132 



TH® SB^EMicsif mmm jQ^mmmi,. 



Seasonable Hints.— There is much 

 apiarian work that can and shmild be done 

 in the winter, or before spring opens. Mrs. 

 L. Harrison, in the Prairie Farmer, de- 

 Bcribes her methods of doing some ot it, in 

 these words: 



Melting Wax.— I like to do this kind of 

 work when it is too cool for bees to be upon 

 the wing, for, if they are flying, and smell 

 the wax, they will try to gain admittance 

 through the key hole, or even down the 

 chimney. I re-melt wax over a pot of boil- 

 ing water, in a pan. This pan should be 

 small enough to nt the inside of the kettle, 

 and be held in place by the rim. When it 

 is melted, I straiu it through a coflee- 

 slainer, into pint-basins to cool. 



I melt out both ends of a tin fruit-can, to 

 hold the strainer while I pour the wax. The 

 strainer should be hot, and, while not in use, 

 should be set in the oven. 1 let the wax 

 settle a few moments, but, before it begins 

 to harden, pour it into another pan, leaving 

 the dregs. The pans are all of the same 

 size, so that the cakes will be of uniform 

 size. 



Scrape off all bits of comb and propolis, 

 and, however black and dirty it may be, 

 empty it into an all-metal sieve ; and, when 

 it is full, set it over a pan half-full ot water, 

 and put it into the stove oven. 



If the water in the pan boils very hard, it 

 may run over, but if only a moderate fire is 

 kept, there will be no danger. When the 

 wax is all melted and run down into the 

 water,the residue in the sieve can be scraped 

 into the fire. It makes such good kindling 

 that sometimes I scrape it into paper, roll it 

 up and keep it for kindling to build a fire 

 another time. 



When the water in the pan is cold, a nice 

 cake of wax will be on top. I put these 

 cakes away until a favorable time, when I 

 re-melt and cool in uniform shape lor the 

 market. 



Odds and Ends of Honey.— Where 

 much honey is handled, there will be more 

 or less that is not in good marketable condi- 

 tion. Pieces that are not capped will be 

 granulated, while others may be only partly 

 filled. The best way X have ever found to 

 utilize such honey is to melt it in a pan over 

 a kettle of boiling water. As soon as it is 

 fairly melted, it should be set off to cool, as 

 heating honey too much injures it. When 

 cold, the wax will be in a liquid cake on top 

 of the honey. This honey, although not as 

 good as extracted honey, can be used for 

 many purposes, and for feeding bees in the 

 spring. 



Good pieces of honey can be sold as 

 chunk-lioney ; the dry, unfilled cells can be 

 scraped off, and that which is filled and 

 capped on one side, and has unfilled cells on 

 the other, can be caretully scraped off, leav- 

 ing only the base, with its clearly-defined 

 septa ot cells. 1 often fill cheap tin pails 

 with such pieces of honey, and sell pail and 

 contents. Such pieces of honey require 

 very careful hanoling, and should be lifted 

 with the hands, so that no cells will be 

 broken, as would necessarily be, if a knife 

 were used. 



Honey-House Stove.— By the way, I 

 would like to state that there is no stove 

 equal to a cook-stove for a farmer's shop or 

 honey-house. It is so handy to wash and 

 oil harness by, meltglue, or for the boys and 

 their friends to pop corn, crack nuts, make 

 candy, etc., teaching them to love h()nie,and 

 keeping them away from "the corners." 

 When a stove was needed for our hoiiey- 

 liouse. we took the cooking-stove from the 

 kitchen, where it had done faithful service 



many years, and had a new one in its place. 

 And all the family have been thankful that 

 we did. 



Cleaning Hives.— This is a favorable 

 time to take all the hives not in use into the 

 shop (which all prosperous farmers have) 

 and give them a thorough overhauling. I 

 know of no better tool to clean out the in- 

 side of a hive with than a wide chisel. 



When the hives are cleaned out, they 

 should be treated to a coat of paint. I pre- 

 fer the lower hive to be painted white with 

 lead and oil, and the upper story with red, 

 mineral paint. The roof should receive 

 special attention, especially if it is grooved, 

 being made of two pieces of boards. If the 

 boys and girls want to help, do not push 

 them away, but " let 'em pitch in." There 

 is so much work to be done in the world 

 that it is a pity that all should not help that 

 want to. 



Alfalfa Honey.— In Olcanings we 

 find the following concerning a sample of 

 alfalfa honey, which will be read with 

 interest : 



Dr. C. C. Miller, while in Pueblo, Colo., 

 purchased a sample of alfalfa honey of that 

 region. On his arrival home at Marengo, 

 Ills., he sent us this honey, together with a 

 sample of cucumber honey. The flavor of 

 the alfalfa is fully equal to clover, which it 

 resembles closely. It is seldom that we 

 take more than a good taste of honey sent 

 us as a sample ; but after A. I. R. had tasted, 

 E. R. R. and J. T. C. followed suit. With 

 an expression of " That's good," we kept on 

 scooping it up with our knife-blades until— 

 well, there is just a little left for you to try. 

