Jan. 25, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



51 



the matter of fuel for smokers ; we use what -suits us, and 

 are willing- that others should do the same. 



If we were to try to improve the smoker \vc would iiuike 

 it quite small, and lig^ht weight ; and then as to fuel, we 

 believe there are cheap materials that can be combined 

 whereby a large amount of smoke can be made from a small 

 amount of fuel. For instance, a Chinese joss-stick not 

 much larger than a knitting needle, and about as long, will 

 smolder a whole day, and emit a wreath of smoke and a 

 pleasant incense. 



It is a good plan to temper the smoke to the colony. 

 Some bee-keepers temper the smoke according to their fears 

 of bee-stings, but the practical man has no fear of stings, 

 and can exercise a little mercy upon the bee. The experi- 

 enced bee-man soon knows how much smoke to use, just 

 from the way the hive opens up. It is quite an orthodox 

 rule to smoke the bees at the entrance of the hive when it 

 is approacht, but the busy bee-man forgets this opera- 

 tion so often that it is after awhile wholly neglected. The 

 first blast into the top of the hive after the cover is removed 

 sends a thrill of alarm clear to the entrance, and the temper 

 of the colony is soon learned. 



It is perhaps not a very important matter as to where 

 the smoker is kept when not in use, but an orderly bee- 

 keeper will have a little closet near the honey-house large 

 enough for two or three smokers, and lined with tin or 

 asbestos, and having an exit for smoke. You can get more 

 out of a smoker by using it vrell, and then if it is put in a 

 safe place, and there is a little fire left in it, there will be no 

 danger from the fire communicating with other things. 

 Many bee-hives and buildings have been damaged from 

 this lack of care. 



And now when I have said all I care to say about the 

 smoker, one of the boys at my elbow remarks that the fel- 

 low I refer to who ate tow and spit fire reminds him that 

 some men use a filthy weed known as tobacco, as fuel for 

 smoke, and a pipe, and the mouth for a furnace ; and that 

 reminds me of the old adage about the man with a cigar — " A 

 little roll of tobacco leaves with a fire at one end and a big 

 fool at the other." Don't be a fool ; but if you are, get into 

 the ranks of the wise people as soon as possible. 



Report for the Season of 1899. 



BY A. F. FOOTE. 



IN the way of a report for the season of 1899, I have this 

 to say : I lost 40 colonies last winter and saved 14, 

 which increast to 30 by natural swarming, and I secured 

 600 pounds of comb honey, mostly from buckwheat and fall 

 flowers, tho the bees did well on Alsike clover, but the sup- 

 ply was limited. 



My bees were weak in the spring, but I fed them lib- 

 erally till fruit-bloom, and after that till clover bloom, and 

 again, after the supers were removed, during the warm days 

 in the early part of November, and they are now in the cel- 

 lar with very ample stores for winter. Their last flight 

 was on Nov. 28, and I put them into the cellar Dec. 4. 



Like many other localities, as reported in the American 

 Bee Journal, the honey crop here was light compared with 

 many years in the past — in fact, this is not an ideal coun- 

 try for bees at best. I have sold all my surplus, regardless 

 of color, readily, at home for IS cents per pound. 



SXPERIBNCE IN FEEDING BEES. 



I can't resist the temptation to give a little of my ex- 

 perience in feeding, which was hardly " according to the 

 books," neither were the consequences which followed the 

 method. Let it be understood on the start that there were 

 no " neighboring " bees to bother. 



Every day, during the time I was feeding, when it was 

 warm enough for the bees to fly freely, I put out (on boards, 

 boxes, etc., several rods from the apiary) broken and un- 

 finisht sections of honey, and some old candied honey, 

 diluted — all in shallow dishes of some kind — and let the bees 

 help themselves. I regulated the supply so that it would 

 all be cleaned up by the early part of the afternoon. 



Well, did it teach them to rob ? Not at all. Contrary 

 to the theories advanced by the wiseacres at the Philadel- 

 phia bee-convention, there was not a single case of robbing 

 or attempt to rob ; when the day's supply of feed was 

 cleaned up, they all returned to their homes and behaved 

 themselves like the good little creatures that they are, and 

 good-natured, too. 



