662 



AMERICAJS BEE PURNAL 



Oct. 17, 1901. 



of rough boards) over all of our hives, and since we have 

 used these precautions we have not had any accidents of 

 this kind to suflfer. Hancock Co., 111. 



Exhibit of Bees and Honey at a Fall Festival. 



BY JOHN R. SCHMIDT. 



A NOVEL and interesting exhibit in the Pure Food 

 department of the Cincinnati Fall Festival was the 

 display made by Mr. C. H. W. Weber. 



In a tastily decorated booth a complete line of bee-keep- 

 ers' supplies, consisting of the latest hives, utensils, and 

 everything of imaginable use in the pursuit of modern bee- 

 keeping, together with a nice display of comb and ex- 

 tracted honey put up in a most inviting and catchy way, 

 was shown. 



The exhibition attracted such universal attention, and 

 was so much admired by the thousands of visitors, that it 

 might be well to go into details somewhat as to its 

 make-up, thereby possibly enlightening some interested 

 readers who may improve upon the same at the next fair or 

 exhibition coming his waj'. 



The display being in a corner of a building, the two 

 white-washed walls were well hidden behind a mass of 

 choice comb honey in cases, tiered up over five feet high. 

 Between each tier of cases, bottled honey was arranged, 

 showing the different sizes, and also the special registered 

 labels, a distinct marking for that kind of honey only. If 

 proven otherwise, a SlOO offer is yours, puts some signifi- 

 cance into the meaning of these labels. The honey-cases 

 and bottles were surmounted by numerous one-pound car- 

 tons colored a light lavender on two sides, and lettered in 

 gold, signifying the contents a gilt-edged product. 



Potted plants (natural palms) furnished by a florist, 

 and well placed about the display, added much to the 

 appearance and helped to enliven the exhibit ; not to say a 

 word about the bees, which made a " hot time " caused by 

 the ever mischievous boy, this time with a sharp lead-pencil, 

 which pried apart the wire meshes at the entrance and 

 allowed bees to escape before being discovered. Luckily, 

 only one souvenir was carried away. 



The three well-known hives, viz : 8 and 10-frame dove- 

 tailed, Danzenbaker, and the Langstroth portico, all com- 

 plete and painted a spotless white, making them look as 

 neat as a pin, were placed near the rear wall, where they 

 showed up to good advantage. The Cowan extractor, 

 comb foundation, supers, smokers, and many small articles 

 too numerous to mention, made up what may be called the 

 foundation of the exhibit. Last, but not least, each tele- 

 phone subscriber was furnished with an extra instrument 

 in his exhibit free of charge, thus establishing perfect out- 

 side communication with almost every booth in the build- 

 ing, through a miniature exchange,which was on exhibition 

 and illustrated the working of this wonderful instrument. 

 This highly appreciated convenience came in especially 

 handy when the bees escaped, for it was telephoned 

 instantly to the office, and help was soon on the scene. 



The most conspicuous place of the exhibit — the front — 

 was occupied by two small tables, one of which contained a 

 model 8-frame dovetailed hive having four glass sides. 

 This hive was perfection in the full sense of the word. 

 It contained a full colony of plain 3-banded Italian 

 bees upon 8 frames of comb, with brood, honey and 

 everything just as you would find in any prosperous 

 colony. The upper story consisted of a4'4x4'4xl'i 

 plain section super, with fences partly cut away on 

 either side to show the sections of honey in the vari- 

 ous stages of completion. 



In order that the queen might be seen at all times, 

 a one-frame nucleus was shown, making it easy to 

 keep track of this important individual. 



Another nucleus illustrated the rearing of a 

 queen-bee from the tiny egg to the matured product 

 ready to begin her supreme reign, or be sent through 

 the mails in one of the well-known cages. This was 

 also shown and fully explained. 



It may not be unwise to say that these observa- 

 tory hives were very attractive in appearance, which 

 was largely due to the perfect workmanship. Instead 

 of being painted they were nicely varnished. The 

 top, lower-story and bottom-board were held securely 

 together with nickel-plated fastenings, giving the 

 whole a handsome appearance. Double-weight glass 

 on the sides and ends of the full colony, and on the 

 sides of the nuclei, made things as plain as day, and 

 revealed the mysteries of the bee-hive to hundreds 



with their strange, and, many times, ridiculous ques- 

 tions. 



Now, thoroughly aroused as to how bees " make " honey, 

 the interested observer passed on to the other table, where a 

 neat and polite young lady attendant was in charge of two 

 large glass vessels of honey, distinct in quality and flavor, 

 viz : the famous Colorado alfalfa, and white clover honey. 

 Each who wished to sample was provided with a small, flat 

 piece of white basswood, which served as a spoon. After 

 once used, the piece was done for, and dropped into a 

 receiver. This method not only avoided a lot of mussy 

 work, but was extremely sanitary, and many sampled the 

 honey who otherwise would not have done so. Quite a 

 number of orders were booked for delivery, not saying any- 

 thing of the one-pound sections and the bottles sold every 

 day at the exhibit. On an average about three gallons of 

 extracted honey was consumed every day from the sample 

 table. ' Each little stick held, at most, half a teaspoonful of 

 honey (many times less), so it is easy to imagine how many 

 dips were necessary to take away three gallons of honey. 



After the first day it was found absolutely necessary to 

 restrict some of the children " unaccompanied by parents " 

 who were especially fond of honey, for they actually could 

 not decide on which should be the last dip. 



An unusual and unexpected coincidence developed in 

 the form of a biscuit-baking booth next door, which adver- 

 tised a well-known flour, and gave away hot biscuits and cof- 

 fee. The hot biscuits and the honey soon developed a mutual 

 attraction, to the tune of several hurry calls over the tele- 

 phone for " More sample honey to the exhibits I Quick 1 !" 

 A fortunate misfortune which may be answered by yes and 

 no. 



The exhibit was a success in every way, and the howl- 

 ing success of Cincinnati's great annual show was largely 

 due to the exhibitors taking such an interest in their exhib- 

 its, as this one did in his. May it only serve its purpose 

 well, and help bring "more business" to the bee-keeping 

 industry, as well as in other pursuits. 



Hamilton Co., Ohio. 



How I Managed a Swarm of Bees. 



BY DR. B. GALLUP. 



ON April 19, I caught a medium swarm of bees. Now 1 

 propose to tell, for the instruction of the beginner, 

 how I handled those bees. 



I hived them on six empty frames. After seven days I 

 began to move the outside frames, one at a time, into the 

 center of the cluster, so the queen would occupy it with 

 eggs, and have the bees build all worker-comb. It had a 

 young queen and probably was a second swarm. Bees left 

 to themselves, especially with an old queen, usually build 

 more or less drone-comb at the outside of the cluster. 



On May 24 I had 14 frames all filled with worker-comb, 

 and the queen had occupied them as fast as built. 



On May 13 I moved the queen and two frames of brood 

 into an empty hive, moved the old or first hive about the 

 width of it to one side : set the hive containing the queen 

 near enough to the position of the first hive so as to throw 



OBSERVATOKY HIVES AT THE CINCINXATI FALL FESTIVJ 



