414 



AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL 



June 28, 1900. 



patron. This may appear somewhat 

 overdrawn; but we have witnestjust 

 such an instance. 



It does seem just a trifle strange that 

 in 6,000 years (or 60,000, as the case 

 may be) people have not learned that 

 honey will granulate in cold weather, 

 and that they are )'et afraid of this 

 most wholesome, pure and delicious 

 food after the change has taken place. 



It behooves producers of extracted 

 honey to work earnestly to disabuse 

 the public mind of this popular error, 

 and to disseminate a knowledge of the 

 ease with which honey may be restored 

 to its liquid state when preferred in 

 that condition. Granulated honey is 

 very much preferred by many to that 

 in liquid form, and some of our West- 

 ern producers have so educated the 

 trade that their goods are not lookt for 

 in any other waj' — indeed, their honey 

 is not put upon the market until after 

 it has granulated. Specific instruc- 

 tions for liquefying the contents goes 

 with each retail package. In this con- 

 dition there is no spilling and daubing, 

 and the crop is marketed and retailed 

 in the same cleanly and neat manner 

 as an invoice of canned fruits. 



The subject is one worthy of serious 

 thought, and the expenditure of some 

 effort on the part of those interested in 

 the development of a permanent and 

 profitable market for extracted honey. 

 — American Bee-Keeper. 



Contraction and Its Effect The 



practice of using only five frames in 

 an 8-frame brood-chamber, and filling 

 up the space with dummies for the pur- 

 pose of forcing what honey does come 

 in into the supers, is called " contrac- 

 tion." This was extensively practiced 

 a few years ago, but is now generally 

 abandoned. It is far better to have 

 the colonies so strong that when the 

 first honey comes, it will be rusht 

 right into the supers. It is better to 

 use a full-sized brood-nest than to put- 

 ter away with weak colonies with a 

 contracted brood-nest. But if the 

 honey-flow is short, and colonies are 

 not overly strong, then contraction 

 may be practiced sometimes to advan- 

 tage. But in this case it will be neces- 

 sary to watch closely for swarms, as 

 contraction has quite a tendency to en- 

 courage the swarming propensity, be- 

 cause the bees seem to need more room 

 for brood-rearing. — E. R. Root, in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Using Soiled Brood=Combs. — We 



had quite an experience a year ag-o 

 with soiled combs from colonies hav- 

 ing died the winter before, and very 

 many bee-keepers are more or less 

 troubled with such combs every year. 

 The question then arises, "What is the 

 best use wecan make of these combs ?" 

 I have seen it recommended within a 

 short time to give them to young 

 swarms. In my experience I found 

 that to be the worst use I could put 

 them to, and that in the face of the 

 fact that sometimes young swarms 

 will select for their home a hive that 

 had been previously occupied by a 

 colony, and is filled with soiled combs 

 of the very worst character. Many a 

 time have I hived swarms into hives 

 full of comb, and not very bad comb at 

 that ; but in by far the most cases the 

 bees would not stay, and could not be 

 made to stay, not even by caging their 

 queen. With me the bees seem to pre- 



Rocku Mountain Bee- Plant Seed ! 



( VJeoiiw iiitegr ifoJia. ) 

 ...FREE AS A PREMIUM... 



The ABC of Bee-Culture says of it: "This 

 is a beautiful plant for the ffower-g-arden, to 

 say nothing of the honey it produces. It grows 

 from two to three feet in hight, and bears large 

 clusters of bright pink flowers. It grows natur- 



Chorne in Bloom. 



ally on the Rocky Mountains, and in Colorado, 

 where it is said to furnish large quantities of 

 honey." 



We have a few pounds of this Cleome seed, 

 and offer to mail a '4-pound package as a pre- 

 mium for sending us ONE NEW subscriber to 

 the American Bee Journal, with $1.00; or % 

 pound by mail for 4i) cents. 



GEORGE W. YORK & CO. 



118 Michigan St. CHICAGO ILL. 



Italian Queens sas 



stock. By mail, price, $1. Address all orders to 



WILLIAM DELINE, 



23A4t WYMORE, NEBRASKA. 



