THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



STUNG. 



A Vagrant bee came buzzing round, 

 And Chloe, frightened at the sound, 

 Cried, 'Mary, help! Go, Lizzy, fetch 

 A broom and kill the little Wretch ! ' 



Too late! despite the bustling maids, 

 The Wanton imp at once invades 

 Poor Chloe's lips — the saucy thing ! 

 And lix.es there its ugly sting. 



The culprit caught, the maids prepare 

 To kill the monster then and there ; 

 When, trembling for its life, the bee 

 Makes this extenuating pica: — 



•Forgive ! O beauteous queen! forgive 



My sad mistake; for, as I live, 



Your mouth (I'm sorry, goodness 



knoWs), 

 I surely took it for a rose ! ' 



'Poor insect ! ' Chloe sighed ; I VoW 

 'Tw'ere Very hard to kill him noW; 

 No harm the little felloW meant — 

 And, then, he seems so penitent ; 

 Besides, the pain Was Very small — 

 I scarcely feel it noW at all! ' 



John Q Saxe. 



THE HONEY EXTRACTOR —ITS USE AND 

 ABUSE. 



The Honey Extractor ! What a 

 wealth of thought in those words to a 

 bee-keeper. There dances before his 

 eyes golden honey, clear as a crystal, 

 buckwheat cakes, adulteration, hard 

 work in summer's hottest sun, mad 

 bees, sticky fingers, gummy apron, but 

 above them all there appears the word 

 success. 



Also does he see that the invention 

 was born of necessity. The honey ex- 

 tractor is a necessity in modern bee- 

 keeping where financial success comes 



into the problem at all, and not only 

 is it a necessity to the man producing 

 honey not mixed with comb, but also 

 to him whose sole purpose is to put 

 upon the market that which has never 

 been manipulated by any one, save the 

 bees themselves. I refer to comb- 

 honey. 



The Divine law governing the habits 

 of the honey-bee, directs that they 

 shall store honey for winter use, and 

 shall also take their queen, leaving a 

 sufficient number to look after affairs, 

 seek a new home, where they shall find 

 room to store the necessary provinder 

 for their iuci'easing needs. We cannot 

 absolutely control God's immutable 

 laws as interpreted in the hbneydiee, 

 but we can take advantage of them 

 and use the talent, that we may return 

 it to the Master increased ten fold. 



Now to facts. Swarming can, to a 

 great extent, be controlled by extract- 

 ing, I do not say always, because 

 some colonies would swarm if 

 they knew they were all going to be 

 distroyed the next minute, but I refer 

 to those having ordinary sense and 

 who know what's good for them. Lazy 

 bees mud work if their stores are taken 

 from them. Take a colony hanging 

 out when they ought to be working in 

 boxes. Go to that hive and extract 

 it clean and see what will happen. 

 Well, in about the shortest time im- 

 agineable, that crowd of lazy little 

 rascals will, by flying around, try to 

 get stores enough to last them over 

 night. Keep them going, put on your 

 boxes, aud where you would have ob- 

 tained nothing from that hive you will 

 now get a good crop. Of course it is 

 useless here for me to speak of any 

 apiary run for extracted honey, in 



