Sept. 28, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



617 



little smoke from the nozzle of your smoker, just enough to 

 drive the bees from the crack you have made. 



Next, pry a little harder with the chisel and slip in tlie 

 wedge till a crack half an inch wide is made. If the frames 

 are of the hanging, loose kind, it is barely possible that 

 some of them may lift up with the super from being glued 

 to it, or from bur-combs. If this happens, you can now 

 catch the chisel between the ends of the frames and the 

 super, and by a little pry cause them to go back on the rab- 

 bets where they belong ; and if you used a little more smoke 

 just before you did this, no bees will be caught between the 

 end of the frames and the rabbet. 



Next, lift a little on the super with one hand and push 

 the wedge up with the other till a crack about an inch wide 

 is made, when you will blow plenty of smoke over the tops 

 of the frames and under the supers, this causing nearly all 

 of the bees to run below or up into the super. Now take 

 hold of the super with one hand, lifting the back end of it 

 till it is at an angle of 45 degrees, when the heavy end of 

 the wedge will cause it to fall to the ground, so you do not 

 need to touch that any more for this operation. 



Now pick up the escape-board with the hand at liberty, 

 and put it as far under the super as it will go, immediately 

 lowering the super upon it. Now pick up the chisel and 

 catch the point under the super, when with a little pry, and 

 a pull with the other hand, it is slipt square on the escape- 

 board. Then quickly go to the front end and catch the 

 point of the chisel under the escape-board, and with a little 

 pry and pull, the escape-board and its load are over the hive 

 in the rig-ht position, and you have done the whole thing 

 with very little ph3'sical exertion, at least not enough but 

 what the weakest of men or an ordinary woman could do 

 easily. The telling of it takes up considerable room on 

 paper, and makes it appear like quite a job, but if any one 

 will practice it on a few hives till he becomes somewhat 

 familiar with it, he will never go back to the old, slow, 

 laborious way of lifting the super off on something, putting 

 on the escape-board and then lifting it back again. 



Rosy=Hued Reports of Honey Crops do not receive 

 the entire approval of Somnambulist in the Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper. In his own inimitable way he inveighs 

 against " the wholesale inflation of honey crop reports." 

 One man has a remarkable yield, and that is heralded to 

 China and intermediate places, the bee-papers, as if short of 

 copy, zealously printing and reprinting the story. Then 

 the ambitious supply-dealer jiarades publicly the great 

 amount of lumber used, hands employed, etc. When the 

 bee-keeper suggests an advance in prices the commission- 

 man confronts him with these rosy reports, and he is dumb. 

 No direct remedy is offered, but a side-thrust given at the 

 inertia of bee-keepers. Please, dear Somnambulist, tell us 

 distinctly just what ought to be done. 



Rev. E. T. Abbott, of Missouri, called at our office on 

 his way home from the Philadelphia convention, last Fri- 

 day. He took several side trips on both pleasure and busi- 

 ness, after the convention closed. 



♦ ♦ * « « 



Mk. Wm. M. Whitney, of Kankakee Co.. 111., made an 

 apiarian exhibit at the county fair held this month. He re- 

 ceived first premiums on both comb and extracted honey. 

 A picture showing himself holding a frame loaded with 

 bees seemed to capture the crowd. 



* * « * ♦ 



The Convention Photograph, at Philadelphia, was 

 taken by Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, of Flint, Mich. It is a 

 very good one, and Mr. H. will mail a copy of it to any one 

 sending him 50 cents. The picture shows about 60 of those 

 that were present at the convention, standing in front of 

 the Franklin Institute building. 



Mr. L,. KreuTzinger. of this (Cook) county, held his 

 annual " honey harvest," as he calls it, Aug. 19. A number 

 of visitors gathered at the main apiary to enjoy watching 

 taking off the sweets from some 200 colonies of bees, 

 and witnessing the manipulation of hives, bees, wax, and 

 honey extracting and packing, and the work of the honey- 

 bee. The event occurs but once a year, to which Mr. 

