October, 1910. 



American ^eeJoornal 



duchess of Saxony. Her interest in 

 bees began over 12 years ago when, 

 seeing a stray weal; afterswarm hang- 

 ing upon a currant bush, she took pity 

 upon the poor waif, and gave it a home. 

 Her apiary of 10 colonies occupies a 

 very artistic house or shed, arranged 

 German fashion, 5 in the lower tier 

 and 5 above. 



Honey-Frosting 



Here is a good plan to make honey 

 more suitable for those who can not 

 eat it ordinarily : 



Boil some comb honey, or better, ex- 

 tracted, until it is crisp when cooled. 

 Dip in and well cover any plain or 

 fancy crackers, and when cool they are 

 fit to serve.— Herbert S. Hale, in G/cati- 

 '"^s. ^^_ 



No King-Bee Now 



An Amishman was telling me how 

 he hived a swarm of bees, but did not 

 get the " king," so the bees all died. 

 With wide-open mouth, and eyes as 

 big as saucers, he listened very patiently 

 while I explained thatthere is no king- 

 bee, only the lady queen that lays the 

 eggs. The large drones are the lazy 

 gentlemen — summer boarders — and the 

 small bees that sting are the ones that 

 gather the honey. 



Thinking he was doubting my word, 

 I said I had found this all out by read- 

 ing the American Bee Journal. 



The last I saw of him he was going 

 up the road wagging his head and talk- 

 ing to himself. I suppose he was won- 

 dering. Can that be so, or is she daffy ? 



Ima. 



Keeping Lard Fresh 



To keep lard fresh for several months, 

 stir in about a tablespoonful of honey 

 to 6 or 8 gallons of lard after removing 

 cracklings. — T/ie Practical Farmer. , 



Beets and Honey 



Miss Wilson:— I am sending you a de- 

 scription of tiie way I cook beets for table 

 use. I hope you will try and eet it into the 

 next edition of " Honey as a Health-Food." 



Cook the beets tender in salted water; 

 take off the skin as soon as you can handle 

 them; slice them into an earthen dish, and 

 while still hot put a liberal amount of ex- 

 tracted honey on them and set them away 

 until next day. 



Now put on good cider vinegar and set 

 away for 2 days more. Do not be stingy with 

 the honey and vinegar. 



This is from an 'old batch " bee-keeper. 

 I have had a good season with the bees. 



Arden. Nebr. W. H. Mills. 



We have tried these at our house, 

 and pronounce them good. Some of 

 the family like them better before the 

 vinegar is added. Thanks. 



Canadian Beedom 



Conducted by J. L. Byer, Mount Joy. Ontario, Canada. 



Honey Prices in Ontario 



Mention has been made in these col- 

 umns fnim time to time of the work 

 being done by the Honey Crop Com- 

 mittee of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' 

 Association. Only a few days ago the 

 Committee issued their recommenda- 

 tions on the prices for buckwheat 

 honey, and a statement is made relative 

 to the way the clover honey has been 

 moving that is very gratifying to every 

 friend of the Committee — indeed, should 

 be so to every bee-keeper in the Prov- 

 ince, and it should act as an incentive 

 to a more systematic selling of the 

 crop in years to come. 



In sending out the question blanks 

 about the buckwheat honey crop, the 

 bee-keepers were also asked to report 

 what prices they have been receiving 

 for the clover honey this season. Of 

 the very large number replying, !K5 per- 

 cent stated that the prices recom- 

 mended by the Committee in their Au- 

 gust report had been received. Only 3 

 percent had sold at figures ranging 

 from a fraction of a cent to one cent 

 per pound less than recommended 

 prices, while the remaining 2 percent 

 had sold at from one to 2 cents less 

 than said prices. As the prices recom- 

 mended were slightly in advance of 

 last year, quite a number thought they 

 would not be uniformly obtained, but 

 results would go to show once more 

 that the Committee have, as in the 

 past, exercised first-class judgment in 



performing the rather difficult task as- 

 signed to them. 



The Buckwheat Honey Crop 



The results of the buckwheat honey 

 crop have been rather disappointing in 



JAPAW^S^: 



taken into account. Most of the crop 

 was late sown, and it was not until 

 about Aug. 7th that the honey began to 

 come in very fast. Then for a few days 

 tlie flow was very heavy, but, alas, when 

 that big gale with cool weather with it 

 struck us on Aug. 2Gth, the buckwheat 

 honey was done for the season. From 

 then right up to date (Sept. 15) quite 

 a quantity of buckwheat has been 

 blooming, but hardly a bit of nectar 

 has been gathered since the cool wave 

 struck us. However, " it might have 

 been worse," as in addition to the colo- 

 nies storing about 30 pounds each in 

 the supers, the majority have the brood- 

 chambers very heavy, and the feeding 

 bill will, as a matter of course, be re- 

 duced to quite a small item, compara- 

 tively speaking, as to what things 

 would have been like with no buck- 

 wheat honey at all. 



As to the buckwheat crop from the 

 farmer's standpoint this season, it is, 

 or will be, a source of many disagree- 

 able thoughts when the harvesting 

 commences. Sown late, and just when 

 the heavy rains with warm weather 

 came in July, and for the most part in 

 rich summer fallows — the growth was 

 phenomenal, and in some cases the 

 plants were higher than the roadside 

 fences. When the heavy wind and 

 rain storms came during the latter part 

 of August, the rank, tender stalks went 

 down flat all over the fields, and now 

 many of the fields are as flat as though 

 a land-roller had been run over them. 

 How will the crop be harvested ? is the 

 question that is engrossing the minds 

 of quite a few farmers in our neighbor- 

 hood at present, and probably few of 

 them will not take chances of another 

 "picnic" of the same kind another 

 year. 



However, this is an exceptional 

 year, and we are not likely to have 

 many repetitions in many things ex- 

 perienced this season, for many years 

 to come. 



so far as surplus is concerned, when 

 the large acreage that was grown is 



Moisture and Nectar-Secretion 



In another item I state that alfalfa 

 for some reason had started to yield 

 some nectar in our Province during 

 the past two seasons — formerly it was, 

 in our immediate locality, at least, a 

 rare thing to see a bee on an alfalfa 

 bloom. Mr. Holtermann, in Gleanings, 

 says that the reason the plant yielded 

 nectar was on account of the unusual 

 amount of rainfall for the time of the 

 year that we had this summer when 

 the second crop of alfalfa was being 

 left for seed. Not a correct diagnosis 

 for our county, as with the extra mois- 

 ture in the land this year, not half as 

 much nectar was secreted infields near 

 us as was the case last year when the 

 clover was blooming during a pro- 

 longed drouth. Just what conditions 

 are necessary for nectar-secretion not 

 only in alfalfa, but other sources as 

 well, is an interesting problem that lit- 

 tle is known about as yet. 



During the past clover season we 

 had some ideal weather, so far as a 

 bee-keeper could judge, and yet the 

 many fields of beautiful, sweet-scented 

 alsike yielded so sparingly that on 

 some of these days the bees would rob 

 if honey was exposed. On the other 

 hand, only a few years ago we had a 



