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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



he calls it, and winter well when they 

 do so; but if these are facts, is it not 

 important that they should be recog- 

 nized as such by bee-keepers gener- 

 ally, and acted on in their winter 

 arrangements ? If these are facts, 

 they demonstrate the theory of hiber- 

 nation to be correct. It is quite true 

 that " there is no new tiling under the 

 sun " but the practical use of many 

 things old as the everlasting hills has 

 wrought great revolutions m modern 

 times. Steam and electricity are not 

 new things ; they are old as the aged 

 earth itself, but their modern appli- 

 cations are new. When an old prin- 

 ciple is brought to light, public atten- 

 tion directed to it, and practical appli- 

 cations made of it, the fable of the 

 mountain in labor is hardly applicable 

 to it. If hibernation is the key to 

 successful wintering, as 1 firmly be- 

 lieve it is, the recognition of this 

 principle, in its practical applications, 

 may surely, without any impropriety, 

 be characterized as a valuable discov- 

 ery. 8uch, I trust and hope it will yet 

 prove to be in the future history of 

 apiculture. 

 Speedside, Ont. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee & Honey Show at Louisville, Ky. 



G. W. DEMAKEE.5 



Owing to bad management on the 

 part of the managers of the Exposi- 

 tion, our bee and honey show was not 

 what it should have been. The Ex- 

 position Company appointed a com- 

 mittee to arrange matters for the 

 "display." The committee set the 

 time for Sept. 4 to 6, and just one 

 week before the time set by the com- 

 mittee, the managers of the Exposi- 

 tion changed the time just six days in 

 advance. This short interval gave 

 no time for public notice except 

 through the daily papers, and these 

 do not reach many bee-keepers at all. 

 The consequence was that the display 

 was rather slim, and to add to the 

 discomfort, the weather turned in- 

 tensely hot. 



The display of bees and queens was 

 much better than that of last year, 

 but the honey show was light. On 

 Wednesday, Sept. 10, in the afternoon, 

 the heat in the Exposition building 

 was well nigh intolerable. At one 

 time I believed that all the bees in the 

 building would perish. One large 

 colony in a Langstroth hive, with 

 glass sides, with a case of one-pound 

 sections on top of it, though pretty 

 well ventilated with wireclolh, began 

 to sweat profusely, and I could smell 

 the unpleasant odor incident to such 

 a condition, several feet from the 

 hive. Being a member of the com- 

 mittee on the display, I procured some 

 ice, and all the bees were saved by its 

 application to the glass sides of the 

 hives. 



Your correspondent captured the 

 prize for the finest Italian queen and 

 bees ; while an old gentleman from 

 tlie city of Louisville, Mr. J. Mc- 

 Dowell, took the prize on the best 

 display of bees. Mr. Lewis Ilofstat- 

 ter, of the same city, carried away 



the prizes on honey. I feel sure that 

 Mr. Ilofstatter would liave been com- 

 pelled to share the prizes with me 

 had it not been for the neglect of the 

 Adam's Express Company, which 

 failed to deliver a consignment of 

 honey to me at the Exposition build- 

 ing. Mr. Hofstatter also took the 

 prize on the best display of honey- 

 plants. He was left without compe- 

 tition in this line on account of the 

 neglect of the before-mentioned ex- 

 press company, as they failed to de- 

 liver a box of prepared honey-plants 

 of over 50 varieties, which I designed 

 to have on exliibition. Mr. Ilofstatter 

 was aware of these expected exhibits, 

 and humorously remarked that it was 

 an " ill wind that blowed no one any 

 good," 



Among the implements exhibited 

 wiis a solar wax extractor of the devis- 

 ing of Mr. Hofstatter. This class of 

 wax extractors ought to be better 

 known among bee-keepers, for I feel 

 sure that by their general use a better 

 article of beeswax will be the result. 

 A peculiar feature about this particu- 

 lar solar wax extractor, worthy of 

 note, was a double "lid" or cover 

 which was hinged together, the one 

 of glass being underneath the wood 

 cover. By the way, the wax exhibited 

 by the owner of tliis apparatus, was 

 peculiarly tine both in color and 

 quality. He had the figure of an 

 eagle with outstretched wings perched 

 on top of his pyramid of honey, 

 which was ingeniously wrought of the 

 finest quality of yellow wax. 



Perhaps the wax on exhibition 

 looked peculiarly nice to me after 

 trying, tlie past season, to use founda- 

 tion made in Ohio, which was so full 

 of dirt that one could imagine that 

 he could hear the dirt " grit in the 

 teeth " of the bees when drawing out 

 the cells. 



