96 



THE AMERICA2^ BEE JOURNAL. 



■ful, but, to gratify this propensity, I 

 Tvould uo more think ot cultivating 

 ■*' beauty spots " on bees, tlian would 

 •the wood-chopper of paying two 

 prices for a beautiful ax ! I wish to 

 use merely the best bees I can get, that 

 will, with the least friction, most cer- 

 tainly procure for me the " filthy lu- 

 •cre," with which (after obtaining the 

 necessaries of life) to beautify my 

 home, my nine and sixty other posses- 

 sions, before the abdomen of my bees. 

 I am sorry the Doctor should advise 

 such a dose, as a mixture of honey, 

 eggs, blackberries and milk, as a pan- 

 acea for poverty. " It won't do. Dr.; 

 it won't do ; " such prescriptions will 

 not cure. I thank him for putting our 

 side of the question ahead. I doubt 

 not experience will keep it there. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., Feb. 2, 1883. 



For tbe American Bee Journal 



The Compositse, as Honey Plants. 



L. H. PAMILEL,. 



Among the many flowering plants 

 'none are better adapted for honey and 

 :none are more profitable for bee-keep- 

 ers than the various species belonging 

 to the compositie family; not only 

 because they are productive in honey, 

 but also because they are continual 

 bloomers. A well-known example is 

 the common dandelion, that starts to 

 Toloom early in April or May, con- 

 tinuing to bloom in favored localities 

 until frost. 



Tarexacum den leonie. is very rich 

 in honey, and, according to the observ- 

 ations of Sir J. Lubbock, the honey is 

 so abundant that it rises quite a dis- 

 tance in the floret. 



The dandelion, consisting as it does 

 •of a great many small florets, must 

 necessarily bloom at different times ; 

 making it exceedingly productive, 

 both in honey and pollen, for a long 

 time. 



The different species of Tarexacum 

 are widely distributed throughout the 

 ■world, and there is, perhaps, no por- 

 tion of the United States in which 

 the dandelion does not bloom with 

 profusion. It is one of our earliest 

 honey plants, and is certainly visited 

 more frequently by bees than many 

 ■other honey plants. 



Honey bees are not the only ones 

 that secrete their nectar, but on the 

 authority of Herman Mueller, no less 

 than 90 species visit it for this purpose. 



Our various lettuces are valuable 

 honey plants, the flower heads are 

 smaller than those of the dandelion, 

 and not so conspicuous, yet they con- 

 tain an abundant supply of honey and 

 are in bloom constantly from July to 

 frost, especially our wild species, some 

 of which are very common. I have 

 found, at least, that wild lettuce was 

 very common about Madison ; less 

 common is the prickly lettuce, but, as 

 a honey plant, it is as good in all re- 

 spects as the cultivated lettuce. 



Closely allied to Tarexacum and 

 Lactuca are Hieracium, hawk- weed, 

 Sorichtis, snow thistle, and Nabuliis, 

 rattlesnake root. 



They are all late flowering plants, 

 •especially SoncMis and Nabutus. Al- 



though they contain an abundant 

 supply of honey it is not sought so 

 eagerly, on account of the abundant 

 solidagos and asters, in which the 

 nectar can be obtained easier ; that is, 

 the expenditure of labor is less. 

 Madison, Wis. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



My Comb Honey Rack. 



JOHN HODGSON, JR. 



Dear Editor— According to prom- 

 ise, at the Northwestern Convention, 

 I send you a honey rack, with the 

 following description of it : 



The engraving represents a comb 

 honey rack for sections with portable 

 side and bottom board, to be used on 

 the top of the hive. This case. A, 

 being made to hold 28 sections 4J|x- 

 4J4x2 inches, without separators, is 

 just4i| inches deep, without bottom 

 board. B is the portable side held in 

 its place by the V-shaped beveled 

 wedges, C. 



The honey board is composed of 7 

 slats, running from end to end, fast- 

 ened together with a %x% strip across 

 each end. The slats are one-half inch 

 apart. The center board E, 4}ix}i 

 inches, is to hold the sections squarely 

 in place in the center. The section 



board is intended to take the place of 

 a row of sections ; when it becomes 

 necessary to have the bees work only 

 in a part of a set, one or more can be 

 used. 



