20 



ship and attendance the Victoria As- 

 sociation compares favorably with 

 other States. They publish a very 

 creditable journal, "The Victorian 

 Bee Journal." 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



SIXTY-POUND CANS 



What is the best way to drain all 

 the honey out of 60-pound cans, so 

 as not to waste any? 



Answer: After drawing all the 

 honey you can get out, heat the can 

 a little. This will make the honey 

 S'O thin that it will run out easily. 

 Then, if you want to get every bit of 

 it out, you can wash the inside of 

 the can with hot water, using same 

 water several times, until it is sweet 

 enough to make vinegar. It will 

 make good vinegar if you add some 

 fruit juice and keep it warm. But 

 you must leave the vessel open so 

 as to allow of fermentation. You 

 can keep flies and insects out by ty- 

 ing some sort of muslin over the 

 mouth of the vessel. It first has an 

 alcoholic fermentation, but soon 

 turns to vinegar. 



However, cans that have been 

 washed inside with water must be 

 thoroughly dried, or they will rust. 

 As a rule it does not pay to use 

 them twice for honey. Better cut the 

 top oflf and use them for water pails, 

 with a handle across the top. 



JOINING THE LEAGUE 



How can an individual beekeeper 

 join the American Honey Producers' 

 League? 



Answer. — As we understand it, in- 

 dividual beekeepers can join through 

 their home organization, whether lo- 

 cal or State. The question was re- 

 ferred to Mr. B. F. Kindig, who has 

 been very efficient in organization 

 work, and he replies as follows: 



"This question is mostly answered 

 under Section 2 of Article 2 of the 

 Constitution of the League, which is 

 as follows ; 



" 'Any organization of beekeepers 

 may acquire the right to elect a 

 member of this League by applying 

 therefor to the Secretary of the 

 League and accompanying such ap- 

 plication with a sum equal to $1 for 

 each member of such applicant as- 

 sociation; provided, that the Execu- 

 tive Committee may reject any appli- 

 cation and shall return any sum de- 

 posited if such application is rejected. 

 When once affiliated, such organiza- 

 tion may continue its affiliation by 

 paying annually to the Secretary of 

 the League a sum equal to $1 for 

 each member then belonging to such 

 affiliating association, and by the 

 further payment of a sum equal to $1 

 for each member subsequently join- 

 ing such affiliated association ; pro- 

 vided, that the minimum fee for 

 membership from any organization 

 shall be $100, and provided, further, 

 that when a State or provisional or- 

 ganization has affiliated, no other or- 

 ganization from the same State or 

 Province shall be received. The Ex- 

 ecutive Committee may modify or 

 suspend this section for the year 

 1920.' 



"At the close of the organization 

 meeting in Kansas City the Execu- 

 tive Committee met and modified the 

 above section for the present year so 

 that any organization may join the 

 League by paying the initial fee of 

 $100^ This is the condition under 

 which the Michigan Association has 

 joined the League. However, begin- 

 ning with January 1, 1921, it will 

 cost an organization $1 per member 

 for membership in the League. The 

 matter of joining the League should, 

 be taken up by the various State As- 

 sociations at their first annual meet- 

 ing, and there it should be decided 

 whether or not they wish to join the 

 League. So far as I know at pres- 

 ent, California, Texas, New York and 

 Michigan are the only ones which 

 have taken action to date. The join- 

 ing of the League will in the case of 

 many States require a readjustment 

 of the membership fee in order that 

 they may be able to pay the required 

 $1 per member. 



"The Secretary of the League is 

 H. E. Parks, Box 1048, San Antonio, 

 Texas. All applications for member- 

 ship should be addressed to him. 

 "Yours truly, 



"B. F. KINDIG, 

 "State Apiary Inspector." 



Section 5 of Article II of the Con- 

 stitution of the League reads : 



"Any person, firm or corporation 

 may, subject to the approval of the 

 Executive Committee, become en- 

 titled to the service of the League 

 by paying to the Secretary $10 per 

 year." 



As we understand this, the parties 

 thus joining would be entitled to the 

 same service as an affiliated organi- 

 zation. — Editor. 



COLONY OF BEES THAT WOULD 

 NOT ACCEPT A QUEEN 



By Eugene HoUoway 



Will a colony of bees that is hope- 

 lessly queenless accept a queen 

 quicker than a colony that has just 

 been dequeened, if the hopeless 



January 



colony has been queenless two weeks 

 or more? Some people would think 

 they would, and I thought so until I 

 had the experience this year, but I 

 am far from believing that now. 



This colony swarmed the 7th of 

 June, and nine days later I examined 

 the hive and destroyed the queen- 

 cells, and to my knowledge two vir- 

 gin queens had emerged; so I de- 

 stroyed the queen-cells and did not 

 look at it any more for two weeks, 

 but I know it swarmed but once. 

 Two weeks from the time I de- 

 stroyed the cells I examined the 

 colony and they were hopelessly 

 queenless; so I gave them a comb 

 of young brood and they reared cells 

 and capped them, and I destroyed 

 them and gave them a queen in a 

 mailing cage, and I did not release 

 the queen for 48 hours a''ter I put her 

 in the colony; but they killed her; so 

 I gave this colony four queens, and 

 they killed all of them. 



I tried first the mailing cage, then 

 the push-in comb cage, then the 

 honey method, and then I took a lay- 

 ing queen out of a full colony with 

 comb of bees, and put in the hive; 

 but it did not do any good. Then 

 I let them rear a queen, and in due 

 time there were two virgins in the 

 hive, but they disappeared; so I gave 

 them an honorable discharge and 

 united them with another colony. 



Oklahoma. 



Answer: I have always held, and 

 your experiment confirms my views, 

 that the best time to introduce a 

 queen is when a colony is queen- 

 right. Removing one queen and 

 introducing the other immediately 

 is the safest way. Success may 

 be secured by other methods, but 

 this is the surest, aside from intro- 

 ducing the strange queen to hatching 

 bees. — Editor. 



Handy pail made from 60-pound can 



BUILDING UP WEAK COLONIES 

 IN SPRING 



The Seastream Plan 



We were favored a few days ago 

 by the visit of Mr. Geo. Seastream, 

 of Pawnee, 111., and were very much 

 interested in his method of building 

 up weak colonies in the spring. Mr. 

 Seastream winters all of his colonies 

 in the cellar, in both 8-frame and 10- 

 frame hives. He usually has a num- 

 ber of them which are not up to nor- 

 mal strength when they come out of 

 winter quarters and, in order to pre- 

 vent spring dwindling, he uses a 

 modification of the Alexander plan, 

 but goes a step or two further, which 

 yields him excellent results. 



When the colonies are taken out of 

 the cellar in the early spring the con- 

 dition of each is noted and the 

 weaker ones are all placed in one 

 group for attention. No weak colo- 

 nies are ever taken to outyards. 



If the colonies are moderately 

 strong, they are tiered up in pairs, 

 with a queen-excluder between. If 

 very weak, three colonies are placed 

 on top of one another. All colonies 

 must be packed with burlap, or any- 

 thing that keeps heat and sheds rain. 