A real novelty in the form of an 

 automatic honey extractor and sur- 

 plus ease combined, was to be seen 

 among the implements of the apiary. 

 This curiosity was the emanation of 

 the grasping, fertile mind of Mr. 

 Lewis Hofstatter, of the city of 

 Louisville, It was a cylinder- shaped 

 drum adjusted on a honey-board, in- 

 side of which is a revolving cylinder 

 with a continuous honey -comb around 

 it. There is no septum to the comb, 

 the cells being all over the outside. 

 To illustrate : If you should wind a 

 sheet of foundation around a cylinder, 

 making it fast to the cylinder with 

 melted wax, and adjust it in a metal 

 drum of the proper size to give proper 

 bee-space, the bees would draw out 

 the cells to the full length, and you 

 would have Mr. Hofstatter's revolv- 

 ing super. One set of "geared" 

 wheels will fit all of them, and the 

 honey is " slung " out without moving 

 the super from its place on the hive. 

 Of course the extracting is done be- 

 fore the cells are sealed, and the bees 

 are driven down with smoke before 

 the comb cylinder is set in motion. 

 The honey runs out of a spout at one 

 side of the super. As impractical as 

 this whole scheme looks, the inventor 

 had a jar of pure extracted honey 

 taken in this way, and by this curious 

 device. Of course the whole thing is 



impracticable, but is mentioned here 

 to illustrate the wonderful grasp for 

 tilings new in the bee-keeping world. 



On Wednesday afternoon, after cool- 

 ing down the bees with ice, we re- 

 paired to the " park " adjacent to the 

 building, to imbibe the pure air and 

 to " talk bees." Mr. Ilofstatter, who 

 is of (Jerman extraction, and thor- 

 oughly posted on every topic pertain- 

 ing to the science and practical work- 

 ing of the apiary, led off in the con- 

 versation. We had no faith in the 

 pollen cliimera. Bees in the South 

 winter perfectly, no matter how much 

 pollen is in the hive, provided that 

 there are plenty of stores iiresent in 

 shape of honey or sugar syrup. The 

 fact alone ought to convince 'any in- 

 telligent person that dysentery or bee- 

 diarrhoia is the result of climatic 

 causes. I would not hesitate to offer 

 a reasonable prize for well authen- 

 ticated proof that a colony of bees in 

 normal condition, when put into win- 

 ter quarters, ever perished with the 

 disease known in the North as bee- 

 diarrhcea, in all central and southern 

 Kentucky. 



Apropos of the hibernation theory, 

 Mr. Hofstatter says that lie has seen 

 unmistakable proof that bees do some- 

 times — even in this climate — sink into 

 a quiescent state resembling the state 

 known as "hibernation." On one 

 occasion, when looking through his 

 bees in the latter part of the winter, 

 he found one colony motionless, and 

 passed it as dead ; but it afterwards 

 turned up all right. 



I do not object to this, but it is the 

 exception and not the rule. In the 

 winter of 18H0 .SI my bees were not 

 confined longer than a week at a time, 

 and in January they were able to stir 

 out on every day but three, and I 

 never had bees to" winter better. Mr. 

 H. believes that a contracted entrance 

 to the hive is dangerous to the safety 

 of young queens when returning from 

 the wedding tour. He says that every 

 colony contains more or less old bees 

 that are unfriendly to the aspirations 

 of young royalty. He says, " Give 

 them a wide entrance that they may 

 "slip around" these hostile, jealous 

 " old crab " and take refuge among 

 the young bees, and there will be less 

 loss in this line. I felt much inter- 

 ested in the suggestion, as my loss on 

 this account has been very heavy 

 during the past season. Mr. II. is an 

 advanced thinker. He believes that 

 " royal jelly " is largely composed of 

 "animal substance," viz : masticated 

 larvse. He suggests the idea that the 

 fertile worker is a worker bee, made 

 such by the process of " balling." 



Mr. G. W. Ashby is an enthusiast 

 in the bee-business, but in a practical 

 way. He owns a farm of over 700 

 acres, situated on the Ohio river be- 

 low the city of Louisville. His farm 

 is largely stocked with mules and 

 sliort-horn cattle, and yet he keeps a 

 large apiary, and stays in it much of 

 the time. His wagon goes to the city 

 every Saturday, loaded with honey, 

 fruit, melons and vegetables. It oc- 

 curs to me that a man situated as Mr. 

 Ashby is, with his farm of 700 acres 

 stocked with droves of mules and 

 cattle, and with his large apiary of 



