June, 1912. 



American Bee Jonrnalj 



ing them, but when those 12 colonies 

 died, in the spring of that year, I gave 

 my bees a chance to clean up the 

 combs from those colonies, and all 

 the neighbors' bees had a hand in it, 

 and you certainly know what that 

 meant, and what effect that had on my 

 yard in the future. But still 1 did not 

 get discouraged; I was determined to 

 make a success in the business, and so 



I did." 



^ 



New Irrigated Regions. — S. King Clo- 

 ver has been in the Yakima Valley 

 since 1!I04, all the while actively en- 

 gaged in bee-culture, and in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review sounds a warning 

 against the idea of rushing into the 

 new lields opened up by irrigation with 

 the expectation of making a fortune at 

 bee-keeping. The railroads and others 

 paint in glowing colors the advantages 

 in these new places, but say less about 

 the drawbacks. Among other things 

 he says : 



" Tliose of you who have your cosy homes 

 where God waters the land with the rain, 

 where you have u'ood water to drink, plenty 

 of fuel, your friends, think twice before you 

 sacritice your homes to go to a land and a 

 condition you know little about, devoid of 

 the improvements afforded by older settle- 

 ments, and old. established society: those 

 of you who appreciate even a garden of vetr- 

 etables. beware of these irrisated districts. 



The railroads have no other object in en- 

 ticint' you West than to convey you out 

 here at so much per head, the same as 

 other merchandise. It is a money-making 

 scheme, like other schemes. They have no 

 interest in you after you are once here, un- 

 less you wish to go back East. Irresponsible 

 bee-keepers frequently give glowing reports 

 to the press for publication, which are far 

 from the truth. The real-estate agents are 

 on the alert for just such articles, and they 

 are widely published. 



Fraudulent Packing It seems that 



the traffic in bulk comb honey is not 

 without its perils. The following oc- 

 curs in the excellent bee-bulletin of 

 Texas : 



A deceptive method of packing bulk comb 

 honey has recently come to our attention, 

 and it can not be too strongly condemned, 

 both by customers and honest bee-keepers. 

 As e.\plained on a preceding page, bulk 

 comb honey, when properly packed, consists 

 of cans filled I till of lonib honey, the latter 

 cut into just as large pieces as will go into 

 the can. What few openings then remain are 

 filled with extracted honey. 



Some bee-keepers have, however, adopted 

 the plan of filling the honey cans orilv ,iI>onI 

 one third J itll oi comb and then filling up the 

 can with extracted honey. (Jf course, the 

 pieces of comb float on top of the extracted 

 honey, and when the customer takes off the 

 cover the can ahpeiirs to he filled with comb 

 honey. The deception is not discovered 

 until the customer has purchased the can 

 and used out ahtiut a fourth of its contents. 

 Such a deception is little short of actual 

 fraud, for bulk comb honey usually sells at 

 2 to 5 cents per pound higher than extracted, 

 and when the customer pays the higher 

 price for bulk comb he is certainly entitled 

 to it. not to a mixture containing 7S percent 

 of a lower priced honey. 



Western Honey-Producers Change Lo- 

 cation. -The Western Honey-Produc- 

 ers' Associaticju have moved their 

 headquarters from Salix, Iowa, to Sioux 

 City, Iowa, where they will conduct 

 their honey business on a larger scale, 

 h'or the last five years their honey- 

 packing plant has been at Salix, under 

 the management of W. P. Southworth. 

 ThomasChantryand Kdward G. Brown, 

 officers of this Association, have made 

 bee-culture their life work, and are 

 careful to locate their apiaries in locali- 



Fooi.ED— No Bees There. 



ties that yield the choicest nectar. 

 Their method of thoroughly ripening 

 the honey in the hive and removing it 

 with scientific care adds to the supe- 

 riority of their product. 



This move makes Siuux City a honey 

 market, and will materially assist the 

 bee-keepers of the surrounding country 

 in disposing of their product readily. 



he had ever endured. After trying a 

 few of the popular remedies, a physi- 

 cian was sent for. Mr. Simmons re- 

 ports himself as doing well, though 

 still propped up in bed. 



