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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey, unlike water, absorbs the 

 moisture from tlie wood. 



Common-sense should tell every one 

 that goods worth $30 to $40 should 

 not be trusted to a package worth 40 

 to 75 cents and shipped any distance. 

 Four to five hundred pounds of honey 

 are worth a good, new barrel, if it can 

 be had, even if it costs S2 or S2.o0 ; 

 and one should see to it that a good 

 cooper made it, and that staves and 

 heads are sufticieutly heavy to carry 

 the weight of the honey, no matter if 

 they are made of oak or cypress, if 

 with iron or good oaken hoops. 



A barrel of honey rolled through 

 our yard had a pebble pressed clean 

 through a stave. No loss occurred 

 because we saw it in time, but that it 

 did not happen some place else and 

 had the contents spilt, was merely 

 accidental. 



In regard to the question whether 

 barrels should be waxed. I answer 

 that I have no objections to barrels 

 being waxed. It is not necessary. 

 But barrels must be tight before they 

 are rinsed, and the honey is put in. 

 This is of vital importance to the 

 producer, shipper and dealer. It may 

 be of interest to some to know that 

 oaken honey-barrels, when emptied, 

 cannot be excelled for wine, cider or 

 vinegar barrels, but cypress barrels 

 should not be used for such purposes. 



Honey has again commenced to 

 accumulate, and I request every one 

 not to ship any to me without pre- 

 vious arrangements. I had on hand, 

 one day last fall, no less than 600 

 barrels of honey. I was overstocked, 

 and I do not wish to have the same 

 occur again this year. No break in 

 the market was caused by me, be- 

 cause I held the honey until the sup- 

 ply was needed. But a reckless ship- 

 ping to commission houses should be 

 avoided by all who expect to make a 

 living profit out of their product. 



Cincinnati, O., Sept. 16, 1884. 



had no queen, and I now have 53 col- 

 onies all in good condition. I have 

 not taken off any honey yet. but sev- 

 eral boxes will be ready to take off 

 during this week. Tbe fall flowers 

 are abundant this season, and if the 

 frost does not come early, we will yet 

 have quite a little crop of honey. A 

 number of my neighbors keep bees, 

 and most of them use the box-hive or 

 log-gum. I scarcely know whether to 

 put my bees into the cellar this-win- 

 ter or leave them on the summer 

 stands. I have a good, dry side-hill 

 for making a cellar; but I do not 

 know whi'cli would be the better, 

 cellar or out-door wintering. I send 

 you a leaf of a box-elder tree which is 

 affected by the honey-dew that we 

 have had in this section. 

 Ponca, Nebr., Sept. 4, 1884. 



For tbe American Bee Joumai. 



Bee-Keeping in Nebraska. 



A. GIB80N. 



For tbe American Bee Joumai. 



Iowa State Convention. 



My bees are doing well for this 

 country ; and are now storing honey 

 very fast. They have been swarming 

 ever since Aug. 15, but I think that 

 they are through now. I have one 

 colony which lost its queen in .lune, 

 and I have been trying ever since to 

 get them to accept a queen, but they 

 either lose or destroy her every time. 

 I have kept up the colony by giving 

 them brood from another colony. I 

 gave them queen-cells two or three 

 times, and they seem to hatch the 

 queens all right, but by some means 

 they were destroyed afterwards. 

 There were no eggs of any kind laid 

 in the comb. I have had the worst 

 luck that I ever had in losing queens, 

 this summer. I lost 5 colonies during 

 July, on account of the young queens 

 being destroyed and the'bees robbing. 

 I have two rows of hives standing 

 about 10 feet apart, and I thought 

 that the trouble might have been on 

 account of the queens being misled. 

 I doubled up the troublesome colony 

 with another one this morning, that 



In last week's Bee .Journal will 

 be found the report of the apiarian 

 display at the Iowa State Fair, and 

 also a report of the Convention held 

 at that time during the day. Tbe fol- 

 lowing is a report of the evening 

 meeting which was held during the 

 Fair: 



The evening session was called to 

 order by President O. Clute at the 

 appointed time. All business having 

 been attended to in the afternoon, the 

 evening was spent in the asking and 

 answering of tlie following questions: 

 " Is there any foul brood in the State 

 of Iowa y Foul brood is supposed to 

 have existed for some time in Clinton, 

 Clinton county, and in the neighbor- 

 ing towns, and is steadily spreading 

 and working its way down the Mis- 

 sissippi river, until now it is sup- 

 posed to exist at Le Claire, Scott 

 County, Iowa. 



