232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 24, 1904. 



plan. We experience and feel a good many of those things 

 we would not sell for money if we could. 



In the fall — well, there are different plans that can be 

 practiced to get this latter colony in shape for winter, for 

 they will probably be very short of stores, if they are black 

 or German bees. But, again, note this : We know where 

 the queen is. She is where she belongs — in the brood-nest — 

 and whatever plan we employ to insure the colony winter 

 stores, it is much less work because she is thfere. 



I have not run a colony for extracted honey without an 

 excluder for two years, and have no idea that I will ever do 

 so again. Three years ago I had only about SO excluders; 

 that season I ran about 150 colonies for extracted honey, 

 and I firmly believe that I secured nearly as much, of a 

 much better grade, from the SO on which I used excluders, as 

 I did from the 100 colonies without. The next winter I 

 ordered, I think it was 100 or 120, and there is no question 

 but what with me they have paid their cost many times in 

 both seasons since; and they are, of course, barring acci- 

 dents, good for a life-time. I use, and greatly prefer, the 

 all-zinc to the wood-zinc for two reasons : First, the all- 

 zinc is much less hindrance to the bees; in fact, an all-zinc 

 is practically no hindrance to a colony in storing in an up- 

 per story. If they try to carry heavy loads of pollen up 

 through, some of it will get scraped off, which is a good 

 thing. The other reason is, they are much stronger and 

 more durable. The former may split and check off, but 

 new frames can be made, and the zinc itself is everlasting. 



I much more than agree with Mr. Dadant in regard to 

 the use of drone-excluders at the hive-entrance. 



Southern Minnesota. 





Hasty's Afterthoughts 





' Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



APPROPRIATIONS FOR CURING FOUI, BROOD. 



An appropriation to cure foul brood, and no power to 

 compel any one to let his bees be cured, looks at first dis- 

 gustingly like spending money to no purpose. Perhaps the 

 situation is really a little better than that. The localities 

 which are afflicted with contrary folks harboring the disease 

 can just be let alone for future action, while in a good many 

 other localities, happily free from human hogs, more time 

 can be put in, and the most thorough kind of work done. 

 The clean territory ought to increase, and the unclean ter- 

 ritory decrease, under the law. But if all the money is 

 spent agitating for an improvement of the law, total failure 

 to accomplish anything ■>night be the end of it. 

 t: — If, when Mr. France started in in Wisconsin, foul brood 

 was in SO counties, and now he knows but five that contain 

 it, that's pretty strong evidence that public effort does some 

 good. Queerly enough, concerning any disease, dishonest 

 practice, evil, danger or sin that can be named, lots of good 

 people turn up to oppose if efforts of a practical sort are 

 pushed in a definite way. Pages 64-67. 



HAULING HOME HONEY FOR EXTRACTING. 



I I So Mr. Aikin can load up his wagon direct from the 

 hives even in robbing times. Tight-covered wagon with 

 bee-escape and screen door. Move lively ; smoke plenty ; 

 judge correctly when enough bees are out of the super that 

 it will do to chuck the rest in the wagon. Keep the door 

 shut as much as you can — yet trust mainly to the flying out 

 of the bees on the repeated openings of the door. There 

 are robbing times and robbing times. As to some some- 

 times we will take his word that he makes it work ; but 

 other sometimes they would surely lly down his throat and 

 choke him off. 



On the whole, I guess Mr. Aikin's way of handling ex- 

 tracted honey is the best before the house. And an excel- 

 lent idea it is to dip combs in sweetened water if you want 

 them cleaned up outdoors without causing too great an up- 

 roar. Page 68. 



KINKS IN BOTTLING HONBY. 



H. Rauchfuss draws it fine about bottling — and wisely, 

 too, I think. If the stream is too warm it will draw fine 

 bubbles of air in with it, and the filled bottle will not be 

 clear. If the stream is too cold it will fold like calico, and 



fold in air with a similar result. Have it just right — cool 

 as you can without any folding of the stream. Blessed be 

 they that clear up splendidly these nice little points 1 But, 

 let's see, will it stay liquid as long sealed kind 'o cool, as it 

 will if the whole thing, bottle and all, is raised once more to 

 a high temperature when the cork is put in ? — Page 69. 



A BEGINNER'S TRIALS WITH BEES. 



Mr. Tackaberry is surely a fine example of how a be- 

 ginner will contrive to get into trouble. But, then, most of 

 them wiggle through it and come out all right. Don't have 

 bees stacked in a room of your house adjacent a room with 

 a warm fire. But and if you do do that foolish thing, at 

 least have the grace to keep the door locked, and the key 

 safe in your pocket — if not " frowed in de well." Page 79. 



THE REVERSIBLE-FRAME OPINIONS. 



C. H. Dibbern and J. A. Green innocently say, "Yes," 

 while the rest of us, to the number of 25, turn up our Noes-es 

 at the reversible frame. But, then, there's no law against 

 having a better frame than we now have, sufficiently simple 

 and cheap, and reversible, too — if the like of that comes 

 tripping and singing along. Page 85. 



BUYING QUEENS IN LARGE LOTS. 



Excellent salve for the sore pedals of the tenderfoot to 

 hear an " old stager " tell of buying 250 queens in one lot — 

 and then confess that it turned out to be a bad job. Page 90. 



FRONT-END CAR-LOAD FOR MOVING BEES. 



So the moving-by-rail experience of Charles W. Sager, 

 is that a stack of hives is bumped forward and oftener than 

 it is bumped backward. Therefore place the stack in the 

 front end of the car. Page 90. 



BEE-HOUSE RESULTS — A HIVE-SHIRT. 



I think, Mr. McCradie, most of us would quit off from 

 that bee-house that only saves 2 out of 10. But, still, maybe 

 your hole-through-the-wall experiment will be a success. 

 L,et us hear. 



That hive-shirt of home-made oil-cloth (muslin and lin- 

 seed oil) is apparently a good thing. But won't the fabric 

 rot under the stone ? If the shirt is fastened on tight 

 enough I don't see how the cover is going to get away even 

 without the stone. Possibly the intention is to have the 

 cover on top of the cloth. Page 92. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 





Tartaric Acid for Preventing Honey-Granulation. 



I have been putting up chunk honey in Mason jars. I 

 have met with considerable loss by having the extracted 

 honey candy that I finish filling the jars with. This winter 

 I took some honey and heated it to 160 degrees, Fahr. I put 

 a part of it up by adding and thoroughly mixing tartaric 

 acid in the proportion of a teaspoonf ul to 20 pounds of honey, 

 and this has not granulated, and looks clear and white, 

 while what was left without acid has granulated nicely. 

 Now, will the honey be just as wholesome for food with the 

 acid in it ? and is it advisable to put up chunk honey with 

 the acid ? Iowa. 



Answer. — I doubt very much the advisability of putting 

 in any foreign substance whatever. Even if you are sure 

 that it does no harm (and the acid would do at least a little 

 harm), the name of putting something into honey would 

 open the door for the charge that it was adulterated. 



Stimulative Feedlng-Winterlng-Maklng Nuclei. 



1. Will '2 -pint of sugar syrup fed daily be enough to 

 stimulate and carry on brood-rearing in the spring, when 

 no honey is in the hive? If not, how much ? 



2. Tell me how your bees are, and have been, wintering 

 in that furnace-room. 



3. How small a nucleus will winter to good advantage 