Cow-Dung for Smoke Nothing new 



about that. Yet sometimes some of 

 the old things, that by some means 

 have been set aside and forgotten, are 

 worth reconsidering. H. Martin, in 

 the South African Bee-Keepers' Jour- 

 nal, has this good word to say for cow- 

 dung as smoker fuel : 



" After a test of over five years I have 

 come to the conclusion that it would be very 

 ditiicult to beat ordinary thurouahtv dried 

 cow-dung as a smoker fuel. I wonder how 

 many bee-keepers have tried it, or if they 

 have found it satisfactory. The advantages 

 are that it is a very agreeable smoke to the 

 operator and effective on the bees: when 

 once alight it will not go out until the last 

 pick is reduced to ashes, even if the smoker 

 is left aside and not used; it occupies a 

 small compass, and a well-filled smoker will 

 give forth smoke longer than any other fuel 

 I know of. Often has my smoker been found 

 alight and fuming merrily away four hours 

 after it had been put away to one side. To 

 beo-keepers who have had trouble in this 

 respect, i should strongly recommend a fair 

 trial. To light up. about half fill the smoker 

 with small pieces of well-dried cow dung: 

 go to the kitchen stove and drop a glowing 

 eml.ier on top of these, adding a few more 

 small lumps of this variety of fuel. You will 

 now have a smoker uponwhichyou can rely. 

 If there is no fire available, it will be neces- 

 sary to set fire to the cow-dung by the aid of 

 some more inflammable material, such as 

 shavings or dried wood: a little paraflin or 

 methylated spirit dropped on to the cow- 

 dung is even better." 



A Hot Bee-Sting On May 13th, J. A. 



Simmons, a queen-breeder of Sabinal, 

 Tex., while replacing extracting combs 

 on a hive of bees, was bitten by a snake, 

 which the local Mexicans call "bee- 

 water." Mr. Simmons says that, at the 

 time, he thought it the hottest bee-sting 



Winter and Bees in Switzerland. — 



The editor of the Bulletin Suisse 

 writes us : 



We are having a mild winter. From Feb, 

 2 to 10. there was no frost, the land has be- 

 come green, and there have been flowers. 

 But. strange to say. the few white frosts 

 which wc have had since, have done more 

 harm than the coldest winter weather 

 would do. The esparcet is parched, and 

 some plants which can stand a temperature 

 of zero ha\'e greatly suffered. The bees 

 have wintered finely, we had no losses, but 

 if the winter had been cold there would 

 be great losses, for the Quality of the stores 

 was inferior. Tlie bees are very far along, 

 and at this date we have colonies with 

 combs of brood. It is rather too much, as a 

 return ot cold weather would injure it. 



Ul.RlCH Gl'lil.ER. 



Belmont. Switzerland, March 20. 



Coated Nails for Shipping-Cases At 



the Wisconsin State Bee-Keepers' con- 

 vention in February last, criticisms 

 were made of the use of cement-coated 

 nails in fastening on the covers of 

 shipping-cases for comb honey. Mr. 

 Frank Rauchfuss, the efficient secretary 

 of the Colorado Honey-Producers' As- 

 sociation, being informed of this dis- 

 cussion, writes as follows: 



"Regarding the nailing of covers on ship- 

 ping-cases with cement-coated nails. I want 

 to say that there are two sides 10 the ques- 

 tion. We formerly permitted our members 

 to use the smooth nails that the Ci. H. Lewis 

 Co. have been furnishing, but found that 

 this was not practical. Members who would 

 haul their honey from 5 to 15 miles, over or- 

 dinary wagon roads, would drive up to the 

 warehouse with a large percentage of the 

 top cases of their load with covers partly 

 pried off by the friction of the cases in the 

 wagon while on the way. Many covers 

 would, on that account, be split up. making 

 a bad job. .Since we have adopted the use 

 of cement-coated nails, of rather small size 

 for nailing on the covers, we don't have any 

 trouble that way. 



"What I have said about the hauling of 

 cases on wagons applies with equal force to 



