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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 16 1905 



deer-hunting, duck-hunting, or quail-sniping. 

 The people are free and easy. Time is the 

 cheapest thing in Texas — that is, southwest 

 Texas. 



" Ah," you say, " I would get more honey 

 if I wintered my bees in but one tight super." 

 I don't know. I averaged 41 pounds per col- 

 ony of bulk comb in the poorest season we 

 ever had this year, and got SJj cents per pound 

 for the lot, spot cash. We never have to find 

 a commission man who is honest; our mer- 

 chants have car-lot customers always waiting 

 for our honey. 



Our fall flow this year was great. The bees 

 entirely ignored broomweed— there were too 

 many other good honey-producing plants in 

 bloom, and they reared considerable brood 

 this fall. The honey-flow is still on, and will 

 continue till frost-, as the bees will work on 

 the broomweed later. 



I have " other fish to fry " — onion culture. 

 I have 3 tenants and my own acreage to at- 

 tend to, and I attend to my bees but once a 

 year; I attend to swarming, and when that is 

 over (and that is always before the honey-flow 

 ceases, and never after) I take the honey oit, 

 and sell the whole product, and don't bother 

 the bees, or they me, till swarming-time again. 



Oh, yes, I do have a few empty hives in the 

 fall, and turn their combs into beeswax, but 

 as the weeds are continually blooming all 

 through the summer and fall in this irrigated 

 country, the bees contrive to have brood all 

 the time to rear a queen from. 



Tou bee-men who love sunshine and good 

 returns, no wintering troubles for man, bee, 

 or beast, go to southwest Texas. If you love 

 to hear a railroad whistle or street-car, stay 

 where you are. Chas. Pollard. 



Dimmit Co. , Texas, Oct. 25. 



One of the Cleanest Papers 



While I haven't a bee in the world, I may 

 have some time, and want to keep abreast of 

 the times. I consider the "old reliable" 

 American Bee Journal one of the cleanest 

 papers I ever read ; so you may continue to 

 send it until I order it stopped. 



MoCracken Co.,Ky. T. F. McCorkle. 



Report for Season of 1905 



I had 24 colonies of bees, spring count, and 

 now have 46. I took ofl; 9S3 full sections o£ 

 honey, and 18 frames for spring feeding, 

 weight 96 pounds. I also extracted 67 pounds 

 from partly-filled sections. E. S. Barber. 



Erie Co., N. Y., Nov. 6. 



// 



(Sxtractcb" 



Second-Hand Square Oil -Cans for 

 Honey 



As we have stored and sold from 4 to 8 tons 

 of honey per year for the past 16 years in such 

 cans, without a word of complaint, so far as 

 we know, perhaps our experience will be 

 worth something to the fraternity. 



While on this subject I may as well give 

 our whole system of handling this class of 

 cans, as I believe it will prove a great econ- 

 omy in the hands of airifnl bee-men ot the 

 West. The high freight-rates on goods as 

 bulky as 5-gallon cans cased is prohibitive to 

 the use ot new cans. We people of the West, 

 In order to play even, in a measure, with the 

 Standard oil people, and the railroads in some 

 way, for making our oil cost us 40 cents per 

 gallon instead ot 13 cents, as in Ohio, have to 

 use their cans and cases for our honey. 



We use all the gasoline cans we can get 

 hold of, as they are more easily cleaned ; but 

 we also use all the kerosene-cans we get, as 

 well. 



I have an old scavenger, or a " raggedy- 

 raggedy man," who gathers my cans for me 

 in a local mining town. I pay him 5 cents 

 each for his trouble of collecting and holding 



them until I go for them. 

 home 120 in a load. 



I sometimes bring 



Repairing Cans. 



When we are ready to make a job of solder- 

 ing, we remove the oil-caps on the cans by 

 holding them over a hot blaze in our solder- 

 ing tire-pot, until the solder starts, which 

 operation is quite rapid with a good fire. 

 Next we patch any vent-holes found, and sol- 

 der on the screw-caps. Last year we got 

 screw -caps from the American Can Co., with 

 1' -.'-inch mouths and 2inch base, which ex- 

 actly flts the cans, and is a good size to fill 

 into. When we find a can with its sides col- 

 lapsed so that its capacity is small, after sol- 

 dering it, we straighten it by exploding 1 or 

 I'o drams of rifle-powder as near the center 

 of the can as we can hang it. It straightens 

 them in a hurry. Tie the powder in a small 

 cloth around one end of a blasting-fuse about 

 8 inches long; cut a gash in the fuse near the 

 other end, and put in a few grains of powder 

 to " spit " the fuse quickly. Insert this cart- 

 ridge into the opening in the can the proper 

 distance to bring powder near the center of 

 the can ; secure by tying a string to a ring on 

 top of the can. " Touch the button " with a 

 match, and the powder does the rest. 



