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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 25, 1905 



member, and help to get the League to work 

 on its special and inaportant mission? 



It may be you have some objections to 

 something or somebody connected with the 

 League. Well, it is quite possible that every- 

 thing and everybody in connection with it are 

 not perfect, but we can assure our readers 

 that it is a sincere, honest effort to try to get 

 all who are interested in honey — either its 

 production or sale — to co-operate, and en- 

 deavor to create such a demand for honey as 

 shall promptly take every pound produced, 

 and at a lair and just price. Surely, its ob- 

 jects are praiseworthy, its need is pressing, 

 and its membership list should soon be 

 crowded. 



It is an opportunity offered to bee-keepers 

 to help themselves. The question is, Will 

 they do it? 



We believe they will. 



More Bees — More Money 



A Wisconsin subscriber, in a private letter, 

 referring to advertising honey, says this : 



" I consider honey a luxury which a great 

 many people can not afford. The cry with 

 you writers is, Keep more bees — produce more 

 honey ! How can we expect the price to keep 

 up?" 



If the writer of the foregoing will refer to 

 the back numbers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal we do not think he will find that we have 

 advised keeping more bees, although, wherever 

 a bee-keeper thinks he can make it pay^ he 

 will certainly " keep more bees," and thus 

 " produce more honey," whether advised so 

 to do or not. 



Our advice to bee-keepers has been, for 

 years, to organize and advertise, so as to get 

 a better price — a more just price — lor the 

 honey already produced. After that is ac- 

 complished, we believe it will be time enough 

 then to arrange to " keep more bees and pro- 

 duce more honey." We may be wrongabout 

 this, but that is the way it looks to us. 



True, honey is now considered a luxury. 

 But why should it be so considered? Surely, 

 the price is low enough now so that any 

 family could afford to buy it if they only 

 knew about it. With meat regularly at IS to 

 20 cents a pound, and butter about 30 cents, 

 it seems to us that honey can be afforded 

 pretty often at 1.5 to IS cents, especially when 

 its high value as a food is considered. 



We verily believe that if honey were 

 brought to the attention of the consuming 

 public as are many of the breakfast foods, the 

 demand for honey would be greatly increased. 

 We know of no better way to do this than to 

 advertise. Do you? 



Baby Nuclei with Common Hives 



It is perhaps too early yet to say whether, 

 all things considered, it is a very great step in 

 advance to be able to have virgin queens 

 fecundated with a very small number of bees; 

 and so lar it is the specialist in queen-rearing 

 rather than the every-day bee-keeper who has 

 made any trial of the plan. One reason for 

 this is the fact that as yet few honey-pro- 

 ducers take any special steps toward queen- 

 rearing; leaving the matter entirely to the 

 whim of the bees. Another reason is that it 

 is some trouble to make ready the little hives 

 needed. If ordinary hives were used, it is 

 likely that more bee-keepers would have tried 



the baby nuclei. Of course it would be ex- 

 pensive for those who rear queens on a large 

 scale to use full-sized hives; but the honey- 

 producer is likely to have always on band ex- 

 tra hives, and these he can use without extra 

 expense. 



Dr. Miller had a number of queens lecun- 

 dated in common hives, using for each nucleus 

 only enough bees to cover well a pound sec- 

 tion of honey, and the process seems very 

 simple. He says: 



" I took an empty hive, closed the entrance 

 entirely, put in the hive a section filled, or 

 partly filled, with honey, putting the section 

 in a shallow wide frame, or even on the floor 

 in one corner of the hive ; then 1 took from 

 any hive convenient a frame of brood with 

 adhering bees — of course being careful not to 

 take the queen with the bees— shook into the 

 nucleus hive the bees from the brood-comb, 

 and immediately dropped into the hive, on the 

 floor, a virgin queen just emerged or only a 

 few hours old, and as quickly as possible 

 closed the hive. Three days later I opened 

 the entrance large enough for a single bee, 

 and in most cases I found the queen laying 

 when 10 days old. It is possible older virgins 

 would do. In some cases I used queen-cells 

 well matured." 



It will be noted that queenless bees were 

 not necessary, and that the queen was drop- 



ped right among the bees with no precaution 

 whatever as to introduction. Mr. Sladen, in 

 the British Bee Journal, says it is a very 

 valuable point " that a virgin queen, even 

 several days old, is readily accepted 4 to 6 

 hours after the nucleus has been formed, pro- 

 vided that there is no brood in its combs." 