Please mention Bee Journal whp-^ writing. 



M. H. HUNT & SON, 



SELL ROOT'S GOODS at ROOT'S PRICES. 

 Our inducements are first-class goods, cheap 

 freight rates, and prompt shipments. Send for 



catalog. Bell Branch. Mich. 



I 

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5d^ 



•►THIS-* 



Wood Binder 



will hold one year's nutnbers 

 of the American Bee Journal 

 and will be sent by mail (or 

 ao cents. Full directions 

 accompany each Binder. The 

 issues of the Journal can be 

 inserted as soon as they are 

 read, aud preserved for refer- 

 ence in book form. 



By paying for a year's sub- 

 scription STRICTLY IN advance 

 this Binder will be sent, post- 

 paid, for 10 cents extra. 



ADDRESS, 



CEO. ^V. YORK & CO. 



118 Mich. St., Chicago, 111. 



Please mention Bee Journal 

 ■when writing advertisers. 



fer to go back to their old home minus- 

 a queen ; or if the queen was at liberty 

 the whole company would respectfully 

 bid me good-by. If one really wishes 

 to utilize old combs for his young- 

 swarms, as good a way as I know of is 

 to first let them go thru a cleaning 

 process on top of a good, strong col- 

 ony ; and the more honev is stored in 

 them by that colony, the better the re- 

 sult will be. It will nearly all be car- 

 ried up into the sections, or used up 

 some way. A young swarm hived on 

 solid combs of honey will astonish the 

 owner in the amount of section honey 

 it will produce. A fe%v soiled combs 

 may be given to a young swarm at a 

 time, after the same is well establisht 

 in a new home, the same as is admissi- 

 ble or advisable in case of old colonies. 

 — F. Greiner, in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture. 



Releasing Queens at Night Mr. S. 



A. Dyke, of West Virginia, writes me 

 of the excellent success he has had in 

 releasing queens at night, when trying 

 to introduce them. He has a cage so 

 arranged that when the slide is with- 

 drawn the opening to the cage is still 

 covered with paper that is saturated 

 with honey. The slide is withdrawn 

 at sundown. By the time the slip of 

 paper is eaten out it is night, and all 

 is quiet. One advantage of releasing 

 a queen in this way, instead of watch- 

 ing her as she leaves the cage, is that 

 there is no danger of her flying away. 

 I once liberated ten queens just at 

 dusk, when it was so dark that a lamp 

 was needed. They had been kept 

 away from the bees and allowed no 

 food for half an hour. This was ac- 

 cording to some instructions given by 

 some foreigner— I think it was Mr. 

 Siramins. The whole ten queens were 

 accepted— perhaps they might have 

 been anyway. WhetherVeleasing them 

 at night had anything to do with their 

 acceptance is hard to say. Leaving 

 them without food for half an hour 

 makes them hungry, and they are in a 

 mood to accept any food that is offered 

 thern by the workers, which is one fac- 

 tor in their favor. — Bee-Reepers' Re- 

 view. 



Prevention of Drone-Comb The 



way I manage is to give new swarms 

 which are to build comb, a brood-cham- 

 ber of only about half the size of the 

 one from which the swarm came, this 

 smaller stze being made bj' contract- 

 ing it with dummies, while a part of 

 the surplus for section honey is placed 

 over the frames at the time of hiving. 

 Some of the sections in the surplus ar- 

 rangement should be partly filled with 

 comb left over from the season pre- 

 vious, so as to start work in the sec- 

 tions at the same time the bees start 

 below. This causes the bees to store 

 honey above while they build comb 

 more slowly below, building only as 

 fast as the prolificness of the queen 

 demands it. 



As the queen's ability for laj'ing in- 

 creases, more frames are added, so that 

 at the end of the season I have the 

 hive filled, or very nearly so, with nice 

 worker-comb, and secure lots of section 

 honey. By this plan I secure three 

 important items — much section honey, 

 very little drone-comb, and a hive filled 

 with nice, straight worker-comb, the 

 latter costing less, in my estimation, 

 than it would to buy the foundation, 



