398 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Honey Crop in Mississippi. 



Since my last report we have had an 

 unusual amount of rain, which has 

 been quite a drawback to the bee- 

 keeper. There was one advantase 

 therefrom, viz. : tlie white clover con 

 tinued to bloom, and every day that 

 the bees could work was taken advan- 

 tage of by them. Now we have the 

 swamp woodbine (cow-ilch) in full 

 bloom ; also the button or elbow bush 

 (cephalantlms occidentalis), and last not 

 least, the Indian corn yields a most 

 delicious honey. All that is needed 

 now is sunshine. I have now taken 

 off over 11,U0U pounds. 



O. M. Blanton. 



Greenville, Miss. 



H©w to Keep Fire in a Smolter. 



I have been plagued for some years 

 with an 1% inch smoker. I have had 

 a great deal of diflicultv in making 

 it burn and hold a tire. I think 1 

 have overcome the trouble, the knowl- 

 edge of which may be of use to others 

 using a small bellows. I made a 

 solution of saltpetre, mixing a heap- 

 ing tablespoonful of saltpetre with 

 about a pint of water. In this I sat- 

 urate the rags or wrapping paper, and 

 when dried, I find that they burn en- 

 tirely up, giving a strong and pro- 

 longed smoke. It might be, that by 

 using a stronger solution of saltpetre, 

 porus or half-decayed oakwood could 

 be used to advantage, but I have not 

 tried it yet. Thos. P. Bonfield. 



Kankakee, 111., July 30, 1883. 



Stock Peas for Honey. 



For the benefit of bee-keepers who 

 live in the sourwood country of 

 Tennessee, and where there is a gap 

 between sourwood and other honey 

 yielding blossoms (sucli as heart's- 

 ease and rough sumac), I will say that 

 stock peas, the whip-poor-will variety, 

 will just nil the gap, if planted on 

 May 15, and they will continue to 

 yield honey for 2 months. The bees 

 worked on peas, last year, from day- 

 light till dark. I saw them working 

 on peas until it was so dark that I had 

 tostoop down very low to see them. 

 It is just 2 months from the time of 

 planting till they blossom. 



J. A. P. Pancher. 



rancher's Mills, Teun., July 27, 1883. 



Industry of Bee-Keepers. 



Be up early in the morning ; be 

 up late at night ; be here ; be 

 there ; be on the watch. " Eternal 

 vigilance " some one gave as the 

 watch word of bee-keeping, and a 

 truer one never was given. 



" Ko manual labor about bee- 

 keeping," some man remarked the 

 other day, " Well, I would like to 

 have one of those easy laborers start 

 in with me in the moriiing, and I will 

 guarantee that the pillow will feel 

 good to his head at night, hiving from 

 10 to 18 swarms per day." 



To keep up with a heavy honey 

 flow, witli other work, will keep one 

 good able-bodied man on the jump 15 

 hours out of the 24. And now, what 

 is the outlook for pay for all this 

 work y The question with me is. How 



cheap can I produce honey to sell, and 

 keep my family. If we only had a 

 strain of bees that could raise pota- 

 toes, wheat, corn, sugar, wool, etc., 

 etc , then we would be independent. 

 I think honey will come down to bed- 

 rock prices before long. If it does 

 not, let us bee-keepers, who are in the 

 business now, try and get every per- 

 son we can to embark in this great 

 non-laboring money-making pursuit. 

 Mr. Bingham once said to me : "A 

 bee-keeper wants to live two lives; 

 one to learn the business, and one to 

 learn to make anything in the way of 

 this world's goods," audi think he 

 had it about right. W. H. Shirley. 

 Glenwood, Mich., July 19, 1883. 



A "Boss Colony." 



I have one colony from which I 

 have extracted 1-13 pounds of white 

 clover honey, and I expect to get 

 enough more to make it 175 pounds 

 or more, before buckwheat blooms. 

 We have no basswood here, of any 

 account. G. H. Knickerbocker. 



Pine Plains, N. Y., July 2.5, 1883. 



Strained vs. Extracted Honey. 



