64 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEErER. 



April, 



for the asking. To prepare them for 

 fuel, the sacks .should be washed, to 

 cleanse them of the acid and lime used 

 in the fertilizer, and some of the sacks 

 are treated with some kind of chem- 

 ical to prevent the acid from destroy- 

 ing them. Such sacks will not burn, 

 unless thoroughly washed. Soaking 

 them in a running stream of water for 

 several hours and then giving them a 

 good sousing, and hanging up to dry, 

 is a good way to cleanse them. They 

 should be cut into strips about two 

 feet long and four or five inches wide 

 and rolled up into rolls, when they are 

 ready for u-se. These cartiridgos work 

 best" in a muzzle-loading .smoker. 

 Licht one end and if the wind is blow- 

 ing, hold the lighted end toward the 

 wind, and in a few seconds you will 

 have a good fire going, then just stick 

 it into your smoker, fire end down, 

 close your smoker and you are ready 

 for busineS'S with a volume of smoke 

 that will put a whole regiment of Jer- 

 sey mosquitoes out of commission. 

 Soaking in a solution of saltpetre is 

 not necessary. 



Not Foul Brood. 

 General Manager France and his 

 sample of foul brood, at the Pennsyl- 

 vania State Convention has shown 

 that the disease among the bees of 

 Pennsylvania is not foul brood. Be it 

 black brood, or pickled brood, or 

 some other new disease, the fact re- 

 luains that it is very contagious and 

 much to be feared, and that it is much 

 more rapid in its work of destruction 

 than the old-fashioned foul brood, and 

 that it will not readily yield to the 

 treatment given for this class of dis- 

 eases. 



A Handy Cage. 



A good cage for caging a clipped 

 queen, when a swarm issues, is made 

 by boring a two-inch hole through a 

 block of wood, 2 3-4x3 3-4x1 inch to 

 one side of which a piece of wire-cloth 

 is tacked, to cover the hole, and the 

 other side covered with a tin cover, 

 made to slide in gi-oovos similar to the 

 Peet cage cover. To cage the queen, 

 the cover is removed, and the cage 

 placed over the queen. When the 

 queen will come up and cling to the 

 wire-cloth, in her efforts to get away; 

 when the cover can be replaced and 

 the cage set on the bottom board, and 

 leaned up against the hive front 



awaiting the return of the swarm. I 

 paint the tin cover white, and if the 

 sun i& shining very hot against the 

 hive, I turn the cover side out. or fac- 

 ing the sun. and thus protect the , 

 queen from the heat and avoid taking 

 chances of having the queen roasted 

 to death, when a swarm remains clus- 

 tered a long time before returning. 



Color of Honey Affected by Condition. 

 Mr. Hasty, in American Bee .Jour- 

 nal, is afraid that somebody is going 

 to "shoot off his mouth" and say that 

 late honey is always more or less dark. 

 No use storing away ammunition tc 

 shoot back at him. Forestall thai 

 movement, and shoot at him at once 

 and talve him unawares, like the light 

 ning did the toad, by telling him tba 

 climatic conditions and the characte. 

 of the soil have something to do wit) 

 the color of honey. Even clover hone; 

 varies in different places and difl'eren 

 season.s. I have before me. .iust no-\\ 

 honey gathered from goldenrod am 

 asters, that is as white as clover hor 

 ey is in most seasons here. With u 

 tile late honey is always darker in dr 

 .seasons than it is in wet seasons, noi 

 withstanding ,T. A. Green's skepticisi 

 in Gleanings, Page 13. That hone 

 varies much in color was evident Y 

 samples of clover honey exhibited ; 

 the Harrisburg convention. The sar 

 l)les Avere from different parts of tli 

 United States. The color ranging froj 

 water white to pretty dark amber, 

 have noticed that buckwheat honey; 

 always thicker and darker in a M 

 season than in a wet one. No. fire tl| 

 ammunition at him before he thinl| 

 of shooting. 



If the manuf.acturers are .going 

 make the Hoffman frames more fO(| 

 proof, by making more with squa| 

 edges than with V edges, those of 

 that don't like those V's will not haj 

 to lie awake any more nights worrj 

 ing how to clean out those litl| 

 troughs full of propolis at the ends 

 each frame. Those V-edge frames al 

 a "tarnal" nuisance in a place whel 

 bees gather lai-ge quantities of glij 

 like they do here. 



The bees seem to just delight in fl 

 up those little troughs with iiropoll 

 sticking the frames together into a s| 

 id mass, that can hardly be separat| 

 in cool weather without splitting 

 breaking some of the frames. 

 Turbotville. I»a., .Jan. 14, 1905. 