 Dr. Miller did not wait even " 4 to 6 hours," 

 but it is not certain that he would have suc- 

 ceeded with virgins "several days old." 



American the Best Linden for Honey 



The bee-keeper who knows the great value 

 of the linden, or basswood, and knows that 

 more than one variety of linden exists, is 

 likely to be interested to know whether some 

 other than the common variety may not be 

 better. Prof. Frank Benton has had excep- 

 tional opportunity for comparative observa- 

 tion. Lindens have been extensively planted 

 in Washington, in the parks and for miles on 

 both sides of many of the streets and avenues, 

 and he says in Government Bulletin No. 59, 

 " Several species of lindens are included in 

 these plantings, but none yields more than our 

 common American linden, or basswood (Tilia 

 americana)." 



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Foul Brood in Te.xas is to be wiped 

 out. Mr. H. H. Hyde, of Bexar County, in- 

 forms us that the State Legislature has ap- 

 priated $1600 to begin eradicating foul brood. 

 We hope that the good work may be kept up 

 until that dread bee-disease may be wholly 

 cleaned up in all the land. 



Mr. J. T. Calvert, of The A. I. Root Co., 

 and also Mr. Frank Spellman, both of Medina, 

 Ohio, were callers at this office last week 

 when in Chicago on a business trip. Mr. Cal- 

 vert reports a rushing business in bee-keepers' 

 supplies, and looks for a large crop of honey 

 throughout the country this year. If his pre- 

 diction proves true, bee-keepers will need to 

 do a lot of advertising in order to dispose of 

 the honey produced at a fair price. 



Lecture to Cincinnati Bee-Keepers. 



— The Executive Committee of the Hamilton 

 County Bee-Keepers' Association announce 

 that they have secured the services of Mr. W. 

 Z. Hutchinson, of Michigan, to deliver a lec- 

 ture to bee-keepers and friends of the honey 

 industry in Cincinnati and vicinity, in the 

 Convention Room, Grand Hotel, 4th Street, 

 Monday evening, May 39, at 7:30 p.m. The 

 subject chosen is, " The Comforts and Con- 

 veniences of the Apiary " In their relation to 

 modern bee-keeping and honey-production. 

 A great treat is in store for bee-keepers and 

 others, as seldom such an opportunity is pre- 

 sented as this to hear one of the recognized 

 authorities of the United States on this grow- 

 ing and important industry. 



Mr. Walter W. Somerfield, of Cuba, has 

 promised to be present also and talk on bee- 

 keeping as practiced in the "Pearl of the 

 Antilles." Production of his apiary in 1904 

 amounted to 140,000 pounds of honey. 



Ladies, heads of families, grocers, school 

 teachers and pupils of the public schools have 

 been invited to be present and enjoy the in- 

 teresting and instructive lectures. Admis- 

 sion will be free. 



Jonathan Stewart, an old resident of 

 Stephenson Co., 111., and also well known for 

 years in bee-keeping circles in that region, 

 died at his home, Saturday, April 29, after 

 nearly four years of suffering from paralysis. 

 He was 78 years old, having lived in Stephen- 

 son County for about a half century. He was 

 a regular attendant at the sessions of the local 

 bee-keepers' association, of which he was also 

 an officer. He was a member of the Presby- 

 terian church, and a faithful and upright 

 man. 



A Big Hive and Handy Honey.— 



The Graphic- Herald, of Webster City, Iowa, 

 gives the following account of a colony of 

 bees in a bouse: 



A HOME APIART. 



Mr. Thos. McDermott has an unique apiary 

 at his home in the south part of the city. For 

 two or three years past a swarm of bees has 

 been housed in between the ceiling and floor, 

 finding an entrance through crevices in the 

 brick wall. Several swarms have come and 

 gone in there each year until there is an awful 

 mess of bees. Mr. McDermott tried to have 

 them removed at one time, but without suc- 

 cess, and the floor was taken up and several 

 wash-tubs and boilers full of honey removed. 

 Afterwards the floors were removed each year 

 and the surplus honey taken out. Now he 

 has arranged a set of frames that fit in be- 

 tween the joists, and when new honey is 

 wanted it is a simple matter to remove the 

 carpet, take up the floor and take out any 

 quantity of honey needed n ineat frames, set- 

 ting back the empties, to be refilled. A per- 

 fect " apiary " in every shape, and the bees 

 are quiet and gentle, and seem to like their 

 home. Several hundred pounds of fine honey 

 was the yield last year. 



