1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



177 



quite anxious to have everybody know that the ex- 

 hibit belonged to A. I. Koot, and seemed bound to 

 have a sign painted that would have cost several 

 dollars, from four to six, I believe; but "older 

 heads " didn't think it was best; but he could not 

 give up his wish, and so took two boards, about 

 nine inches wide and six to eight feet long, and fas- 

 tened them together with strips on the ends, and 

 covered the whole, both sides and edges, with white 

 paper. He then took some red card-board and cut 

 it into strips and pieces, and then tacked them on 

 with small tacks, making the name A. I. Root, as 

 shown, the A being made of three pieces, the I of 

 one, the T of two, the R of seven, and the O's of 

 eight each. These letters were put on both sides, 

 and it made a very neat sign. I believe the above 

 letters were about a foot high. The letters in " Ex- 

 hibited by " were each of one piece, and were about 

 three or four inches high. 



To the left of the picture and your exhibit was 

 quite a variety of appliances used in the apiary, 

 consisting of an exhibit by Dr. G. L. Tinker, in 

 which was a box hive used over 40 years ago in 

 Eastern Ohio, and a small straw hive that was used 

 over 60 years ago in the same locality. The doctor 

 also exhibited a double-walled hive, several of his 

 "Storifying" hives, for either comb or extracted 

 honey, several section and extracting 6upers, quite 

 a variety of honey-boards, among them his wood 

 and zinc queen-excluding; strips of perforated 

 zinc; four-piece poplar sections, smokers, cartons, 

 drone-traps, some crates of poplar honey, two colo- 

 nies of his Syrio-albino bees, and three nuclei for 

 showing queens. To those who have seen any of 

 the doctor's " handy work " it will be unnecessary 

 to say it was first class in every respect. 



Dr. J. C. Oldham, of Springfield, O., exhibited an 

 invertible and divisible shallow-framed storifying 

 and interchangeable hive that attracted some at- 

 tention, and was frequently dissected by curious 

 bee-keepers. Near by was an Armstrong side-open- 

 ing hive and side-opening T super, with sections, 

 fixed up in nice shape, exhibited by E. S. Arm- 

 strong, Jerseyville, 111. It attracted quite a good 

 deal of attention, and we frequently had to put it 

 together after parties had given it a good over- 

 hauling, or visitors would not have known such a 

 hive was on exhibition. 



Here, too, was one of Mr. James Heddon's new 

 hives, with divisible brood-chamber, section-supers, 

 extracting-super, a queen-excluding and a break- 

 joint honey-board. This hive was a regular "curi- 

 osity shop" to many, and attracted much attention, 

 and, like the other divisible hives, had frequently 

 to be reconstructed so that its individuality might 

 be maintained. 



Here was also a straw hive from Germany, which 

 belonged to an 80-year-old German by the name of 

 Burchard, who lives in Michigan, and who will keep 

 bees in no other kind of hive. It was a great curi- 

 osity. With it was an old Quinby smoker that be- 

 longed to Mr. Andrew Fabrique, also of Michigan. 

 It was brought from Pennsylvania many years ago. 

 By the side of this hive was an old " log gum," or 

 bee-hive, cut from a basswood-tree, with a board 

 nailed on one end for a cover, for which many old 

 bee-keepers had words of affection, and many an 

 entertaining as well as amusing story was told 

 about cutting bee-trees by these "old-timers." 

 These old relics were properly labeled, so that 

 passers-by might know what they were. 



Here I'm reminded of an explanation given one 

 day by a gentleman 75 years old, being one of our 

 largest exhibitors, a well-posted bee-keeper, and 

 known to us as "Uncle Aaron" Goodrich, of 

 Worthington, Ohio. Some visitors, who acted as 

 we see people sometimes when they wish to make 

 the impression that they are smarter than most 

 people, were asking him some questions about the 

 straw hives, the box hive, and the log gum, and he 

 told them that was " the kind of hives bees used to 

 be kept in when they had king-bees; " then point- 

 ing to the Tinker, Armstrong, and Heddon hives 

 that were near, added, "but those nice hives, or 

 bee-palaces, are what bees are kept in now that 

 they have queens." Perhaps there didn't any of us 

 bee-keepers or anybody else smile, and it can readi- 

 ly be imagined that the story was more than once 

 repeated. 



On this same platform were exhibited a Muth 

 honey-extractor and a Jones wax-extractor by Dr. 

 Besse, of Delaware, o., and a solax wax-extractor 

 and bee-hive by Elias Cole, of Ashley, O.; also a 

 hive and solar wax-extractor by C. E. Jones, of Del- 

 aware, O., each of whom also exhibited several good 

 colonies of bees and a one-comb nucleus to show 

 the queen, and one of them had 16 and the other 

 17 queens in queen-cages, for exhibition. 



In the right-hand upper corner of the picture on 

 page 959, above referred to, is shown a portion of 

 the exhibit of C. E. Jones, which consisted mostly 

 of comb honey in crates, the crates being inter- 

 spersed with extracted honey in different styles of 

 packages, and a display of honey-producing plants. 

 He also had two candy-jars that had been filled very 

 nicely with honey by the bees. 



To the left of the above exhibit was that of Mr. 

 Elias Cole, of Ashley, Delaware Co., O., composed 

 largely of extracted honey in glass, and placed on 

 shelves. It will be noticed, by referring to the pic- 

 ture, that some of the bottles look black and some 

 white. That is owing to the different kinds of hon- 

 ey. When the picture was taken, that which is 

 white was candied; and^the other, which is alsike- 

 clover honey, was not. The wall above the exhibit 

 was decorated with flags, etc. ; and over the left 

 portion of this exhibit, almost entirely hidden by 

 the large 6ign, was festooned a large American flag. 

 To the right and near the top of the wall may be 

 seen a display of over 140 honey-producing plants, 

 each one numbered and named. 



On the platform below the exhibit, but hidden 

 from view, was a foundation mill, smokers, honey- 

 knives, samples of foundation, comb honey in 

 crates, beeswax, etc. Near the center, at the bot- 

 tom of the shelves, may be seen a part of a diminu- 

 tive house that attracted the attention of all the 

 little folks who espied it, and many an " old folks " 

 was attracted by its novelty. It was a regular 

 house made in the form of an L, with chimneys, 

 doors, and windows. Lace curtains were at the 

 windows, so looped back as to show the nice honey 

 within. It had a veranda, with diminutive people 

 sitting on it; a pump near the door; afence around 

 the dooryard, which contained evergreens and 

 shrubbery, and, to complete it as the home of hon- 

 ey-bees, small bee-hives were sitting in the yard. 

 To complete the picture, a sign, "This Property for 

 Sale," was standing in the yard. 



At the left of Mr. Cole's exhibit may be seen a 

 portion of the exhibit of our family, consisting of 

 comb and extracted honey, honey-plants, honey- 



