A 



•Journal: 



• DELVoT 



To •Be: ^ 



•andHoNEV- 

 7\RD HOME. 

 •iMTE.PlEST4> 



I-KooT- 



rAEDINAOmO 



Vol. XX. 



JANUARY 1, 1892. 



No. 1. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Thk. hkst MOTii-Kxci.rDEK. the Bee-keepers' 

 Mdiltizine says, is the bee. Right. 



Most hkksw.w. R. F. Holteniiann thini<s. is 

 iiijurt'ii by too much iicatiiig in rendering. 



N.M'THAi.iXK. the I'. B. J. suggests, when 

 used in a liive. may injure the flavor of the 

 lioney. 



Thk Bee-keepers' MtKjdz'ine is the latest name 

 of the monthly started in Minnesota that was 

 flrst Tlie Bee journal and then Northwestern 

 Bee Journiil. 



EiiiHT YKA!!s the Bee-keepers' Union has ex- 

 isted, and the same otticers have been elected 

 each yeai'. Tlu' manager urges the election of 

 new men. He"s light. 



Axu xow ifs out what ails Hasty. He's a 

 posy-loverl Areifl you ashamed. Hasty? But 

 if tiiH bees like flowers so well, what else can be 

 expected of their owners'? 



Thk C. B. J. proposes to open a free intelli- 

 gence ollice for those who want to .serve an 

 apprenticespip at bee-keeping, and for those 

 who want such apprentices. 



I WONDER the senior editor didn't start a 

 carp-pond with the waste from that artesian 

 well in Dakota I suppose he'll erect an arte- 

 sian well in Medina when he gets home. 



Sthay Straws in last number of Gleanings 

 says each .State at the World's Fair would have 

 ten sciuare feet U)Y a bee-show. The tyijcs or I 

 made a mistake. It should be ten feet square. 



•• Dangkrous advice " is what the C. B. J. 

 terms the advice of the B. B. J. to disinfect the 

 combs of foul-broody stocks with the fumes of 

 burning sulphur, said combs to be then used as 

 safe. 



A MAM.MOTH CONVENTION of bee-keepei'S at 

 the Woi'ld"s Fair, lasting one or two weeks, 

 with all the great bee-lights of Europe and 

 America present, is proposed by D. A. Jones. 

 Why not? 



In France they are cultivating a plant par- 

 asite that is death to the white grub, the larva 

 of the May beetle. What a blessing if we could 

 have some parasite for wax-moths and foul- 

 brood germs 1 



The a. B. J. has no less distinguished a cor- 

 respondent than Thos. Wm. Cowan, of the B. 

 B. T. The occasion was an article in favor of 

 Funics, and Mr. Cowan rather more than hints 

 that there are no such bees. 



So. Mr8. Harrison, bees " have a picker but 

 uo biter." Well, well: Root, Cheshire, and all 

 the authorities will have to correct their books. 

 Say. do bees use their ''pickers'" down your 

 way to climb out of feeders? 



AiJ>.\UGirs NKW METHOD of handling bees 

 comes in for a good deal of discussion in C. B.J,, 

 and great things ai-i' claimed for it: but so far 

 it is a profound secret, and Mr. Aipaugh him- 

 self is expressively silent about it. 



The Bee-keepers' Union is on the up grade. 

 Fifty per cent increase of members in one yearl 

 It's doing good work, and the membership ought 

 to more than double for the coming year. Send 

 *1 to T. (J. Newman, and become a member. It 

 may save you S^IOO. 



Scientists must be suppressed along with 

 anarchists and all other ists. Here they've 

 gone and invented microbes, bacteria, and 

 things of that sort, to give us grip, foul brood, 

 and every thing else. Fifty years ago the air 

 wasn't full of such things, and people got along 

 better without them. 



Secretary Hutchinson, speaking of the 

 action of the Chicago convention relative to 

 grading comb honey, says, in his report, "The 

 adoption of these rules was really the most im- 

 portant work done by the convention, and per- 

 haps the most important that will be done by 

 any convention this year." 



Vaseline, the C. B. J. thinks, might be a 

 good thing to paint lightly over a queen to be 

 introduced, with the supposition that, as it 

 drives robbers away, it would drive away from 

 the queen any bees that might try to sting her. 

 I'd rather tiy it on a cheap queen first. It 

 might have just the opposite effect. 



A correspondent says he has been watch- 

 ing Gleanings in vain to see what was my crop 

 of honey the past year. From 'iSii colonies I got 

 about 8<)00 lbs. of comb honey, or 3()'., lbs. per 

 colony. Although living not L'O miles away, he 

 took only 150 lbs. from 80 colonies, or about 2 

 lbs. per colony. But he sometimes gets honey, 

 I think, when I fail. 



After zero weather it is again milder, and 

 Dec. 20 bees could fly outdoors, the first time 

 since the last week in October. So you see 

 there was nothing gained by leaving them out 

 after the last of October, unless they were left 

 out till Dec. 20, and I'm afraid the flight on 

 that day would not counterbalance the harm 

 done by the previous zero weather. 



What makes people paint the inside wood- 

 work of their houses, when pine or any other 

 wood is so much handsomer, and costs no more 

 finished off in its nattn-al color? I'd rather 

 have it finished with nothing but linseed oil 

 rubbed on with a rag than to have the finest 

 job of painting. But I'd like still more to have 

 something itetter than the oil and rag. 



Grading honey is one of the things that I 

 suspect will not be .settled in a day, and it may 

 be well to thoroughly discuss the matter in 

 print. I'm anxiously "waiting to see what was 

 done about it at Albany, but I suspect it will 

 still be open for discussion. Unless thev modi- 



