September, jyu7. 



American Vae Journal 



No. 2 conil), $i.7S to $2.js per dozen, 

 wholesale. 



On the darker grades not yet harvest- 

 ed, a reasonable advance over last sea- 

 son's prices should be obtained. 



H. G. SiBBALD, 



Wm. Crouse, 



W. J. Craig, 



P. W. HoiKiF.TT.s, Sec. 



While the prices suggested, may, to 

 some, seem a little high, yet when every- 

 thing is taken into consideration, there 

 is no good reason why they should be 

 lower. Some have thought that foreign 

 honey would be shipped in, but with the 

 general shortage of the crop in the large 

 producing centers, coupled with the 3 

 cents per pound duty, there is not much 

 danger from that source. 



"Mother Earth" for Cleaningr 

 " Bee "-Daubed Fingers 



Strange how some of our notions are 

 sometimes apt to "change without no- 

 tice," quite suddenly. 



When I first read Dr. Miller's plan of 

 cleansing the fingers of honey by means 

 of rubbing them with earth, I thought 

 the method — well, rather dirty. 



Last week it was my lot to examine 

 a large apiary, and as the frames in the 

 hives were spaced "any old way," with 

 lots of honey along the top-bars and in 

 burr-combs, my fingers were constantly 

 being "stuck up." No water being near 

 the yard, I was at a loss to know how 

 to keep smoker, etc., free from honey, 

 when I happened to think of the Doc- 

 tor's plan. Say, it works like a charm, 

 and a good many times during that day 

 was a handful of dry earth called into 

 use. To be sure, when dong any work 

 by way of handling honey, etc., a basin 

 of water is the proper thing, but in cases 

 hke the one mentioned, Mother Earth 

 is par excellence. Doubters, try it, and 

 be convinced. 



Alfalfa Honey in Ontario 



Frank Adams, of Brantford, Ontario, 

 reports that this year, again, his bees 

 did well on alfalfa. Reports like this 

 are rare in Ontario, and in our own lo- 

 cality I have yet to see the first bee 

 working on this plant. 



Fair Season— Two Queens in a 

 Hive, Etc. 



Friend Byer: — The honey season has 

 closed with a jolt in this locality. Bees 

 have gathered only a fair surplus. With- 

 out an exception colonies headed with 

 young queens did the best. A few of 

 the best averaged 160 pounds each, and 

 the rest all the way down to 25 pounds. 

 Colonies that were considered weak in 

 May gained up and did much better 

 than those that were very strong. The 

 latter swarmed in spite of all I could 

 do, and thus cut down the surplus. 



With the two-queens-in-a-hive sys- 

 tem I had the following experience this 

 season : In looking through a colony of 

 Italians I discovered a young queen. 



She was a worthless-looking little in- 

 sect, so I killed her, and supposed that 

 the old queen had previously been killed. 

 There was an extracting super on this 

 colony, and when I introduced a new 

 Italian queen into it I lifted the super 

 off and placed the cage between the top- 

 bars of the brood-nest. I left the ex- 

 cluder off, anil replaced the super. In 

 S days I examined them again and 

 found the old original queen with clipped 

 wing in the brood-nest, and so conclud- 

 ed they had killed the new queen. Two 

 days later I examined the extracting 

 super and found the new queen had tak- 

 en up her qu.irters there. I introduced 

 the new queen later into a nucleus. The 

 old queen is still living and doing good 

 work, and I am wondering why they 

 reared that young queen which I found 

 in the first place. If they were trying 

 to supersede the old queen why have 

 they not tried it again? or do they only 

 try that once in a season? 



There was only enough basswood 

 gathered to flavor the clover honey. 

 I am feeding now to stimulate the 

 queens. I have given up spring stimu- 

 lating to a great extent, as I find that 

 colonies strong with young bees in the 

 fall do not require spring feeding. I 

 have them strong to go into winter quar- 

 ters by light feeding just after the flow. 



The hint given in one of the bee-pa- 

 pers in regard to getting all-worker 

 comb built from starters by weak colo- 

 nies headed with a young queen, has 

 been worth something to me. I made 

 a number of 3- frame nuclei and grad- 

 ually added frames of starters. Each 

 colony drew out 7 frames of beautiful 

 worker-comb. I did not feed them any, 

 and they have abundance of honey. I 

 tried the same thing with a weak col- 

 ony with an old queen, and a fine frame 

 of drone-comb was the result. I wish 



I knew the 7vhy of .some of those bee- 

 pranks. H. A. Smith. 

 Palermo, Ont., August 5. 



You may be thankful, Mr. Smith, in 

 having secured a crop of honey this 

 year. Only in a few localities are bee- 

 keepers able to report even a "fair" 

 surplus, and in our immediate section 

 we have scarcely any honey. To make 

 matters worse, the weather has been 

 so very cool and dry that buckwheat 

 is not yielding anything and prospects 

 now are that we will have to feed more 

 for winter stores than what we have 

 taken from the bees. 



As to your superseding experience, 

 quite possibly that old queen will fail 

 before next spring, even if she is doing 

 all right now. About 4 weeks ago I 

 found a colony headed with a queen of 

 this year's rearing, making arrangements 

 for superseding. I broke down the two 

 cells started, and up to the present they 

 have not tried to supersede again. But 

 I shall take note of that colony nnd see 

 if the queen does not fail in the near 

 future. Past experience leads me to 

 think, that such is likely to be the case. 



Yes, weak colonies headed by young 

 queens will do fine work, by way of 

 building worker-combs from starters, 

 but, as you intimate, it does not work 

 that way when old queens arc in the 

 hives. However, I am a little doubtful 

 if it pays not to use full sheets of 

 foundation even in weak colonies, es- 

 pecially if the bee-keeper produces his 

 own wa.x for foundation, and does not 

 have it to buy. Unfortunately with us 

 this year, except during fruit-bloom, 

 foundation in any shape would not be 

 touched by the bees, and the 40 nuclei 

 I started were got into shape for winter 

 only by giving them combs of brood and 

 honev from the old colonies. 



Different Methods of Lique- 

 fying Granulated Honey 



BY 0. C. GREINER. 



Ever since I have been on the road 

 selling honey, I have taken extra pains 

 to inform and educate the honey-con- 

 suming public within my reach, in re- 

 gard to the granulating process of all 

 pure honey. But in spite of all my ef- 

 forts along this line it is still the gen- 

 eral belief that granulation indicates 

 adulteration, and even those people, who 

 know all about this natural change pre- 

 fer to buy extracted honey in its liquid 

 state. My endeavor to furnish such 

 goods as the market calls for, has forced 

 upon me a fair amount of experience 

 in liquefying granulated honey, both in 



retail glass packages and in the larger 

 60-pound till cans. 



Occasionally inquiries are made in re- 

 gard to liquefying honey in glass jars. 

 Well, here is what I know about it ; 



The most important feature of the 

 operation is time — lots of time — but as 

 little heat as possible. It is a job that 

 can not be hurried, if We wish to re- 

 tain the fine flavor of our honey. We 

 must therefore take time by the fore- 

 top, and begin in season. 



After my honey is put up in glass 

 cans, it begins to thicken, and look 

 "milky, as soon as colder weather sets 

 in. This takes place, generally, during 

 September, and, long before winter be- 

 gins, every can, if let alone, would be 

 as solid as a rock, figuratively speaking. 

 But I don't give it the chance, if I 



