130 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



in combiuing so well not only beauty 

 but the eternal fitness of things. — 

 Gleanivgs. 



'Tis way up, friend Root. You 

 have beaten us all. The old design 

 of Gleanings, however, was good 

 enough. 



BAKKRS AND HONEY. 



As an illustration of the extent to 

 which honey is now being used by 

 bakers, we make the following extract 

 from a private letter just received 

 from the United States Baking Co., 

 Mansfield, 0. : 



Mr. a. T. Koot: — We have been buyins 

 honey from Tnft, of St. Louis, a very tine 

 article, at 5^ and 6 cents per lb. We just 

 bought from him yesterday n2 barrels at 

 6.^ cts., said to be equal to the last lot we 

 boufiht of him at 6 cts. ; if so, it is a very 

 good purchase. 



Yours respectfully, 

 United Statks Baking Co. 

 (Crawford-Taylor branch.) 

 Ilansjield, 0., July 29, 189 1. 



Gleanings. 

 Whew ! Look at the price paid for 

 the honey. Five and a half cents per 

 lb., commission, freight and other ex- 

 penses out. Who can but wonder 

 that the beekeeper is poor? 



NOTES TO THE INEXPERIENCED. 



Never open the hive and remove 

 the combs of a viscious colony early 

 in the morning. The one who tries 

 the experiment will have reason to 

 regret it. A powerful Bingham smok- 

 er will not furnish enough smoke to 

 quiet the bees, and the operator will 

 be badly stung. 



Such a colony can be opened in the 

 middle of the day with a small amount 

 of smoke. At this time thousands of 

 bees are in the fields, and they are 

 the oldest and ugliest ones too, and 

 for this reason it is far better to do 

 such work in the middle of the day. 



When one has occasion to examine 

 one of these ugly colonies, let liim do 

 so as quietly as possibly. Be very care- 

 ful not to kill or injure any bees. 



We can handle hees as fearlessly 

 as most beekeepers, but must confess 

 that there are two colonies of hybrid 

 Italians in our yard that are two much 

 for us. These bees Avere purchased 

 in the spring, and have been used all 

 summer to construct queen cells. 

 The only reason why they have been 

 kept so long is from the fact they 

 build large cells, and rear fine queens. 

 A colony used for this purpose has 

 to be opened often, say once each three 

 days, while it is almost impossible 

 to open either one of these hives early 

 in the morning without getting from 

 one to one hundred stings, it can be 

 done ill the middle of the day with 

 very little smoke and hardly a sting. 



Our advice to the novice and inex- 

 perienced is not to open any of their 

 hives oftener than is uecessar3\ 



PUrTING ON SKCTIONS IN THE FALL,. 



Colonies that are allowed to store the 

 fall honey in the sections are likely to 

 be short of stores for the winter. 

 When the sections are removed see 

 that the brood combs are well filled 

 with honey. Each colony you know in 

 order to go through the winter must 

 have at least twenty-five pounds of 

 honey. Sugar syrup if fed the bees 

 early is as good if not better for win- 

 ter stores than a good deal of the 

 honey bees gather in the fall. Bug 

 juice and honey dew (what's tlie dif- 

 ference) is pretty bad stuff for winter 

 stores. Such stuff should be removed 

 from the combs, yet it is not always 

 practical to do it ; in fact the real bug 

 juice becomes so thick and sugary, 

 it cannot be thrown from tlie cells 

 when it has been stored in them for 

 a few days. A mild winter, one so 

 warm that the bees can fly often, is 

 the only thing that will insure the safe 

 wintering of bees whose combs are 

 filled with an inferior quality of hon- 

 ey in the fall. 



