41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, AUGUST 22, 1901, 



No, 34, 



Beware of Honey-Dealing Frauds!— 



.Such caution, not many years ago, was abso- 

 lutely necessary. It was our privilege, as 

 well as enthusiastic pleasure, to help drive 

 out of business a few of the most daring 

 honey-sharks that ever "sharked." And so 

 far as we know they are not " sharking " bee- 

 keepers now, we are glad to say. Many of 

 our readers have at least pecuniary reasons 

 for remembering the Horrie-Wheadon-Mc- 

 Conkey crowd that a few years ago so suc- 

 cessfully fleeced the unsuspecting honey- 

 producers, here in Chicago. Just now we are 

 not aware of any here that are getting ready 

 to "do up'' the "easy" bee-keeper. And 

 yet it is always well to be on one's guard, for 

 no one knows just when the wolf will show 

 his claws through his sheepish covering. 



It is a pretty good rule to make a thorough 

 investigation before shipping hone.v — or any- 

 thing else, for that matter — to new firms or 

 strangers. The facilities are fairly ample in 

 these days, to learn of the financial responsi- 

 bility and character of those who solicit the 

 products of the apiary and farm. Also, it is 

 generally true that an old and established 

 firm can do as well, if not better, with any 

 produce entrusted to them, than can new 

 firms. At any rate, we should hesitate a long 

 time befere changing from " the old and 

 tried " to the new and untried. The latter 

 may he all right, of course; and then, again, 

 they may not. But if you must experiment 

 with new dealers, our advice is to ship no 

 more at a time than you can alTord to lose — 

 until you are satisfied they are honorable and 

 satisfactory in their business conduct. 



We can assure you that it isn't pleasant to 

 feel the necessity of giving such caution as 

 the foregoing, as it may be an injustice to 

 some splendid new firms; and yet, the good 

 and well-meaning uiust sometimes suffer on 

 account of the fraudulent actions of those for 

 whom they are not in any way responsible. 

 But snch is the stern law of public trade and 

 dealing. It is hard, and yet there seems to 

 be no other safe way of escape. 



Seasonable Articles, that is. articles 

 given at the right time for putting into prac- 

 tice the suggestions contained in them, have 

 been strongly urged at times. What is the 

 use of giving advice about a thing just as the 

 time of year has ended when that advice can 

 lie put into practice, and nearly a year must 

 intervene before the next opportunity to try 



it ; In spite of that, F. L. Thompson advo- 

 cates in the Progressive Bee-Keeper that the 

 close of the swarming season is the best time 

 to discuss tlie swarming problem. And he 

 gives reasons for it that are not to be des- 

 pised. Right when a thing is yet fresh in 

 mind with all its particulars is a better time 

 to give it than to wait till particulars are 

 partly forgotten, and enthusiasm has died 

 away. One trouble is, that if a year is allowed 

 to elapse, in many cases, if not in most cases, 

 the bee-keeper concludes he will not write 

 at all. 



A horticulturist once gave as a rule for the 

 best time to prune trees, " Prune when your 

 knife is sharp." It may be a good thing for 

 the readers of this journal to follow some- 

 thing like the same rule. 



Whenever you have anj' item that you 

 think would benefit some other bee-keeper, 

 sit right down and write it off, in season or 

 out of season. Sometimes some little thing 

 will be learned, and just because it is a little 

 thing it is not thought worth while to send 

 it. Bee-keeping is largely made up of little 

 things, and many a beginner strikes upon a 

 little thing that some of the veterans have not 

 yet learned, and will be glad to know. 



When you have gained some new light, 

 send it in. If it is something that is so gen- 

 erally known that it is not worth while to 

 print it, you need not feel hurt that it does 

 not appear in print. But the danger of that 

 is small. A good many things bear repeating. 



Don't be afraid to add your mite. 



A Xovel Method of Feeding Back 



to get unfinished sectious completed is thus 

 given in the Bee-Keepers' Review Ijy Freil 11 . 

 Fargo : 



The honey to be fed back, which may con- 

 sist of unfinished sections, or any combs of 

 suitable honey from three to four pounds in 

 quantity, is daily placed in a hive (the en- 

 trance to which must be contracted to admit 

 only one or two bees at a time) a few rods 

 from the apiary, and not a great distance ' 

 from the colony upon which are placed the 

 unfinished sections to be completed. A sec- 

 tion of honey, bruiscil so that the honey is 

 ready to run. and covered with bees, is then 

 taken from the colony upon which are the 

 unfinished sections, and placed in the hive 

 containing the honey to be fed. Or, we can 

 place a section or i>iece of comb honey on the 

 alighting-board ami leave it there until suffi- 

 cient bees from this colony are taking the 

 honey, then place in the hive as above stated. 



These bees, thus carried from their home 

 and placed in a hive containing honey, will 

 work iiack and forth between this hive and 

 their home, carrying the honey to the latter, 

 and the strange part of it is that they will 

 defend both hivex Jrinn robbers. 



In selecting the colony to do this work, 

 choose one containing good workers that will 

 protect their own Imme against the intruding 

 robber-bees. Tlie fact that the work of carry- 



ing away the honey is commenced by bees 

 that are all frum one rukmy accounts for their 

 combining in a defense of the spoil. 



Commenting upon this. Editor Hutchinson 

 says: 



" If one had broken pieces of comb honey, 

 that method might be all right; but for the 

 feeding of extracted honey I think that I 

 should prefer a regular feeder that could be 

 set upon the top of the hive in which the 

 work is being done." 



It is barely possible, however, that in some 

 cases there would be an advantage in Mr. 

 Fargo's plan, even when feeding extracted 

 honey. May there not be an advantage in the 

 fact that the bees are getting something from 

 otitude the hive '? Some have complained that 

 after a time the bees showed some weariness 

 about working on feed in the hive, although 

 it is possible this was only when feeding on 

 sugar syrup. 



There is one view of the case in which Mr. 

 Fargo's plan might be an advantage, even if 

 most of the feeding were done in the usual 

 way. It is probably always the case that 

 when there are sections to be finished, there 

 are at the same time sections that contain 

 only a small amount of hone,v, that amount 

 being so small that instead of trying to get 

 them finished by feeding back it is better to 

 have them emptied out by the bees so as to 

 he used as baits the next season. // it is 

 true that in all cases the bees will defend the 

 robbed pile as Mr. Fargo sa.vs (there seems 

 some reason to believe it when it is remem- 

 bered that there is often severe fighting 

 among robbers) , then two birds may be killed 

 with one stone. When the light sections are 

 put in a pile to be emptied out for baits, as is 

 the practice of many, instead of letting all 

 the bees of the apiary work upon them, just 

 take Mr. Fargo's plan, and let the honey be 

 all used by one colony. 



Washing Black Combs. — It is well 

 known that combs become black with age, 

 especially those in which brood is reared, but 

 it is not so generally known that when such 

 combs are filled with water and allowed to 

 stand a few days the water becomes inky 

 black. It is reasonable to suppose that when 

 so much of the dark color is soaked out liy 

 water, at least some of it will be absorbed by 

 honey, hence it has been the practice for some 

 time, when a choice article of white ex- 

 tracted honey was wanted for show purposes, 

 to use only new combs for extracting. It is 

 suggested in Gleanings in Bee-Culture that 

 the same end may be reached by washing the 

 coloring-matter out of the old combs. " Lay 

 the combs fiat, fill the cells with water from 

 the nose of a watering-can, then after soaking 

 throw the water out with an extractor." 



