74 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HOTCHir^SOri, Ed. & Ppop. 



Terms : — $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies, 

 $1.90 ; three for $2-70 : Jive for $4,110 ; ten, or more, 

 70 cents each. KP" The Review is stopped at 

 the expiration of the time paid for. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN. MAR. 10, 1892. 



A oellae for bees is better without a cem- 

 ent bottom, if we are to judge by the reports 

 in the journals. 



A BOOK FOB beginnebs, is something often 

 called for. Mr. J. W. Rouse, of Mexico, 

 Mo., has written a book of fifty-two pages, 

 called "The Amateur Bee-Keeper," that is 

 designed to satisfy just this demand. It 

 tells very briefly and clearly just those things 

 that a beginner would like to know. It is 

 well illustrated and well printed by R. B. 

 Leahy, of Higginsville, Mo. The price is 

 twenty-five cents, and it may be ordered of 

 either the author or the publisher. 



HIVE covEEs and caps only >*g thick are op 

 posed by the Guide, as being but little cheap- 

 er than those 's thick, while they are more 

 easily injured, and not of so much protection 

 to the bees in early spring, when "the fre- 

 quent cold spells that are so hard on the 

 young brood, that is often extended on ac- 

 count of a warm spell beyond the ability of 

 the bees to protect some frosty nights, and 

 much of it is lost and usually at a time when 

 the colony could least afford it." I am glad 

 to see that, at last, Bro. Hill is beginning to 

 seethe advant ge of spring protection, aside 

 from that secured by sugar feeding. 



WARMING A HOUSE APAIBT BY SUB-EARTH 

 VENTILATION. 



It has been many times asked how a bee- 

 cellar or house above ground could be 

 warmed. Mr. .J. A. Golden, of Reinersville, 

 Ohio, has managed, by the heat of bees, 

 aided by sub-earth ventilation, to keep his 

 house apiary at the desired temperature. 

 His house is 8x10, by six feet high, and ac- 

 commodates twenty-four colonies. He has 

 a three-inch tiling, sixty feet in length, laid 

 six feet under the ground, and conducted 

 thence up through the floor. There is a 

 mall ventilator at the roof. He says that 



on a cold day, one would be surprised to see 

 how mild is the air as it passes in from 

 beneath the ground. He keeps a record of 

 the temperature, both outside and inside the 

 building. He has sent me the record for 

 Jan. The average outside temperature was 

 24°; inside it averaged 40°. One day it was 

 as low as 7' below zero outside, yet it was 

 39° inside. 



THE GRADING OF HONEY. 



Well, we are making some progress in the 

 discussion of this subject. One point ■ eems 

 to be already settled, and that is, that we 

 cannot grade honey as regards its quality — 

 more's the pity. Tastes are so widely dif- 

 ferent. What is one man's meat ih another's 

 poison. The best that can be done in this 

 line, aside from mentioning the source from 

 which the honey was gathered, when this is 

 well known and the prospective customer is 

 acquainted with this variety of honey, is to 

 send a sample of the honey in a small vial, 

 in a block of wood. 



We can grade in regard to color. We can 

 have "white," " amber " and "dark." We 

 can also grade in regard to the condition in 

 which the honey has been stored by the bees, 

 the neatness of the sections, etc. The sys- 

 tem adopted, the skill and judgment used in 

 management, all things considered, will 

 show in the appearance of the honey, and 

 for this appearance we wish for some set 

 rules for judging, so that one man can 

 quickly and easily describe his product to a 

 distant, would-be purchaser. 



After reading all that has been written 

 upon the subject, I still think there should 

 be one grade requiring perfection. However, 

 I may be wrong : in fact, this whole matter 

 of how grading will affect the matter of 

 marketing, is more or less a matter of specu- 

 lation. 



I still believe that the Chicago rules, with 

 one or two slight changes and the calling of 

 the first grade "fancy," the second, "No. 

 1," etc., is as good as anything that has yet 

 been proposed. I am favorably impressed 

 with the suggestion of Mr. Crane, that we 

 use adjectives instead of numbers, for the 

 different grades, but I have not yet thought 

 of the ones that I would use to designate 

 what I now would call Nos. 1, 2 and 3, re- 

 respectively. For the grade above these, 

 " fancy " does very well, but what shall we 

 call No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 ? 



