December, 1908. 



^^^^^^ 



American ^ee Journal 



Bees and Poultry. 



So Miss Wilson is going to mix poul- 

 try with bee-keeping in her department, 

 page 333- Or anything else for that mat- 

 ter, that the sisters are willing to tell 

 her about will mix well with bee-keep- 

 ing. 



According to Editor Hutchinson, of 

 the Review, and my own experience, it 

 seems that nothing would mix better 

 with bee-keeping than "more bees." 

 However, several, and those who ought 

 to know, have told me that, with "my 

 knack of doing great things" (?) I 

 ought to go into the poultry business — 

 bees in summer and chickens in winter. 

 I have been told that in this way the 

 two could be successfully combined, and 

 that there was lots of money in it. But 

 whether it is to be chosen instead of 

 "more bees" I'll leave for the sisters to 

 settle. 



Dark Brood-Combs and Honey. 



We are fortunate that the buying pub- 

 lic here is not so particular about the 

 color of the honey as the flavor. It en- 

 ables us to use our combs for extracted 

 honey longer, and wherever we please. 

 If we need them for brood we use them 

 only to put them into the extracting su- 

 pers again afterward. With the shallow- 

 hive system my combs travel continu- 

 ously from brood-chamber to super, and 

 vice versa. But the honey from them is 

 not the lightest. It does not make so 

 much difference when the honey is ex- 

 tracted from unsealed brood-combs, but 

 as soon as the combs are mutilated in 

 uncapping, the honey not only gets dark- 

 er, but the flavor is impaired. This is 

 very decidedly so with very old combs. 



State Fair Apiarian Exhibits. 



It is with great pleasure that I noticed 

 the item on page 327, regarding the 

 ap'arian exhibits at the Illinois State Fair. 

 I had just returned from our fair ex- 

 hibit work and with everything fresh in 

 memory, it was of great interest to know 

 what was being done along the same line 

 in other States. 



This shows again the value of bee-pa- 

 pers in presenting to others who are not 

 in a position to see for themselves such 

 things that arc of interest to them. I 

 have been studying exhibits at fairs, etc., 

 for years, but, unfortunately, it has been 

 impossible to visit many fairs where 

 good bee-keepers' exhibits were made. 

 Consequently such articles on the sub- 

 ject as have appeared in the bee-papers 

 from time to time, together with the 

 photographs of the exhibits themselves, 

 have been eagerly looked for, and have 

 been of much help. 



From my own experience it seems to 

 me that this is a subject of enough im- 

 portance to warrant the publishing of 

 more pictures of bee-keepers' exhibits 

 than have been shown. It helps the ex- 

 hibitor who contemplates making a nice 

 exhibit. Seeing others' exhibits not only 

 furnishes another person an idea after 

 which to arrange his exhibit, but to Im- 

 prove upon it. 



Seeing many exhibits, each arranged 

 diflferently, enables one to select the best 

 features of several and then combine, 

 them all in his own. Thus an exhibit 



can be made to surpass all previous 

 shows ; yet that is not the end. A num- 

 ber of such exhibits will again have cer- 

 tain good features, each along a differ- 

 ent line, so that these can again be com- 

 bined in still a better exhibit. There's 

 no end to it, and so there is no reason 

 why we should not have better exhibits 

 from year to year. 



Many bee-keepers do not consider this 

 subject of much importance, but those 

 with experience well know that they are 

 the biggest advertisers of the entire in- 

 dustry known. "Seeing is believing," 

 and if those in charge know their duty 

 the people can be shown that there is 

 pure honey in this world, and lots of it. 



A North Carolina Apiary. 



As it has been almost a year since you 

 heard from me, I will speak a few kind 

 words to you and my brother bee-keep- 

 ers, and let them know that I am still 

 on the war-path with my bee-business. 

 I will call it my "bee-business," because 



season that has ever been known in 

 this State. They swarmed without any 

 queen-cell, therefore I knew not when a 

 swarm was going to issue. Next sea- 

 son all of my queens will be clipped. 



This picture was taken one day after 

 I had taken off the honey. You will no- 

 tice my young helper sitting on a hive. 

 That is where he wanted to sit and I 

 think he is enjoying it. He got stung 

 7 times on his face one time, and both 

 of his eyes swelled shut, but he is not 

 afraid of the honey-bees. 



Bees are going into winter quarters 

 in a very poor condition. They worked 

 very hard on frost-weed but did not 

 gather much honey. I will have to feed 

 in early spring. 



Elkin, N. C. G. F. Jones. 



Oflf-Grade Broom-Weed Honey, Etc. 



.\t this date (Oct. 18) we are having 

 an extra-good honey-flow from broom- 

 weed. The whole "face of the earth is 

 covered with this weed, and it is a 



Apiary of G. F. Jones. Elkin, N. C. 



this has been one of the finest honey- 

 Hows that has been here for many years. 

 But we had only one flow, and that was 

 from sourwood, and as I made about 

 $40 a day with my bees for about 15 

 days, I call it a "business." 



I am enclosing a picture of one of 

 my yards. This is my home-yard, and 

 one which I take a great delight in 

 keeping nice, although my old, dilapi- 

 dated yards out in the country produced 

 just as pretty honey. You ought to 

 have seen that pretty, white sourwood 

 honey in those old saggj', worm-eaten 

 hives. It would make any bee-keeper's 

 mouth water, knowing it is going to 

 sell at t8 cents per pound. 



This picture had 13 colonies in the 

 spring, and I received 1000 pounds of 

 sourwood honey, and increased to 2$ 

 colonies, which was 70 pounds to the 

 colony, and made a colony out of each 

 increase. My bees are hybrids and 

 know how to sting and how to gather 

 honey. My out-yards averaged about 

 the same to the colony. I failed to have 

 all of my queen's wings clipped, conse- 

 quently I lost several fine queens and 

 swarms. Bees swarmed the most this 



sight to see as far as your eyes will let 

 you, a perfect sea of yellow bloom. And 

 the question with some of us is, "What 

 are we going to do with so much of this 

 off-grade honey?" 



Hot or Cold Honey-Knives. 



I see there is some discussion now in 

 the bee-papers as to the use of hot or 

 cold honey-knives in uncapping honey. 

 That a cold uncapping-knife can be used 

 there is not the slightest doubt. I have 

 uncapped many thousand pounds with a 

 cold knife, and so have I produced nice 

 section honey without separators, and 

 have also had nice brood-combs drawn 

 from full sheets of comb foundation 

 without wires, but that by no means 

 proves that there is not a better way 

 to have such things done. How any one 

 could think of using a cold knife after 

 having used the hot one is another of 

 the many things I don't know. Why, 

 I would not think of using a cold knife 

 for uncapping, and will say to those 

 that have not tried the hot knife, try it. 

 Have 2 knives, keeping constantly in 

 hot water, and change often. You will 



