228 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



An Extractor to be Griven Away. 



Mr. A. G. Hill has sent us oue of his Gas- 

 Pipe Extractors to be presented to the per- 

 son sending in the largest club of new sub- 

 scribers to The American Bee Journal 

 before November 1, 1876. The Extractor is 

 liglit and extremely simple. We will pay 

 the express charges, so that it shall be 

 "without charge" to the recipient. 



We will add the following: 



For the second largest list, we will give a 

 tested Italian queen in May, 1877. 



For the third largest list, we will give a 

 co])y of TiiE American Bee Journal for 

 1877, post-paid. 



For the fourth largest list we will send, 

 post-paid, a copy of Vol. 1. of The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, bound. 



See our club rates on page "MQ of this is- 

 sue. Names and money can be sent in as 

 received, mentioning that you wish to com- 

 pete for the prizes, and we will open an ac- 

 count accordingly. Work should be com- 

 menced at once. 



Grive Plenty of Room and Honey. 



In most localities the season has been one 

 which has yielded an unusual harvest of 

 honey, and many hives which have been 

 left to take care of themselves will be in 

 bad condition for winter by reason of their 

 plentiful stores. Especially where the flow 

 of honey has continued up to the first of 

 September, no time should be lost in exam-, 

 ining every hive to see that room enough is 

 left for the occupancy of brood. If every 

 frame is filled with honey, except a shallow 

 depth at the bottom of part of them, the 

 colony will scarcely survive the winter. If 

 any colonies need to be fed no better use 

 can be made of some of the frames of honey 

 in the over-full colonies than to give them 

 to those which have not sufficient stores for 

 winter, returning empty combs in place of 

 the full ones. If this cannot be done then 

 extract the honey from one or more of the 

 combs and have plenty of empty worker 

 cells in the middle of the brood nest. Do 

 not, however, go to the other extreme, and 

 extract most of their honey, thinking there 

 will be time enough for them to fill up, and 

 if not they can be fed. There is nothing 

 lost by leaving a liberal allowance of honey, 

 and at this season of the year there should 

 be at all tinuis enough honey left in the 

 hives so that if a sharp frost comes and sud- 

 denly cuts off the harvest, there will be no 

 necessity to feed for winter. If the yield 

 should continue so as to fill up the hives 

 again, it will be easy to extract again. We 

 are aware that this advice will be lost upon 

 some of the very ones who need it. Having 



little experience and thinking because 

 honey is still being gathered there is no 

 need yet to think about winter, they will be 

 so anxious for a larger yield of honey that 

 they will plan to leave just as little as pos- 

 sible in the hives, and perhaps feed too late, 

 or have colonies so weak in stores in the 

 spring that they will build up very slowly. 

 We do not pretend to have fully solved the 

 problem of wintering and springing bees, 

 but are strongly of the opinion that one im- 

 portant factor in the problem is to have 

 plenty of stores and at the same time have 

 plenty of room for the queen to lay. If 

 more honey is left in the hive than will be 

 used in wintering it will not be wasted, and 

 in the spring the bees will increase their 

 numbers more rapidly if they feel that they 

 have plenty. Better extract the overplus at 

 the beginning of the harvest than to try ro 

 leave just as little as will carry the bees 

 through. 



Novice inquires, in August number of 

 Oleanings, if the American Bee Jour- 

 nal or any one else knew that McAllister 

 «fe Co., of Chicago, were of the fraudulent 

 sort why they did not say so? Now look 

 here. Novice, you may wish you hadn't put 

 that chip on your shoulder. The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal tries to be a little care- 

 ful not to speak too hastily on subjects of 

 which it is not fully informed. Some eigh- 

 teen months ago the advertisement of J. K. 

 McAllister & Co. was refused by the pul>- 

 lisher of the American Bee Journal 

 because he was not furnished with sat- 

 isfactory references, but this lack of infor- 

 mation did not warrant publishing the firm 

 as a fraud. Has there been more than one 

 case of unfair dealing reported of them? 



Not long ago we ordered a small package 

 of comb foundation, and after putting it in- 

 to the hives it stretched down in such a 

 way that each particular cell seemed to be 

 making faces at us. Should we not im- 

 mediately have warned the public that the 

 party was a fraud, sending out what was 

 worse than worthless? Had we done so, 

 hastily, we might have regretted it. for very 

 shortly afterward he gave notice that he 

 had discovered that the material did not 

 work right, and he stood ready to make 

 good all damages. So it is best to go slow 

 and sure in such matters. 



The firm of King & Slocuni, publishers of 

 the Bcc-Kccpers'' Magazine, of New York, 

 has been dissolved. Mr. Slocum retiring 

 and Mr. Turner taking his place, under tiie 

 firm name of A. J. King & Co. The new 

 firm has our best wishes for success. 



