52 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Small Packages for Honey. — The 



Bee-Keepers^ Instructor, makes the 

 following very sensible remarks on 

 this subject : 



"Extracted honey, S@8}i cts. in 

 round lots, to 123^2 cts. in small pack- 

 ages." Tliat is tlie way tlie St. Louis 

 market report reads this montli, and 

 to the observant bee-keeper it speaks 

 volumes. A difference of fully 14 i'^ 

 price for probably exactly the same 

 quality of honey, and all owing simply 

 to the manner of putting up. It is 

 very plain that the day has gone by 

 (if it ever existed), when honey in bar- 

 rels, or large packages, will command 

 anything like the price it will if put up 

 in smaller, more attractive packages, 

 and those apiarists who appreciate 

 this fact, and cater to the popular de- 

 mand, are not slow in reaping their 

 reward. In this world appearances 

 go a great way, and lie who puts up 

 his honey in the best manner — in 

 small tin pails, glass fruit jars or kegs, 

 it extracted, or small sections, packed 

 in medium-sized crates, if comb — 

 neatly labeled and scrupulously clean, 

 is sure to realize top prices. 



Poor Management of the Apiary.— 



Dr. J. P. H.Brown, Augusta,Ga., gives 

 advice and reasonable hints to apiar- 

 ists as follows in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Magazine: 



During the last of the month ex- 

 amine all your colonies as some might 

 need feeding; if so, lose no time in 

 attending to it. If the weather is cold 

 at the time, the feed should be [ilaced 

 immediately over the cluster, or 

 where the bees can get at it without 

 crawling from the cluster. 



For this sort of feeding the " pepper 

 box " feeder, or the v an Deusen 

 feeder is the one I i)refer. Sticks of 

 candy laid across the frames under 

 the quilt is said to be good, but as my 

 bees may be different from those of 

 the parties who recommend it, they 

 are prone to cut it up and carry it out 

 of the hive as a nuisance. Ten 

 pounds of granulated sugar to a gal- 

 lon of water makes a feed that is al- 

 ways reliable. 



Suffer n(i trash to collect on the bot- 

 tom of your hives — sweep them out 

 clean. Such debris usually contains 

 the eggs of the bee moth or its larva-, 

 which will mature as soon as the 

 weather gets a little warmer and 

 commence to cut and web the combs 

 of your weak stocks. In the latter 

 part of the month there will be brood 

 started in nearly all your normal colo- 

 nies. This will particularly be the 

 case if the month should be warm and 

 open. When bees are raising brood 

 they consume their stores rapidly; 

 hence when you feed, either give it so 

 last as they will take it up until they 



get enough to last them till they can 

 gather from the flowers, or feed in 

 small quantities every other day until 

 the middle of March. I liave tried 

 both plans of feeding and find the re- 

 sults about the same. The tirst plan 

 is less laborious. There is to be no 

 "half way station " in this "feed 

 business." To feed for a while and 

 then quit, and allow the bees to starve 

 at last is indicative of unpardonable 

 carelessness and bad management. 



One of the great sources of failure 

 in bee-keeping is in not having things 

 ready at the right time. We wait till 

 our actual need is upon us, then we 

 send off for bees, queens, hives, .sec- 

 tions, extractors, etc., and expect 

 them riglit away. Some hardly wait 

 till the order has reached its destina- 

 tion but write a "postal." " Why 

 don't you send right along those 

 things." Those people do not tliink 

 that there are other bee-keepers be- 

 sides themselves that have sent or- 

 ders—many orders may be ahead of 

 theirs. In getting off goods there 

 may at times be some unavoidable 

 delay over which the manufacturer 

 may have no control. Sometimes de- 

 lays occur by parties giving improper 

 shipping directions, or may improper- 

 ly direct their letter, or 'may fail to 

 give their signature. I have often 

 received orders from parties who 

 wrote their names with so many 

 flourishes and hieroglyi)hics that no 

 experts within my reach could deci- 

 pher them, and my only resource was, 

 to cut the unknown signature off the 

 letter, paste it on an envelope, and 

 direct it to tlie post office address in- 

 dicated by the post-mark, with the 

 hope that the postmaster might be 

 able to identify tlie writer. 



