do finish up their combs full better with separators, because as the season draws to a close they are less inclined to start another comb in one of those little compartments, and as long as there is honey coming in they finish with it to keep from perfect idleness. ”

“ There are many other plants which we believe would repay cultivation in honey alone, but not one that will bear comparison with this Esau of the vegetable kingdom. Never was a better time to start in right than now, and never can we truthfully say bee-keeping is more hazardous than other industries, or less remunerative, until we have made some provision against natural failures and seasonable disasters. Every bee-keeper should, in justice to himself, test this matter of planting on a sufficiently extensive scale to satisfy himself. ”

“ It is hardly possible there is a great deal of dead brood in the combs to be removed. We should not hesitate, if the brood is dry and shrunken, to place the combs in strong colonies; but if the brood is putrid and ropy, and sticks to the cells, we would not wish to use them, as it is easy to imagine the possibility of foul brood or other diseases arising therefrom. If, as we suspect, your combs are filled with starved bees, you can easily remove them by adopting the plan recommended in the Weekly Bee Journal of March 16, page 86. ”

“ Next, to have your bees in strong condition at the time of the first flow of honey. The great mistake of beginners is to aim at too large an increase, either by division or natural swarming. If the season is good, an increase of 3 from each colony is a plenty; if a medium season an increase of one from each colony is enough.
The brood chamber is the mainspring to work upon for a good yield of honey. We allow no queen to live over 3 years, and if not a prolific queen she only lives one year. We allow no brood comb to remain over 3 years in the centre of the hive ”

“ These bees fly swiftly, and look odd enough as they come in loaded with minute pellets of pollen, which is packed on their hind legs as with other bees. They are black.
The queen is large, her abdomen being so great as to dwarf in appearance all other parts of her body, and so disable her as far as flying and rapid movements are concerned. Of course there can be no practical value in these bees, but I tucked the nest in a box about 6 inches square and 2 deep, or rather a part of the brood and honey, and brought the swarm along. They have been fixing up their new home quite bravely. ”

“ I put into winter quarters 16 colonies (all blacks) and now have one, very weak. I have a lot of nice, well-made and painted hives on hand, and a lot of combs. As I have never handled Italian bees, and have concluded to purchase, and I hear they are larger than the blacks, will you please answer these 2 questions in the Bee Journal: Are comb cells of the black bee too small for the Italians to raise brood in? Will it not cramp them in size? Will it be safe to feed the thin uncapped honey that has caused dysentery to other bees? The bees in this vicinity are all dead. ”

“ There are many good reliable breeders in Italy, and those who are desirous of importing should search them out and give such their orders, and give all others a severe “letting alone.” But to return to my subject. When an apiarist becomes, satisfied that he has an excellent strain of bees he should be very careful how he introduces new blood into his apiary, I care not from what source it comes whether from Italy or a home breeder, until he has thoroughly tested it and found it to be good. ”

“ But in solving the problem of “marketing,” man’s inventive genius is called upon to provide the necessary elements, whereby the desired results may be attained without increased expense to the consumer or decreased profit to the producer. This is a practical age and requires practical inventions, to be used in the race for the “mighty dollar.”
There need be no fear of overstocking the markets. Honey is being used by many manufacturers in the liquid form, and its demand is increasing throughout the land. ”

“ The early part of the season was poor, but I had during the season 21 natural swarms and over 3000 lbs. of section honey for sale, with a surplus of 3000 lbs. in brood frames; more than enough to winter them, which I brought to my home apiary. The above harvest was wholly from smart weed, which was grown on overflow land near the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The loss in this apiary will not exceed 10 from all causes. All are strong and booming. The soft maples are now in bloom; every fair day the bees are carrying in pollen and a very little honey ”

“ For instance, a fair-sized colony may 106 consume 11⁄2 lbs. of honey per month, and endure confinement without soiling the combs for 6 months; now, if they consume 6 times this amount in 2 months, they must fly at the end of that time or the combs will be soiled very soon thereafter. We often read, “My bees wintered well and consumed but very little honey,” while the fact was that their consuming but little honey was the reason they wintered well. Thus we are able to answer the question why one colony dies, and another at the side of it does not. ”

“ The traditional two or three weeks of honey-flow can, with a trifling expenditure, be made to last more than as many months; a succession of bloom can be secured, so that should northerly winds or wet weather prevail for a time, it would not carry dismay to our hopes and starvation to our bees. If, as we hope and confidently believe, the present should prove an unparalleled honey season, it will ameliorate the only tenable objection to melilot or sweet clover, which is that it blooms but little or none the first season ”

“ If you buy a Bingham Smoker, or a Bingham & Hetherington Honey Knife you are sure of the best and cheapest, and not liable to prosecution for their use and sale. The largest bee-keepers use them exclusively. Twenty thousand in use—not one ever returned, or letter of complaint received. Our original patent Smokers and Honey Knives were the only ones on exhibition at the last National Bee-Keepers’ Convention, 1880. Time sifts the wheat from the chaff. Pretensions are short-lived. ”

“ Any person, company or corporation engaged in the manufacture, refining or mixing of sugars, syrups, molasses or honey for sale, who shall mix the same with glucose or grape sugar or any other article of adulteration, shall, before selling or offering the same for sale, cause to be marked on the cask or package in which it is contained, the percentage of glucose or adulteration therein contained, such mark or label shall be in plain Roman capital letters, not less than 1⁄2 each in dimensions, in black ink or paint, and on the upper and most conspicuous part of the cask or package. ”

“ Mee Meso are the Cingalese words signifying “honey bee,” and this is the bee from which, aside from bambera, most of the honey and wax come.
Bambera, all accounts agree, exists plentifully in the jungles of Ceylon, but I found just before I came away, only rarely near the seashore, I failed to find it within 10 miles of the coast. I was glad to get accounts from persons who have seen these bees and their trees, and have measured the lengths of their combs; observing gentlemen, too, whose word can be relied upon. ”

“ The American Bee Journal is the oldest Bee Paper in America, and has a large circulation in every State, Territory and Province, among farmers, mechanics, professional and business men, and is, therefore the best advertising medium for reliable dealers. ”

“ We must have unity of action. Let us concentrate what honey we put on that market by sending to these two houses. By so doing our honey will command a higher price, sell faster, and thereby insure us quicker and more satisfactory returns. What will apply to the New York market will hold good for any of our markets. We must concentrate our honey, and the quicker we do this the sooner we shall be able to sell our products for cash. ”