272 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[June, 



g [For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eamblins: Motes. 



Mr. Editor : — HavinjT some leisure, I drop 

 you a few lines from the northwest. It has been 

 a hard winter on bees. So far as I can learn I 

 think that one-half or more of the bees in the 

 west have died, or become so reduced as to be 

 almost worthless so far as surplus honey is con- 

 cerned. 



The majority died apparently of what is known 

 as dysentery. Tall hives have not wintered any 

 better than shallow ones. Some think the losses 

 were occasioned by the long cold winter ; others 

 that it was the poor quality of the late honey, 

 and still others that breeding was stopped so 

 early last fall that the bees were too old to win- 

 ter well. I think the trouble is in all three. 

 Where bees have had care, there has not been 

 much difterence in the loss between those win- 

 tered out of doors, and those wintered in cellars 

 or buildings made especially for wintering bees. 



If there was any difference, those in the cel- 

 lar fared worst. We have had a very long cold' 

 winter. The thermometer has not went as low 

 as some other winter's, but it has been very 

 steady cold. 



Why is it, some of the most practical bee- 

 keepers do not write more for the Journal? Is it 

 as some large beekeepers say, if they write 

 others can profit by their experience, and the 

 business will soon be overdone, and they will 

 not get a remunerative price for their honey '? 

 Others do not believe in writing for the Journal 

 without getting large pay for what they write. 

 Others do not believe in writing for the Journal, 

 and then have to pay for their own articles, as 

 they think they would rather get all the informa- 

 tion from others and give nothing in return. 



Now as to the hive question, it looks to me as 

 if there was a great deal more fuss than there 

 is any necessity for. 



If Mr. Langstroth's patent is not worth any- 

 thing as they claim, what is any of their j^atents 

 worth? If there is not any patent or practical 

 movable frames, then any one of common sense 

 can make a better hive for practical purposes 

 than /ij'j of the so called patent hives, especially 

 if they are beekeepers. 



I will venture to say that there is not one in 

 a hundred who buys a so-called patent hive or 

 individual right, that at the time of purchase 

 knows what the patent covers, and besides some 

 of the patent hive men use the names of prac- 

 tical bee men, as a recommendation of their 

 hives, without the knowledge or consent of 

 the parties. Others will go to some practical 

 beekeeper and leave a hive with him on trial, 

 or if he does not want it, the bee hive vendor 

 will ask permission to set it in the yard until 

 he comes back, as he has only one left in his 

 wagon and he is going after another load, and 

 does not want to haul it around so much. If 

 successful in leaving a hive, he will start off 

 on some other course, and will report that Mr. so 

 and so, giving the name of the man with whom 

 he left the hive, has got one of these hives in 

 bis yard, and he thinks it just the hive. In one 



case I knew of a swindler offering a practical 

 beekeeper $50, to let him sot one of his hives in 

 his yard for a short time, but was refused. His 

 hive stood on three legs, with the greatest 

 invention of the age, the moth trap warranted 

 to catch all the larva of the moth in the hive, 

 and let them fall into a tin box and break their 

 necks. 



The hive was nothing more than a box hive 

 for two swarms, with a box on top, and side for 

 sui-plus honey, with an alighting board on hinges, 

 so as to close up every evening and not let any 

 moth get in the hive. You could make, if neces- 

 sar}^, the hen roost attachment for closing the 

 hive against the moth. 



Then there are some parties in the west who 

 will adopt a common sense independent mova- 

 ble frame hive and recommend it to the public 

 as the best hive in use, but are willing to sell 

 their influence for a mess of pottage, to enable 

 them to gull the unsuspecting jjublic, and to make 

 the sommersault appear all right, they will use 

 a few of the last recommended hives ; but go to 

 their apiary in a few years and ask them to show 

 you the practical working of the movable frame 

 hive, and they will almost invariably go to the 

 first hives, or the Langstroth style of frames, or 

 if any other style of frames, one, that has not 

 had a full stock of bees in it over three months, 

 as the others are generally glued shut with pro- 

 polis, so much as not to be convenient to handle. 



I would like to talk a little about the market- 

 ing of honey in the Cliicago market. Would 

 it not be better for the beekeepers of the north- 

 west to unite and hire some practical man or 

 beekeeper that understands the value of the 

 different grades of honey, to go to Chicago and 

 sell their products for a remunerative price, 

 than to let the commission men and honey 

 houses control the market and dictate the terms. 

 Moreover, by this plan the consumer would get 

 a pure article and not pay fall price for a doc- 

 tored article. To illustrate, you may go to 

 Chicngo with a lot of honey ; take a sample of 

 nice box honey around among the dealers, the 

 best jirice they will ofter you is 21 cts. You sell 

 your honey, and before leaving the City you see 

 some one with a box of your honej% and ask 

 what they paid for it, the answer will be generally 

 somewhere between 40 and GO cts. per lb., and 

 if you have extracted honey, the reply generally 

 is the market is over stocked and we do not wish 

 any without you are willing to sell at from 8 to 

 10 cts. per lb. Northwest. 



How TO Clakipt Honey. — A good way to 

 clarify honey is to add two pounds of a mixture 

 of equal parts of honey and water, one drachm 

 of carbonate of magnesia. After shaking occa- 

 sionally during a coui)le of hours, the residue is 

 allowed to settle and the whole filtei'ed, when a 

 beautiful clear filtrate is obtained, which maybe 

 evaporated in a water bath to the proper consis- 

 tency. The only drawback to this method is 

 the length of time it takes to filter the solution ; 

 and this may be much abbreviated by taking the 

 same amount of white clay instead of magnesia, 

 when a nearly equally good article is obtained iu 

 much less time. — [Druggists^ Circular. 1 



