AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



chest, the larger must be these muscles, 

 and the stronger the wing-power of 

 every worker-bee reared from such 

 queens, since the worker-bee in general 

 form of development invariably takes 

 after the queen-mother. 

 New Philadelphia, Ohio. 



Bees In KenMy— Oilier Matters. 



Written for the American Bae Journal 

 BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



After so much discouraging weather, 

 the present month (June), came in more 

 favorable to our bees. The white clover 

 crop, our only chance for surplus honey, 

 is far below the average in quantity, 

 but it seems to be rich with the precious 

 sweets, and our bees are gathering a 

 surplus, but the weather now (June 

 23rd) is too hot for the best results in 

 honey gathering. For the past three 

 or four days the temperature has reach- 

 ed from 940 to 98- in the shade, in the 

 heat of the day, and the bees have clus- 

 tered badly on the outsides of the hives. 

 I have often noticed that very hot 

 weather is unfavorable to a liberal flow 

 of nectar. 



The honey harvest will be too short 

 here, to give us more than a very light 

 crop of honey taken with the honey ex- 

 tractor. There will be less comb honey 

 here this season than in any season of 

 the past, as far as I can remember, and 

 the crop must be short all around. This 

 is unfortunate in a year of scarcity of 

 fruits of all kinds. I hate to have to do 

 it, but I shall have to raise the price on 

 my honey this season, to help out the 

 short yield, eh ? 



THE PERFORATED QUEEN-EXCLUDER. 



The general use of the perforated 

 queen-excluder only awaits a more thor- 

 ough knowledge of its advantages and 

 possibilities. With the use of this val- 

 uable help in apiary manipulation, all 

 the elements must be against the pro- 

 duction of honey, if I fail to get some 

 honey, taken with the extractor. 



If the queen was permitted to follow 

 her instincts, and invade with her do- 

 mestic affairs, the surplus departments 

 of the hives in a slow season like this, 

 there would really be but little honey in 

 hape to be taken with the extractor. 



In fact, with the queen-excluder, 

 swarming is controlled completely in my 

 apiary by raising the sealed brood above 

 the excluder. In some cases only a few 

 of the frames of brood removed from the 



breeding department, and empty combs 

 put in their places, will check the in- 

 clination to swarm. In other cases, 

 after the swarming impulse has takeu 

 hold of the bees, nearly the whole of the 

 brood must be raised above the excluder 

 to cure the swarming fever. We some- 

 times handle combs that contain brood 

 when extracting, but we have this ad- 

 vantage—they contain no unsealed 

 brood. But as a general rule, having 

 plenty of surplus combs to " tier up," as 

 fast as the bees may need the room, we 

 do not take the honey until all the young 

 bees are hatched out, and the combs are 

 well filled (and sealed) with honey. 



CLOSE-FITTING FRAMES AGAIN. 



Self-interest, I presume, on the part of 

 some of our friends, will keep up the in- 

 terest in behalf of the worst of miscon- 

 ceptions — " close-fitting frames." 



A few weeks ago I transferred a col- 

 only of bees from one of these close- 

 fitting frame hives, and it was full of 

 ant-nests at the close ends, and the 

 frames were so " stuck up " that I had 

 to pry the frames apart to get them out. 



At the same time I transferred sev- 

 eral colonies from Langstroth hives, that 

 had badly built combs, and in every 

 case I found the bee-spaces all opened, 

 and the inside of the hives sweet and 

 clean. What a practical lesson is this ! 

 The longer I worlc with hives and bees, 

 the more thoroughly I am convinced that 

 the common hanging frame gives the 

 minimum of labor and vexation. 



When it becomes necessary to make 

 the frames stationary, in case of mov- 

 ing hives some distance, a very simple 

 device can be used to hold the frames 

 temporarily until its use is no longer 

 needed. 



QUALITY OF HONEY. 



I would be pleased if Mr. McKnight 

 would repeat for himself my experiments 

 referred to by him on page 818, viz.: 

 Select combs from one-third to half 

 sealed ; first extract the thin unsealed 

 nectar, and put it by itself ; then uncap 

 and extract the sealed parts of the 

 combs, and store it by itself, and treat 

 the two divisions in the usual way, and 

 keep them for observation. With Mr. 

 McKnight's intelligence, he will not fail 

 to see that the mere expulsion of the 

 siirphis water in the nectar is not all 

 that there is in the process of so-called 

 " ripening of honey." 



To get genuine virgin honey it must 

 be evaporated in the warm, sweet, 

 formic-acid, disinfected current of air, 

 that is found nowhere else but in the 



