December, 1916. 



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423 



American Hee Journal t 



'<vf^l^J 



They are well bound books and treat 

 the subjects under discussion fully. 

 Ginseng culture is carried on quite 

 profitably by a number of people, and 

 a book on its culture is of no little 

 value to anyone interested. The Trap- 

 ping book sells at 60 cents and the 

 Ginseng book at $1,00. They may be 

 had by those interested by addressing 

 letters to the publisher, A. R. Harding, 

 of Columbus, Ohio. 



Idaho-Oregon Honey Producers' Asso- 

 ciation to meet. The annual stock- 

 holders' meeting of this association 

 will be held in the City Hall Assembly 

 Rooms, Ontario, Oreg., onTuesday and 

 Wednesday, Dec. 5 and 6. The first 

 day's session will be given over to the 

 election of directors for the coming 

 year, and reports of this season's work, 

 while the second session will be more 

 in the nature of a social one, discus- 

 sions relative to honey production 

 being in order. 



All beek.'epers in this territory are 

 cordially invited to attend. 



P. S. Farrell, Sec. 



The Yorkshire Honey Harvest A 



contributor to the Yorkshire Post re. 

 ports as follows on the honey harvest 

 in the Leeds, England, consular district : 



Yorkshire honey is likely to be very 

 scarce this season. The heather is 

 fully a fortnight late in blooming, and 

 this in itself nearly always means a 

 poor yield of honey from the moorland 

 apiaries. The heather bloom of the 



north Yorkshire moors is very poor, 

 indeed ; in fact, the higher reaches are 

 practically devoid of bloom, and it is 

 the higher altitudes that produce the 

 best and largest crop of honey. 



The yield is bound to be small, and 

 one beekeeper of long experience esti- 

 mates that 10 to 15 pounds per hive 

 will be a very good yieldforthe season. 

 More than half the colonies taken on 

 the moors will not give any surplus at 

 aU.^C^/iiicd Slates Consular Refort. 



Automatic Section Folding Machine of 

 R. W. Adams, of Utica, N. Y. 



To fold a section, drop in position as shown 

 and press foot pedal; let up pedal and the 

 section drops automatically into a box 



Chicago-Northwestern Meeting. — Th e 



20th annual meeting of the Chicago- 

 Northwestern Beekeepers' Association 

 will be held in Room 138 of the Great 

 Northern Hotel, Chicago, Dec. 4 and 5. 

 A partial program is as follows: 



" Marketing Honey." N. E. France. Platte- 

 ville. Wis. 



"Extension Work in Beekeeping." Dr. E. 

 F. Phillips. Washington, D. C. 



Louis C. Dadant. subject unannounced. 



"Displaying Live Bees in Chicago Gro- 

 ceries." Kennith Hawkins, Plainfield. III. 



"About Heating and Clarifying Honey." 

 Edward Hassinger. Jr., Greenville. Wis. 



Prof. Jager, president of the National, 

 will be in attendance, also others will 

 be on the program, and the question- 

 box will be a strong feature. 



John C. Bull, Sec.-Treas. 



Beekeeping Course at Rutgers, New 

 Jersey. — The need for and the oppor- 

 tunities in honey production are so 

 large in New Jersey that Rutgers' Col- 

 lege has decided to oflter a short course 

 in bee husbandry. 



It is believed that nine-tenths of the 

 nectar annually secreted is lost through 

 lack of properly managed bees to 

 gather it. It is known that tons of 

 honey is annually brought into this 

 State to supply local needs, and that 

 practically no effort is being made to 

 increase the use of honey. In view of 

 these facts the splendid opportunity for 

 profitable honey production in the 

 State are apparent. Many have started 

 producing honey without training and 

 with such a small number of colonies 

 that success was impossible. 



The largest honey producer in the 

 State has but 250 to iiOO colonies of 

 bees representing an investment of not 

 over $3000, and the net proceeds aver- 

 age $1500 annually. One active man 

 should be able to do all the work in 

 handling 300 to 500 colonies with the 

 help of unskilled labor for two or three 

 weeks during extracting time. 



That this splendid resource of the 

 State may be developed, Rutgers' Col- 

 lege will offer a short course in bee- 

 husbandry provided as many as four 

 persons apply for the course. This 

 course is planned to give the student a 

 practical knowledge of profitable bee- 

 husbandry. Any one after completing 

 the course and after having spent one 

 season in a commercial apiary will be 

 fitted to profitably conduct a honey- 

 producing business. 



Full particulars regarding this course 

 can be had by addressing Prof. F. C. 

 Minkler, Director Short Courses in 

 Agriculture, New Brunswick, N. J. 

 Thomas J. Headlee, 

 State Entomologist. 



Dr.Mill£r*s ^ Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr, C. C. Miller. Marengo, Il%. 



He does not answer bee-keeoing Questions by mail. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



I, Will you fully explain the top-most 

 paragraph on page 777 of Gleanings. Sept. i. 

 Aside of this. I have always been deterred 

 from trying to rear queens from best colo- 

 nies because of fearing that I would lose too 

 much while the bees were gathering honey. 



2 When shaking bees off of frames I have 

 a board in front at the entrance on the 

 rround. Would a sheet of muslin be enough 

 better for me to make a change to same ? 



3. In case you came to an apiary where 

 early in the season an extra deep body had 

 been placed over the brood-chamber, and 

 about all such colonies had above four 

 frames of honev heavy but not capped, and 

 two frames of brood, and there was also a 

 lot of honey below and you had no place to 

 keep the honey frames, how in reducing the 

 colonies to one hive-body would you manage? 



4. Please state the principal reasons why 

 it would be well for a comb-honey man to 

 have and use an extractor; could such, 

 meaning to meet all conditions to the very 

 best, be at all able to get along without one ? 



5 When one has so very many frames in 

 the midst of the season filled with honey, 

 and they are extracted so as to facilitate 

 queen laying, is it of any essential impor- 

 tance that the cells be perfectly cleaned 

 out of honey or will it suffice in the condi- 

 tion as left by extracting ? 



6. Is there any good in removing burr-comb 

 from the top of brood-frames in hives, aside 

 of mere looks } Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— L I don't understand just what 

 it is you want explained, but I don' see any 



need to be deterred from breeding from the 

 best queen because of interference with the 

 honey crop. You need only to take a few 

 larvseout of a comb, or at most cut out a 

 piece of comb, not at all interfering with 

 the amount stored. But it is a matter of 

 such great importance to breed from the 

 best, that I don't mind how much I interfere 

 with the storing of that particular colony, 

 even if it should break it up entirely. When 

 a colony has made its record by its perform- 

 ance the preceding year, and it is decided 

 that it is the right one to breed from.'.I keep 

 that queen in a nucleus, both because it is a 

 matter of convenience and because the 

 queen is likely to live longer. This will in- 

 terfere with the storing of one colony, but 

 in the long run will increase the storing of 

 all. 



2. If the board is made so that there is a 

 clear track for the bees to travel, without 

 any cracks or breaks, it ought to be better 

 than a sheet. 



3. If there is nowhere else for them, they 

 can be piled up on a colony— perhaps pretty 

 weak— whose duty it should be to care for 

 and cap these combs. 



4. I know of no reason why he should nec- 

 essarily have an extractor, unless he wants 