To fill the rack with sections take 

 the keys, C, out, and remove B, and 

 place the sections in the rack on the 

 honey board ; then replace B, starting 

 in the keys, C ; put in the center board, 

 E ; press down the keys, C, tightening 

 the sections as desired. 



To get the sections out, when they 

 are full, remove the keys, C, and take 

 the rack from around the sections. 

 If desired to examine the brood cham- 

 ber, remove the rack, sections and 

 honey board, all together, from the 

 hive. Observation holes, in the sides, 

 have glass placed in grooves in the in- 

 side of the rack. 



Most of bee-keepers that have used 

 it, advised me to have it patented, but 

 I have concluded to give the inven- 

 tion to the bee-keepers. 



Pewaukee, Wis., Jan. 16, 1883. 



Fnr the American Bee JoumaL 



How My Neighbor Winters Bees. 



H. J. NORTHRUP. 



Having seen so much in the Bee 

 Journal about wintering bees, I 

 thought I would describe how Mr. 

 O. winters his bees. About December 

 1st, or earlier, if the weather becomes 

 settled cold, Mr. O. places boards on 



the ground along by a tight board 

 fence. Placing the hives close to- 

 gether on these boards, leaving a space 

 of a few inches between the row of 

 hives and the fence, he raises the 

 hives about J^ inch, by putting blocks 

 under the corners of the hives ; lays a 

 narrow board, 6 or 8 inches wide, 

 slanting against the front of the row 

 of hives so as to make an air space ; 

 he then takes heavy paper, old carpets 

 or blankets (paper is best), lays them 

 on top of the row of hives, allowing 

 them to hang down the front, near to 

 the ground ; lays boards, sticks, etc., 

 on top, to keep the paper In place ; 

 fills in between the hives and fence 

 with forest leaves or straw ; places a 

 layer of straw in front of the hives, 

 with a wide board, laid on its edge, 

 against the straw, to keep the straw 

 from falling away ; roofing the whole 

 with old boards, or anything that will 

 turn the water from the hives. In 

 very cold weather Jie stops the holes at 

 the ends of the boards, making the air 

 space, and opens them when the 

 weather moderates. Mr. O. tells me 

 that he has practiced this method 12 

 years and has never lost a colony, that 

 was in fair condition when put into 

 winter quarters. I have practised the 

 same two winters with equal success. 

 Lansingburgh, N. Y. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



Wintering, Marketing, etc. 



WM. CAMM. 



I put 57 colonies into winter quar- 

 ters, with plenty of stores. The hives 

 run for comb honey, had sections re- 

 moved and quilt spread in the bottom 

 of the honey rack, which was covered 

 with dry wheat chaff, and the rack 

 left on the hive. All hives were chaff- 

 packed, then set side by side, on tim- 

 bers, so as to raise the sills 5 or 6 

 inches from the ground, a pole laid on 

 the top of the hives, and then com 

 fodder reared thickly on the north 

 side of the hives, and thinly on the 

 south side, except a few single-walled 

 hives that were covered deeply on 

 both sides. 



I intended to say that I was selling 

 comb honey at 2.5cents, and extracted 

 at 20 cents ; but the " typo " got this 

 statement reversed, or I made a mis- 

 take in writing it. It sells but slowly 

 at these prices, though I have the 

 sections nicely cleaned, allow net 

 weiglit, and put the extracted, almost 

 wholly clover honey, in neat and 

 handy packages. 



Cannot the Board of Bailroad 

 Commissioners do something about 

 reducing the freight on honey from 

 double tiie rates of syrup ';' 



It is hard for a man to carry pure 

 clover honey to the store and be re- 

 fused 20 cents, when dark adulterated 

 stuff stands before him on the shelves 

 at 25 cents. The most discouraging 

 thing in bee-culture is the low price of 

 extracted honey, given in the papers. 

 Discrimination is even made against 

 candied honey, though candying is a 

 certificate of purity, and nine out of 

 ten like candied better than liquid. 



Sometime ago a paper remarked, 

 excusingly, that many worthy dealers, 



