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Circulate Triitlis about Honey. 



—Rev. J. D. Gehrlng, Lawrence, Kans., on 

 July 5, 1889, writes thus : 



Almost every day I hear people mention 

 as a reason for not eating honey that it 

 malies them sick. Explaining the difffrence 

 between white section comb honey and 

 honey taken from the brood-nest in the old 

 way, does but little good. Like the " Wiley 

 lie," the old story sticks. 



Only a few days ago a young man, whose 

 brother is a beekeeper a few miles out of 

 town, assured my wife that he knew that 

 comb homb was made artificially. He was 

 a traveling salesman tor a Chicago firm 

 where it was made by the ton, he said. 



I was not at home at the time, or I shou I 

 have made him give me more definite pi 

 ticulars. The ignorance of the general pu 

 lie on the subject of bees and honey is 

 simply astounding. We bee-keepers should 

 make a special effort to remove this ignor- 

 ance, and thus increase the consumption 

 of our product. Tour leaflet, "Why Eat 

 Honey,'- may be a good ABC book for the 

 infant class. Bee-keepers ought to scatter 

 it by the thousand. 



It is only another phase of the Wiley lie, 

 which has gained a world-wide circulation. 

 That falsehood contained all the essential 

 points for rapid propagation. It was read- 

 able, spicy, and a falsehood! With this 

 trinity of requisites it has been carried at 

 lightning speed, and varied to suit every 

 laud. 



The only way bee-keepets can hope to 

 gain a hearing is by scattering the honey 

 Leaflets and Pamphlets, and thus inform all 

 they can reach, about the value and uses of 

 honey— and that comb honey is not adul- 

 terated. 



June was a magnificent honey month in 

 England. The Bec-Kecpers' Becord thus 

 describes it in its issue for July : 



A genuine bee-month has been that of 

 June, 1889 ; and very fully indeed has the 

 "hopeful prospect" pictured in our last 

 issue been verified ; indeed, for some years 

 past we do not remember a time when 

 greater progress was made by bees than in 

 the last three weeks. , . ^ 



A swarm of our own, hived on the even- 

 ing of Saturday, the Sth inst., on ten stan- 

 dard frames of foundation, was examined 

 on the following Saturday, after only seven 

 days' work, and it was just a sight to see. 

 Brood and sealed honey in every frame, and 

 " room wanted '■ at once! A shallow sur- 

 plus chamber with ready-built combs was 

 then given to it, and three days later these 

 had quite a good show of honey in them. 



From Scotland, and from the North of 

 Ireland, too, correspondents write of a 

 "land flowing with honey ;" and from other 

 parts of the kingdom similar good accounts 

 are given. In some apiaries the bees have 

 taken a swarming fever ; one writer who 

 owns 60 or 70 colonies declaring that the 

 bees have gone " swarming mad," not that 

 their owner will be likely to follow suit, 

 and go mad too, in consequence, for swarms 

 should find a ready sale, yielding a fair 

 profit with little trouble. 



It would appear, too, as if even the com- 

 parative scarcity of bees this year will be a 

 sort of blessing in disguise to bee-keepers, 

 for if the weather continues as favorable in 

 July, and if all the colonies alive last au- 

 tumn had been living now, honey would 



probably have been a complete drug in the 

 market. As it is, those who are fortunate 

 enough to possess good colonies will be 

 likely to secure a big harvest, while the 

 price of honey will be maintained at a fair 

 figure, owing to the smaller number of 

 sellers this year. 



As we write, mid-June has only just 

 passed away, yet in many districts the hay- 

 crops are already cut and gathered in, so 

 that we may expect a luxuriant and early 

 bloom on second-crop clover, yielding honey 

 for some weeks to come. 



Here is an engraving which illustrates 

 the Stand and Alighting-Board as used by 

 Mr. F. Greiner, of Naples, N. Y. He says : 



" It does away with all detachable alighting- 

 boards. Further comment is unnecessary, 

 as the engraving explains itself and its use." 



Bees and Honey at the St. Joseph, 

 Mo., Exposition (Sept. 3 to Oct. 5) are sub- 

 ject to these rules : 



Exhibitors will not be allowed to remove 

 honey from their exhibit during the Exposi- 

 tion, but may sell from a reserved supply, 

 for which no charge will be made. 



Exhibitors who sell honey must enclose it 

 securely in paper cartons. 



Honey exhibited or sold must be this sea- 

 son's crop, and all honey must be the pro- 

 duce of the exhibitor. 



Colonies of bees must be exhibited so as 

 to be readily seen. 



All exhibits must be in place on opening 

 day of the Exposition. The exhibit must 

 be creditable. 



A breach of these rules will forfeit all 

 premiums that may be awarded to the 

 offending party. 



