616 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. U, 



@S0R6E; -W. TORK, - Editor. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BV 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 US .Mio2iig-an St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Bntered at the Posl-Office at Chicago aa Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



Vol. fflVI. CHICA&O, ILL, SEPT. 24, 1896, No. 39. 



'"w- ww r'T^ 



EDITORIAL CDIVIMENTS. 



Nebraska and Calirornia in 1895.— The New 

 York SuQ reports that in 1895 there was marketed in Ne- 

 braska 300,000 pounds of extracted honey at an average of 

 10 cents per pound. And that California produced 2,000,000 

 pounds of extracted honey, 200,000 pounds of comb honey, 

 and 30,000 pounds of beeswax. We fear that the honey 

 figures assigned to California are far too low We thought it 

 was 7,000,000 pounds of honey produced in that State last 

 year. It is possible we are mistaken in this, but we think not. 



Tlie Britisli Bee-Keepers' Ouide-Book is 



the title of a book written by Mr. Thos. Wm. Cowan, editor of 

 the British Bee Journal and inventor of the splendid Cowan 

 extractor. We learn from Gleanings that the 14th edition 

 has just been issued. Editor Root, in referring further to this 

 deservedly popular bee-book, says this : 



Within 15 years 25,000 copies have been sold, and with- 

 in a month 2,000 copies of the new edition have been sold. So 

 great has been the demand for it throughout all Europe that 

 it is now published in French, German, Danish, Swedish, 

 Spanish and Russian. Of some of these, two or three editions 

 have been published, and it is safe to say that no other bee- 

 book is read in so many languages. The present edition has 

 been thoroughly revised, enlarged, and a great portion en- 

 tirely rewritten. Old methods and implements have been 

 stricken out, and new onces incorporated in their proper 

 position. The special feature of this edition is the introduc- 

 tion of a large number of beautiful half-tone engravings rep- 

 resenting various manipulations of the bees, and everything is 

 put so plainly that there is no chance for misunderstanding. 

 It is condensed, and yet covers fully all essential details. The 

 author, as nearly as I can discover, has made his book small, 

 not by covering briefly everything in bee-keeping, but by giv- 

 ing only the best plan or method in full, in his estimation, 

 thus avoiding confusion to the beginner. 



We feel that we are quite safe in saying that of all the 

 editors of bee-periodicals printed in the English language to- 

 day, Mr. Cowan is the ablest. By the way, he is also the 

 oldest, for the majority of us bee-editors are still on the sunny 

 side of 40. (Mr. Cowan and Mr. Hutchinson may contend 

 that it is just as "sunny " on the other side of 40 — and they 

 might be right, too.) 



We have never met Mr. Cowan, but we receive his journal 



every week, and so have come to know him somewhat on 



paper. 



*-•-» 



Geo. X. 'Wheadon & Co., of this city, have sent 

 out yellow circular letters broadcast among bee-keepers, some- 

 thing after the style of Horrie & Co.'s. A number of our sub- 

 scribers have sent us the Wheadon & Co.'s circulars soliciting 

 shipments of honey. We thought once that we would publish 

 their letter in full in the Bee Journal, but we have decided 



that it would hardly pay to waste our space further in that 

 line. 



We never before this year had heard of Wheadon & Co. 

 as honey-dealers, or even as general commission men, so of 

 course they are not "The largest honey-dealers in the West," 

 as they boastingly claim to be. Besides, their circular of Sept. 



5 quotes altogether too high prices on honey, and especially 

 on beeswax, which they say is scarce at 82 to 35 cents for the 

 best. The fact is, the beeswax market has been, and is, ex- 

 tremely dull here, at 25 cents per pound. 



We see this firm say in their letter: " Note our ad. in 

 ' Bee-Keepers' Review,' September issue." We were surprised 

 to see that, for we did not think that the Review would so 

 soon again advertise for a new and untried Chicago honey- 

 dealing firm. 



We have wondered, also, where Wheadon & Co. got their 

 names of bee-keepers, to whom they have been mailing their 

 printed letter. We felt sure that Mr. Hutchinson would not 

 sell his list of names to them, after his experience with Horria 



6 Co. last year, though it may be they got the names from tha 

 latter firm. 



Of course it is too early yet to hear of either favorable or 

 unfavorable honey-deals made by Wheadon & Co. But judg- 

 ing alone from their private circular quotations on honey and 

 beeswax — which are too high — we could not advise shipping 

 to them. We say this in reply to the numerous requests that 

 we have received lately. 



We might say further, that on Sept. 15 we purchased the 

 very finest lot of about 350 pounds of comb honey on South 

 Water Street, from a reliable firm, at 13 cents per pound. 'So 

 you see that quotations of 15 and 16 cents are much too high, 

 and cannot be realized to any great extent. 



Prevention of Honey-Granulation.— If we 



would keep honey in a liquid state, we should heat it and then 



seal it in air-tight tins, and do all the work in a perfectly dark 



room, and store the tins of honey in a dark, warm room. We 



could then keep our honey in a liquid state for an indefinite 



period of time. So says a correspondent in the Australian 



Bee-Bulletin. 



■*-»-^ 



The Editorial Paragraphs in the July Review 

 were nearly all crystallizations of whole articles found in Glean- 

 ings. As Editor Hutchinson is such an adept at the " boiling- 

 down process," we feel that we can do no better than to ex- 

 tract the following samples of his work : 



Burr-Combs and Brace Combs are practically done away 

 by the thick top-bars and accurate spacing of the Hoffman 

 frames, so says the editor of Gleanings. He admits that these 

 frames have their faults, but believes that they have the 

 fewest of any self-spacing frames. In hot weather, when the 

 propolis is soft, they may be handled with nothing to pry them 

 loose. But there are so many times when it is necessary to 

 handle frames when the propolis is not soft. After all, many 

 of our preferences must be a choice of evils, or faults, rather. 



Dequeening Colonies During the Habvest. — Messrs. 

 Elwood and Hetberington, and a few others, practice remov- 

 ing the queen with a frame or two of bees and brood just at 

 the opening of the swarming season. At the ninth day all of 

 the queen-cells are cut out and the bees left hopelessly queen- 

 less for a week or ten days more, when the old queen is again 

 given to the colony. This practice prevents swarming. 



Mr. T. H. Kloel-, of Terre Haute, Ind., has been trying 

 this plan upon an extensive scale, and he tells in Gleanings of 

 some of the difficulties with which he had to contend. One 

 trouble was that the removed queens would leave the nuclei 

 and crawl about on the ground, perhaps get back into the old 

 hive. In breaking up colonies for making nuclei for queen- 

 rearing, I have often formed a nucleus with the old queen and 

 one or two combs of bees, and I have never experienced the 

 trouble mentioned by Mr. Kloer. He says that he finds It 

 necessary to fasten the bees in the first day. By the second 

 day they will have cooled down, and will stay at home. Of 



