January, ig[i. 



American Hee Journal 



with it. I am sorry I don't know who should 

 be credited with the plan. 



Although it is some one else's "baby." I 

 have as much admiration for the tin-pail 

 feeder as if I could honestly claim its fath- 

 erhood, for their is no other scheme for 

 feeding bees that I know of that calls for so 

 little monetary investment, and this in ad- 

 dition to many other features. 



£/^ Piissiint, it might be well to mention that 

 the old form of self-sealing pails having a 

 shoulder around the top into which the 

 cover fits, is not so good as the newer styles 

 which omit this shoulder, and sometimes 

 termed " self-draining' pails, as. when in- 

 verted, all honey or syrup drains away from 

 tliem dry. leaving no residue, as is the case 

 with the older type. R. B. Koss, Jr. 



Montreal. Nov. 30. 



P. S.— I'm just back from a rush trip to 

 Europe. I sampled some honey in Hamburg 

 that doesn't compare with our clover or 

 other white honey. But don't tell the Ger- 

 mans 1 said so! R. B. R. 



We are glad to have the foregoing 

 from Mr. Ross, and, although as he 

 points out, he may have not been the 

 one to " originate " the scheme of uti- 

 lizing as a feeder a common honey-pail 

 with the cover perforated, yet I feel 

 sure that he deserves the credit of 

 calling our attention to this very handy 

 article for the apiary. 



Since writing my unqualified endorse- 

 ment of the article a short time ago, 

 one slight defect has shown up, and 

 that is the way in which the pails have 

 of rusting very quickly when used as 

 feeders. Perhaps the improvement 

 mentioned by Mr. Ross may help to 

 obviate this dilficulty, as, with the pails 

 I used, some syrup would always be 

 left aroimd the outside edges of the 

 pails. lam not sure that I have seen 

 the pails he recommends, and before 

 another season comes around I will, if 

 spared, investigate their merits. 



I might say for the benefit of those 

 who have not met Mr. Ross, that he is 

 one of our hustling young business 

 men, who keeps bees mainly as a rec- 

 reation, and incidentally sees that they 

 pay him good dividends on the money 

 he has invested in them. Those who 

 may have met Mr. Ross at the Albany 

 convention will be able to judge as to 

 whether he has "brains" enough to 

 merit the credit I had given him in the 

 matter of inventing the pail feeders; 

 indeed, there are tew better informed 

 men in the country on matters apicul- 

 tural, and it is a pity we do not hear 

 from him oftener through the medium 

 of the bee-papers. 



While on the matter of writing for 

 the bee-papers, the thought has often 

 come to me that most of our very best 

 apiarists seldom write anything for 

 publication. In this respect I have 

 personally often felt that bv my habit 

 of writing so much, that I am getting 

 undue publicity which my status as a 

 bee-keeper does not warrant, when I 

 know so well that others so much bet- 

 ter qualified in the business do nothing 

 at supplying matter for the press. My 

 only excuse is that if the bee-papers 

 are to be printed for bee-keepers to 

 read, somrhody must do the writing, 

 and as I happen, unfortunately, to have 

 a liking for scribbling, the "excuse" 

 mentioned has been used with a ven- 

 geance as a means of allowing me to 

 " get things out of my system " so fre- 

 quently. 



"J. L" Only "Mrs. Byer's Husband" 



On page 378, that paragraph heading 

 came from the editorial sanctum, no 



doubt about the matter. And say, Mr. 

 York, you have paid me a pretty good 

 compliment, for that implies that I had 

 at least sense enough to get a good 

 woman to do the work for me. Do 

 you "catch on?" 



It reminds me of the story of the 

 love-stricken youth who while oh, so 

 anxious to get married, yet hesitated 

 for fear that he could not make a liv- 

 ing. His more optimistic sweetheart 

 assured him that they could get along 

 even if they had to live on bread and 

 water. The love-sick swain grasped 



at this as would a drowning man at a 

 straw, and said, " All right, dear ; you 

 find the bread, and I will supply the 

 water." 



And yet, when Mrs. Byer saw the 

 heading referred to, didn't she try to 

 suggest other combinations in place of 

 the one chosen ?" But, then, you know, 

 " women are such perverse creatures, 

 anyway !" 



[Of course, Mr. Byer can't possibly 

 mean one of Dr. Miller's " stray straws " 

 when he mentions "the love-sick swain 

 grasped at a straiv!" — Editor.] 



BEE-f^EPiNG <^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. 'Wilson. Marengo. II 



Sandpapering Sections 



Mr. D. M. Macdonald says in the 

 British Bee Journal : 



" I do not care about sandpapering the 

 wood of sections, because some of the fine 

 atoms may cling to the honey. It does not 

 make a line sample appetizing to find it 

 coated with a fine, powdery dust." 



