THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



547 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



^^-,.^E«^3gMEOA|^.,.:,^ 



Bujmnu 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. Sept. 2, 1885. No. 35. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



**Let us then uniting bury 



All our idle feuds in dust ; 

 And to future conflicts carry, 



Mutual faith and common trust." 



Hum, siveet liiini— That of the honey- 

 bee. 



Grief counts the seconds ; happiness for- 

 gets the hours. 



If a boy wishes to ascertain whether bees 

 see or not— let him put his finger into the 

 entrance of the hive. 



" He is not worthy of the honey-comb, 

 that shuns the hive because the bees have 

 stung."— Sftafccspcare. 



IVIiat is the difference between a bee and 

 a donkey ? One gets all the honey, the other 

 gets all the whacks (wax). 



Bee-keepers should take good care of 

 their basswood trees, as well as set out 

 more for the bees. They are valuable for 

 honey, as well as good for shade. 



In tlie slieep-bees lansuit we fancy 

 Mr. Powers will find it difficult to identifn 

 Mr. Freeliorn's bees, or to pro\'e by eye- 

 witnesses that the bees made an aggressive 

 attack on the sheep and injured them. 



TUe intrlilgian State Fair will be held 

 at Kalamazoo on Sept. li-18, 188,'>. The pre- 

 miums in the Apiarian Department amount 

 to $:!00. The premium list (containing 112 

 pages) will be sent upon application to the 

 Secretary, J. C. Sterling, Monroe, Mich. 



Tlie TrI-State Fair will be held at 

 Toledo, O., from Sept. 7 to 12, 188.5. Dr. A. 

 B. Mason, of Wagon Works, O., is superin- 

 tendent of the ai^iarian department, wliere 

 §212 arc offered as Premiums. Send to Dr. 

 Mason for l^remiura List. 



Mr. A. .1. Kiii^ has severed his connec- 

 tion with the lire-Keepers' Maaazine. It will 

 he published hereafter by Messrs. John 

 Aspinwall and W. R. Treadwell. Both Mr. 

 King and the new publishers have our best 

 wishes. Mr. King has been in "the editorial 

 harness" for 12 years, and now with failing 

 health seeks rest, for recuperation. 



Tlie outlook, although not as bright 

 as it miglit be, owing to the light crop 

 of honey produced this year, has fair promi- 

 ses for the future. Colonies generally are 

 strong, and ne.\t spring will probably find 

 them in good condition for a profitable sum- 

 mer's work. 



Tlie Slielby County Fair is to be held 

 at Harlan, Iowa, from Sept. 22 to 25, 1885, 

 As it offers the astonishingly large sum of 

 one dollar as a premium in the Apiarian 

 Department, the display will, no doubt, be 

 proportionate to the liberality of the Fair 

 managers 1 ! 



Tlie Falr8 are now being held all over 

 the country, and any one attending such 

 and wishing to get up a club for the Bee 

 Journal wdl be furnished with sample 

 copies free. Send for them a week or ten 

 days before they are needed, so as to be sure 

 of having them in time. We will also send 

 a colored Poster of the Bee JounN.tL, when 

 requested, to put up over the exhibits. 



The White Sulphur Springs in Fred- 

 erick Coutity, Va., is represented on our 

 desk by its illustrated 24-page catalogue. It 

 is kept by Mr. E. C. Jordan, one of the prin- 

 cipal bee-keepers of Virginia, and we notice 

 that honey is among the attractions of the 

 dining-room. 



When Marketing; Fxtraeted Honey, 



it is a sad blunder to use barrels holding from 

 .300 to .500 pounds— they are too large to he 

 desirable tor the trade, too bulky to be hand- 

 led with care in transportation, and too dear 

 to be lucrative to the producer, for honey 

 put up in such large barrels is subject to a 

 discount of one cent per pound, because of 

 the difficulty in disposing of it without 

 repacking and dividing into smaller lots. 



As winter approaches, mice are al- 

 most sure to infest the hives if openings 

 sufficient are left for their entrance. Wax 

 is a non-conductor of heat, and besides en- 

 joying the heat generated by the bees, 

 which answers the purpose to them of a 

 base-burner, the honey and bee-bread 

 furnishes food, and the comb fine bedding. 

 Care should be taken that no entrance is 

 left large enough for the mice to enter, else 

 much of the comb and honey may be de- 

 stroyed. — Indiana Farmer. 



