230 



July, igog. 



American ^ae Journal 



disease of foul brood, just because one man 

 has made up his mind that it can not be 

 cured — because his bees have it and he does 

 not try to clean up. We told the Legislative 

 Committee of the House who the author of the 

 protest was, before they read the names. We 

 can tell you where you can find some of them 

 (as we did in reading the proof) in the Eighth 

 Annual Report, now about to come from the 

 printer, in the report of the Chicago-Northwest- 

 ern, when the motion was on the unanimous 

 adoption of the resolution sent as a petition 

 to the legislature. 



And I wish to say right here, that when we 

 asked (by request of the printer) for a copy 

 of this petition, it had to be reproduced from 

 the memories of those who heard it read, for 

 the original could not be found among its 

 friends! 



These protesters ought to he treated as ene- 

 mies to all bee-keepers, as well as to the manu- 

 facture of bee-hives and ouglit to be compelled 

 to make their own hives, and consume all their 

 own (foul-broody) honey, until they become 

 American citizens, by being willing to live un- 

 der majority rule. T.\s. A. Stone, Sec. 



Rt. 4, Springfield 111. 



It seems to us that the names and 

 addresses of those so-called bee-keepers 

 who helped to defeat the much-needed 

 legislation on bee-diseases in Illinois, 

 should be known. They should also be 

 excluded from membership in any bee- 

 keepers' organization. There is no good 

 reason why Illinois should not have a 

 bee-disease law equal to Wisconsin, In- 

 diana, and some other States. The 

 charge that it is a scheme of the bee- 

 supply manufacturers is too ridiculous 

 to consider. Whoever gave that as an 

 argument against the passage of the de- 

 sired law knew he was lying when he 

 did so. Are our legislators going to 

 listen to such specimens of "bee-fud- 

 dled" humanity, or to honorable men 

 like Jas. A. Stone, C. P. Dadant, Chas. 

 Becker, J. Q. Smith, and hundreds of 

 others that might be named? 



We shall see as time goes on. 



Queen Taking Her Wedding Flight 

 from the Cell 



L. Armstrong, in the Australasian 

 Bee-Keeper, reports an unusual case. 

 While he was watching a queen-cell held 

 in his hand, the young queen emerged 

 and immediately flew. At a distance of 

 7 or 8 feet from the ground he saw her 

 meet the drone. In 4 days more she was 

 laying. Mr. Armstrong says : 



"What I am the most impressed at, is a 

 queen flying and getting mated straight from 

 the cell. 



"I have never heard or read of the like 

 before: had she got out of my sight, I should 

 certainly say that it must have been another 

 queen, that I saw mate. I have watched for 

 years to see the mating between a queen and 

 drone, but this is the first time that I have 

 been successful in witnessing it." 



This seems to conflict with the state- 

 ment of the late Henry Alley that a 

 young queen never goes on her wed- 

 ding trip until 5 days old. But the 

 conflict is more seeming than real. It is 

 well known that virgins are often held 

 in their cells by the workers, and it is 

 not entirely impossible that in this case 

 she was held in her cell until 5 days old. 



strained out of honey is lighter than 

 honey, rising to the top if given time 

 enough. Some particles may be heavy 

 enough to sink to the bottom, but the 

 quantity of such particles is small. The 

 problem is to provide a vessel, or series 

 of vessels, in which the particles may 

 be separated bv gravit}', such a strainer 

 — if it can be called a strainer — always 

 being in working order, avoiding the 

 troublesome cleaning of the usual 

 strainers. 



In the ordinary strainer, if the mesh 

 of the cloth be too coarse, some of the 

 finer particles of wax, etc., will pass 

 through. If too fine the honey passes 

 through too slowly. Gravity works 

 equally well on the smallest or the larg- 

 est particles. 



The construction of the strainer is 

 simple. A plain vessel is divided into 



compartments by partitions that reach 

 from the top to within a short distance 

 of the bottom, alternating with parti- 

 tions that reach from the bottom to 

 within a short distance of the top. As 

 the honey comes from the extractor it 

 enters compartment a, and of course 

 finds passage at the bottom into com- 

 partment b, the honey constantly finding 

 its level in these two compartments. 