 The fact that this plant yields from three to 

 four crops of hay in a season, that it will 

 grow in most Northern localities, together 

 with the fact it yields a superb honey, are 

 no small recommendations in its favor. The 

 flavor of the cucumber could hardly be 

 called first-class, but on the whole it is bet- 

 ter than the majority of the second-rate 

 honeys. The taste reminds one a little of 

 cucumber itself, and this becomes more 

 evident a few moments after tasting. 



Bee and Honey SIio\t's at Fairs are 

 very important matters. At the Indiana 

 State Convention there was quite a discus- 

 sion on the matter, and Mr. G. K. Hubbard, 



in the indinna Fiu-mcr, makes these addi- 

 tional remarks about the desirability of 

 having special buildings for apiarian ex- 

 hibits : 



If the object in having a good apiarian 

 exhibit at the fair is to enlighten the masses, 

 and to induce the careless bee-keepers to 

 keep their bees more iutelligently, and to 

 use better implements, we think it would be 

 a mistake to put the display in a building 

 by itself. The money that the building 

 would cost the fair association, would pay 

 greatly increased premiums in our depart- 

 ment for several years. 



In our judgment it would be better for the 

 association to spend $40 or $50 in the ar- 

 rangement of a neat booth in the main Ag- 

 ricultural Hall, and put in $50 or $75 worth 

 of ^ood show-cases to contain the smaller 

 articles. In this way, we feel confident, a 

 very tastily arranged exhibit could be made, 

 and that too, in a manner to attract the at- 

 tention of the masses, and delight the bee- 

 keepers. 



Much may be said in favor of a separate 

 building, and we would like to hear from 

 others on the subject. Dr. A. B. Mason and 

 Mr. J. N. Heater, as well as others, are in- 

 vited to tell our readers what they think 

 about it. 



I^izzie Cotton's advertisement may 

 now be seen in many of the religious and 

 literary periodicals, and as many will be de- 

 ceived by her highly-colored representations, 

 it is timely to give another warning to be- 

 ginners in apiculture. All the bee-periodi- 

 cals have repeatedly warned the public not 

 to be deceived, but still she looks for pas- 

 tures green, by using the columns of the 

 papers who know nothing about her, or her 

 fabulous stories about what can be done 

 with her so-called "new system of bee- 

 keeping." Andrews & Lockhart, of Patten's 

 Mills, N. Y., write as follows concerning 

 her transactions : 



Enclosed is an advertisement of Mrs. 

 Lizzie Cotton, which was clipped from the 

 Household Companion of New York city. 

 We would say to all beginners in bee-keep- 

 ing—Let Mrs. Lizzie Cotton's " New System 

 of Bee- Keeping " alone ! It is deceptive. 

 We will give here one instance : A party 

 we know bought one of her hives (which 

 was a poor concern) with a swarm of bees 

 in it, for which he paid 820.00. After wait- 

 ing a long time he got the hive of bees, 

 which was a very small colony, and he is 

 sorry to say that he found out that they had 

 foul brood of the worst kind ; and what few 

 colonies he had before, caught the foul 

 brood, and he lost all the bees he had ! That 

 was a very unlucky twenty-dollar colony of 

 bees for him. Such is her way of serving 

 people. We are sorry to say that she still 

 seems to flourish and entice people to try 

 her new system of bee-keeping, by her 

 gaudy way of advertising ! If she means 

 to do right, why does she not advertise in 

 the bee-periodicals ? 



This is the first instance that we have 

 heard of her bees being affected with so- 

 called "foul brood." We can hardly think 

 that she would knowingly send out such 

 diseased bees— at least we hope not. The 

 reason she does not advertise in the bee- 

 periodicals is, that none of them would re- 

 ceive her advertisement ! She works among 

 novices only. 



Itees are YVintei-ing: IVell, so far, 



in nearly all parts of America. Mr. N. N. 

 Betsinger, Marcellus, N. Y., writes thus 

 concerning their condition in that State : 



Bees in this State are wintering nicely 

 thus far, but all must look out for shortage 

 of honey before blossoms appear again. I 

 have 73 colonies of mine buried in a clamp. 

 This is the second winter I have used the 

 clamp, and I am much pleased with thu 

 system, and I shall extend the clamp build- 

 ing next summer, so as to take all my bees. 

 The points of advantage are cheapness, con- 

 venience, ease of manipulation, and safe 

 wintering. 



Catalogr»es for 1889 are on our desk 

 from— 



George S. Josselyn, Fredonia, N. Y.— 20 

 pages— American Grape Vines. 



Christian Weckesser, Marshallville, O.— 8 

 pages— Bees, Seeds, Plants, Potatoes, etc. 



Daniel Wyss, New Philadelphia, O.— 8 

 pages— Nursery Stock. 



Bush & Son and Meissner, Bushberg, Mo. 

 — i pages — American Grapevines. 



Thos. A. Cox & Co., San Francisco, Calif. 

 —60 pages— Flower,Fruit and Garden Seeds. 



Geo. H. Kirkpatrick, New Paris, O.— 16 

 pages— Bees, Honey, and Bee-Keepers' Sup- 

 plies. 



