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(Entered at the Post-office at Gbicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 16, 1906 



Vol, XLVI-No, 33 



editorial ^ofcs „: 



and Comments 



--**r- 



Keep Up Your Membership in the 

 National 



If you should allow your fire insurance to 

 expire, and the day after its expiration your 

 house were to burn down, you would not ex- 

 pect to get any insurance; or if you should 

 expect it you would be disappointed, for no 

 fire insurance company would pay anything 

 on an expired policy. Even if you should 

 renew the day after the fire, that wouldn't 

 help the case a particle; to be of any avail 

 the policy must be in force at the time of the 

 fire. Most persons understand this, but some 

 seem to think that the same does not hold in 

 the case of their membership in the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association. Why should there 

 be any difference? If you do not make your 

 annual payment promptly before your mem- 

 bership expires, and the day after it expires 

 some accident with bees occurs in which you 

 need the help of the National, what right 

 have you to expect it? The only safe way is 

 to keep your membership paid up. 



Drone-Cells for Queen-Cell Cups 



Some who would like to try the Doolittle 

 plan of rearing queens are deterred by the 

 lack of the artificially prepared cup6. L. B. 

 Smith says he prefers drone- jells, and thus 

 gives in the Rural Bee-Keeper his plan of 

 proceeding : 



To rear good queens without dipping or 

 compressed cell-cups, go to any eolony that 

 you know has some old black drone-comb 

 (the older the better) that the bees have pol- 

 ished up for the queen to lay in. Cut this 

 out (and you might replace it with worker- 

 comb while you are at it), and cut it into 

 strips of one row of cells each. If there are 

 eggs or newly-hatched larva' in them they 

 must be destroyed or the bees will build over 

 them. Now attach these strips of drone- 

 comb to the cell-bar with melted beeswax, as 



you would the artificial cell-cups; cells point- 

 ing down when the cell-bar is in position. 

 Take a thin-bladed sharp knife (it is be^t in 

 have the knife hot) and trim the row of cells 

 a little more than half-way dowu. This dune, 

 flare the mouth of every third cell on the cell- 

 bar, by pressing the rubber end of a common 

 lead-pencil in it. This will cause them to 

 look very much like queen-cell6 just started. 

 You can prime these with royal jelly like the 

 artificial cell-cups if you wish, but I rind that 

 of no use. 



Now go to the breeder, lift out the little 

 larvae and place them in these prepared cells. 

 Hang the frame in the cell-building colony, 

 and these cells will be accepted and built out 

 the same as any queen-cells. This old, thick, 

 black drone-comb makes a good, heavy base 

 for the cells, and is far superior to any arti- 

 ficial cell-cups for my use. I use drone-comb 

 altogether now. 



No Glucose Comb Honey 



Mr. Ernest W. Reid, of Lemon, Mich., 

 wrote us as follows on Aug. 6: 



Editor American Bee Journal — 



Dear Sir : — On July 28, 1 mailed you a copy 

 of the Flint Daily Journal of July 25, con- 

 taining a picture which represented, among 

 the other adulterated foods, a section of comb 

 honey. I 6tated that I would make some ex- 

 periments in order to ascertain whether or 

 not bees would take glucose, and that if they 

 failed to take it 1 would write the editor as 

 best I could regarding the matter. I failed 

 in inducing the bees to take the glucose, and 

 I am enclosing the letter written to the editor, 

 and which he published. 



I believe it would be a good thing to have 

 available for publication by the various news- 

 papers, etc., that print fibs about honey, re- 

 ports from the several agricultural depart- 

 ments, showing that their experiments have 

 failed in getting bees to take glucose. 



I would very much like to hear through the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal about 

 the experiments of others in feeding bees glu- 

 cose. I suppose there are none who have 

 succeeded in getting the bees to take it, yet 

 if by any possibility they will take some 

 brands or kinds, then it is best for bee-keepers 



to know about it, as, of course, it would not 

 do to publish that bees never take it if the 

 opposite is sometimes the case. 



Ernest W. Reid. 



The letter published in the Flint Daily 

 Journal from Mr. Reid, is as follows: 



In the Daily Journal of July 25, in the 

 picture on the front page, I notice among the 

 other articles of adulterated food a section of 

 comb honey labeled, " Glucose Honey." I 

 wished to write immediately in regard to the 

 matter, but wanted to try some experiments 

 to determine whether or not bees would take 

 glucose; that is, I wished to be able to say to 

 tne public that I had tried the experiments 

 personally. 



,„, ,„e last 10 years I have been a close 

 observer and a constant reader of many of 

 the books and journals devoted to bees and 

 honey, and was thoroughly convinced bees 

 would not take glucose, and now have tried 

 the several experiments and have utterly 

 failed to induce the bees to take the stuff. 



Several years ago a canard was started 

 about comb honey being made by machinery; 

 combs made by machinery, filled with glucose 

 and sealed, all done by machinery. This yarn 

 has so often been refuted that the well-in- 

 formed thinking public do not for a moment 

 give it credence, and as the bees will not store 

 the glucose, the simple fact remains that there 

 is no glucose comb honey in existence. 



There has been an enormous amount of 

 harm done the bee-keeping industry by the 

 misrepresentations about honey, thus lessen- 

 ing the consumption of one of the most 

 delicious and nutritious foods placed upon 

 the market. 



If you would kindly publish the above, or 

 place the facts before your readers in some 

 way, it would be appreciated. 



Very respectfully yours, 



Ernest W. Reid. 



Flint, Mich., July 31, 1906. 



We wish to commend Mr. Reid on what he 

 has done in this matter. He followed it up, 

 and succeeded in having the truth about 

 comb honey published where appeared only a 

 picture misrepresenting comb honey. 



It seems that there are many newspapers 

 that are willing to publish that comb honey is 

 manufactured, the comb being made, filled 

 with glucose and sealed over, all being done 

 by machinery. In some cases it is stated that 

 bee-keepers feed glucose to their bees and 

 thus produce the so-called honey. Of course, 

 the public knows nothing whatever about 

 honey-production, and so can not be blamed 

 very much for believing what they read con- 

 cerning it. Also, they have read so many 

 times during the past 25 years that com 