Cans thus treated may not case well for 

 shipment, but are as good for storage for local 

 use as any. A few experiments will teach 

 you the amount of powder to use for different 

 conditions of cans. 



Cleaning the Cans. 



The method we have found the most satis- 

 factory in rapidity and thoroughness is to 

 make a solution of strong soap-suds by slicing 

 up not less than two bars of some good 

 laundry soap (without rosin in it is prefer- 

 able) to a barrel of water. Add to this not 

 over half a can, or about V pound, of con- 

 centrated lye. We can throw a steam-hose 

 into the barrel, and boil until the soap is dis- 

 solved. We use a funnel made with the 

 small end a little smaller than the size of the 

 opening in the cans, to allow for expansion of 

 the cool air in the can, and to prevent the hot 

 suds from being blown back in your face 

 while pouring into the cans. 



We have a Jj-inch pipe running from the 

 steam-dome of our boiler so we can get dry 

 steam. This pipe has a perpendicular length 

 sufficient to reach to the bottom of a can, 

 with a valve within convenient reach of your 

 hands. Insert this pipe in a can containing 

 the hot suds, until the lower end of it reaches 

 within about J.i inch of the bottom. Suspend 

 the can in this position by a hook fastened 

 into the ring on the can. Open the valve and 

 let in steam enough to boil the suds, and 

 throw it all over the inside of the can. We 

 boil one can and fill another ready to boil, 

 and rinse out the boiled can. We always 

 rinse with two waters — the first time with 

 clean hot water ; the last, clean cold water. 

 With this system one active person can clean 

 100 or more per day. 



After draining these cans they are laid in a 

 hot, sunny place on their sides, with the open- 

 ing nearest the top, to allow the remaining 

 moisture and any odors to escape freely. We 

 clean cans in hot, sunny weather, as the suu 

 is the most effective and convenient form of 

 heat we have found for the volatilizing of the 

 oil odors. We have found the use of con- 

 centrated lye in too strong a solution to be 

 unwise. Try a strong solution of it on bright 

 tin, and you will ob.serve that it has a very 

 corrosive effect. Cans thus treated are at 

 once attacked by the acid in honey, discolor- 

 ing and injuring the flavor of the honey. , We 

 leave our cans in the sun about a week, if we 

 are not needing them, then go over them in 

 the heat of the day, when they are hot, and 

 we can easily pick out any doubtful ones by 

 the odor, and leave them for a few days 

 longer. When sunning does not remove the 

 odor, another suds treatment may hasten the 

 cleaning. 



Where access to a steam-plant is not possi- 

 ble, the same results can be obtained by the 

 thorough shaking of the hot suds and a 

 longer sunning. — L. B. Bell, of Arizona, in 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



Please mention Bee Journal 

 wlien writing Advertisers. 



The Money 

 Breed 



Whatbreedofbeef cat tie makes most money? 

 Dr. Walter J. Quick of Indianapolis, Ind., 

 will discuss this subject in the November 

 issue of that widely read, authoritative paper 



BLOODED STOCK 



This issue (November) will be devoted en- 

 tirely to Shorthorns and Beef Breeds. 

 You're out for money. Then subscribe 

 for BLOODED STOCK. Just 25c for 12 

 months. You can afford 2oc. Why, this num- 

 ber wiU be worth one hundred times that in 

 advice on buyinpr, breeding, feeding', hous- 

 inff, fattening and marketing-. Subscribe 

 now. The December issue will be devoted 

 to "Winter Care of Stock." 

 Blooded Stock, Box 221, Oxford, Pa. 



3Ienttoii Bee Journal ^rhen Yrritingr< 



tm gjBa.C XS oj g tnojj ist^x pay ^j . 

 a 





Pat'd 1878, '8^, '\H Si 1UU8 



OTisvtLLE, Pa., Jan. 18, 1904, 

 Dear Sir:— I have tried almost everything in 

 the smoker line; 3 in the last 3 years. In short 

 if i want any more smokers your new style ia 

 g-ood enough for me. I thank the editor of Re- 

 view for what he said of it. Those remarks in- 

 duced me to get mine. Fred Fodner. 

 Mention Bee Journal when -nrritlng. 



The Emerson Binder 



This Emerson stiff-board Binder with cloth 

 back for the American Bee Jonraal we mall for 

 but 75 cents; or we will send it with the Bee 

 Journal for one year— both for only $1.59. It is 

 a fine thing to preserve the copies of the Jour- 

 nal as fast as they are received. If you have 

 this "Emerson" no further binding is neces- 



^"^ OBOROE W. YORK & CO., 



334 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