And the following are the premiums 



offered : 



First. Second. 



Display of comb honey, largest and 

 most attractive $50 00 $25 00 



Display of extracted honey, largest 

 and most attractive 50 00 25 00 



Display of bees and queens, largest 

 and most attractive 50(0 25 00 



Largest and must complete line of api- 

 cultural implements exhibited by 

 manufacturer, quality of workman- 

 ship to be considered 50 00 25 00 



Heat.— S. R. Norton, of Lamont, Ills., 

 asks the following questions on July 8, 1889: 



What is the trouble with a swarm of bees 

 I have ? On July 5 they swarmed about 10 

 o'clock. 1 put them into a Langstroth hive, 

 on 6 or 8 frames of foundation, and at 3 

 o'clock they left the new hive. 1 succeeded 

 in putting them in again. 1 had scarcely 

 hived them, when they left the second time. 

 Thinking something might be offensive to 

 them in the hive, I fixed a box and put in 

 the frames of foundation and some empty 

 ones. 1 put the swarm in this box, but 

 about 4:30 p.m. they left this, and 1 again 

 made them settle. I left them on the branch 

 until sundown, when I put them into this 

 box again. 



The next day, between 9 and 10 a.m., they 

 left the box, but I made them settle, and, as 

 soon as i had them into the box, I closed 

 the entrance with a wire-screen. I took a 



frame of brood from the parent hive, and 

 gave them also a saucer of water. On Sun- 

 day I left the entrance closed until .5 p.m. 

 They seem to be working all right now. 

 This case has puzzled all the local beekeep- 

 ers. I hope that you will give me some ex- 

 planation of this in the Bee Jouknal. 



At our request, Dr. C. C. Miller gives a 

 reply to the above question. He says : 

 " Without having fuller particulars it is not 

 safe to give a positive answer, but it is quite 

 probable that the trouble was heat. At any 

 rate, bees hived in a box or hive, standing 

 in the hot sun, would get just as these bees 

 did. A swarm, when hived, should be set 

 in a shady place, or else the hive should be 

 In some way shaded." 



A Bee-Parasite. — The Department 

 of Agriculture publishes, in " Insect Life," 

 the following account of an insect that is 

 said to be causing great annoyance to Ala- 

 bama bee-keepers : 



In August, 1887, Dr. W. B. Rohmer, of 

 Grand Bay, Mobile county, Ala., wrote us 

 concerning an insect that had caused much 

 trouble to bee-keepers in this vicinity, ac- 

 companying his communication with speci- 

 mens of the imago, and also of the eggs 

 which he had observed the insect in the act 

 of depositing. 



Noticing the insects alighting in the 

 vicinity of his hives, his attention had been 

 drawn to them, and he found that they in- 

 troduced their ovipositors beneath the en- 

 trance blocks, or in the cracks between the 

 hives and the bottom-boards, and remained 

 in this position several minutes, perfectly 

 motionless, repeating the operation a num- 

 ber of times. 



Upon investigation a large number of 

 eggs were always found deposited. When 

 the hives were removed for the purpose of 

 cleaning them, worms in all stages of 

 growth were found upon the floors, es- 

 pecially in recently transferred hives, where 

 there had been a large accumulation of debris 

 incident to cleaning away and sealing comb 

 to the frames. In this debris of wax and 

 foreign material, all sizes occurred, from the 

 tiny worm just hatched, to the large one 

 snugly ensconced in its web. 



Where the hives were clean, and there 

 was nothing in the bottom for the worms to 

 subsist upon, the newly-hatched larvse made 

 their way up, unobserved, to the combs at 

 the bottom or the frames, eating and grow- 

 ing as they advanced. 



The perfect insects were also seen laying 

 their eggs in the cracks in the sides of old 

 hives where the boards were nailed together, 

 and for the reason that they have so many 

 points of introduction these hives are more 

 infested. 



The specimens sent proved to be a true 

 Dipteron, Hermetia mucens, which belongs 

 to the Stratiomydl.-B. Nothing similar to 

 these habits has ever been published, so far 

 as we are aware. In fact most of the 

 species of this family, except some which 

 are aquatic in their early stages, live under- 

 ground, and their life history is not thor- 

 oughly understood. 



This, therefore, is a matter of not only 

 considerable scientific interest, but also 

 much economic importance from the stand- 

 point of the bee-keeper. That the Hermetia 

 occurred in such locations, and laid the eggs 

 mentioned, there can be no doubt ; but that 

 Dr. Kohmer has confused the larvae of Gal- 

 leria or some other Guest-moth with the 

 larvae of the fly, seems probable. 



We Have Received a 13-page Poul- 

 try Circular from Mrs. W. P. Carpenter, of 

 Harmony, N. Y. 



