October, 191 1. 



American Hee Journal j 



with one ball of each row touching. 

 not one, but two balls of the next row. 

 In this arrangement you will find more 

 than 25 balls to the square inch. 



A cell of a honey-comb is neither 

 square nor round, but intermediate, be- 

 ing hexagonal, and when fitted solidly 

 together the number to the square inch 

 will be found to be. as Cheshire gives 

 it, 28 13-1-3 to the square inch, for cells 

 measuring .5 to the inch in a straight 

 line. A comb 1-J by 7 inches, figured 

 the common way, contains 340ii cells 

 on one side; the exact number is a 

 fraction more than 3925 — a difference 

 of o2-5 cells. 



made her way to a super of honey that is 

 put in the box. in which case no escape 

 would work. jAs. A. Stone. 



Concrete Hive-Stand — Wire-Screen 

 Bee-Escape We have received the fol- 

 lowing from Jas. A. Stone, of Spring- 

 field, 111.: 



Editor York:— I am sending you an en- 

 graving which shows the north part of my 

 apiary. In the foreground is one of my con- 

 crete hive-stands or hive-foundations on a 



Buying Honey to Sell Again We 



have often wondered why more bee- 

 keepers do not buy honey to sell again 

 when they run out of their own crop 

 during the fall and winter. It seems 

 to us that it is very unwise for any 

 bee-keeper to be out of honey at any 

 time of the year, if it is at all possible 

 to get it somewhere else, even though 

 he did not make very much profit on 

 the honey bought elsewhere and sold 

 to his customers. We think it is worth 

 while to be able to meet every call for 

 honey so far as possible, even if there 

 is but little profit. If, by buying honey 

 and keeping it on hand, it helps to hold 

 customers until another crop arrives, 

 we think it is the thing to do, and that 

 those who have worked up a demand 

 for honey ought always to do their best 

 to supply it all the time. 



N'ORTH Part of Jas. A. Stone's Apiary— Looking North 



wheel-barrow, and under the bee-hives in 

 the front row it will also be seen. Against 

 the side of the wheel-barrow is leaning a* 

 box-cover wilh two wire-screen bee-escapes. 

 My grandson, sitting on one handle of the 

 wheel-barrow, is about 5'^ years old. and is 

 there so as to help estimate the dimen- 

 sions of the box-cover as well as the hive- 

 foundations. The latter are about 12 inches 

 thick or high at the back end. and 11 inches 

 at the front end. The hive rests on the two 

 ends. It is flat on the bottom. It runs 

 straight up at the back end. and is some- 

 what concave or slanting at the front, thus 

 makingan alighting-place for the bees. In 

 hiving Dees. I shake them on the ground and 

 they walk up the incline into the hive. I 

 have a mould for making the concrete hive- 

 foundation. The cost of cement for one of 

 these hive-foundations is about 7 cents, be- 

 sides the sand and gravel. It is made about 

 one part cement. ? parts sand, and as much 

 gravel as the cement and sand will thor- 

 oughly daub— about 4 or more parts. 



The bee-escape box-cover can be made 

 from any size box. The bees escape through 

 the wire-screen cones, and in a few hours 

 are all out of the honey placed in the box. 

 direct from the hives, unless the queen has 



In nearly every number of every bee- 

 paper from this month on for the next 

 six months or more, there will likely 

 be offers of honey; and while the 

 wholesale or quantity price is a little 

 higher now than it was last year, it 

 ought not to be so very difficult for 

 those who retail honey to get a little 

 higher price also. In fact, from the way 

 sugar has been advancing in price the 

 last month or so. it would seem that it 

 would be easy to keep honey at a fair 

 retail price. 



It may l)e said that your local trade 

 would not take honey produced else- 

 where, as it might be of different flavor. 

 Where the local trade is used to a cer- 

 tain flavor of extracted honey, there is 

 nothing to hinder buying some other 

 mild-flavored pure honey and mixing 

 it with one's own crop, and thus retain 

 the local flavor. It would all he pure 



honey just the same, and no doubt be 

 just as satisfactory to the local con- 

 sumers, and doubtless in some cases 

 would be preferred to the local product. 

 Especially this might be the case where 

 white alfalfa honey could be purchased 

 and mixed with some strong-flavored 

 dark or other honey produced locally. 



We wish to urge upon bee-keepers 

 everywhere to do their best to keep 

 their honey customers supplied, either 

 from the production of their own api- 

 aries or some that has been gotten 

 elsewhere. By following this method, 

 it will help to make a more even dis- 

 tribution of table honey, and this doubt- 

 less will result in a largely increased 

 quantity consumed. 



This plan could hardly be followed 

 so far as comli honey is concerned, 

 but in the extracted form there is no 

 good reason, it seems to us, why it 

 may not be profitable both to the local 

 producers and the ones who deal in 

 honey in a wholesale way. 



We have believed for years that if 

 the honey produced was more evenly 

 distributed, the price would more easily 

 be kept up to something where it ought 

 to be, and no markets would ever be 

 over-supplied. 



We hope that bee-keepers who have 

 had no crop of honey this year, or who 

 will soon be out of honey, will try the 

 plan of buying honey elsewhere and 

 keeping the local trade supplied. We 

 think it is worth attempting, and be- 

 lieve that in the majority of cases it 

 will work out all right. 



Whence Formic Acid in Honey ? — It 



is well known that formic acid is found 

 in honey, at least in most specimens, 

 but just how it gets into the honey has 

 been more or less a matter of guessing. 

 It has been supposed to be in some way 

 produced by the combs; again through 

 the blood of the bees; and even to be 

 dropped from the end of the bee's sting 

 into the cell of honey just before seal- 

 ing. Dr. Rudolf Reidenbach, a German 

 authority, now seems to show clearly 

 that it is produced directly in the honey 

 itself by o.xidation of the sugar that is 

 contained in the honey. This helps to 

 explain how it is that Dr. vou Planta 

 found no formic acid in honey just 

 stored, and as much as .uil4.j percent in 

 honey in old comb. Dr. Reidenbach 

 had no difficulty in getting formic acid 

 produced simply by exposing to the 

 oxygen of the air honey spread out in 

 a thin layer on a plate. 



Oiir Frout-Page Pieture.s are 



described as follows : 



No. 1. — Oklatioma Association 



I am sending a photograph of the bee- 

 keepers in attendance at the tirst annual 

 meeting of the Oklahoma Bee-KeG[)ers' As- 

 sociation, held at Stillwater. Okla.. .Ian. 10. 



IQU. 



The Oklahoma Kee-Keepers' Association 

 was organized in December, kjoq. and incor- 

 porated shortly afterward. The principal 

 place of business is Stillwater, and it has 

 been planned to hold each annual meeting 

 at that place during the Farmers' Short 

 Course of Lectures and demonstrations 

 furnished each year free of charge by the 

 staff and faculty of the Oklahoma Agricul- 

 tural and Mechanical College of that place. 

 The people of Oklahoma in all branches of 

 agriculture are taking advantage of the 

 high class of knowledge to be secured in 

 this manner, and the attendance will soon 



