346 



October, 1916. 



American Hee Journal 



highest elevations ahove sea level 

 seldom exceed 100 feet. The greatest 

 attraction of all is the beautiful clear 

 sea water; not only clear, but usually 

 smooth and safe for small boats. 



Sponging is the leading industry, 

 and is a good business for the buyers 

 and exporters who have been long es- 

 tablished, but from the looks of a 

 sponge-fishing boat and its crew it is 

 not an occupation that would lead to 

 easy street. 



Lumbering has begun as an indus- 

 try. On Abaco Island some 60 mile's 

 to the north of Nassau, is a big lum- 

 bering plant that is owned by Ameri- 

 can capital and is shipping out mil- 



more experience will probably make 

 a success of the business. 



There is also a lady, Miss French, 

 who for several years has been keep- 

 ing bees in a small way, depending on 

 them for a living. She is located in 

 the suburbs of Nassau. 



With 29 islands and 6.000 square 

 miles of land, I hope that if I 

 establish an apiary I won't run some 

 one else out of business or get frozen 

 out myself as I have been twice be- 

 fore. Miami, Fla. 



W. D. Campbell, of Lambeth, Ontario. 

 AND His Smoker Box 



lions of feet of pine lumber, most of 

 which goes to Cuba. 



Although there are several lines of 

 steamers that come out from England 

 to Mexico, Central America and the 

 West Indies, none of them touch at 

 Nassau and all commerce with Eng- 

 land is by way of New York. 



Last and not least of Bahamas' at- 

 tractions are the people. English is 

 the only language spoken, and the rep- 

 resentative people are as refined and 

 intelligent as in any English-speaking 

 community in the world. What is 

 known in the States as the "tough ele- 

 ment" exists only to a limited extent. 



The colored people are usually 

 peaceable and honest. There is no 

 "negro problem" to contend with as 

 there is in the Southern States. 



After the 12 years that I was "up 

 against it" in Porto Rico, to get among 

 people that I can look on as neigh- 

 bors is somewhat of a relief. 



There was an American, Mr. Miller, 

 who was keeping bees on an exten- 

 sive scale here, but returned to the 

 States giving the excuse that the cli- 

 mate did not agree with his health. 

 Prom official reports his honey crop 

 for one year was 2,500 gallons. The 

 apiary is now in charge of Mr. Vish, 

 a brother-in-law of Miller, who with 



Apiary Devices 



A Safe Place for the Smoker 



It is not always convenient to re- 

 move the fire from the smoker when 

 one wishes to lay it aside temporarily. 

 However, more than one beekeeper has 

 lost heavily from a fire set by a light- 

 ed smoker. It is convenient to have a 

 lighted smoker within reach when- 

 ever one is at work about the apiary 

 for so often it is desirable to take a 

 look into a hive or two when there is 

 little to be done. Then if the smoker 

 is not protected mice will often gnaw 

 holes in the bellows and ruin it. 

 While there are numerous ways oi pro- 

 viding for this implement, from us- 

 ing a large stone jar to turning a box 

 liver it outside the honey house, Mr. 

 W. D. Campbell of Lambeth, Ontario, 

 lias as convenient a plan as any we 

 have seen. The picture tells the story 

 fully. Mr. Campbell has a metal box 

 on top of a post at a covenient height 

 in the apiary. It is always within 

 easy reach, always safe and may be 

 left burning with no danger, so in 

 case one wishes to go back again for 

 a few minutes it is not necessary to 

 rolight it. This plan is safe, conven- 

 ient and inexpensive. 



An Effective Super Cleaner 



When our representative visited the 

 G. A. Deadman apiary at Merlin, On- 

 tario, recently he became much in- 

 terested in the novel plan which Mr. 

 Deadman has for cleaning supers. 

 When the extracting is done, the us- 

 ual way is to place the supers back 

 on the hives to be cleaned or to pile 

 them in the open and allow the bees 

 to rob them out. This latter is bad 

 for the bees as they become greatly 

 excited and often injure the combs 

 also. When placed on the hives in 

 the usual way there is little benefit 

 derived from the small amount of 

 honey still present in the combs since 

 it is divided among so many colonies 

 that the extra gorging which the bees 

 do about consumes the honey. Mr. 

 Deadman gives the supers to be clean- 

 ed to a single colony and selects one 

 which needs feed, or one with some 

 unfinished sections. Instead of plac- 

 ing the wet extracting combs direct- 

 ly on top of the colony he has a plat- 

 form which accommodates six piles 

 but which has only one outside open- 

 ing. On this position is placed the 

 colony which is to do the cleaning. 

 There is an opening from the bottom 

 of this particular one to each of the 

 five others so that the bees can reach 

 the combs easily, while they are safe 

 from robbers. Since the piles of 

 supers are at the side of this hive in- 

 stead of on top, the bees will remove 

 the honey as rapidly as possible and 

 the combs are very shortly cleaned up. 

 If the colony is short of stores it soon 

 makes the most of the available sup- 

 ply. 



Mr. Deadman has used this means 

 of finishing sections which are not 

 quite ready for market. As will be 

 seen from the picture the piles of 

 supers can be made as high as de- 

 sired so that any available number 



DEADMANS SUPER CLEANER 