Bee-keepers in this section are very 

 despondent ; the honey crop is not 

 more than a third of what it should 

 have been. One of my neighbors, who 

 has 600 colonies in three apiaries, has 

 taken only 12,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey ; at the commencement of the 

 season he was contident of taking 

 140,000 pounds; but as it is almost 

 time to stop extracting, he will not 

 obtain much more. From 185 colo- 

 nies I have taken 9,600 pounds in- 

 stead of 30,000 pounds as I expected. 

 Please inform me. by means of the 

 Bee Journal, the difference be- 

 t\neen strained and extracted honey. 

 Our honey is always classed as strained 

 honey ; as it does not sell for as much 

 as extracted, we are inclined to object. 

 I hope we have had the last article on 

 the standard frame ; to me it is very 

 dry and uninteresting reading, and as 

 they will never agree, I cannot see 

 much use in arguing the matter any 

 longer. M. T. Hkwes. 



New Rhodes, La., July 30, 1883. 



[Extracted honey is obtained by the 

 frames being uncapped and placed 

 into a basket or frame holder, which 

 being attached to a single rod is 

 placed into a large can and revolved— 

 the centrifugal force throwing out the 

 honey from the combs, which runs 

 down the sides of the can and is 

 drawn off and placed in jars or some 

 other desirable receptacle. Extracted 

 honey is the pure liquid — minus the 

 comb. 



" Strained honey " is another thing 

 — the result of hanging up combs, 

 used in the breeding apartment of 

 the hive, and pieces of comb contain- 

 ing bee-bread, dead bees, etc., and 

 catching what passes through the 

 cloth— that is strained honey, and is 

 quite different from the pure virgin 



honey, extracted as before described, 

 still having the flavor of the bloom 

 from which it came. 



The strained honey known to com- 

 merce, is the adulterated— that which 

 will not granulate. Consumers help 

 to impose upon themselves by the 

 false idea that pure honey will not 

 granulate. They desire ungranulated 

 honey, and dealers will attempt to 

 supply the demand. Almost all pure 

 honey will granulate when exposed 

 for some time to light and cold. The 

 granulated state is one evidence of 

 purity. Much of the jar honey here- 

 tofore sold in the markets, and rec- 

 ommended not to granulate, is a very 

 inferior article, composed largely of 

 glucose.— Ed.] 



AI)oiit Drones. 



I have reason to believe that many 

 bee-keepers allow the accumulation 

 of too many useless drones, thereby 

 lessening the paying qualities of an 

 apiary. I have been in yards that 

 seemed to be alive with the hum of 

 big, fat, lazy drones, whereas we may 

 as well have had those eggs deposited 

 in worker cells. When I look at a 

 drone, I think it takes a good deal of 

 honey to keep it, and that honey 

 comes out of my pocket. Permit just 

 as little drone comb in the apiary as 

 possible, and use the knife to cut off 

 the heads of drones when capped 

 over. Only a few drones, from choice 

 queens, are necessary, and these are 

 all that it pays to "keep. In going 

 through your bees, watcti (as a hawk 

 does a chicken) for the signs of the 

 moth worm, and when found follow 

 these signs at the point of the knife, 

 and when the destructive enemy is 

 found, exterminate without mercy. 

 A. E. Foster. 



Covington, Ky., July 30, 1883. 



Working on Basswood. 



It is rainy, cold and wet here still, 

 but between the showers and when it 

 is warm enough, the bees work at a 

 tremendous rate on the basswood, 

 which is now on its " last legs." Some 

 of my colonies have completed 30 two- 

 pound sections from that source, 

 during the past 10 days, while others 

 have 40 combs nearly sealed, for ex- 

 tracting. Basswood beats the world 

 for honey. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., July 30, 1883. 



The Usual Dearth of Honey Xow. 



Bees are doing nothing here now, 

 but it is the usual slack between bass- 

 wood and sumac, and the late liow, 

 which usually begins about Aug. 10 

 or 15. The prospects look favorable 

 for a good yield of late honey. My 

 bees increased from 18 to 33, and I 

 have taken about 600 pounds of early 

 honey, and about 30 pounds of comb. 

 There are no practical bee men here 

 in my neighborhood ; all get comb 

 honey in box hives, and consequently 

 have no surplus yet. L. G. Travis. 



Oregon, Mo., July 30, 1883. 



