AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



273 



sections and takes it home as a surprise 

 for the family. Somehow the "surprise" 

 does not turn out just as expected. 

 When it is cut out of the sections, the 

 honey does not look as it used to, and a 

 taste of it is enough for most of the 

 family, and they at once conclude that 

 the bee men have been playing some 

 new trick on them. It is needless to say 

 that the demand for honey will be very 

 limited for a long time in that family. 



Bee-keepers who have any regard for 

 their reputations, should not try to sell 

 this stuff for good honey. If it can be 

 sold for manufacturing purposes, well 

 and good. But if it cannot be sold, what 

 are we to do with it ? That is just what 

 I have been studying over for several 

 weeks. It wil not do to Winter bees on, 

 as past experience has demonstrated 

 time and time again. Fortunately the 

 flow from this source is now over, and 

 the Fall crop of honey promises well. 

 We are now extracting the whole lot and 

 storing it in barrels, and will keep it for 

 Spring feeding. This is quite a loss, and 

 a great blow to our expectations, but it 

 is the only honest and rational disposition 

 we can make of it. — Westeim Plowman. 



Bee-Buzzings from tlie Apiary, 



DR. C. C. MILLEE. 



Did not get as much honey as you 

 expected, did you? Pretty much the 

 same everywhere, as near as I can make 

 out by reports. 



I never saw more white clover than 

 this year, and it seemed to open up well, 

 but somehow the big crop did not come. 



Perhaps it was the weather. It was 

 the coolest July on record in Northern 

 Illinois. Especially were the nights 

 cool. Not a night all Summer when 

 people were hunting around for a cool 

 place to sleep. 



One comfort is that if honey is scarce 

 it ought to bring a higher price. A little 

 higher, for honey seems not to go more 

 than just so high, no matter how scarce. 

 It is a luxury, not a necessity. 



" Do not hold your surplus honey if 

 prices will justify," is good advice; but 

 on the other hand,- do not be in a fever to 

 rush it off at any price you can get, when 

 you know that it is so scarce that there 

 will be little on the market by Spring. 



Where do you keep your honey ? 

 Comb-honey keeps best in just the same 

 place that extracted does. I have seen 

 a close, cool, dry place recommended. 

 That is all right, except that I would not 



have it close, and I would not have it 

 cool. At least I would not have it close 

 until thoroughly ripened. Let a draft 

 pass through the room in which it is 

 kept, and evaporation can take place. 

 The hive is the best place for evapora- 

 tion, but if you leave comb-honey on the 

 hive, the comb becomes dark. For 

 extracted-honey no harm comes to the 

 honey from leaving it on, if it suits your 

 convenience in other respects. 



Dadant & Son leave all honey on the 

 hives till the close of the season, having 

 it all sealed up before extracting. 



I work altogether for comb-honey, but 

 most years I have at least a few combs 

 to extract for my own eating, and T like 

 to let the bees have them all Summer, so 

 the honey is thick and rich. 



A hot place, not cool, for ripening. A 

 room where the sun shines on it all day 

 long, with the walls painted a dark color, 

 and the nearer the roof the better. 

 Indeed the garret is one of the best places 

 to keep honey, if you have not too much 

 of it. 



R. L. Taylor keeps comb-honey from 

 one year to another in fine condition by 

 keeping fire in the honey-room in Winter. 



Wherever salt will get moist is a bad 

 place for honey. Your wife can tell you 

 the places where the things get damp 

 and mouldy; do not put your honey 

 there, but put it where things dry up. — 

 Stockman and Farmer. 



An ExDerience with African Bees. 



W. D. EORKE. 



An item in the Bee Journal, calls to 

 mind an experience of my friend in con- 

 nection with African bees, that brings 

 the "ton and a half of honey" out of 

 the realms of romance into the regions 

 of probability. 



When a youth he entered as ship's boy, 

 along with several lads, on a vessel bound 

 for the "Cape." While lying becalmed 

 off some point on the African coast, he, 

 with several of the crew, got permission 

 to go ashore. In the course of their 

 rambles they discovered a cave in the 

 face of a hill near the shore, from which 

 bees were issuing. They determined to 

 explore, and doing so saw the roof of the 

 cave some fifteen or twenty feet above 

 them, and, as far in as they could see, 

 covered with huge masses of comb and 

 bees. My friend and another lad went 

 in search of poles, and finding something 

 suitable, returned to the cave where the 

 others were waiting in anticipation of a 



