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CoinI> Honey in 5c. Packages.— 



Mr. W. Harmer, of Manistee, Mich., lias for 

 three years beeu engaged in putting up 

 comb honey in 3-ounce packages, and has 

 sold several thousands of them. Mr. A. I. 

 Koot, editor of Olcanlngs, visited his apiary 

 last December, and thus describes in that 

 paper his method of making these small 

 sections : 



He takes a % board, just long enough to 

 slip inside of a Langstroth frame. Then 

 with a jack-plane, set coarse, he scoops off 

 the shavings. The shavings, of course, roll 

 up : but lie tumbles them into a pail of 

 water; and when they get well soaked, 

 they are sti^^ightened out, piled up and 

 dried. This gives thin strips of veneer, 

 and cheaper than you can imagine. He then 

 fixes a board as in the second engraving. 

 The Langstroth frame is slipped over this 

 board. 



1 want to say, first, that these little blocks 

 are made by gluing a ^h board on top of a % 

 board, as you see. Now, with a circular 

 saw,cut grooves clear through the thin board 

 until the saw strikes the thick one. These 

 grooves are of such a width that three of the 

 afore-mentioned strips of veneer will drop 

 into each groove, the strips running length- 

 wise of the frame. When this is done, three 

 short pieces of veneer are dropped into the 

 grooves crosswise. But to make these bits 

 of wood stay in place when the frame is 

 pulled up, a little glue is put into each cor- 

 ner, with a camel s-liair brush. You want 

 to be careful, so thw glue will not run in too 

 far, and stick to the form. Before you put 

 in the glue, however, drop some little 

 squares of foundation into each little sec- 

 tion. The glue should just catch each cor- 



ner of the foundation. When the whole 

 thing is dry, lift it off and hang it in the 

 hive. When the little sections are full and 

 sealed over, take frame and all to the gro- 

 cer ; slip off the outside, and show him that 

 he can separate the squares into long strips. 

 With a sharp knife he can now cut them up 

 into little cakes as wanted. If a customer 

 wants two, four, six, or eight, let him have 

 them all in a slice, to save handling so 

 many loose pieces. 



The engravings were kindly furnished by 

 Mr. Root from Gleanings, and this descrip- 

 tion by Mr. Harmer is also from the same 

 source. 



Getting small sections filled, never 

 troubled me ; for I knew that bees would 

 fill spaces with comb honey that are a little 

 more than a quarter of an inch, so that^ 

 with a good honey-flow, I was not afraid 

 but that they would fill a 3-inch space. I 

 would say just here, that I have had sec- 

 tions well filled, only Ji' of an inch square, 

 so that, in this particular, I was all right ; 

 and I have proved to my satisfaction, and, 

 1 think, to the satisfaction of the few bee- 

 keepers who have called on me, that I have 

 developed a practical system for making 

 small sections out of shavings from a com- 

 mon hand-plane, and will suit any size of 

 sections for less than 1 pound of honey, vrith 

 the proper mold or form for adjusting them. 



The reasons why 1 wanted them are, first, 

 because I have seen comb honey cut in 

 pieces, making it leak in every instance, 

 often being a nuisance, daubing everything, 

 causing considerable trouble, and making it 

 diflicuit to give a customer, perhaps a boy 

 or small child, a few cents' worth of comb 

 honey ; for every one has not 20 cents to 

 spare to buy a whole section ; and if they 

 had, they do not always want so mUch. 1 

 think there are very tew grocerymen who 

 would cut a comb to suit such customers ; 

 and there are thousands of children around 

 us that do not know the taste of comb honey 

 on this account. I also thought that well- 

 to-do people would buy them for the pur- 



pose of putting one on each plate instead of 

 serving or cutting into a large comb. These 

 reasons have all been verified, for I have 

 found such customers delighted in every 

 instance. I have not had the opportunity 

 of trying them at Fairs, hut I should think 

 they would be just the thing, and would as 

 readily bring .5 cents for a 3-ounce section 

 as 4 ounces would on a piece of paper. That 

 is what I sell them for, which is at the rate 

 of 40 cents per pound, so that, in making 

 these sections in the winter, you have 

 profitable employment. 



I can put hundreds together, and comb 

 foundation in tliem in a day, ready for the 

 honey-flow in summer. The size 1 have 

 been making you will find by dividing a 

 Langstroth brood-frame by 10 one way and 

 4 the other. The shavings for this size are 

 Ji of an inch wide, and 1-36 of an inch thick. 

