844 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 7. 190S 



very little when put in the hives. This kink is certainly 

 worth a trial, anyway. 



Prices of Bee-Supplies. 



[Zl Much has been said lately about the prices of supplies 

 being too high. That may be. But as long as the demand 

 practically exceeds the supply, the prices will be stiff. If 

 the honey-dealers were short, and running after us to get 

 honey — my, my, how the prices would go up ! 



Well, if the price of hives is too high, make them your" 

 selves — that is all there is to it. 



Right here we need some clarifying, as Hasty would 

 put it. As a matter of fact we are making them already, 

 the dealers furnishing us only the lumber dressed and cut. 

 So, after all, the question is whether we shall buy from 

 them or order our stuff at the nearest wood-working estab- 

 lishment. The box-making concerns are likely to give the 

 best satisfaction. To say that nobody but the bee-supply 

 men can cut the lumber just right for hive-making is mere 

 bosh. The assertion that a precision like clock or gun 

 work is required constitutes also a considerable stretching. 

 The chief points are the length of the frames. These must 

 fit each other, and be the same for all the hives. If neces- 

 sary the end-pieces must be nailed a little in or out, so as to 

 preserve the exact inside length. 



Of course, the so-called dovetail corners should be 

 abandoned, and plain corners substituted. The frames 

 should be plain, wood frames. The best, easiest made, and 



cheapest, are those banging with nails on a tin strip. Small 

 notches on the tin will hold the frames at the right spacing, 

 and at the same time permit the apiarist to push them aside 



S^ 



to take them out, or hold a queen-cage or queen-cell between 

 them. 



The stuff for frames should be ordered in long strips. 

 For reasons too long to explain here, a short stick cut to 

 length costs nearly as much as a strip 8 or 10 feet long. 

 With a miter-box the apiarist can, in a short time, cut 

 enough pieces to make all the frames he needs. To avoid 

 danger of splitting the wood when nailing, the pieces can 

 be clamped in a small hand-vise while driving in the nails. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Honey as a Health-Food.— This is a 16-page honey- 

 pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. 

 The first part of it contains a short article on " Honey as 

 Food ", written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep 

 honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to 

 " Honey-Cooking Recipes " and " Remedies Using Honey ". 

 It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The 

 more the people are educated on the value and uses of honey 

 the more honey they will buy. 



Pricks, prepaid — Sample copy for a two-cent stamp; 50 

 copies for 70 cts.; 100 for $1.25 : 250 for $2.25 ; 500 for $4.00 ; 

 or 1000 for $7.50. Your business card printed free at the 

 bottom of the front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. 

 Send all orders to the ofiBce of the American Bee Journal. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get them 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this Journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the name.i and addresses when writing us on 

 other mattars. 



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®ur:-5t5tcr 

 BceKecpers 



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Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, II 



Bees Flying- at Low Temperatures 



Bees seem to chill quite easily when separated from 

 the cluster, and yet they sometimes fly at quite a low tem- 

 perature. On the morning of Nov. 14 the thermometer 

 stood at 14 degrees in the shade. When it got up to 26 a 

 very few bees could be seen flying. Evidently that was 

 warm enough for them. Bees will be seen flying out in 

 small numbers at a much lower temperature when they 

 have been long confined; and many such bees come out 

 only to meet their death. But Nov. 14 there was no 

 pressing need of their coming out; there had been no long 

 confinement. Indeed, they had flown the day before, and 

 not only the day before but for 4 consecutive days immedi- 

 ately preceding. But there were two things that specially 

 favored their flying — the sun was at its brightest, and the 

 air its stillest. A day or two later not a bee was stirring 

 when the thermometer was considerably higher; probably 

 because there was something of a breeze from the north- 

 west. 



The Sisters and the National Convention 



In putting the date of the National convention Dec. 

 19, 20, 21, if that is to be its date, the sisters do not seem 

 to be taken into account. Christmas comes on the Monday 

 following, and what chance will there be to prepare for 

 it if those who are to make the preparation are expected 

 to be at the convention? Very likely some of the brothers 

 will say that from the 21st to the 25th there are 4 days, 

 and ask how much more than 4 days are needed to prepare 

 for Christmas. Little they know about it. They are ac- 

 customed year after year to sit down to the Christmas 

 table groaning under its load of good things — I confess I 

 never heard a table groan, but it sounds well to say it that 

 way; the groaning is generally done afterwards by those 

 who have stuffed themselves with the good things — they 

 sit down and enjoy it all, with little thought as to how 

 much time, thought, and labor it has all cost. 



But there are no 4 days about it. If the convention 

 closes Thursday night, the return home will be Friday — 

 maybe Friday afternoon, maybe Friday evening — depends 

 on the distance. At any rate, no sister will be in best 

 shape to pitch right in the minute she takes off her Sunday 

 clothes, so little or nothing will be done Friday; Sunday 

 doesn't count, and there you are with Saturday the only 

 day for making any previous preparation for Monday's 

 gorge. 



No, my good brother, it isn't all cooking, either. There 

 are to be family gatherings — aunts, uncles, cousins, and 

 all; and everything about the house is to be made spick 

 and span. "No need of that if the house is already in 

 decent order?" Now see here, who wants to be thought 

 any poorer housekeeper than any other of the relatives? 

 So the house must be overhauled from top to bottom, no 

 matter how lately it has been done. At any rate, they all 

 do it, and that's all there is of it. 



"Not very much about bees in all this?" To be sure 

 there isn't; but some of the sisters will feel better to have 

 their minds spoken for them. Sister Bertha, 



Sister Bertha, there's much truth in what you say; but 

 there are two sides. The great matter that overrules all 

 other items in getting together a large number at a National 

 convention is the matter of railroad fares. A chief con- 

 sideration in having the convention held at the given time 

 and place was that at that time and place very low fares 

 could be had. The Fat Stock Show — the biggest thing of 

 the kind on earth, we are told — gave the low rates. Then 

 a large number of bee-keepers would want to attend the 

 Fat Stock Show anyhow, even if no sisters should be of 

 that number. 



When the date was first set, it was 2 weeks earlier; no 