It is not the intent of this article to 

 be any apology for that class of supply 

 dealers who are constitutionally slow 

 coaches, and are dilatory in lilling or- 

 ders, but to urge bee-keepers to order 

 before they need the goods. 



It is the duty of every supply dealer 

 to fill the orders he receives with the 

 utmost dispatch, and we believe all 

 those who liave an eye to business do 

 it; at least they endeavor to. 



Organization. — The Indiana Farmer 

 contains the following information to 

 bee-keepers in Indiana: 



At the last meeting of the State 

 Bee-keepers' Society, tlie association 

 was changed to a delegate organiza- 

 tion and one vice-president was ap- 

 pointed for each county in the State. 

 It was thought this would place the 

 association on a more firm basis, and 

 facilitate business. Each member of 

 the county societies being also a mem- 

 ber of the State Association and en- 

 titled to all benefits, copies of pro- 

 ceedings, etc. Some provision will 

 be made for persons in counties where 

 no organization exists, and the ques- 

 tion will again come upas to the form 

 of the association. Inacommunication 

 to us last spring. Dr. K. P. Allen, 

 then president of the National Asso- 

 ciation, says: " I notice in the ad- 

 dress of your former president, Mr. 

 Belmau, that he recommends the or- 

 ganization of county societies in everv 



part of the State. I was glad to see 

 the recommendation, as 1 consider 

 organization the life of bee culture, 

 and the best thing that can be done 

 to spread a knowledge of scientiflc bee 

 culture among the people. If every 

 state would organize a State associa- 

 tion, and every county a county so- 

 ciety, the honey resources of each 

 state and county would be developed, 

 and valuable satisfies of the honey 

 and wax productions of the United 

 States obtained. 



Bee Literature. — The Eagle, Union 

 City, Indiana, gives its opinion of the 

 necessity of bee literature, as follows: 



A bee-keeper, without bee litera- 

 ture, is like a mechanic without study- 

 ing architecture, or a farmer who will 

 take any kind of stock on his farm, 

 and not try to improve it. 



What good will it do for you to have 

 a colony of bees with a hive that will 

 allow them to store away a Inindred 

 pounds of honey, if they can consume 

 only ,30 lbs., and leave 70 lbs. in their 

 hive; the following year they can 

 gather only 30 lbs., and the remainder 

 of the year they will be idle for want 

 of room y They fill up the brood combs 

 with honey, and the consequence is 

 they will hot raise brood in the after 

 part of the season, and they go into 

 winter quarters with old bees, and if 

 they live through the winter they will 

 come out weak in the spring, when 

 they should be strong, so as to com- 

 mence storing for the coming season. 



There are a great many good bee 

 hives. One to be available must be a 

 frame hive, easy to manipulate, so 

 tliat, if your bees have more honey 

 than they need, you can take it, with- 

 out daubing yoiir bees, and without 

 making your lioney mussy. Hence 

 the most proHtable tiling tliat a man 

 who has bees can do is to take a bee 

 paper. The Weekly Bee Journal 

 is, I think, the best. 



Driven off by Bees.— "The little 

 busy bee " was once used in a naval 

 Hghtin the Mediterranean. A gentle- 

 man recently wrote to the San Fran- 

 cisco Social Science Association, giv- 

 ing the story as he heard it from an 

 eye witness. It seems that a small 

 vessel, which was suspected of be- 

 longing to pirates, was chased by a 

 Turkish man-of-war, on board of 

 which were 500 seamen and soldiers. 

 As soon as the man-of-war came up to 

 the privateer, several hundred men 

 were sent in small boats to take pos- 

 session of her. When the small boats 

 got alongside the privateer, the tat- 

 ter's crew mounted the rigging, tak- 

 ing with them a dozen hives of bees, 

 which they had stolen to sell on the 

 Italian coast. At the word of com- 

 mand the bees were thrown into the 

 boats among the Turks. The terrible 

 time that followed was beyond de- 

 scription. Some of the soldiers 

 jumped overboard to escape the 

 furious insects, and in the excitement 

 the privateer escaped. Thescene was 

 witnessed from the deck of an ap- 

 proaching English ship, which picked 

 up two of the Turkish boats. 



