THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



531 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OP THE 



^^-,.^5M£3e3RlEOAS*5^^.,..^^ 



injpraiiii 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. August 26, 1885. No. 34. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



Don't bring- " strife " into the JouRNAi,, 



Lay " anger " and " spite " aside ; 

 But at this temple's gate to drop 



The " strife " of the world outside. 

 Don't " vent" any personal quarrels, 



Or bring: their discordant gloom ; 

 You may argue with words of *' honey," 



But for " stings " there is no room. 



It is at the quilting-" bee " where you 

 hear the "stinging" remark. 



The value of the honey imported into 

 Great Britain during the month of June, 

 188.5, was £6,848, or about S.'52,rjOO.OO. 



TUe Indiana Stale Fair and Exposi- 

 tion, "^Fill be held in Indianapolis, during the 

 week commencing Sept. '28, 188.'). 



Good-nature, like a bee, collects honey 

 from every herb. Ill-nature, like a spider, 

 sucks poison from the sweetest flower. 



Tlie lillnoU State Fair will be held in 

 Chicago during the week commencing Mon- 

 day, Sept. 14, 1885, and promises many 

 attractions. 



Wlien a Bee alights on a person as it 

 would on a tree or fence, let it alone and 

 it will in a moment fly away. It is very sel- 

 dom that they will sting, except when 

 defending their homes. 



In England the temperature has been 

 low since July 1, with a profusion of show- 

 ers accompanied with strong withering 

 winds, the average night temperature being 

 40°, and the day 60°, giving a mean of .50°— 

 too low for honey secretion or gathering. 

 White clover gave a good yield of honey 

 during June, but since that there has been 

 no honey gathered. 



Wlien an energetic organization, 



such as the Bee-Keepers' National Union 

 should be, enters actively and with deter- 

 mination into anything— its influence is felt 

 far beyond its numerical strength. Men 

 often fight more upon the courage of others 

 than upon their own. Those who have not 

 yet "joined the Union army," are invited to 

 read the article on page .53:), entitled, " Is 

 the ' Union ' of Value or Not '/" and thea act 

 as becometh a generation upon which rests 

 the defense of " our chosen pursuit." 



Detecting (jllucome.- The Rev. J. G. 



Teter, in the Bec-Kcrpcrs' Magazine, gives 

 the following test : 



A cheap and easy way to test the presence 

 of the poorer grades of glucose in honey is 

 to put some of it into a cup of tea made 

 strong. If it is heavily adulterated with the 

 poisonous compound found in glucose, it 

 will turn black almost like ink. Another 

 test is to pour aicolKjl and this poisonous 

 compound together. Pure honey and pure 

 alcohol will unite, but pure alcohol and this 

 poisonous compound will separate like oil 

 and water. 



Tlie St. liouls Fair opens Monday, Oct. 

 5, and continues forsi.x days. The premium 

 list contains 24 departments, and ST.I.OOO is 

 offered in premiums, A rate of one fare for 

 the round trii) has been made by all rail- 

 roads running within .500 miles of St. Louis. 

 $130 are ottered as iiremiiims in the Apia- 

 rian Department. Any of our subscribers 

 desiring a copy of the premium list will re- 

 ceive one free, by addressing Festus J. Wade, 

 See., 718 Chestnut,St., St. Louis, Mo. 



Honey has been known to commerce 

 about '2, .500 years. The Jews were engaged 

 in trading it at Tyre, that old and honored 

 mart of trade in Phcenicia, some 600 years 

 before the Christian era, as we are informed 

 in the Bible (Ezekiel 27: 17). Sirach, who 

 also lived about that time, mentions it with 

 flour, milk, etc., among the necessaries of 

 life. Yet the scientific management of bees 

 has not been practiced for 50 years. And 

 instead of its being now enumerated among 

 the necessaries of life, it is too often thought 

 to be a lu.\ury. Why are people so slow to 

 realize its value as a sweet, as well as its 

 health-giving qualities? Does the "sting" 

 frighten its thousands yet ? 



Selling Iloney at Home The Minne- 

 sota Herald remarks as follows about a suc- 

 cessful honej'-producer of that State, and 

 one of our correspondents : 



Mr. Fayette Lee, of Cokato, Minn., has 

 about i:)0 colonies of bees, and has extracted 

 .3,000 lbs. of honey. We doubt very much if 

 any man in the State has made bee-keeping 

 such a study, or has carried on the business 

 so industriously and to such satisfactory re- 

 sults. Mr. Lee obtains the very best Italian 

 queen-bees, thus bringing the amount of 

 work performed by a colony to its maximum 

 quantity. He is selling extracted honey at 

 10 cents a pound, or if in sections, 15 cents 

 per pound. We believe that a steady sale 

 can he found for lir.st-class honey, such as 

 his, in all the neighboring villages. We are 

 pleased to learn that Mr. Lee will exhibit 

 comb honey at our State Fair, and we shall 

 e.xpect to see samples at our County Fair. 



