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Entered at the Post-OflBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 Publisbed YVeekly at «1.00 a Year by eeorge W. Tork & Co., 3S4 ■>earborD St. 



QBOROB W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JAN. 12, 1905, 



Vol, XLV.— No. 2. 



==\ 



(Sbttortal Hotcs 

 anb (Eommcttts 



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Qettlnj; People to Use More Honey. 



This is a subject that should interest every producer of 

 honey. We would like to invite those who have had suc- 

 cessful experience along this line, to tell about it. Some- 

 thing should be done to get more people to consume more 

 honey. We have often said that we believed that honey 

 should become a daily food — on every table in the land. It 

 is not so now. We believe if the facts were known, but a 

 very small percent of the American families ever use any 

 honey. And why ? We believe it is because so few people 

 know the real value of honey as a food. 



Quite a number of people seem to think that honey is 

 good only for a cold — to be taken simply as a medicine 1 

 This is a great mistake. Not that honey is not a good 

 remedy for certain physical ailments, but it is a mistake 

 not to use it more regularly as a food. It should take the 

 place, to a larger extent, of sugar, or even certain spreads 

 for bread. 



It seems to us that here is a field for some of the best 

 thought that can be brought to bear on it. Why is not 

 more honey used by the ordinary families of to-day ? What 

 can be done by bee-keepers to induce them to use it more 

 than they do ? 



Shaken Swarms 39 Years Ago. 



The Canadian Bee Journal reprints an article by George 

 W. House, which appeared in the Bee-Keepers' Magazine 

 for May, 1880. It gives the modus operandi for shaking 

 swarms, which, Mr. House said, they had been practicing 

 for 15 years. That would make the plan at least 39 years 

 old. " There is no new thing under the sun." 



Baby Nuclei for Fertilizing Queens. 



Opinions differ as to the feasibility of fertilizing queens 

 with the very small number of bees used in the so-called 

 baby nuclei ; but, on the whole, they seem to be gaining 

 in favor. Some think they may be used by professional 

 queen-breeders, but not by the rank and file of honey-pro- 

 ducers. There is no reason why the honey-producer, \vith 

 only a dozen colonies, should not use baby nuclei as %vell 

 as the man who rears queens for a living, if he is williui; to 

 be at the expense of procuring the proper paraphernalia 



Yet, at the Chicago convention, Dr. Miller urged '/.at 



these miniature colonies could be used for fertilizing 

 queens — as they had been used by himself — without any- 

 thing other than the ordinary hives in use, and a few one- 

 tier wide-frames to hold one section each. 



The question has been raised whether, in ordinary 

 hands, these baby nuclei would succeed in the cooler por- 

 tions of the country, early or late in the season. In ordi- 

 nary hands — indeed, in the most skillful hands — there is 

 likely to be trouble in getting virgins fertilized at any time 

 out of the honey season, even with strong nuclei, and with 

 the honey-producer there is little necessity for it. The ex- 

 periment can easily be tried by any one, even if he uses 

 only cells obtained from colonies that have swarmed. 



Best Reading-Time Right Now. 



No doubt during the busy summer-time many a bee- 

 keeper finds little time or inclination to read his bee- 

 papers or bee-books. He is then rushed with either bee- 

 work or other employment. So the time to read, for many, 

 is during the long winter evenings and perhaps on stormy 

 days. 



Fortunate indeed is he who has saved all his bee-papers 

 as they came during the busy season, for now he can simply 

 revel in them, and lay up a store of apicultural information 

 that will help make greater his success with the bees next 

 season . 



And the bee-books ! Every bee-keeper should have one 

 or more of the best. In any of the complete books will be 

 found answers to a thousand and one questions that every 

 bee-keeper needs to be familiar with in order to attain the 

 largest success. 



It pays to become familiar with the experiences and 

 methods of others in the same line of business. Such 

 knowledge may save much useless effort, and often loss, to 

 the one who reads extensively, and is wise in his selections. 



Treatment of Bee-Stings. 



Considerable space is taken up with the matter of bee- 

 stings in the Alkaloidal Clinic for November. Not so many 

 remedies are given as may be found in bee-papers, but 

 enough to show that in the medicil profession, as well as 

 among the laity, there is a wide diversity of opinion ; and 

 possibly those are near the mark who think that no remedy 

 has any efiicacy except as a placebo. It appears that in 

 medical text-books salt is given as one remedy for stings, 

 sweet oil as another, also onions. One correspondent 

 advises " to try Apis raellifica, say 3x or even 6x ". Dr. W. 

 H. Barnett believes in prophylactic treatment, and says : 



" I am satisfied that ecthol, a combination of echinacea 

 and thuja, will prevent the sting of bees from hurting him. 



