AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL., 



655 



feel that I should like a rabbit-pie, 

 which my good queen of the domicile 

 says would be a " nice change." 



To return to the bees. I have had 

 over 200 pounds of honey this year 

 from my apiary of 20 colonies. The 

 cold, wet weather which prevailed while 

 the " honey-flow " was on, prevented a 

 larger haul. 



I went in for extracting, this year, on 

 the shallow-frame principle, and am 

 very well pleased with the results. I 

 am making from 8c7. to Is. per pound 

 on honey, and have had a pretty fair 

 trade. (I find that my honey is granu- 

 lating. Does honey deteriorate by so 

 doing, and what measures, if any, can 

 be taken to prevent granulation ?)* 



We, like the rest of the country, have 

 experienced very heavy gales of wind 

 this week ; but judge of my surprise, on 

 going out one morning, to find that a 

 shed containing 9 colonies of bees had 

 been blown over during the night, and 

 that not one of the hives was damaged, 

 though some were on their sides, some 

 this, some that way ; in fact, all ways 

 but the right one. But not a bee was 

 lost, for the simple reasons that the 

 bees had well propolized their homes to 

 the floor-board, and I always put mortar 

 around the bottom of the straw skeps. 



I will conclude by remarking that I 

 have fed up all my colonies with pure 

 cane sugar, which, I think,- will prevent 

 them from suffering with diarrhea. I 

 hope to be able to report to you of this 

 treatment next Spring. — British Bee 

 Journal. 



[*Since preparing the foregoing article 

 for the press, Mr. W. C. Dow, one of the 

 oldest citizens of Chicago, called upon 

 us, and in the course of a friendly chat, 

 said : "I bought half a barrel of white 

 clover honey of you 13 years ago for 

 family use. As it granulated, I had 

 some of it liquefied and put into Mason 

 jars for table use. As soon as that was 

 used, I had more liquefied, and so on 

 until all was gone. And it is wonderful 

 to me that it is just as good to-day as it 

 was when I bought it 13 years ago." 

 This will answer Mr. Brown's first 

 question very emphatically. 



Nothing can be done to prevent pure 

 honey from granulating, but it can 

 easily be liquefied by placing it in hot 

 water — not boiling it — and let it grad- 



ually become a liquid. It will soon 

 granulate again, however. 



To prevent this, some "mixers" have 

 added glucose ; and this gave them a 

 poor excuse for adulterating a pure 

 product. — Ed.] 



Bee-Escapes Forty Years Ago, 



M. S. SNOW. 



I see by the Bee Journal that the 

 bee-escape is causing something of a 

 strife as to who was the first to publish 

 the idea. The idea is an old one, but 

 different in its construction. As far 

 back as about 1853, I purchased one of 

 Mr. K. P. Kidder, of Burlington, Vt., 

 for which I paid him one dollar. It was 

 stamped " patented," but whether it was 

 patented or not, it was a good idea. One 

 thing it had in its favor, it would not 

 smother bees, by getting clogged. He 

 claimed that it would clear the honey- 

 boxes, capture robbers, capture bees 

 from a tree, i. e., wild bees, and have 



KIDDER'S BEE-TBAP. 



them work in a hive, etc. He had a 

 winter-case hive also, or a hive within a 

 hive. 



I will give a brief description of the 

 K. P. Kidder bee-trap, or box-cleaner. 

 The engraving is a poor representation 

 of it; but it will, no doubt, be readily 

 understood by the readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal : 



A represents a tin box with a slanting 

 top, open at the back and front, with 2 

 rods running through it, as shown in the 

 engraving. 



The door, B, is a strip of tin about 3€ of 

 an inch wide, bent up at one end, and 

 hangs on a wire at the other, which runs 

 through the tin box, A, near the top. It 

 rests on rod, D, so that it is held up 

 about 3^ of an inch from the bottom. It 



