778 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 9 190S 



I sent Dr. Miller one. Then we discovered that the com- 

 bination of metal and wood — wood protected by a piece of 

 galvanized iron — was better than anything else we could have, 

 and that is what we are now furnishing. It consists of a 

 piece of hard oak, 4 by 3 inches thick ; on the inner side 

 of it is a cast-iron brace that is two inches at the widest 

 part, through which the screw passes, and an inch at the 

 farthest point. This brace is made just like ordinary br.'ices 

 — with a rib running through the center to stiffen it. The 

 cast-iron top was a circular piece of cast-iron about three- 

 eights of an inch thick, with ribs like the spokes of a wheel, 

 the ribs being thicker towards the center. 



Mr. Meredith — I would like to say a word, not speaking 

 of pressure as a defect, but from experience possibly in put- 

 ting on too much power when I have had to let it stand. 

 The bottom or the portion upon which the cage sets being 

 a li.ght piece of metal with rivets around, I have drawn two 

 or three rivets right straight through, and I found that the 

 iron around there has turned something like the fans of a 

 windmill, instead of standing up. I was wondering if that 

 was a common complaint, or just an accident with my 

 machine. 



Mr. Root — That is not a common complaint, but in some 

 few instances it has happened. There is one thing about the 

 wax-press I feel chagrined over — that we couldn't build it 

 in the first place so that it would resist these strains. But 

 you can see what the problem was' to us, it was making one 

 strain against another, and that strain sufficient to stand all 

 kinds of pressure. When we say the pressure must be right, 

 it may be three or four tons, or four or five tons, they don't 

 quite understand what we mean. In reference to the remark 

 made by Mr. Reynolds, stating that my brother said the 

 pressure would be three or four tons, he probably gave that 

 statement from first experiments then made. At that time 

 we thought great pressure was necessary, but we learned 

 afterwards pressure was not needed, but a light pressure con- 

 tinued, so that the wax could get away. 



Mr. Reynolds — Don't you think it should be sent broad- 

 cast to the people that that was a mistake? 



Mr. Root — This is broadcast here. 



Mr. Reynolds — Shouldn't it be put in Gleanings? 



Mr. Root — I think I have published it two or three 

 times. 



(Continued next week.) 



r 



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®ur Bee Keeping Sisters 



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Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



J 



Painting Hives— Feeding Bees— 

 TransferriDg— Other Subjects 



1, 



What color do you paint your hives? 



2 I)o you number Iheni? When you put 

 them out in the spring do you put each one 

 on ii= uld stand? 



S. Dii you put a brick under each leg of the 

 hive acd slant it towards th" front, and level 

 each hive in the spring with a spirit-level so 

 it will not lipsidewise? 



4. Which is best for feeding, granulated 

 sugar dissolved in water or boiled to a syrup 

 of the c )nsisteDCy of honey? 



.5. Do you ever teed any kind of meal to 

 your bh-es? 



Ci. Do you make honey-vinegar? If not too 

 much trouble please give me your process. 



7. How do you prepare bees for wintering* 

 and w here do you winter them, in a bee house, 

 o'uldunrs, or in a cellar? 



•S What lime of the day is the best to take 

 off comb honey, or combs for extracting? 



Hdw can I transfer bees from an old and 

 undesirable hive to a better one ? 



10 1 bought a GO-pound can of extracted 

 alfalfa honey that tasted just like catnip. Is 

 that us natural flavor? It was not like the 

 sample sent me. 



11. Do jou wear a bee veil and gloves? If 

 60, what kind ? 



13. Do you label each section of honey 3 



\'A. Do you water your bees? If so, how? 



14 Do you salt the water? 



15. What is the largest, number of pounds 

 of honey you have ever taken from a single 

 colony in one season— comb and extracted ? 



Reader. 



1. They are not painted. 



2 Each hive is numbered, and when it is 

 convenient each hive is put on its old stand, 

 but for different reasons this does not always 

 happen. For instance, a colony from the out- 

 apiary may have made such a good record the 

 past J ear that we may want to keep it in the 

 home apiary for the sake of its drones, as 

 most of our queens are reared in the home 

 apiary. 



3. Bricks are excellent, but it is more con- 

 venient for us to use blocks of wood to level 

 the stands. Uur stand is a very simple affair, 

 each one accommodating iwo hives. A spirit- 

 level is used to level it from side to side, and 

 it is slanted toward the front. 



4. Boiling does not change sugar; it has 

 been thoroughly boiled; and it doesn't mat- 

 ter whether it is dissolved with or without 

 heat. But the bees take it Ijetter when hot. 



5. Some springs we do, and some we don't. 



The bees will not take anything of the kind 

 when they can get pollen. 