It Is a well-settled fact that bumble- 

 bees contribute their share toward the fer- 

 tilization of red clover, while visiting the 

 blossoms for the nectar they contain. Ital- 

 ian "honey-bees also perform the same office 

 for the clover, and many other flowers 

 whose nectaries were too deep for the ** old- 

 fashioned " black honey-bee. There Is no 

 way of keeping colonies of bumble-bees 

 alive through the winter. All but the queen- 

 bee die late in autumn, because they have 

 lived out their life. The following spring 

 more bees hatch out from eggs laid by the 

 queen, live out their summer life, and die. — 

 prairie Farmer. 



A dog in the neighborhood of Los Ange- 

 les, Calif., is passionately fond of honey, 

 and to gratify his taste, he robs hives when- 

 ever an opportunity offers. He h grown 

 quite expert in the business, an an ex- 

 tract the sweet stuff with great dexterity. 



ilakotu Territorial Fair will be held 

 at Huron, on Sept. '20 and :iO and Oct. 1 and 

 2, and the prospects for a grand success are 

 very flattering. 



Every progressive bee-keeper has 



learned that appearance has much to do 

 with the sale of the products of the apiary. 

 Honey put up neatly and in a convenient 

 manner for both dealer and consumer to 

 handle, is what the markets of the present 

 time demand. 



Manufacturers of all classes, who desire 

 to succeed in business, strive to create a de- 

 mand for their brand of goods ; hence 

 upon every individual package of superior 

 goods they cause their private business card 

 to be placed— giviug name and address. Why 

 need bee-keepers be an exception to this 

 rule? They need not, and should not be. 

 When once in this manner your reputation 

 has been established with the consumer, a 

 demand for your brand of honey is created, 

 and they call for that every time. The 

 avenue reaching this result in its fullest ex- 

 tent, has in the past been almost wholly 

 closed. The crating of c.nmh honey gives 

 you a standing with the dealer, but j-ou 

 have been wholly unknown to the con- 

 sumer. At last the way is opened, and the 

 f(jldin(i paper hu.v comes forward, promising 

 the result so long desired, and how admir- 

 ably it meets the demand may be seen by 

 the following description : 



The box is made of maiH7(a board, with a 

 dinilile lap and tueh at each end, forming a 

 very strong and tight box, allowing no 

 "drip." On one edge is a nice tape handle, 

 by which it is carried, making it in all a very 

 pretty and convenient package. It takes 

 the place of glass, both on the section and 

 crate. It saves wrapping by the dealer. Its 

 use is economy for producer and consumer. 

 Being a folding box, it can be shipped in the 

 flat, making transportation light. 



We have received one of these e.xcellent 

 contrivances, and we are more than pleased 

 with it. As they are cheap, only about ly 

 cents each, they ought to be used univer- 

 sally. The local markets, built upon local 

 reputations, are the methods leading to 

 success. Get these boxes with youi' name 

 and address printed on them, and thus build 

 up your own markets. 



Tlie Production of Wax.— A corres- 

 pondent of the New Enoland Farmer writes 

 as follows on this subject : 



Before the habits of bees had been studied, 

 it was supposed that wax was collected 

 from flowers, but later investigation shows 

 that wax is a natural secretion of the bee. 

 It exudes from the body, between the rings, 

 in miiuite .scales. This the bee takes in its 

 " hands." works it like a piece of dough, and 

 places it where it is needed. If comt>build- 

 ing is in process, it deposits the piece of 

 wax on the edge of a partly built cell ; 

 another bee then attacks it, gives it a twist 

 or a pincli. and smooths it with its mandi- 

 bles. Sonictiiiies tlu-ee or four bees will find 

 something to do with that particular crumb 

 of wax. 



The workers are so many, and work with 

 such rapidity, and do individually appar- 

 ently so little, that the eye hardly perceives, 

 in a short interval of time, that the struct- 

 ure, the comb, increases in size ; but close 

 the hive and examine the same cell in an 

 hour, and its greater length is seen at once. 



Evidently wax is present when it is 

 wanted, and absent when there is no use for 

 it. This may not be the case, but appear- 

 ances favor it. If there be no more room in 

 a hive for comb, no wax, or very little, is 

 needed ; but if an empty frame be placed in 

 this hive, the bees begin at once to fill it 

 with comb. 



