630 



-THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 7, 1905 



jacket, ball for haadle, and a 3-incli screw cap 

 JD the top. 



I'nder " Comb Honey Rules," where it says 

 " oases weighing over 2.") pounds go in No. 2 

 grade," Mr. Hanegan adds: 



" Unless otherwise fancy. As a rule, heavy 

 cases are non-separatored goods, and are 

 heavy because many sections are fat or bulged, 

 and rough more or less, causing leakage." 



Also, the paragraph under "Recommenda- 

 tions," Mr. Hanegan would begin with the 

 words, " For local shipping, we prefer," etc. 



A Big Texas Honey-Yarn 



A story in the Youth's Companion, telling 

 some things about vast quantities of wild 

 honey down in Texas, causes a member of the 

 American Bee .Journal family to write: 



"I would like to know whether honey made 

 by wild bees is really produced in the United 

 States in the large quantities stated. If so, 

 it would be an item of great interest to honey- 

 producers." 



A river — Double Mountain River — iiows 

 through a canyon for 30 miles, according to 

 the story, and — 



... .'the entire canyon was one vast apiary, 

 where wild bees have existed and gathered 

 sweets for centuries. They are in such num- 

 bers as sometimes on certain bright days to 

 resemble clouds high up the crags, and they 

 fill the canyon with a voluminous hum." 

 " There were hundreds of these wild-bee col- 

 onies, whose enormous masses of comb and 

 honey were adhering in sheltered chasms and 

 beneath overhangs of the rock. A number 

 of caverns, too, extending far back into the 

 cliff, have been utilized as great storehouses 

 of comb by the bees. Not one swarm alone 

 occupies such a cave, but .50 perhaps, or 100 

 swarms, each having its own queen, but all 

 using the mouth of the cavern as a common 

 entrance." Two men made a business for 

 years of harvesting the product, and " it was 

 their custom to send a wagon-load of honey 

 and wax down to the railroad station, 30 miles 

 distant, once a fortnight, and sometimes in 

 good weather once a week." 



Really, there is nothing new in this; it's 

 the old story that has been going the rounds 

 of the press, only in the present instance it 

 has the redeeming feature that it is given as 

 fiction, not fact; yet it seems a reputable 

 story-writer might come a little nearer to 

 originality of conception. 



There is, however, a fresh touch given to 

 the picture in one spot: "But the most 

 copious stores were at greater heights. 

 300, and even 300 feet above the river- 

 bed. When seen from below, the mass of 

 comb looked no larger than bacon hams, but 

 when reached was found to amount to several 

 barrels of honey." How's that; Think of a 

 ham-shaped mass containing several barrels 

 of honey, and all hanging out exposed to full 

 sight ! 



As a matter of fact, no bee-keeper has ever 

 found any such bonanza in Texas any more 

 than in New York, and the story could as 

 well be told of New York as Texas, only that 

 parts of Texas are as yet less known. 



"The Honey-Monev Stories."— This 



IS a 64-page-and-cover booklet, 5%x8J^ inches 

 in size, printed on enameled paper, entitled, 

 " The Honey-Money titoriua." The C(Jver has 

 a picture of a sectiou of comb honey, W., 

 inches square, the com') i sing in gold-bronze', 

 which gives it a very tturaotive appearance. 

 Then on the gold-bron/i- comb are printed 

 these words: "From Jli.uey to Health, and 

 from Health to Money. ' 

 It is edited by Earl }.!. I'ratt, and contains 



a variety of short, bright stories interspersed 

 with facts and interesting items about honey 

 and its use. The manufactured comb honey 

 misrepresentation is contradicted in two 

 items, each occupying a full page, but in dif- 

 ferent parte of the booklet. It lias in all 31 

 halftone illustrations, nearly all of them being 

 of apiaries or apiarian scenes. It also con- 

 tains 3 bee-songs, namely, " The Hum of the 

 Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom," " Buckwheat 

 Cakes and Honey," and an entirely new one, 

 called, "The Bee-Keeper's Lullaby." This 

 last song has not been published before. The 

 songs alone ought to be worth more than the 

 price of the whole thing. 



It is a booklet that should by placed in the 

 hands of everybody not familiar with the 



food value of honey, for its main object is to 

 interest people in honey as a daily table arti- 

 cle. It is thought that it will be just the 

 thing to sell on railroad passenger trains, on 

 news stands, etc. The stories and items are 

 all so short and helpful, and the pictures so 

 beautiful, that it likely will be kept by any 

 one who is so fortunate as to get a copy of it. 