A lady bee-keeper has gone. We re- 

 gret to learn from Mr. L. R. Jackson, Urmey- 

 ville, Ind., that he has lost his devoted wife. 

 On Aug, 27, he wrote as follows : " My wife 

 died on Aug. 25, after a few hours of pain. 

 She had kept .30 colonies of bees of her own, 

 and managed them well and profitably. She 

 was a close reader of the Bee Journai., and 

 argued points well. She and myself lost all 

 of our bees last winter, but we were getting 

 a good start again ; now I am alone, and the 

 loss is severe." 



A bee-keepers' picnic was held at 

 George's Hill, Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, 

 Aug. 21. At 11 a. m. they were called to or- 

 dei' by President H. Townsend, and talked 

 on several interesting topics. Sec. Hahraan 

 read some extracts from the Bee Journal, 

 Mr. Stout exhibited some finely marked 

 Italian bees, and Mr. Arthur Todd, taking a 

 young bee between his finger and thumb, 

 exhibited its golden bands. The picnic 

 ended about (i p. m. 



Coiiib honey, soon after removal from 

 the hives, should be carefullj' examined ; if 

 any moth-worms arc discovered, pile the 

 honey up in a closed room, and fumigate it 

 with sulphur. This should be repeated as 

 oft(!n as any worms are discovered. 



When PMtlniatliig the quantity of 

 honey in a hive, says an exchange, it is best 

 to examine each comb separately. Ascer- 

 tain by actual weight the amount of honey 

 which a comb of an average thickness will 

 contain, and from that estimate the amount 

 in each hive. Allow for the weight of the 

 combs, especially if old, and also the amount 

 of pollen they may contain. A little prac- 

 tice will soon enable one to judge quite cor- 

 rectly, by simply lifting one comb after 

 another from the hive, as to how much 

 honey they ccuitain. For out-door winter- 

 ing each hive should contain at least 25 

 pounds ; for in-door wintering, or where the 

 hives are well protected, 20 lbs. will do. 



Fxtracted honey, if not already sealed 

 by the bees when extracted, should be 

 placed in open vessels and allowed to ripen, 

 before it is put into cans, jars, etc., for the 

 retail trade. If to be sold in barrels or kegs, 

 do not put in the bung, but cover the hole 

 with fine wire-cloth to keep out insects. We 

 have just examined a lot of honey put up In 

 cans before it was ripe, and as it has fer- 

 mented, it presents a very, disagreeable 

 sight — about one-fourth of it is covering the 

 floor : it looks frothy atid tastes sour. All 

 this waste is the result of the honey not 

 being properly ripened. We have so often 

 called attention to the necessity of ripening 

 extracted honey, that we are surprised that 

 so a Important matter should be neglected. 



Correspondents will please take a hint. 

 Do not write any more on subjects that are 

 so stale and "worn out" as are "pollen," 

 " diarrhea," and the like. We are sick of 

 them, and believe our readers are also. Give 

 us a rest now, for at least a year. 



Another thing : do not think it your duty 

 to " pitch into " every thing that you cannot 

 endorse. If you have some valuable 

 thoughts on such a subject, write them out, 

 leaving others to decide which of the two — 

 you or the other writer— are the nearest to 

 the correct theory. In other words, please 

 do not want so badly to stinu somebody ! 

 Write out your views, and leave the conclu- 

 sions or theories of others alone. Give your 

 own thoughts in an independent way. 



We learn that Mr. M. L. Trester, superin- 

 tendent of bees and honey at the Nebraska 

 State Fair, to be held at Lincoln, Nebr., on 

 Sept. 11 to 18, has succeeded in having "a 

 bee-yard" enclosed, on the Fair ground. 

 The fence is made partly of boards and 

 partly of screen wire — the wire being just 

 right for visitors to look throng* to see the 

 bees handled. A premium of $40 is ofl'ered 

 for the colonies that will gather the most 

 pounds of honey in 20 days ; and on Aug. '26 

 quite a number of colonies were weighed in . 

 the yard and then sealed ; after locking the 

 gate they are to be left undisturbed until 

 the end of the trial ; then they are -to be 

 weighed again. On account of the proba- 

 bility of the Lincoln hotels being crowded, 

 we are informed that Mrs. Trester has, at 

 the request of many friends, consented to 

 keep " open house," for " bee-keepers' head- 

 quarters," during the Fair. 



