1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



347 



Not always is honcydew dark. It may in what appears to be a dark tar-Iikc 



be light when secreted, but with a honey. 



"sooty fungus" KrciwiuR In it, results .'Xiuhi-rsf, Mass. 



Bee-Keeping <^ FbR Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, MareoEo, III. 



Annual Field Day of the Worcester 

 County Beekeepers' Association 



The Worcester County Beekeepers' 

 Association held their annual field 

 meeting on Friday, August 10, at the 

 home of Mr. Clesson Merriman, 

 School street, Leominster, Mass. 

 Though the morning was showery, it 

 cleared completely by noon and was 

 beautiful through the rest of the day. 

 The uncertainty of the morning, 

 however, kept away many of those 

 beekeepers who lived at a distance. 

 Til ere was an attendance of forty, who 

 enjoyed the unusually interesting 

 program and the kind hospitality of 

 iiur host. After the basket luncheon, 

 witii which cofifee and ice cream 

 were served, a semi-circle was 

 furnied near Mr. Merriman's well- 

 k. pt apiary, to hear the annual re- 

 port of the Secretary and Treasurer 

 ami the special speakers of the af- 

 ternoon. We were very glad of the 

 opportunity to meet Mr. E. R. Root 

 and listen to the extremely interest- 

 ing story he brought us from the 

 New York honey markets. Mr. O. 

 M. Smith, of Florence, Mass., Presi- 

 dent of the Hampshire, Hamden and 

 Franklin Beekeeper's Association, 

 spoke with feeling and authority on 

 "Giving the Bees a Chance." He was 

 followed by Mr. Charles M. Stewart, 

 of Johnstown, N. Y., New York State 

 Inspector, who spoke on the same 

 line. Dr. B. N. Gates, of Amherst, 

 emphasized the importance of net 

 weighting all honey packages, and 

 afterwards demonstrated the proper 

 opening and manipulating of a hive 

 of bees, showing a mild case of 

 sae^brood. 



Most of those present had left by 

 .^ o'clock, after a pleasant and in- 

 structive day. 



JOSEPHINE MORSE, Secy. 



Straining Honey 



Those who produce extracted 

 on a large scale need no instruction 

 about straining it, but those who 

 have not any bees, and especially be- 

 ginners, may care to know how we 

 strain our honey. 



The little strainer that comes with 

 the extractor, to be hung on the fau- 

 cet, isfussy and mussy, and we threw 

 it aside, using in preference the 

 strainer devised by E. D. Townsend, 

 editor of The Domestic Beekeeper, 

 who is a successful producer of ex- 

 tracted honey on a large scale. We 

 have a honey tank containing sixty 

 gallons, into which the honey is 

 poured as it comes from the extrac- 

 tor, a pail or two at a time. The 

 strainer is put on top of the tank, so 

 that each pail of honey is poured di- 

 rectly into the strainer. 



The strainer is of simple construc- 

 tion. Supposing your tank is 25 

 inches in diameter, make a frame 

 something like a picture frame, 25 

 inches square, outside measure. Then 

 make a bag of cheese cloth into 

 which this frame will enter easily. It 

 may be two yards of cheese cloth 

 doubled over and the two sides sewed 

 up. Put the frame into this bag and 

 lay it on top of the tank. Have two 

 or more extra squares of cheese cloth 

 and lay one of them on top of the 

 strainer. Then when the one in use 

 becomes too much filled with the 

 particles strained out, replace it 

 with a fresh one, and put the one 

 used in cold water to be soaked out. 



After the honey has stood in the 

 tank a day or two it is ready to be 

 drawn out into the containers. 



A Profitable Side Line 



Robert Liebner, of McGregor, la., 

 is an Iowa farmer who has found 

 beekeeping so profitable as a side line 

 that he wonders why more Iowa 

 farms have not small apiaries at 

 least, just as nearly all have small or- 

 chards. Bees among the apple and 

 plum trees on his farm have brought 

 in $400 a year besides furnishing the 

 family table with honey the year 

 around. The wife has made a little 

 business of her own, horseradish in 

 "honey vinegar," that is so superior 

 to ordinary horseradish that she has 

 demand for all she can supply at her 

 own price. 



As the apiary and orchard are at 

 the front of the farm and seen from 

 the road the farmer and his wife 

 have beautified it by planting a few 

 rose bushes and other blooming 

 shrubs in and around the stands and 



the fruit trees. Along the fence 

 which separates the bees from the 

 liigliway a wild grapevine has been 

 made to form a pretty hedge, which 

 also serves as a protective barrier to 

 passersby from the bees. 



FLORENCE L. CLARK. 



The Season in Northern Illinois 



The season of 1917, at least up to 

 the first of September, stands out con- 

 spicuous as perhaps the worst ever 

 experienced at Marengo, if not 

 throughout northern Illinois. We 

 have suffered from too much wet and 

 we have suffered from the~ drought. 

 Until well along in the season we 

 suffered from cold, even to a letting 

 up in brood-rearing in some cases. 

 White clover was not plentiful, and 

 it is doubtful whether the bees got 

 anything from the little there was. 

 While basswood was in bloom the 

 bees were busy upon it; but bass- 

 wood trees are in small number. 



Years ago Dr. Miller produced e.x- 

 tracted honey, using one of the first 

 extractors of the Peabody pattern, 

 made by Mr. J. L. Peabody himself. 

 This extractor dififers from extrac- 

 tors now in common use, in that the 

 whole thing revolves, can and all. 

 Then sections were invented, and for 

 many years Dr. Miller produced sec- 

 tion honey. Two or three years ago 

 we began extracting a little, using an 

 up-to-date extractor, and this year 

 all but four colonies were run for ex- 

 tracted honey. 



When heartsease came into bloom 

 all combs containing honey were 

 taken off and all told we had about 

 12 pounds of extracted honey per 

 colony. It has a somewhat nonde- 

 script flavor, being probably a mix- 

 ture from several sources. But honej' 

 is honey this year, and we're glad to 

 have any kind. 



Of course, we are expecting some- 

 thing from the fall flow — beekeepers 

 are always good expecters — but if 

 the bees do no more than to lay up 

 enough to provide their winter stores 

 we shall not cry over it. If the worst 

 comes we can feed sugar, which will 

 be no great chore with only about 60 

 colonies ; but honey is better for the 

 bees. Then, too, we would like a lot 



APIARY OF ROBERT LIEBNER, NEAR McGREGOR, IOWA. MR. LIEBNER IX FORE- 

 GROUND WATCHING A SWARM RUN IN. 



