41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, AUGUST 1, 1901, 



No, 31, 



^ Editorial. ^ \ 



Honey in Cans vs. Barrels. — Although 

 we fear having our motive misjudged, we feel 

 that we ought to say another word on this 

 important subject. We certainly would re- 

 frain from referring to it now were it not for 

 the fact that additional experience simply 

 confirms us in the belief that extracted honey 

 ought to be put into 60-pound tin cans rather 

 than in wooden barrels. 



We received two 400-pound barrels of very 

 fine honey from Florida recently, and this 

 after we had almost positively declared that 

 we would not purchase any more honey in 

 barrels. One of the barrels leaked, as usual ! 

 Both absorbed a number of pounds of the 

 honey, also. 



True, a tin can will occasionally burst, and 

 thus cause leaking. But when it does, you 

 can't lose more than 60 pounds out of one 60- 

 pound can. But a barrel — well, we have more 

 than once seen over a half-barrel of honey 

 lost through leaking, or from the head burst- 

 ing out. 



Yes, tin cans do cost more than barrels, but 

 they are worth more, and for several reasons. 

 The honey in them can be re-liquefied without 

 digging it out and putting it into something 

 else, as must be done with honey in a barrel. 

 Honey in 60-pound cans is in better shape for 

 the cash honey-dealer to handle. It is a 

 ((uantity that many a family feels it can afford 

 to buy at one time. Other excellent reasons 

 might be given. 



It may do to put dark or cheap honeys into 

 barrels, but the fine white extracted honeys 

 we think ought always to be put into 60-pound 

 tin cans. We believe the day will soon be 

 here when such honeys will be retjuired in tin 

 cans, and perhaps at a slight advance in price 

 over that of the same grade in barrels. 



.\nother Victory for the National. — 



The National Bee-Keepers' Association has 

 won another notable victory in the courts. 

 General Manager Secor sends us the following 

 condensed account; 



Editor Americas Bee Journal.— 



In December, liWO, the city of Rochester, 

 N. Y.. had under consideratiou the passage of 

 an ordinance prohibiting the keeping of bees 

 within the city limits. W. K. Taunton, a 

 member of the National Association, living in 

 tlie city, and whose business and liberties 

 would l)e interfered with by sucli an ordi- 

 uance, appealed to the general manager for 

 advice and assistance. Such printed matter 

 as it was thought would be of service to him 

 was forwarded, and, with the assistance of 



able legal counsel, Mr. Taunton succeeded in 

 having the proposed ordinance withdrawn. 



But in April, 1901. the matter was revived, 

 and through the persistent efforts of one of 

 the aldermen, and in spite of all objections 

 and remonstrances, the ordinance passed. 



Mr. Taunton was advised not to remove his 

 bees, and assured that if he got into trouble 

 the Association would defend him. 



Mr. Marks — a director of the National Asso- 

 ciation — was requested to go to Rochester and 

 make a complete investigation. He did so, 

 and reported that in his opinion Mr. Taunton 

 was handling his bees in a manner not to 

 annoy neighbors, and thought he ought to be 

 protected. 



In corresponding with our attorney, Mr. 

 Dutcher, the latter stated that the police 

 Judge, before whom the case was likely to 

 come, was an able man-, and thought the 

 Association would better risk it there. 



The ease was tried upon a warrant of arrest 

 for refusing to comply with the ordinance, 

 and the Judge of the Police Court rendered 

 his decision, setting aside the ordinance, and 

 discharged the defendant. 



The Judge did not file a written opinion. 

 The counsel's brief is enclosed herewith. 

 EcGENE Secor, 



General Maanijer XnVl B.-K. AttsociutUm. 



The above case was referred to editorially 

 on page 323, Surely, another victory is won 

 by the "Old Guard," But such victories can 

 not be won without expense to the Associa- 

 tion, And the only source of revenue is 

 from membership dues. So every bee-keeper 

 who cares for his own rights, or that the 

 rights of others shall be protected, should be 

 a member of the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, Y'ou may not have to call on it to 

 aid in defending you — and then you may. No 

 one can tell at what time he may be unjustly 

 prosecuted or threatened. Better " get in the 

 dry " before it rains, and thus take no 

 chances of being caught unprotected. 



See the first column of the second page of 

 every issue of the American Bee Journal for 

 information concerning the Association. 



Forcing Honey Into the Super. — 



The Australian Bee-Bulletin says: 



Putting frames with eggs and unsealed 

 larvip at the outside of the cluster the bees 

 don't want to store right in the middle of the 

 brood-nest, so put all surplus in the super. 



That will work all right some of the time, 

 but when a heavy Bow is on, bees will often 

 allow solid combs of honey right in the mid- 

 dle of the brood-nest. 



Bottling Honey.— J. R. Schmidt tells in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture about the practice 

 of C. H. W. Weber, the successor of C. F. 

 Muth, who succeeded in building up a good 

 trade in granulated honey. Instead of fol- 

 lowing that up, Mr,. Weber goes to the other 

 extreme, and sends out honey that »"V' not 

 i/niiiuliilr. That he succeeds in doing so 



" may be readily seen from the fact that some 

 honey put up and sealed last summer had 

 been kept on ice since bottling, and after 

 passing through the present winter, is just as 

 clear as it was the day it was put up, and not 

 a case of granulated honey had to be replaced 

 this winter." 



The secret lies in putting up the honey in 

 much the same way that fruits are put up — 

 having everything hot at time of sealing. The 

 apparatus used by Mr. Weber cost about ?100, 

 but it is probable that apparatus for putting 

 up on a smaller scale might cost very much 

 less. There is for heating the honey a tank 

 within a tank, with a three-inch space be- 

 tween the two for water. When the granules 

 are all melted out of the honey, and when for 

 five or ten minutes the honey has been kept 

 at 180 degrees, it is drawn off into the bottles, 

 the cork is hammered in with a mallet of solid 

 rubber, and then dipped into a melted prep- 

 aration of rosin and beeswax, making it per- 

 fectly air-tight. If honey thus put up will 

 keep indefinitely without granulating, it will 

 much simplify matters for those who now go 

 about taking up from grocers bottles of honey 

 for re-liquefying. 



An Artificial Swarm is thus directed 

 to be made, in Bienenvater : 



Take from the hive all the combs with ad- 

 hering bees, except the comb on which the 

 queen is found and a comb of honey. Fill up 

 the hive with frames containing starters, and 

 close the hive. The combs taken from the 

 hive, with their adhering bees, are to be put 

 in a new hive and placed on a new stand, 

 having water furnished to them for four or 

 five days. The field-bees will all join the old 

 queen on the old stand, and the colony on the 

 new stand will rear a new queen. 



In this country it would be considered a 

 gain to give the new colony a laying queen or 

 a mature queen-cell. 



Steam AVax-Presses vs. Hot Water. 



—Rambler lauds steam wax-presses in Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture, but thinks they may b& 

 excelled by those in which the material while 

 in press is all the lime kept under hot water. 

 These are in use in (iermany. where steam 

 presses have lieen in use a number of years, 

 and it is said that those who have tried both, 

 prefer the hot water. 



A Cheap Bee-Stand certainly is the 

 one recommended by Loyalstone in the Aus- 

 tralian Bee-Keepers' Review. He says: 

 " Nothing better, and cheaper, to my mind, 

 than making mounds of earth, well battered 

 down, rising about four inches above the 

 lowest level of the ground." In some locali- 

 ties — perhaps rather in some soils — this may 

 work all right. 