 I find this size, when filled, to weigh 2 

 ounces. I have just weighed 1.5 separately, 

 which are on the work-bench, ready for 

 market, and were not selected for uniform- 

 ity of weight, and each one just balanced 

 the scales at 3 ounces. 



If these little cakes of comb honey can be 

 put on sale in groceries, on the cars, at 

 fairs, etc., they will prove a great boon not 

 alone to honey-producers, but to humanity 

 in general, by placing a pure sweet in small 

 quantities within the reach of all. 



Cliaiicer to Ijongfello-w' is the title 

 of a new book just published by Johnson & 

 Erskine, 107 Madison St., Chicago. This 

 book contains 656 royal octavo pages, being 

 a selection of lectures on English literature 

 by the late Prof. John Eraser, a man of rare 

 and scholarly attainments. 



Among the great names of the period that 

 come under review in the lectures are 

 Chaucer, Surrej', Wyatt, Sidney, Raleigh, 

 Spenser, Bacon, Shakespeare, Webster, 

 Beaumont, Fletcher, Shelley, Ben Jonson, 

 Milton, Burns, Hood, George Eliot, Mrs. 

 Browning, Madame De Stael, the Bronte 

 Sisters, Margaret Fuller, Mrs. Stowe and 

 the Modern Novel, Tennyson, Longfellow, 

 and Scotch poetry. Among all these great 

 names there is no single one that the student 

 of literature wants to miss, and nowhere 

 will be found more concise and clear views 

 of the true literary worth of each. 



Prof. Fraser was an acknowledged master 

 in literature. He combined scholarly abili- 

 ties and culture, with a pure and popular 



style. He instructs and conveys iuforma- 

 tion in the most pleasing and interesting 

 way. His lectures afford a rare opportunity 

 at a trifling cost, of acquiring a knowledge 

 of great men and their writings, which will 

 become more and more in good society a 

 mark of refinement, and a test of general 

 accomplishment. Those who aspire to 

 write gracefully and accurately, will find 

 this book invaluable. Price, 83.00. It can 

 be obtained of the publishei-s. 



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Colonies Close Xosretlicr.— E. G. 



Haven, Belleville, Kans., on April 19, says : 



I have 41 colonies of bees, and all appear 

 to be doing well. Eighteen colonies were 

 wintered in the cellar, and 33 colonies not 

 on the summer stands, but were placed on 

 a bench, close together, for the convenience 

 of packing straw around them. They are 

 all doing finely at present. 1. Will there be 

 any harm in leaving them so close together 

 during the summer ? Or should they be 

 placed further apart ? 3. It so, what would 

 be the best way of getting them separated, 

 without their going back and being lost ? 

 3. Is there any way to prevent the bees 

 from gathering around the watering-tank 

 where cattle drink ? 



1. Place them further apart. 



3. Move them a little at a time. Jarring 

 and smoking aid in causing the bees to 

 mark their location anew. 



3. It will be very difficult to prevent the 

 bees from watering where they now do, 

 unless the place is dried up, compelling 

 them to seek another. 



Xiglit Hire Bottoms and Cov« 



ers.— F. Roulo, Portville, N. Y., on April 

 23, 1888, says : 



Last fall I put 99 colonies in the cellar, 

 and 59 out-of-doors packed In chaff. Both 

 lots seem to have wintered equally well. 

 Bees in this vicinity have wintered com- 

 paratively well ; but they are affected con- 

 siderably with the diarrhea, which 1 think 

 is caused by so much cider being made here 

 last fall. 1 put my bees out on April 17, 

 and after reducing 6 by doubling up, 1 have 

 153 colonies left. I would like to have this 

 question answered : Are not bees too 

 warm with a tight bottom and cover on the 

 8-frame Heddon-Langstroth hive, at a tem- 

 perature of 45°. Mine seemed to need more 

 ventilation. 



No ; thousands of colonies are every win- 

 ter carried through in perfect health ar- 

 ranged just as you mention. It is not more 

 ventilation which your bees need. Very 

 likely they are becoming overloaded with 

 fecal matter, which is not caused by too 

 much or too little ventilation. 



Honey Candy.— C. H. Drummond, of 



Winslow, Maine, says : 



I should like to ask, through the Ameei- 

 canBee Journai., if any one will tell bow 

 to make honey candy, or is it patented f 



The methods are not patented, but so far 

 we have not been able to get a formula for 

 publication. When we do, such will appear 

 in the Bee Journal. 



