648 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 9, 1902. 



simplified and made it a frood deal easier to get our honey 

 ready for market, but we have made it possible to have it 

 look a good deal better when done, which is always a satis- 

 faction. 



We use the T super, and in emptying use a push-board 

 which forces the sections out in a solid block, leaving them 

 lying on a board bottom up when the super is removed. 



We then remove the T tins and slip over the sections a 

 frame very much like a super, onlj' it is shallow to allow the 

 sections to come about an inch above the frame. It is long 

 enough and wide enough to slip over the sections easily. 

 Then it is thoroughly wedged at one side and one end until 

 everything is tight as a drum. , 



Now with a case-knife, which is kept very sharp, we 

 can quickly and easily, if the weather is cool, remove all 

 propolis from the bottom of the sections of the whole super 

 at one time. It does not take very much more time to scrape 

 the bottom of the whole super than it would to scrape one 

 or two sections. Next, with a small piece of sandpaper we 

 sandpaper the bottom of the sections. This removes all 

 stains from the wood and also obliterates all marks that the 

 knife may have left in scraping, leaving a smooth, pretty 

 surface. 



We now pull out the wedges (but not the follower), put 

 a board over the sections, put one hand under the board on 

 which the sections are standing, and the other hand on the 

 board over the sections, and reverse the whole business, 

 leaving the tops of the sections up, wedge them up tight 

 again, and treat the tops the same way we did the bottoms. 

 If there is any difference we are a little more careful in 

 sandpapering the tops, as they show the most. 



Now all that is left is the sides and edges of the sec- 

 tions to be done separately. Instead of the board on my 

 lap I use a little table to scrape on, just high enough and 

 wide enough to slip over my lap. It is strong and solid — an 

 ideal little table to work on for many things besides scrap- 

 ing honey. McHenry Co., 111. 



\ ^ The Afterthought. ^ | 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



INVENTIONS AND INVENTIONS. 



That is a good idea expressed editorially on page 579. 

 Some inventions do good. Some inventions do no good, 

 but only give an advantage to the person using them first. 

 I suppose we have no right to forbid the latter class of 

 devices, but we can look a little cross at them. Don't ask 

 us to look pleasant when we are compelled to extra ex- 

 penses just for nothing at all. Then there is another class 

 of devices and plans which do harm, really, but do it to the 

 benefit of somebody's pocket-book. I think we ought to 

 look ferocious in concert at these. 



THE BEE-LOUSE AND THE QUEEN. 



So the fat bee-louse which sometimes inhabits the 

 queen, is still regarded as in the land of the may-be-so-and- 

 may-be-not, as to how he gets his dinner. Running down 

 to the queen's mouth, and sharing her victuals, doesn't 

 sound very reasonable ; but may be it's all right — for the 

 louse — and the scientist. Though we set a very " big bug " 

 to observing a little bug, observing Sir Louse for a dozen 

 hours without subjecting the queen to unnatural conditions 

 must be in the nature of a puzzle. Page 579. 



HALF-DEPTH FRAMES AND COMB HONEY. 



A Texas plan on page 582 is not very familiar else- 

 where, I think. (Some half-depth frames first filled to ex- 

 tract and then sections put on.) For a location with a light 

 harvest of inferior honey just before the main harvest of 

 white honey, the method would seem to ofi'er special advan- 

 tages. On general principles, I don't admire half frames 

 and whole frames in the same hive ; but I can see a chance 

 for certain advantages. Getting the queen at work above 

 early, and having the honey itself drive her down, looks 

 like a taking scheme. Good plan if it works. It doesn't 

 appear that any unsealed brood is to be put into the ex- 

 tractor. No kindly word from me for that abomination. 

 In ray field I wouldn't want to spare honey to fill a set of 



half frames before the sections ; but in difierent and just- 

 right conditions it will do, I guess. In so far as one may 

 wish to run for bulk honey, half-depth frames are presum- 

 ably just the thing. 



THE MOUTH AS AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM. 



I see that on page 582, man's mouth has a puff as a 

 valuable advertising medium. According to Solomon, as 

 reported in one place, it consumes all the results of labor. 

 If so, it looks as if it ought to turn to and help make a liv- 

 ing. Still, there is a place where it says : " In many words 

 there wanteth not sin. And many a good man will earnestly 

 say, my wife and my mouth shall not blow trumpets." 



CHARACTERISTICS OF NUCLEI. 



It's the right way to do things to have some actual ex- 

 periments when critics challenge our statements. This is 

 anent Miller and Doolittle, on page 583. I suppose many of 

 us often speak from general impressions, gathered during 

 long years of continual work with bees. I guess that's all 

 right ; yet at times it may lead us to say things that will 

 turn up at odds with the first experiment. If, in the style 

 of the landscape-insulting advertisers, the words, " Some- 

 times and sometimes " could be painted on a big barn so we 

 would have to look at every day, it would do us good. We 

 all know 'em ; but somehow they don't even yet ring in our 

 ears loud enough or often enough. It's easy for me to be- 

 lieve that a good lot of bees will often all desert, as Mr. 

 Doolittle says. 'Pears like, in times gone by, I've had 'em 

 do it. And, of course, we believe, also, that Dr. Miller's 

 nuclei survived not only the desertions but an attack of 

 robbers, also. But say, wouldn't an attack of robbers, if 

 made just at the right time, and with sufficient strength 

 and suddenness, stop the desertions, and turn every bee's 

 mind toward defense? And my impression is that after 

 we get above say two quarts, perhaps less, the more bees 

 we put in, the less our prospects of success. The excite- 

 ment is bigger, and the young bees which do not know the 

 way home have the more guides, and to the ones that can't 

 fly at all the skedaddle looks more fearful. I'm not a queen- 

 breeder, and for many years one great object before me has 

 been to keep from having too many colonies ; so, naturally, 

 I haven't much recent experience with nuclei; but my im- 

 pression is that my bees are somewhere between Dr. 

 Miller's and Mr. Doolittle's in their inclinations when set 

 alone. 



QUEENS — DE.iD BEES. 



And Mr. F. Greiner, who does not deal in queens, has 

 found most of his purchased queens to be good ones. Stick 

 a pin there — just as good a pin as the one we stuck where 

 somebody realized a shocking proportion of worthless 

 queens. As to whether bees die around the hives or at a 

 distance, we must look at our " Sometimes " barn again. 

 Usually the ground around my hives is pretty clear of dead 

 bees: but sometimes there are lots of them. These occa- 

 sions when lots of dead bees scatter near by I am inclined 

 to lay to a sort of poisoning — bees working on a nectar 

 which is slightly poisonous — buckwheat, for instance. And 

 cool weather at the time will very greatly increase the evil, 

 I believe. 



I can back Mr. Greiner that my bees do not leave two 

 frames on each side unoccupied with brood. I run seven 

 frames ; and June 1 finds brood in all of them, as a general 

 rule. 



And so, in Mr. Greiner's yards, queens reared in ways 

 said to be improper ways live nearly as long as the others. 

 Can swallow the assertion without even a wry face. p. 583. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a " hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at SI. 00. 



Please send iis Names of Bee=Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get them 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