6. Working for comb honey, we have no 

 cappings from which to make vinegar. 



T. They are not prepared, further than to 

 see that they have plenty of stores. They go 

 into the cellar just as they were on the sum- 

 mer stands. 



S. 'Ihe time when bees are busiest at work. 



!). That depends; if the frames are all right 

 in the old hive, there is nothing to do but to 

 lift them out of the old hive into the new. If 

 the bees are in a box-hive, you can transfer 

 as directed in the bee-books, although nowa- 

 days the tendency is to let the bees swarm 

 and empty the old hive 21. days after swarm- 

 ing 



10. Alfalfa honey ought not to taste like 

 catnip. 



11. Yes; the veil is an open bag with one 

 end sewed to the hat, and the gloves are hog- 

 skin, when I can get that kind. 



12. No. 



13. Generally by means of a large crock 

 with sticks of fire-wood in it. 



14. Generally not. 



1.5. 300 sections, or a little more than 2"5 

 pounds. 



What One Woman Does 



In that excellent monthly — Suburban Life — 

 appears an article from a bee-keeper already 

 pleasantly known to the bee-keeping sisters- 

 Miss Frances E. Wheeler. It appears that 

 her pursuits upon her 4'4 acres of ground are 

 mote divertitibd than most of us had probably 

 imagined. She not only keeps ducks and 

 bees, but distributes her busy cares among 

 chickens, turkeys, currants, squabs, and dear 

 knows what else. 



Obliged to give up her work as stenog- 

 rapher, like many another in her position. 

 Miss Wheeler looked with longing eyes upon 

 a life outdoors amid the growing things of 

 the animal and vegetable world. Could she 

 break away entirely from othce-life and risk 

 the chauce of making a living among the 

 ducks and bees? But the struggle is best 

 given in her own words: 



" It is a simple matter for the rich to re- 

 spond to the ' Call of the Wild,' but a quite 

 different thing for people of comparatively 

 restricted means, or pinched pocket-books, to 

 fiud the open sesame to a summer, or life, 

 with Nature. And yet it is not so very ditli- 

 cuU. For even the pinched pocket-book, 



there are many ways in which the change 

 might be accomplished. 



" If one felt sufficiently brave and deter- 

 mined, one might even venture alone to make 

 a living on a little country place, as did the 

 writer. 



" I have never learned to swim, but I fancy 

 that the final wrench from the old life and the 

 struggles with the new and unknown work of 

 farming are sensations similar to those when 

 one is flung beyond one's depth and has to 

 kick out and swim, or sink. It is exciting, 

 exhilarating, but — strenuous! One is re- 

 minded of Macbeth's ' Suppose we fail?' and 

 Lady Macbeth's scornful — 'Fail! But screw 

 your courage to the sticking place and we'll 

 not fail !' We realize that our success de- 

 pends upon keeping our courage screwed ' to 

 the sticking place.' 



" It has been almost 10 years since we be- 

 gan our experiment. There was no invest- 

 ment about it. I had no money A few old 

 debts collected — perhaps three hundred dol- 

 lars' worth — gave us the start. For some time 

 it was a sort of scramble Not much system, 

 but considerable ' method in the — madness,' 

 as some thought it. We did what we could, 

 and what we couldn't do went without doing.'' 



But for the hope that we may have in the 

 near future some account of her doings writ- 

 ten especially for this depart ment, further ex- 

 tracts would be given. That one number of 

 Suburban Life makes the year's subscription 

 worth while. 



The Truth About Honey. — A few 



changes have been made in the reading of the 

 Comb Honey Guarantee Circular for shipping- 

 cases gotten up by The Honey-Producers' 

 League, so that it will be suitable for bee- 

 keepers to use in their correspondence, put- 

 ting one in with every letter they write. It 

 is headed, " The Truth About Honey," and is 

 printed on both sides of a light manilla card- 

 board. It is sent postpaid in lots of 50 for 10 

 cents, 100 for 20 cents, etc, Evtry bee-keeper 

 should use it, as it will undoubtedly help to 

 popularize the use of honey. 



The Guarantee Circulars for putting in ship- 

 ping-cases should be used by every bee keeper 

 who sells comb honey by the case. These 

 circulars are the same price — 10 cents for .50 

 copies, postpaid. Send all orders to the 

 American Bee Journal office. 



Comb Honey Not 3Iachine-Made. — 



We have a fair supply of the typewritten 

 letter on this subject, which appeared in the 

 Chicago Daily News ot .June 21, 1905. It is 

 just the thing to have published in every bee- 

 keeper's local newspaper. We mail it for a 

 2.cenl stamp. Belter order several copies, 

 and request as many newspaper editors to 

 publish it. It will certainly be a good thing 

 for both the reading public and the bee- 

 keepers. 



