52 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 23, 1902. 



did the feeding. If there has been any case 

 of this kind it has not been widely reported. 

 Again, if a colony of pure blacks should 

 be compelled to rear a queen from an egg 

 taken from pure Italian stock, the colony 

 should remain, at least for some weeks, with 

 no very great change. On the contrary, the 

 change is sudden and entire, so far as can be 

 seen, to just what it would have been if the 

 young queen had been fed by Italian workers. 



Bleaching Extractlng-Conibs.— In or- 

 der to get the very whitest extracted honey, it 

 is believed by many that the use of new combs, 

 or combs that has never been used for brood- 

 rearing, is desirable. In a communication 

 from Robert J. Krause, he proposed to bleach 

 the combs by having them immersed in a 

 weak solution of bleaching powder or sul- 

 phuric acid, from one season to another. Two 

 troughs are to made holding, each 1,000 combs 

 or more, with an arrangement to run the solu- 

 tion so slowly from one to another that the 

 air would all escape from the cells, the solu- 

 tion being run by a somewhat ingenious ar- 

 rangement, every tew days, from one trough 

 to another. 



He desires an opinion as to the value of his 

 scheme. It could hardly be used except in 

 the South, for freezing would prevent the 

 plan from working, besides doing some injury 

 to the combs. The question arises, whether 

 continuous soaking would not be sure to 

 loosen the combs entirely from the frames. 

 • Would there be any object in bleaching any 

 combs except those blackened by l>rood-rear- 

 ing * And would it not be a cheaper plan to 

 keep extracting-combs and brood-combs en- 

 tirely separate ^ Our friends in the warmer 

 portions of the country who extract on a 

 large scale will probably be able lo give a reli- 

 able opinion as to the value of the scheme. 



^ Weekly Budget. I 



>( 



Mr. Andrew Carlson, of Chisago Co., 

 Minn., called to see us recently when on his 

 way home, having been visiting in Indiana. 

 He reports a good honey crop the past year, 

 mainly from basswood. He keeps from 75 to 

 100 colonies of bees. 



Mr. S. Q. Conkle, of Orange Co., Calif., is 

 one of the car-load honey-producers of that 

 State. A view of his beautiful apiary in the 

 mountains appears on the first page of this 

 number. When sending the photograph he 

 wrote thus : 



" I send you by this mail a photograph of my 

 Mountain Apiary. I commenced the season 

 last March with 126 colonies, built, over TOO 

 combs, and took out 2.5,514 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey. The season closed in July, and 

 owing to a severe attack of lagrippe 1 missed 

 getting my bees in condition for the main 

 honey-How by about ten days. The increase 

 was 10 swarms. I give room and use the ex- 

 tractor to keep down increase. I make my 

 increase in the valley after the honey season 

 is over in the hills, using the tall flow of low- 

 grade honey. 



I have now 203 colonies, and the crop sold 

 at 4K to 8 cents a pound, depending upon 

 the amount the purchaser look and the (|ual- 

 ity. I sold the beeswax at 24 cents a pound. 



To show how honey crops turn out in Califor- 

 nia, most of the bee-men in March and April 

 said we would get about a fourth of a crop. 

 We bad late rains, and that makes honey. 

 The crop was light amber, very little being 

 water-white. 



I have had something to do with bees for 

 20 years. I must speak of four honey-days 

 wp had last May. The weather was muggy, 

 and the ground and hives were covered with 

 loaded bees — couldn't put a toot down with- 

 out crushing bees. The hum of a lot of bees 

 in a good honey-flow beats any other music. 



The country is very dry here at the present 

 time (Dec. 2l"). S. Q. Conkle. 



A Pardon.^ble Error, it seems, was made 

 by us on page IS, in referring to an acrobatic 

 feat proformed by the president of the Colo- 

 rado Bee-Keepers' Association at its last con- 

 vention. We have received a letter from Mrs. 



are using all kinds of hives from the box-hive 

 to the improved dovetailed hive. 



