100- 



TIIE AM ERIC AX BEE-KEEPER 



40 



Didn't Want the Honey. '_'I can not 

 take your honey this year." wrote a 

 dealer to a Holstein be^-keener. 

 "What's the reason? We have very 

 fine honey." "Well. yes. but the presi- 

 dent of your Association wrote in the 

 bee paper lately: 'We are just swini- 

 mins: in honev this vear.' " — Gosch. 



Burghard. of Strassburg, employs the 

 blaze of a lamp to remove the cappings 

 of combs. He just melts them away 

 before he extracts. The Honey, after 

 extracting, contains no particles of 

 comb, it is said. — Deutsche Bie- 

 nenzucht. 



A GOOD SPECULATION. 



In some sections of Germany there 

 are still many bees brimstoned. W. 

 Stuber tells, in Gravenhurst's Bienen- 

 zeitung. how he has saved a great many 

 colonies condemned to be killed, with 

 profit to himself. He went around 

 among the bee-keepers and bought col- 

 onies of that kind cheaply. These col- 

 onies were not in movable-comb hives. 

 He took them home, cut out all the 

 comb, extracted what honey he could 

 from the pieces of comb, transferred 

 them to frames (small frames), placed 

 the latter regularly in hives, united 

 from two to four colonies and hived 

 them into these hives. The drippings 

 and smallest pieces of honey not well 

 suited for extracting, he fed back to 

 the bees, bought sugar and finished 

 feeding up for winter. The money re- 

 ceived from the sale of the honey was 

 more than that paid out for sugar, 

 leaving him a balance which was some- 

 what swelled by the receipts from the 

 sale of the wax. The bees themselves 

 were, of course, a clear gain and us- 

 ually paid handsomely the following 

 season. 



'Years ago, when bees were of great- 

 er value than at present, the writer has 

 saved quite a few colonies in a similar 

 fashion. Instead of feeding them, he 

 just hived them on honey combs, taken 

 from other hives durin,g the season.^ 



Dzierzon tells in Leipziger Bienen- 

 zeitung, of a reasonably sure method 

 by which, queens may be purely mated: 

 As early as 8 o'clock in the forenoon, 

 if the weather is bright, queens and 

 drones may be induced to fly for mating 

 purposes by exciting the colonies con- 

 taining them with a sweetened water- 



spray by wa\- of the entrance. He con- 

 siders this method superior to the oth- 

 er one of confining the colonies, having 

 the young queens, in a dark cellar till 

 afternoon, when the drones of all other 

 colonies have ceased flying. 



ENGLAND. 



A Comical Misunderstanding. — Lord 

 Cecile was an enthusiastic bee-keeper. 

 One day when among his bees he came 

 across a colony without a queen. He 

 immediately wrote to a queen breeder 

 in Welmin to send him a queen at once, 

 which order was filled accordingly; at 

 the same time a telegram was sent to 

 the Lord: "Queen will be on train 

 .^40." When Cecile went to the depot 

 in the afternoon to receive his precious 

 bee, to his surprise he found the mayor 

 and whole aristocratic circle of Slate- 

 field already there in full uniform and 

 dress to await the arrival of "'the 

 Queen,"' which however did not prove 

 to be the Qtieen of England, but only 

 an Italian queen bee. The telegraph 

 operator should have kept still. 



CHINA. 



A Chinese bee-hive is described by 

 Wurth in Die Biene: It is made of 

 palm bark and bamboo. The inter- 

 woven structure is coated with clay or 

 cattle droppings. The latter are first 

 mixed with a sort of rubber, which is 

 made from the Koo-schu tree. Access 

 to the interior of the hive is gained by 

 a circular door, having a very small 

 bee-entrance in its center. All hives 

 used in China are provided with small 

 entrances as a protection against the 

 numerous insect enemies. 



F. Greiner. 



Naples, N. Y.. Feb. i, 1902. 



Meridian, Idaho, Jan. 2,^, 1902. 

 Editor American Bee-Keeper: 



Dear Sir: At Parma, Ida., on Jan. 

 18, 1902, the Idaho State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was organized. 



President — F. R. Fouch, Parma, Ida. 



Vice-President — W. F. SchuU, Ros- 

 well, Ida. 



General Manager — E. F. Atwater. 

 ?ileridian. Ida. 



Secretary — (Miss) B. M. Petersen, 

 Lower Boise, Ida. 



Membership fee. $1 per year. 

 Yours truly, 



E. F. Atwater. 



