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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 8, 



^T^e ^ 



CiGOri^o IW Yrtrii, - - Editor, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 Se FIftb Avenue, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Post-OCBce at Chieago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



Vol. IIXV. CKICAeO, ILL, AUG. 8, 1895. No, 32. 



Editorial Budgets 



The Biogrrapliical Sketch of the late Mr. Chas. 

 E. Parks will be found on page 504 of this number of the Bee 

 Journal ; also his portrait on the first page. The biography 

 was written by Rev. E. T. Abbott, the personal friend of Mr. 

 Parks, and is exceedingly interesting. It will well repay a 

 careful reading, as Mr. Parks was a successful business man, 

 as well as a practical inventor. 



The Eye of a Bee is a very interesting piece of 

 work. A paragraph is going the rounds, which says that 

 every bee has two kinds of eyes — the two large, compound 

 ones, looking like hemispheres, on either side, and the three 

 simple, or single eyes, which crown the head. Each compound 

 eye (as one would naturally suppose from the term which 

 designates it) is really an immense aggregation of eyes, each 

 being composed of 3,500 facets, which means that every eye 

 seen has its image reflected 3,500 times in the bee's tiny 

 brain. Every one of the facets is the base of an inverted 

 hexagonal pyramid, whose apex is fitted snugly to the head. 

 Each of these pyramid facets may be termed a perfect eye, 

 for each has its own iris and optic nerve. 



"Who Has Honey to Sell?— For four or five 

 weeks in June and July, there was an advertisement in the 

 Bee Journal offering to pay "spot cash " for honey, and ask- 

 ing that samples and prices be submitted. Now it may sur- 

 prise you, but not a single response was given to that adver- 

 tisement. The firm offering the "spot cash" are responsible, as 

 I fully know, and it seems strange that among the whole list 

 of Bee Journal readers, there isn't one that has any honey to 

 sell. Is it a fact, that there is no honey in the hands of bee- 

 keepers this year? If you have honey, don't you want to sell 

 it, and get the cash for it ? There surely must be honey in 

 some part of this broad country. The conclusion arrived at 

 by the advertiser referred to above was summed up in this 

 sentence : " Something must be scarce besides money — either 

 bee-keepers or bees." It would appear that honey is also 



" scarce." 



^ i ^ 



Fall management of Bees is thus commented 

 upon by Mr. B. Taylor, of Minnesota, in the Farm, Stock and 

 Home for Aug. 1 : 



We do not intend to repeat last year's disastrous experi- 

 ence in having only old bees in the colonies to commence the 

 five or six months that intervenes between housing in the fall 

 and the rearing of mature brood in the spring. We are giving 

 our colonies large room In the brood-chambers, hoping to have 



them filled with fall honey, and brood-rearing kept up as late 

 as possible, so the hives may have plenty of winter stores and 

 be filled with young bees that will live until younger bees can 

 be reared next spring to take their place, even if drouth or 

 other causes should prevent a flow of nectar. We will feed 

 each colony 8 or 10 ounces of sugar syrup, made by mixing 

 equal weights of granulated sugar and water. We will give 

 this each evening from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15. The expense for 

 sugar will not exceed 50 cents per colony. We have had poor 

 honey crops now for several seasons, and many have quit the 

 business, but we are not discouraged, as we have full faith 

 that old, but sometimes seemingly fickle. Dame Nature will 

 return to her staid ways again. 



Ripening: Honey.— Prof. Cook, in the Rural Cali- 

 fornian for July, says this about the importance of having 

 honey thoroughly ripened : 



The nectar which bees collect from the flowers is thin and 

 watery, and must be fully evaporated to make the best honey. 

 This is why the bees do not at once cap over the cells after 

 filling them with honey. They wait till evaporation is suffi- 

 cient to make the honey of such thickness or " body " that it 

 is in no danger of souring or fermenting after being sealed. 

 The bee-keeper should be equally wise and not extract the 

 honey until it is capped over. This, of course, requires the 

 extra labor of uncapping, and more, for it is easier to extract 

 thin honey than to throw out that which has reached the 

 proper consistency. Thus, there is always the temptation to 

 extract unripe honey. 



I know of a very recent case in point : A bee-keeper sold 

 to a large consumer a can of honey, with the advice to leave 

 the screw cover off, or the can might burst. This meant that 

 the honey was likely to ferment, or, in other words, it was un- 

 ripe honey, and had been extracted too soon. Had the pur- 

 chaser known the facts, he would have refused to purchase 

 the article. 



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Apiarian Statistics are somewhat plentiful — if 

 they were only as reliable as they are plentiful then they 

 would be more satisfactory. The following paragraph is taken 

 from the Michigan Farmer ; I do not vouch for the correct- 

 ness of the figures, though probably they are somewhat rea- 

 sonable : 



According to the London Times the yearly production of 

 wax in continental Europe is about 15,000 tons, with a value 

 approaching £1,350,000. Of honey, the annual production 

 is estimated at 80,000 tons, and its value at £2,200,000. In 

 the United States there are about 2,SO0,O00 colonies of bees, 

 producing annually some 30,000 tons of honey. No statistics 

 relating to this part of the industry are collected in Great 

 Britain. 



•-.-»■ 



He Got the " Ole "Wass." — A negro boy, while 

 walking along the street, took off his hat and struck at a wasp 

 on a weed. Then, putting on his hat, with a look of disap- 

 pointment in his black face, he said : 



" I thought I got dat ar ole wass." 



"Didn't you get him?" 



"No, sah, but I" — he snatched off his hat, clapped his 

 hand to his head, squatted down, and said in a surprised tone 

 of voice : 



" Fi didn't git dat ole wass after all !" 



Houey-Bees as L,etter-Carriers.— An exchange 

 says that a honey-bee, instead of a carrier-pigeon, for carry- 

 ing a letter is a new idea. An English bee-keeper has been 

 training bees for this purpose. The insect is taken away from 

 the hive, a letter printed by microphotography is gummed to 

 its back, and she is then thrown in the air. 



The lyife-Saving' Cre'w at Benton Harbor, Mich., 

 have been successful in capturing two swarms of bees this 

 season. Who has ever thought of utilizing such crews for 

 swarm-catchers ? The idea is not patented, I believe ! 

 «-»-> 



B^" Why not earn some of the books offered on page 511 

 of this number of the Bee Journal ? Look at the offer. 