" Has anybody an idea or method 

 of preventing "its spreading V" In 

 Michigan they have a very strict law 

 to prevent its spreading. It requires 

 every one who has foul brood in his 

 apiary to burn the hives in which it 

 exists. I think that it would be -ad- 

 visable to have a committee make out 

 a good Bill in regard to foul brood, 

 and bring it before the State legisla- 

 ture. 



"If exposed, will bees carry it to 

 their ovra hives, if they are in a good 

 condition V" Yes. 



" Will some one describe it i"' It is 

 so well described in all of the bee- 

 publications that it is useless ty de- 

 scribe it here. 



" Can a locality be overstocked V" 

 A good many members thought tliat 

 it could be, "and others thought not. 

 After considerable discussion it was 

 left undecided. 



" Has anv one made a success in 

 planting for honey V" Some thought 

 that it paid to plant for honey, and 

 others thought not. 



"Is catnip a good honey-plant V" 

 On some soil it does well, but it is 

 easily choked out by weeds. 



" Does it pay to plant buckwheat ?" 



Yes. 



" Will it do to sow the buckwheat 

 among the corn V" Y''es. 



" Will it injure the corn by so 

 doing y" Some who had tried it 

 thought not, and some thought that 

 it would pay to give the farmers so 

 much per acre to sow buckwheat in 

 their neighborhood. To encourage 

 them they might be paid in honey. 



" AVhat is the best way to dispose 

 of honey V" Send to some reliable 

 commission merchant. If you send 

 extracted honey, they prefer it put up 

 in barrels, it being a cheaper way to 

 put it up in proportion to the quantity 

 of honey, and quicker to handle, and 

 easier to store away than when put 

 up in small packages. It will net 

 about cents per pound. Always dis- 

 pose of as much as possible in your 

 home market. For home market put 

 it in small tin-pails. 



" Do you ever have trouble by the 

 commission men keeping it on hand 

 very long ?" No : the longest time 

 being three months. 



'• Is it necessary to use separators 

 for comb honey V Some thought that 

 it was. and others opposed it. So far 

 as profit is concerned it is about equal, 

 as that produced with separators 

 brings a little more in price ; but 

 enough more can be produced without 

 separators to pay the difference in 

 price. 



" Can virgin queens be safely in- 

 troduced ?" In answer to this ques- 

 tion. ^Ir. O. O. Poppleton read an 

 essay on introducing queens. 



After some discussion it was de- 

 cided that virgin queens could not be 

 introduced with safety at all times ; 

 but that fertilized queens could be 

 introduced with certainty. 



" Does it pay to supersede a queen 

 when she becomes old V" Yes. 



" Does it pay to double up colonies?" 

 Some favored it. and some did not. 



Owing to the fact that a large num- 

 ber of the members did not stay on 

 the grounds over night, and that a 

 storm appeared to be brewing, on 

 motion the meeting then adjourned. 

 Wji. Goos, Sec. 



Rev. O. Clute, Pres. 



Read at the Maine State Convention. 



Extracted or Comb Honey— Which ? 



JOHN REYNOLDS. 



I have been a bee-keeper for many 

 years, yet this is my first year's expe- 

 rience in producing extracted honey. 

 My apiary, after recovering from 

 spring dwindling, yielded 410 lbs. of 

 extracted honey, aild 14.50 lbs. of comb 

 honey, which furnishes a practical 

 answer to the question under consider- 

 ation. 



I find by actual calculation, that on 

 an area of .36 square miles, there was 

 produced last year, about 4000 lbs. of 

 comb honey, (reckoning two pounds 

 of extracted honey equal to one pound 

 of comb honey.) "Now, as there are 

 about 18}-^ inhabitants to the square 

 mile in Maine, this would give 666 as 

 the number of the inhabitants on 36 

 square miles. By dividing 4000 lbs. 

 of honey by 666. gives a little over 6 

 pounds of comb honey to each inhab- 

 itant in 2tlaine, (taking the year's 

 product on 36 square miles, as a basis 