It seems to me my bees never showed so little disposi- 



tion to sting as they did the past season, and they are 

 mostly hybrids, too. 



Now, a little further experience, and I am done : My 

 first swarm, a large one, issued on May 27, ju.st at a time 

 when there seemed to be nothing for them in the fields, .so I 

 put a super containing several sections of uncapt honey on 

 the hive to tide them over. A few hours afterward I went 

 out, and it seemed as if half the bees in the apiary were 

 hovering around that hive after the honey had been put into 

 it, and I had quite a time disjiorsing them, but I succeeded 

 at last, and saved the swarm. 



I tried it again with a .swarm that issued a few days 

 later, with the same result. After that, as before, I did 

 my feeding outside, and had no more trouble. 



What are your experts going to do about it ? Of course, 

 the fact is perfectly clear that the stronger colonies secured 

 more supplies that the weaker ones, and why should they 

 not ? There were more mouths to feed. 



Mitchell Co., Iowa, Dec. 20, 1899. 



Annual Report for 1899 of the Inspector of 

 Apiaries for the Province of Ontario. 



BY \VM. M'EVOY. 



DURING 1899 I visited bee-yards in the counties of Haldi- 

 mand, Norfolk, Middlesex, Oxford, Brant, Wentworth, 

 Lincoln, Wellington, Halton, Peel, York, Ontario and 

 Simcoe. I inspected 126 apiaries, and found foul brood in 

 47 of them. 



In places where I never had been before is where I 

 found nine-tenths of the foul-broody apiaries the past sea- 

 son, and over three-fourths of the owners of these diseased 

 apiaries did not know that their colonies had foul brood 

 when I first visited them. 



I took the greatest of pains to explain to the bee-keepers 

 how to manage the business so as to have every colony a 

 good, strong one, and in fine condition when they were 

 cured of the disease. 



In looking back over the nine years that I have in- 

 spected the apiaries in the Province of Ontario, I noticed 

 that I had found foul brood very widely spread thru 30 coun- 

 ties, I succeeded in getting thousands of foul-broody colo- 

 nies cured, the disease driven out by wholesale, and peace- 

 ful settlements made in every rase where diseased colonies 

 were sold thru mistakes of the parties selling, not knowing 

 of their colonies being diseased at the time of sale. 



Nine years ago very few among those that kept bees 

 then were able to tell the disease from other kinds of dead 

 brood, and not over half a dozen men in Ontario could cure 

 an apiary of foul brood, and end the season with every col- 

 ony in first-class order. The instructions that I gave while 

 on my rounds thru the Province, and the driving out of the 

 disease by wholesale, will make Ontario one of the safest 

 places in the world in which to keep bees. 



Mr. F. A. Gemmill is the man that deserves the credit 

 for all the work that I have done, and the Government of 

 our country that has paid for it. In 1890 Mr. Gemmill took 

 hold and workt hard until he got the foul-brood Act past, 

 which has proved to be a great benefit to hundreds of bee- 

 keepers. 



I am greatly pleased with the way the bee-keepers took 

 hold in the past season, and cured their apiaries of foul 

 brood. Where I found a few worthless colonies almost dead 

 from the disease late in the fall (and near fine, sound api- 

 aries) I burned them. The total number that I burned in 

 the Province was 20 colonies, after the owners and I had 

 reasoned out things nicely together. 



And for the courteous and very generous way that I 

 have been treated by the bee-keepers of every locality that 

 I went into, I return to them my most heartfelt thanks. 



Woodburn, Ont., Canada. 



Selling' Honey — Asking What It is Worth. 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 



I BELIEVE bee-keepers lose money by not having the 

 grit to ask what their product is worth. It is the weak- 

 kneed fellows that lower the price for the rest of the 

 fraternity. 



During the fall of 1898, the A. I. Root Co. sent out cards 

 asking for prices on comb honey. I had some that I thought 

 was fancy, and wrote them that they might have it at 13 

 cents on cars here. They replied that the price was too 



