July, I 



American l^ee Journal 



find out if she is "fairly prolific." In- 

 deed, it may take a good many, for 

 generally she is in a nucleus where she 

 has not very full opportunity to show 

 her prolificness. 



The term "untested queen" is left un- 

 mentioned, and more is required in an 

 untested queen than might appear on the 

 surface, for an untested queen must be 

 from a mother of pure blood, and she 

 must be a laying queen. 



Artiiic-inl Heat for E.vtracting 



It has been the general practise to ex- 

 tract at different times throughout the 

 course of the harvest, but there seems 

 a growing tendency to wait till the har- 

 vest of the honey. Another advantage 

 is that the work can be done more leis- 

 urely than when the time is fully crowd- 

 ed with other work. But to extract 

 when the weather is cooler, and when 

 the large mass of honey is no longer 

 kept warm, is quite a different thing 

 from extracting coinbs that are fresh 

 from the hives on a hot day. To over- 

 come this difficulty artificial heat may 

 be applied, and the combs may be heated 

 to such a degree that the honey shall be 

 even thinner than when taken fresh 

 from the hive on a hot day. 



W. Z. Hutchinson has been following 

 this plan, and says, in Gleanings : 



"The first year we warmed up the 

 honev with a base-burner hard-coal 



stove. This gives a very even, steady, 

 desirable heat; but it is too expensive, 

 and not very practical, to have a hard- 

 coal stove at each apiary in the woods 

 of Northern Michigan ; so, last year, we 

 used a Perfection oil-heater, costing 

 about $5.00, capable of burning a gallon 

 of oil in about 8 hours, although much 

 less can be burned. This is the first oil- 

 burning stove using a wick, that I ever 

 saw that could not be made to smoke. 

 It has a cylindrical wick, and just above 

 the wick is a round plate of iron called 

 the 'flame-spreader,' and the wick is 

 turned up until it strikes this spreader, 

 when it can go no higher, and it won't 

 smoke, and can't be made to do so. 



"One end of the honey-house or cellar 

 is partitioned off, making an 'oven,' as 

 we call it, large enough to hold 50 or 

 60 supers. We fill this up at night, for 

 instance ; light the stove before we go to 

 bed, turning the wick up part way so 

 that the temperature in the upper part 

 of the room will stand at about 100 de- 

 grees. In the morning we refill the 

 stove, turn it on full blast, and go to 

 extracting, taking the first supers from 

 the top of the room. As some of the 

 piles are lowered, more supers are taken 

 from other piles and added to these, thus 

 bringing more honey up into the heated 

 'zone.' As fast as there is vacant room, 

 more supers are brought in ; and a sort 

 of routine is followed whereby one al- 

 ways has hot honey to work on while 

 more is heating. 



(Oiscellaneou^ 

 Items 



President Hilton Wins Medal 



Mr. Geo. E. Hilton, president of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association, who 

 lives in Fremont, Mich., received, on 

 June 15, a gold medal which was won 

 by him on his exhibit of honey at the 

 Jamestown Exposition last year. The 

 medal is worth $175. The award was 

 made on the best quality of honey, and 

 Mr. Hilton competed for the medal with 

 the honey-producers of the United 

 States. The American "Bee Journal con- 

 gratulates Mr. Hilton upon his success 

 in the medal competition. 



Seventh Annual Illinois Report 



The 7th .\iinual Report of the Illinois 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association has been 

 ready for delivery for nearly a month. 

 The cloth-bound copies go only to the 

 members of the State Association, but 

 paper-covered copies can be had by 

 sending 25 cents in silver or stamps to 

 Secretary Jas. A. btone, Route 4, Spring- 

 field, 111. The book contains over 130 

 pages, and also has the reports of the 

 Chicago-Northwestern and the National 

 conventions, held in 1907. 