 When they become full, the honey over- 

 flows into e, and then into f. When 

 e and f are about half full, the honey 

 passes out at g. It will readily be seen 

 that when once filled all compartments 

 will remain full all the time except e 

 and f, which will never be less than half 

 full. That gives time for gravity to 

 take to the bottom any particles heav- 

 ier than honey, and to the top all the 

 lighter particles. The entire top being 

 open, the scum can be taken from the 

 top at convenience, there being no dan- 

 ger having once reached the top it will 

 pass down under the opening at the 

 bottom. 



Of course, the slower the honey runs 

 the more perfectly the strainer will 

 work ; and for large operators the 

 strainer may be of larger size, and per- 

 haps with more compartments than will 

 be necessary for those obtaining only a 

 small amount of honey. 



The Gravity Honey-Strainer 



The Bee-Keepers' Review has done 

 good service by getting together in- 

 formation about getting impurities out 

 of extracted honey by means of gravity, 

 instead of using a cloth or metal strain- 

 er. For the most part what is to be 



Honey a Popular Food 



Mr. G. J. Moloney, of Minnesota, has 

 sent us the following clipping : 

 Honey Becoming Popular. 



Honey as a classic sweetmeat is likely to 

 come into its own again. Since the days of 

 the Pure Food Law, since folk can purchase 

 honey and be sure that it is honey and not 

 paraffin and brown sugar, the honey trade has 

 swelled beyond all known proportions. Among 

 a certain circle of friends there exists a 

 rivalry as to who shall find the greatest num- 

 ber of uses for honey. Postcards pass be- 

 tween them daily, as thus: "Try honey on oat- 

 meal," "Try honey on ice cream." "Honey in 

 cordials," "Honey in coffee." One hostess is 

 prcparhig a honey luncheon, with liquid honey, 

 and honey in the comb, on the menu, and apple 

 blossom honey, clover honey and buckwheat 

 honey as well. The lavors are to be bonbon- 



nieres with bees on the covers, and the center 

 piece will be large, yellow hive stuck with apple 

 blossoms. It is certainly lucky the bees are 

 busy in the country with the coming season, 

 or they might strike for higher wages. 



Finding the largest number of uses 

 for honey would certainly be an inter- 

 esting game for the good sisters or 

 brothers to play. The post-card plan 

 is all right, as intimated in the above 

 clipping. 



There is no doubt that the pure food 

 law has helped the sale of honey, and is 

 bound to continue to do so. We have 

 contended for many years that there is 

 not half the honey produced in this 

 country that should be consumed. Some 

 of these days its true value as a daily 

 food will become known, and then it 

 will take a great many inore bee-keep- 

 ers than there are today to produce 

 enough honey to supply the demand. 



The past two or three months we 

 have had not only an advertisement, but 

 also a reading notice in these columns, 

 calling attention to a series of postal 

 cards used by the Colorado Honey-Pro- 

 ducers' Association to create a greater 

 interest in the use of honey. They were 

 offered to the general bee-keeping public 

 at a very low price, and yet only two 

 or three orders for these cards were 

 received by the advertiser. We believe 

 that bee-keepers are missing a great 

 chance in not adopting the plan of 

 sending such cards to their prospective 

 customers. It is a very inexpensive way 

 to attract the attention of the people 

 to the use of honey. 



Every bee-keeper should, so far as 

 possible, dispose of his own honey crop 

 in the local market. By so doing, he 

 will not only realize a better price, 

 but will avoid helping to overload the 

 city market. It is all right to know how 

 to produce a large crop of honey, but 

 if one can not get what it is worth 

 in the way of financial returns, it is 

 not going to be such a profitable busi- 

 ness, after all. For many years much 

 space has been used in the bee-papers 

 to tell just how to produce honey. It 

 seems to us it is time to use a little 

 more space in telling just how to dis- 

 pose of the crop to good advantage 

 when once it is secured. 



We hope that those of our readers 

 who have methods of selling honey in 

 their local markets will kindly describe 

 them in brief so that we may publish 

 them. It is not necessary that your post- 

 office address should be published, as, of 

 course, it might interfere with the sales 

 in your own market, or arouse need- 

 less compethion. What we would like 

 is to give a number of the best methods 

 of selling honev in the home market so 

 that our readers might be able to adopt 

 at least one of them to good advantage. 



Taking Brood and Bees without Find- 

 ing the Queen 



In the management of bees it is often 

 desirable to take from a colony one or 

 more frames of brood with adhering 

 bees. Along with the instruction to do 

 this always goes the caution. "Be sure 

 you don't take the queen." For a be- 

 ginner that is the most troublesome part 

 of the whole performance. There is a 

 way to manage without paying any at- 



