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Bee Journal, and found no letters 

 from this State, I have conchided to 

 write ; and if it is found worthy of 

 publication, I will write again. 



My brother-in-law, on page 297, 

 told of his removal from the southern 

 part of the State, to Howard Lake, 

 Minn. ; since then we have sold nearly 

 60 colonies, which leaves us 135, 90 of 

 which are pure Italians. We , are 

 equalizing them now, that is, taking 

 frames of sealed brood from the strong 

 ones, and giving to the weak ones. 

 This, I think, will make them all ready 

 for basswood, which will bloom in 

 about three weeks. 



Since white clover began to bloom, 

 the bees have stored honey in supers 

 and sections, and if the weather con- 

 tinues pleasant, we will have to begin 

 extracting soon. White clover is very 

 abundant here, and we never had a 

 better prospect for basswood honey 

 than we have had this year. 



We are talking of starting a bee- 

 keepers' convention here. I am always 

 glad to read letters from my sister 

 bee-keepers, and I wish there were 

 more of them. I think that bee-keep- 

 ing is one of the most pleasant occu- 

 pations that a lady can engage in. 



I hope that the golden-rod will be 

 adopted as our " National Flower," as 

 it has alwavs been mv favorite. 



Howard Lake, Minn., June 22, 1889. 



HINTS. 



Honey, Extractors, Buying Bees, 

 and Humbugs.. 



Written for the Massdchusetts Plowman 



BY GEO. A. STOCKWELL. 



There is hone}- in the market labeled 

 " Hone}- thrown from the comb by 

 machinery.'" Every word after 

 "Honey "is superHuous. The honey 

 must be tlirown from the comb be- 

 cause it is not found in anything else, 

 and it must be thrown by machinery 

 because tliere is no other way to throw 

 it. The label on all honey should read, 

 " Honey," simpl}-, not " Pure Honey," 

 nor " Strictly Pure Honey;" if it be 

 honey, it is pure honey, otherwise it is 

 not honey. 



Extractors. 



Speaking of extracted honey leads 

 to extractors. It is one of the mys- 

 teries of the bee-world why a Western 

 manufacturer makes ten or a dozen 

 extractors, varjing in size, when one 

 woukl answer the purpose. The result 

 of placing so many extractors in the 

 market is to confuse the buyer. One 

 man ordering three times by number 

 has not j-et been able to get the ex- 

 tractor he wants. The attempt has 



been made bj- the manufacturer, appar- 

 entlj-, to produce an extractor for every 

 size of frame. Why would not one ex- 

 tractor, the largest, be enough ? It 

 would admit all the small frames. This 

 much making of extractors recalls the 

 farmer who cut two holes in his barn — 

 a large one for the old cat, and a small 

 one for the kitten. 



Ituying^ Bees. 



The best way to begin bee-keeping 

 is to begin by practice and not liy 

 theory. You may learn from books, 

 but you must get knowledge by actual 

 contact with the bees. To begin, there 

 must be bees, and how shall bees be 

 bought? A dealer in bees said, " I 

 will sell a colony of bees for three dol- 

 lars, or a colony for twelve dollars." 



In manj' cases the novice will decide 

 in favor of the three-dollar colon}-. 

 What is the difference in these colo- 

 nies ? Let us open the tvvelve-dollar 

 colony. As soon as the covering is 

 removed, bees, bees by the thousand 

 come pouring out. Really the kettle 

 boils over, and so many bees come out 

 that you wonder how they will all get 

 Ixack. And they are demonstrative, 

 too. They are plucky and determined, 

 for they know that they are strong, 

 and they as mucli as say, " Look out ! 

 We are fifty thousand strong, and will 

 not be trifled with." 



Now we open the three-dollar hive, 

 A few bold ones come slowly to the 

 top, but the most of them hug the 

 combs, and huddle closer together for 

 they are weak and know it. There is 

 only a small cluster in the centre. As 

 far as immediate results go, the colony 

 is worthless. Tliey have a queen, but 

 there are so few bees that tliey make 

 no progress in early spring. They will 

 no more than build themselves up in 

 one season. A student might use them 

 in preparing for the next season, but 

 it were better to study a live, kicking, 

 rebellions colony. In any case it were 

 better to buy tlie twelve-dollar colony. 



l^izzie*s Periodic Hiiiul>iis-. 



The tricks of a New England bee- 

 keeper have been exposed repeatedly 

 in bee-papers and agricultural papers, 

 but the advertisements of this bee- 

 keeper stil^ appear to the beguilement 

 of the unwary, and to their ultimate 

 confusion and discouragement. 



The plan of this bee-keeper is to feed 

 an inferior syrup to the bees, and then 

 sell the product as honey. This is 

 fraudulent, and whoever practices it, 

 practices dishonesty. By this plan the 

 bees gather no honey. 



Does molasses, sugar or corn-syrup 

 become honey by the bees' manipula- 

 tion ? No. Tliey may be changed 

 ' slightly, but cannot be honey. A bee- 

 keeper in a New England State pro- 



duced this kind of " honey " for years, 

 feeding barrels nf sugar, or sugar and 

 water, or gluco.se. The fact was ad- 

 mitted by the bee-keeper himself. 

 Daily the "feeders were tilled, and the 

 bees kept at home, at work in their 

 own domicile. 



This bee-keeper produced in one 

 year 6,000 pounds of honey, or what 

 was called honey. As he kept a large 

 co-operation store, he could sell, or 

 "trade "this sugar and water. That 

 happened several years ago, and it is 

 said that a large quantity of this pro- 

 duct is now packed in grocery cellars, 

 a dead commodity. Some talk was 

 made about it, the people found it out, 

 and would not buy. And yet the ap- 

 pearance of this product of feeding was 

 more attractive to the casual buyer 

 than honey. 



The bee-keeper referred to in the 

 beginning attempts to popularize api- 

 culture on the basis of feeding a syrup 

 costing two or three cents a pound, 

 and selling as honey at 25 cents a 

 pound — attempts to lead bee-keepers 

 into cheating the people. But the peo- 

 ple are not long deceived. They soon 

 learn the difference between honey, 

 and sugar and water. 



Providence, R. I. 



PAINTED BEES 



Used Wlien Hunting Bcc-Trecs 

 — \%'orking on Clovers. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY JAS. F. WOOD. 



On page 371 of the Bee Journal 

 appears an editorial, headed "A 

 Painted Bee." As I read it, I was i-e- 

 minded of tlie days when a barefoot 

 boy, I hunted bees in trees all around 

 the neighboring towns, and used Ver- 

 million paint to mark the bees, and 

 then they were "timed," to see how 

 long they were gone to the tree. Now 

 this paint was just touched on a bee's 

 back, and it remained there a bright 

 red, as long as the bee lived. 



I remember of once marking three 

 bees, and in two weeks, when the tree 

 was cut, and I hived the bees, I saw 

 two of these painted bees. The paint 

 was used in a dry powder, as fine or 

 finer than flour, so you see the bee 

 could fly just as well after being 

 painted. 



It might be of interest to some, to 

 know that more depends upon the con- 

 dition of the atmosphere, as to how 

 long it takes a bee to go and return a 

 certain distance, than the actual dis- 

 tance. For instance, I have known a 

 bee to go IJ^ miles and return, in eight 

 minutes, in a warm day, when the 

 wind did not blow, and in a damp. 