I had the pleasure of meeting W. S. Forney, 

 whose apiary is located in a small town at 

 the toot of Bald Eagle Mountain. He is em- 

 ployed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 jiany, and has an apiary of 25 tir 30 colonies, 

 which he rims as a side-issue at the rear of 

 his home. It will be noticed that he has a 

 tew chaff hives, and .some of his own make. 

 Mr. Forney is seen raising the cover from one 

 of the chaff-hives, and his four boys are his 

 helpers. I am glad to say that the young bee- 

 keepers are taking a great interest iu bee-cul- 

 ture. Ml'. Forney told me that when he is 

 away at work, these boys hive the swarms 

 and can find the queen as readily as he can. 

 They are not afraid of bees; in the apiary 

 the.v can be seen without veil, gloves or hat. 



Mr. Forney runs his apiary mostly for comb 

 hone.v, being in a good basswood location, 

 and linds a ready sale at home for all he pro- 

 duces, and at a good price. As a bee-hunter 



APIARY (IF «. s. FORNEY. OF LYCOMING CO.. FA. 



Aikin, protesting against the statement that 

 it was her husband whose chair (not Mr. 

 Aikin himself) became so tipsy as to cause its 

 occupant to take a backward somersault. It 

 appears that it was the new president of the 

 Association, Mr. J. U. Harris, who caused 

 the tun by the unusual performance, that, 

 while not exactly on the program, was an en- 

 joyable feature of the session. 



Our error is easily explained. It is the 

 usual thing for the new president to preside 

 at the next meeting, and not at the one where 

 he is elected. So we supposed, of course, it 

 was Mr. Aikin, who had been president up to 

 that time, who somersaulted in his chair. 



We certainly would not willingly deprive 

 Mr. Harris of any credit in the matter; nor 

 would we desire to give Mr. Aikin more credit 

 than is due him. So we most humbly beg the 

 pardon of both good men, and hope it will 

 not occur again —the acrobatic performance, 

 we mean. 



Mr. Forney can not be excelled, for he has 

 captured quite a number of runaway swarms, 

 and transferred them into hives. He showed 

 me some very nice Italian bees that he found 

 in trees on the mountain. W. H. Heim. 



The Afiart of W. S. Forney is shown on 

 this page. Mr. W. H. Heim, of the same 

 county (Lycoming Co., Pa.) wrote as follows 

 concerning it and the bee-keejiers of his local- 

 . Ity ; 



As I had the pleasure of visiting some of 

 the bee-keepers in Central Pennsylvania. I 

 thought it might be of some interest to tell 

 what I have seen among them. I find they 



The Wisconsin State convention will be 

 held in the State Capitol, at Madison, Feb. 5 

 and 6, 1002. The following is the program : 



President's Address— Pres. N. E. France. 



Moving Bees — Gustave Gross. 



Description of My Cellar— C. H. Pierce. 



Production and Care of Extracted Honev — 

 EirSs Fox. 



How I Produce Comb Honey — Mrs. Evans. 



Address — George W. York. 



Co-operation of State and National Associa- 

 tions — Pres. N. E. France. 



Value of Good Queens and Methods of In- 

 troduction — Secretary Ada 1^. Pickard. 



Beeswax Production — C. A. Hatch. 



Benefits Derived from Attending Conven- 

 tions — Jacob Hoffman. 



The secretary's notice also contains this 

 paragraph : 



The above program will be interspersed 

 with music. A general discussion will follow 

 each topic and a free use of the question-box 

 will be a prominent and valuable feature. Ex- 

 cursion rates have been secured, one and one- 

 third tare, good tor the entire week. These 

 conventions are interesting and profitable and 

 every bee-keeper in the State should attend. 

 Come and enjoy the good things with us. 



We trust it may be a largely attended meet- 

 ing. Wisconsin always has good conventions 

 because some of the biggest and best bee-keep- 

 ers are in that State. 