Wonder, now, whether that is spoken 

 from actual experience or whether Mr. 

 Macdonald just imagines that coating 

 with a fine .powdery dust. In this 

 locality we have been sandpapering 

 sections for years, and after sandpaper- 

 ing thousands upon thousands we 

 ought to know something about it. If 

 there was any such thing as the fine 

 atoms clinging to the honey, certainly 

 we never noticed it. Of course, it was 

 only the tops and bottoms of the sec- 

 tions that were sandpapered, and they 

 were sandpapered while the whole su- 

 perful of sections remained in one 

 mass, so the dust would fall straight 

 down, and would have little chance to 

 cling to the honey. 



Mr. Macdonald does not say any- 

 thing about how he gets the propolis 

 off the wood, and surely he would not 

 market his honey with all the propolis 

 left on it. Or is he blest with a 

 locality where there is so little propolis 

 that it doesn't matter ? Our earliest 

 sections have very little propolis, but 

 the latest make up for it. If Mr. Mac- 

 donald scrapes oft the propolis with a 

 knife, or in any other way, is there not 

 much the same chance for dust, 

 although not such fine dust as with the 

 sandpaper ? 



A Texas Sister's Honey-Crop Report 



Dear Miss Wn.S(jN :— The honey crop was 

 light— j'f/-i' light — this year, but not a total 

 failure. It has been the poorest year we 

 have had here yet. and won't we appreciate 

 next year's good crop that we are expecting? 

 Last year. also, was a rather poor year. 



Just at the beginning of the year igio every- 

 thing looked so promising, and catclaw 

 started in in fine shape, and lasted only two 

 weeks; then the drouth set in and lasted 

 from May 2K until Aug. 20. or thereabouts. 

 We had no mesqiiile. no sumac, and almost 

 no live oak. but while the catclaw did last 

 our bees surely did "improve each shinine 

 hour." 



After the drouth was broken there was a 

 deal of honey-dew. hut the bees did not 

 seem to take to it very well, working on it 

 only a short time in the early morning. 



The sum of all is. that the honey crop was 

 a smudge! 



There is a bush here that I do not know 

 the name of. which bloomed after the 

 drouth was over; and the bees gathered a 

 deal of honey from it. I intend to send some 

 of it to Washington, to find out the name of 

 it. It is a bush which grows very much like 

 the blue catclaw (which, by the way. does 

 not produce honey to any great extent, like 

 the hook catclaw); is thornless. and has very 

 small white flowers and short, slim, straight 

 edges, semi-waxy leaves, which grow in 

 clusters of 5. b. and 7. each leaf independent, 

 yet protruding from almost the identical 

 spot on the limbs. The tiny sweet-smelling 

 flowers appear just above the clusters of 

 the leaves; and when they cast their petals 

 a berry is formed in their place. The scent 

 of the flowers is similar to that of the haw 

 thorn, and the bees go wild over it while it 

 lasts, which is not very long. I am sending 

 you a few leaves to examine. 



I will close with a quotation from Success- 

 ful Karming: 



"Honey draws bees farther than vinegar. 

 Talk kindly to the boys and girls." 



Grown folks are boys and girls grown big- 

 ger, and they appreciate kindly talk, too. do 

 they not ? (Mrs.) M. E. Pruitt. 



Eola. Tex. 



The leaves enclosed are tiny affairs, 

 from /4 to ^i inch long, and less than 

 \% inch wide. In their dried condition 

 they do not show their wa.xiness, but 

 have a whitish look, something like 

 olive leaves. A Northern sister would 

 be lost among the many strange honey- 

 plants that appear common in your big 

 State. 



An Irish Swarming Adventure 



A lady in County Wicklow supplies 

 the following : On Aug. 2d, as I sat 

 very busy writing in the morning, the 

 postman came running in to tell me a 

 swarm had settled in the high bank on 

 the side of the bee-field. Of course, I 

 threw down my pen and ran to the 

 bank where, in the roots of a furze 

 bush, a swarm had just settled itself in 

 the most awkward place. I had to cut 

 down the furze bush, then lower it to 

 the ground, and what between prickles 

 and nettles and bees, I don't think I 

 ever was hotter in all my life by the 

 time I had the swarm secured in a 

 skep. Then it began to pour rain, 

 which lasted all that day and night. 



Next day I went out to put this 

 swarm into a hive. What do you think 

 happened ? The whole swarm rose in 

 the air and settled on the back of my 

 hat! How I did long for any one with 



