1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



15 



that ! We found the jar contained liquid thinner 

 than any strained honey we ever saw, and about 

 the color of New Orleans molasses. As to 

 flavor, we could only taste something very like 

 anise, certainly not honey. Said stuff is labelled 

 " WJdie Clover Honey,''' with the name, street, 

 and number of a firm in Philadelphia. 



We have a good many thoughts about the 

 unprincipled men who can stand ready with 

 impositions of every shape, but can only say — 

 " there be land sharks and water .sharks," and 

 people who would eat extracted honey will do 

 well to keep said " sharks" in mind. 



Sue W. 



Pacific, Mo. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Amateur, If o. 1. 



Dear Journal:— We are of the number of 

 those spoken of by Novjce, who will drop every- 

 thing to look over the Journal whenever it ar- 

 rives. I have been reading it for some time, but 

 have not all the back numbers. Wish [ had. 

 Send them along, Mr. Editor, if you can supply 

 them, and I will "foot the bill." 



I do "go for" everything on the subject of 

 bees; and now I am "going for" Novice, — in 

 no other way, however, except in "that conten- 

 tion or emulation, rather, of who can best mark 

 and best agree." I have read with interest 

 everything that he has written in the Journal 

 since I have been taking it (two years past), and 

 have received some very valuable hints from him; 

 and as he is but a novice, I hojie he will not be 

 oifended at "a few small talk." 



Well, I wonder what kind of knife that is he 

 has. What, Novice advertise a honey-knife ! 

 Yes. AVell, here is mine, any one can make for 

 himself, out of an old handsaw, by cutting it 

 with a cold chisel, about an inch and a half wide 

 and twenty inches long. Grind both edges sharp, 

 put a handle to it, and you have the best honey- 

 knife ever made, — far ahead of the Peabody. I 

 don't know about Novice's, as I never saw one. 

 But it will accommodate itself to any irregu- 

 larity of the comb, being very thin and limber. 



Well, I suspect Novice u.ses the Peabody Ex- 

 ti-actor. It is a good one, but mine is as good. 

 It is a little improvement on Novice's first, — 

 using a wooden frame for the gauze, instead of 

 the wire frame. I like it much better than to 

 have another vessel for the honey. 



I wonder how Novice manages extracting 

 when the robbers are troublesome? That has 

 troubled me not a little ; but I have a preventive 

 now, in the way of a icire liouse. That is, a 

 frame six feet by eight, and seven feet high, 

 covered on all sides with wire gauze, with a door 

 covered with the same material. The top is of 

 dark calico, to keep oft" the sun, &c. This house 

 I can move about my apiary, to suit my own 

 convenience. Last year I had to take my frames 

 of honey to the house to get away from robbers. 

 This is too much labor, besides too hot work in 

 a close room, shut up to keep out the robbers. 

 This wire house is as cool as out of doors in the 



shade. To carry my honey frames from place 

 to place, and to hang them on when examining 

 a stock, I use a rack long enough to hold twenty 

 frames. When full, I take it into my wire 

 house, remove the honey, and return frames to 

 hive. 



That troublesome thing of raising queens. I 

 wonder how others manage that. This is my 

 plan : Hive or transfer a strong colony into a 

 hive two feet long, with two rows of small 

 frames, six inches wide and six inches deep, for 

 the nucleus boxes. This hive will hold about 

 thirty of these small frames, and when full, it is 

 an easy matter to keep your boxes in running 

 order from them. Have your queen cells started 

 in strong stocks, and when nearly ready to 

 hatch, transfer them to the nucleus boxes. Put 

 these boxes into the same wire house. I have 

 ten boxes in mine. Distribute them as best you 

 can ; they will not interfere with your work, nor 

 with each other. When the queens are old 

 enough, they will come out in their natural way, 

 and mate with your pure drones, which you 

 must see are taken care of in some of the small 

 boxes. This does not interfere v/ith nature at 

 all, and is a sure plan of fertilizing by any drone 

 desired. So far as I have tried it, I have not 

 had a single failure. They all, — queens, drones, 

 and workers,— seem as well satisfied as if they 

 had the whole world for a home, except when 

 you introduce new occupants, who are restless 

 for a while. Of course, you must put feed into 

 the house, so that all may have plenty. 



This is ahead of any plan 1 have ever yet seen 

 recommended, and I claim that the arrangement 

 will not fail when properly managed. I have 

 never heard of the plan before, nor seen it sug- 

 gested anywhere, and hope others will try it, as 

 the arrangement is not patented, — nor will it be, 

 I suppose. 



A more speedy way is to raise the queens in a 

 nursery, and when they are four oi; five days old 

 introduce them to queenless nuclei, — being care- 

 ful, however, lest you have them destroyed. 



Wishing for more light on our pet subject, and 

 hoping all will try to improve, is the sincere de- 

 sire of an 



Amateur. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Honey Dew, 



On the fourth of this month I noticed that the 

 leaves of a young chestnut tree in front of our 

 house were covered with honey dew, on which 

 my bees were hard at work ; indeed, they are 

 still working on it, although we had a haiti rain 

 yesterday, which I hoped would have washed it 

 off. I say hoped, because the bees seem to be so 

 demoralized by finding honey in such unusual 

 places, that they will hardly allow me to u.se 

 my extractor ; perfect swarms of them getting 

 on the machine, and into the honey after it is 

 extracted. 



The honey is beautifully clear, and of good 

 consistency. On examining the tree, 1 found the 

 under side of the leaves covered with small green 