 Its postpaid price is only 25 cents, but the 

 health-value of its contents would run up into 

 dollars. We mail 5 copies for .*1.00, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal — both tor 

 $1.10. It would be very nice for a gift to a 

 friend. Send us a six months' new subscrip- 

 tion for the American Bee Journal with 5(1 

 cents, and we will mail you a copy of "The 

 Honey-Money Stories " free as a premium. 



r 



VCixscdXamoxxs Hctps 3tem5 



v= 



J 



The Bee-Hive is the name of the official 

 organ of the Maccabees of the world. It is 

 published in Michigan. At the head of an 

 advertising circular its publishers are sending 

 out there is a picture of a section of honey 2'', 

 inches high by 5'-, inches wide, on the comb 

 of which are three bees, and the following 

 suspended sign : 



" How doth the little busy bee 

 Improve each blessed minute. 



He gathers honey all the day 

 Because there's money in it." 



All right except there isn't much money in 

 the honey gathered by the '^ he " bees. Like 

 the Indian squaws, the " she's " do the work 

 of the field and the hive. 



A Daily Colony-Record. — On the first 

 page appears a picture of a colony of bees on 

 scales, and also a view of comb honey, both 

 belonging to Geo. H. Kirkpatrick, of Kal- 

 kaska Co., Mich. He also furnishes the fol- 

 lowing in reference to them ; 



The 37 sections of comb honey shown are a 

 little more than one-third of the product of 

 one colony, the colony filling 90 sections. The 

 method of procedure was as follows: June 

 1, 1904, I placed over a colony in an 8- frame 

 Langstroth hive a super containing 30 sec- 

 tions, ?i%\5xV .. ; on June 10 I shook the col- 

 ony into a shallow hive which contained 8 

 frames, 7''^xl6i4 inches, the same having 

 starters about one inch deep. At the time 

 of the shaking the super was removed from 

 the parent colony and placed on the new hive 

 over a queen-excluder. The brood-chamber 

 of the parent colony was then placed on the 

 new hive above the super where it remained 

 for 8 days, when it was removed and a super 

 added. A few days later a third super was 

 given. The 90 sections averaged 1.5) ._, ounces. 



I have had 22 years' experience in bee-keep- 

 ing. The method of " shook " swarms is a 

 very good one for comb honey. The present 

 season (1905) I have worked 30 colonies on 

 the 0. H. Townsend method of producing 

 both comb and extracted honey in the same 

 super, with very good results. I shall plan 

 to have a goodly number of combs drawn 

 from foundation in shallow frames during the 

 flow this fall, to be used in comb-honey 

 supers next season. This being the first time 

 the dimensions of uiy brood-frame have ap- 

 peared in the American Bee Journal, I will 

 not be svirprised to tse it criticised. For 6 

 years I have used i iiis shallow frame, and 

 now have more than iJO colonies on it. Hav- 

 ing so many goad i jints in its favor, we are 

 discarding the Langs -oth frame. 



A da:i.y 



tl.ONY-REOOKD. 



For 20 years I ha'.e placed on a scale a col- 

 ony during the harv st of white honey. It 



affords mn much pleasure to note from day to 

 day the gain in pounds of honey. By placing 

 an average colony on the scales one can 

 easily estimate the amount of honey stored 

 per day in the apiary. 



I find here in northern Michigan, where the 

 bees are gathering from red raspberry from 6 

 to 10 pounds per day, the shrinkage is about 

 one-seventh. This is much less than the 

 shrinkage of basswood or clover. I find bass- 

 wood shrinks about one-fourth, and clover 

 one-fifth. 



The following figures represent my average 



per colony, spring count, in the home apiary 



for a period of five years, beginning with 



1900 : 



Year. No. Cols. Aver, per Col. 



1900, 45 107 lbs. 



1901, 56 136 " 



1902, 93 103 " 



1903, 126 109 " 



1904, 130 61 " 



The net annual yield per colony for a period 

 of 5 years was 101 1-6 pounds. 



A daily colony-record beginning June 4, 

 1901, and closing July 17, showed the fol- 

 lowing, the scale being balanced .Iune4. at 

 76> . pounds: 



From the above colony I extracted 244 

 pounds. Geo. H. Kirkpatrick. 



Dividing " Stands." • 



exchanges we read of a 

 "divided 4 stands," and' 

 stands that are working 



- In one of our 

 bee-keeper who 

 now has S strong 

 in the supers.'' 



Let's see, a " stand " is the frame or base on 

 which the bee-hive rests, thus keeping it 

 raised from the ground. So a certain bee- 

 keeper divided 4 of such stands and afterward 

 had S stands working in the supers. Wonder 

 how he got a " stand " into a " super !" And 

 also how he induced a " stand " to work there 

 Perhaps some one can explain. 



1 