Missouri Bee-Keepers' Official Organ 



Colman's Rural World, a weekly agri- 

 cultural publication in St. Louis, Mo., 

 has been selected as the official organ 

 of the Missouri State Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation. It contains the proceedings 

 of the last State convention at Carroll- 

 ton, Mo., May 26 and 27. A special 

 price of 50 cents a year (52 copies) has 

 been made to bee-keepers. When send- 

 ing the 50 cents be sure to mention that 

 you are a bee-keeper, else you may not 

 get the special rate. 



Ex-Governor Colman, editor and pro- 

 prietor of Colman's Rural World, takes 

 great interest in bee-keeping, and is 

 making "The Apiary" an important de- 

 partment in his paper. It is one of the 

 best papers devoted to general farming. 

 Every bee-keeper in Missouri should 

 now subscribe for it. 



Washington State Bee-Convention 



We have received from the Secretary. 

 Mrs. L. R. Freeman, a brief report of 

 the last ineeting of the Washington 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association. Sirs. 

 Freeman says their organization is the 



first to ask for a Board of Agriculture, 

 and to endorse the Good Roads move- 

 ment; that is, that they have taken the 

 initiative, and while their Association is 

 not large they are progressing very nice- 

 ly. She reports the spring as being very 

 cool and the weather decidedly against 

 a heavy flow of nectar very early in tlie 

 season, but hopes that the weather may 

 change and the crop be much larger 

 than anticipated. 



The bee-keepers of the Pacific North- 

 west are also planning to have a good 

 exhibit at the Alaska- Yukon Exposition, 

 in Seattle, in 1909. 



Mrs. Freeman also reports the death 

 of Mrs. Abbie Parrish, of North Ya- 

 kima, who was a thorough and expert 

 bee-keeper, also a valuable member of 

 the State Association. She is survived 

 by a husband and two children. She had 

 been a resident of the Yakima Valley 

 for over a quarter of a century. 



It was decided to have the annual 

 basket picnic of the Washington State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, July 4, at the 

 State Fair Grounds. All bee-keepers 

 are invited to participate. Two com- 

 mittees were appointed — one for pro- 

 gram, consisting of Anson White, J. W. 

 Thornton, Isaac Hayes, and Mrs. L. R. 

 Freeman ; the other committee, on ar- 

 rangements, consists of Mesdames J. W. 

 ihornton, J. P. Berg, and F. G. Orr. 

 These ladies will receive the picnickers 

 at the grounds, take full charge of the 

 baskets, and make everybody welcome. 



The Detroit National Convention 



Secretary Hutchinson is planning 

 some excellent things for the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention to be held 

 in Detroit, Mich., Oct. 13, 14 and 15, 

 1008. He recently sent us the follow- 

 ing, which will be of great interest to 

 all who attend : 



Dise.ilses of Bees to be Discussed. 



One of the most serious disasters that 

 can visit an apiary is that of foul 

 brood, either American or European. 

 All should be constantly on the watch 

 for it. Every bee-keeper ought to be 

 able to recognize it instantly, and know 

 exactly what course to take when it is 

 found. Not only is foul brood a great 

 misfortune to the owner of the dis- 

 eased colonies, but it is a serious menace 

 to surrounding apiaries. 



For these reasons, one whole session 

 of the National Convention is to be de- 

 voted to the discussion of Diseases of 

 ■ Bees. Dr. White, of the Apiariarl De- 

 partment at Washington, has consented 

 to take up the bacteriological feature ; 

 show us how cultures are made and 

 the diseases propagated, etc. Some one 

 of the inspectors will tell us how to 

 detect the diseases, another how to treat 

 them, etc. 



The Bee-Keeping of H.'vwaii. 



We bee-keepers of the United States 

 might be surprised if we knew all about 

 the keeping of bees in Hawaii. It seems 

 that Uncle Sam thought it of sufficient 

 importance to send a special agent, our 

 friend, Dr. Phillips, of the Apiarian De- 

 partment at Washington, out to these 

 islands to investigate this industry. He 

 spent several months studying the indus- 

 try, and we have been fortunate enough 