 Kreutzinger sent about 400 neatly printed invitations with 

 compliraentarj' tickets of admission to his friends and ac- 

 quaintances, to which nearly every one responded. 



Underneath the rows of shade trees, on benches, the 

 guests, men, women and children, lookt from a safe point 

 at the hives being robbed of their sweets, and at the same 

 time sampling the hone)' offered them in the most liberal 

 quantities, in conformity with a notice posted in the bee- 

 yard, which read thus : 



" Visitors are cheerfully invited to partake of as much honey as they 

 desire; those, however, not accustomed to eatin<;r honey in largre quanti- 

 ties, should partake moderately at first. Every visitor will be served at 

 the table of sweetness f rotn 4 to 7 o'clock, p.m." 



About SO veils were prepared for the occasion for those 

 desiring to look into the hives while supers were being 

 taken off, but many of the visitors had to be without them. 

 Mr. K. exhibited the wonders of the hive to a number of 

 bee-keepers and men of professional experience in the city, 

 and also bee-supplies, some of which he received from Ger- 

 matiy a few weeks previous to this honey harvesting event, 

 among them being a papier-mache queen-excluding board ; 

 a swarm-bag with self-closer to hive swarms from high 

 trees — a very handy device ; queen-nurserj', German horse- 

 hair veils, Rietsche uncapping-fork (or comb-rake), isola- 

 tion-oil for foundation press for deep-cell presses, and other 

 devices of interest. 



The hives of bees under the glass in the observatory 

 building, a golden Italian queen-bee in the original mail- 

 ing-cag"e, setting up sections and putting in foundation 

 starters, were the principal objectsof interest to the visitors. 



Nearly all of Chicago's leading newspapers made men- 

 tion of the event, the Evening Post describing the event as 

 a noveltj' in this industrial world. It also referred to the 

 history of the honey-bee, the principal objects in view at 

 the apiary, particularly the two-story bee-house containing 

 honej', the packing and fumigating rooms, the upper floor 

 for storage, with the cupola as an observatorj'. The article 

 closed with this paragraph : 



"I askt the master of the apiary how he happened to 

 engage in bee-keeping. He said that in Germany it was the 

 custom, in fact an unwritten law, that country school-mas- 

 ters should in addition to the profession of teaching follow 

 the business of forestry, horticulture, or bee-keeping. His 

 father was a teacher and keeper of bees, and the son nat- 

 uralh' loves this occupation. He owns three apiaries, the 

 one visited yielding four tons of comb honey, gathered 

 from the wild flowers of the prairies. The subject of bees 

 and bee-keeping is inexhaustible, and I know of no occupa- 

 tion better calculated to develop and foster the Christian 

 virtues of temperance, patience and industry." 



We had the pleasure of calling at the apiary towards 

 evening, just after the crowd had departed. Everything 

 indicated a very sweet time. Mr. Kreutzinger sells much 

 honey in this way, the visitors carrying it home with them 

 in cases holding 12 sections. He also receives many orders 

 by mail soon after his annual honey harvest, from those 

 who were present. It is quite a scheme to get a lot of ad- 

 vertising, tho we don't think we would care to recommend 

 it on so large a scale. Generally, to have a crowd aroinid 

 when removing honey is more of a nuisance than anything 

 else. But, as the colored brother said, " Dipperent men hab 

 dipperent ways." 



York's Honey Almanac is a neat little 32-page pamph- 

 let especially gotten up with a view to create a demand for 

 honey among should-be consumers. Aside from the Alma- 

 nac pages, the forepart of the pamphlet was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 effective helper in working up a home market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample for 

 a stamp; 25 copies for 40 cents; 50 for 70 cents; 100 for 

 $1.00; 250 for $2.25; 500 for $4.00. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 

 *-•-» 



The Premiums offered on page 621 are well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



