TH® mm^mmicM-M. mnm jouMMmi^. 



555 



wintered out-of-doors, nearly all died, 

 while those in the cellar nearly all 

 lived. It seems to me that with the 

 evidence presented at that meeting, 

 the coroner would have been compelled 

 to render a verdict after this form : 



The majority of the bees which died 

 during the winter of 1884-S'), came to 

 their death by freezing ; but why they 

 should not have frozen during previous 

 winters when the weather was much 

 colder, does not come within the juris- 

 diction of this case. But the question 

 does arise in the minds of every bee- 

 keeper, why did they not die at any 

 other time when the winters were fully 

 as severe V 



L1088 or Bees by Freezlog. 



In looking over the records of the 

 past year, I tind that this same question 

 was asked of nearly all northern bee- 

 keepers in the spring of 1863. Mr. 

 Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, says that 

 this question was asked him more than 

 a hundred times. He says that the 

 anxious inquirer has unconscious'y an- 

 swered his own question, when he says, 

 "The hives are full of honey." lie 

 says that if you had examined your 

 hives, you would have found your bees 

 huddled between the eold walls of 

 honey where they froze to death ; and 

 probably you would have found a late 

 swarm which had starved to death in 

 and between the empty combs. The 

 simple exchange of a few full combs 

 for a few empty ones among these colo- 

 nies would have saved both, and placed 

 them in their best condition for breed- 

 ing in early spring ; for it must not be 

 lost sight of, that the colony in which 

 the combs are filled with honey, has no 

 room for breeding, while the others 

 would have nothing to feed the young, 

 if bred, until it would be furnished by 

 the flowers, which may not bloom be- 

 fore the following May. 



If the above be the true explanation 

 of this mystery (and I have no doubt 

 that it is), how many thousands of dol- 

 lars might have been saved last year 

 had every bee-keeper been aware of 

 this fact. Such questions as these are 

 the vital questions to be discussed in 

 these meetings, and just as much of 

 the discussion as possible should be 

 spread upon the minutes and kept for 

 future reference. 



FerHonal Experience In Conventions. 



The methods of breeding, rearing 

 queens, dividing colonies, producing 

 crosses, strengthening weak colonies, 

 etc., are subjects which cannot be dis- 

 cussed too frequently, and with too 

 much enthusiasm in these meetings. 

 As the result of these gatherings, I 

 believe that more will be accomplished 

 when each member gives his own per- 

 sonal experience in the work, rather 

 than that which he has obtained from 

 some work upon bee-culture. When- 

 ever anything is presented to this body 

 that has had no practical test by any 

 member of the association, it amounts 

 to nothing more than a mere sugges- 

 tion. You want to know what success 

 your neighbor has had in this or that 

 experiment, and lie desires to know 

 what success you have had. Theories 

 are good, but facts are better. 



PURE HONEY. 



IIuw to t'rt'ate a Dcinaiul for 

 Liquid Honey. 



Read < it the Maine Convention 



BY I. F. PLtTMMEU. 



Pure extracted honey is a fit dish to 

 set before kings and queens, and yet 

 cheap enough to be placed upon the 

 table of every poor man in this coun- 

 try. Let the bee-keepers of Maine pro- 

 duce all of the extracted honey that 

 can be produced, and try with all their 

 powers to develop a good hi>me market 

 for a nice, pure, unadulterated article, 

 put up in neat, glass- jars or bottles, 

 with the bee-keeper's name and ad- 

 dress, saying that the contents of the 

 glass is of strictly pure honey stored 

 by bees. Label your honey in this 

 way, with neat, colored labels put on 

 in a tasty shape, and I afiirm that you 

 will soon develop a good home market 

 for your extracted honey at fair prices, 

 but not high prices, by any means. 



Often when I carry my extracted 

 honey to market to sell, I will meet 

 men who will say, " I know that honey 

 is not pure;" and they will say what 

 honey they consume, they want it to be 

 pure comb honey. To such, I almost 

 always explain and tell them of the 

 different points in regard to extracting, 

 and the reason for the honey candying, 

 and by so explaining to them, I many 

 times sell them a jar of honey, and the 

 next time I see them, and many times 

 they come where I am, before I have 

 time to see them, and their talk will be 

 something like the following : 



" Mr. Plummer, I want some more of 

 that nice honey. How much have you 

 on hand V That was good honey you 

 let me have the other day ; it went so 

 nice on hotcakes that we had for sup- 

 per the other night, and the children 

 just went wild over it. I treated some 

 of my friends to a dish, and all of the 

 time they were partaking of it, they 

 smiled and just boiled over with a 

 sweet look that I nevershall forget, no, 

 never I Now, be sure, Mr. Plummer, 

 and bring me some more of that honey 

 when you come to town. My cousins, 

 and nay uncles, and mv aunts want you 

 to save a few pounds for them ; so good- 

 day, Mr. Plummer ; but please remem- 

 ber that honey you are going to bring 

 me next week, sure !" 



Now, brother bee-keepers, you see 

 that I can sell this man aild his friends 

 lots of honey in the future, if 1 only 

 put up a nice article in an attractive 

 shape, and of finst class quality. My 

 crop of extracted honey is all sold, 

 though the demand is not so good as in 

 1886. What I mean by that is, the 

 store keepers in my market do not call 

 so much for extracted honey as a year 

 ago, but with private consumers, or my 

 customers, the demand is good. 



When the consumer learns to like 

 nice extracted honey in all its purity, 

 comb honey will then take a back seat, 

 and extracted will come to the front to 

 stay; but of course we bee-keepers, 

 who produce extracti-d honey, have to 

 labor hard to educate the public up to 

 the use of a pure, unadulterated, virgin 



sweet, gathered by the honey-bee from 

 nature's store-house, and stored in the 

 hive, and taken by the bee-keeper from 

 the combs with the honey extractor, 

 placed upon the markets of the world 

 in competition with comb honey, and 

 what is worse, in competition with that 

 mean, contemptible set of men who- 

 adulterate every nameable thing that 

 comes on the table of the rich man and 

 the poor man, the high and the low. 



Extracted honey is more easily pro- 

 duced than comb honey, as you all 

 know, and comb honey is harder to get 

 when we have cold nights in the honey 

 season, as bees will not take to the 

 boxes in cold spells when they will 

 work below in the body of the hive ; 

 and in this locality, last September and 

 the first of October, we had a fine flow 

 of honey from fall daisies, put in the 

 frames below, but not a pound of comb 

 honey was stored in the surplus boxes, 

 so we got lots of honey below, more 

 than was wanted for winter, and here 

 was where the honey extractor came in 

 play in the apiary. The bee-keeper at 

 times must produce extracted houeyv 

 or none at all, and more so some sea- 

 sons than others. I for one know that 

 it pays to produce extracted honey any 

 season, when there is any honey in the 

 flowers for the bees to gather. 



Augusta, Maine. 



MANAGEMENT. 



IIOAV I Manage my Bees — Some 

 Questions. 



Wrilten Sor the American Bee Journal 

 BY A. C. WALDRON. 



In my two years' experience with 

 bees, 1" have learned a great many 

 things, and there are a great many 

 thiusrs that I do not know. I find by 

 handling bees I get more confidence 

 and less stings ; I find that the poison 

 does not af£t-ct me as at first, unless 

 slung on some sensitive nerve ; and I 

 find ihat a good veil and smoker are 

 essential, as well as a uniformity of 

 hives. 1 do not use gloves, but use 

 " false sleeves," such as grocers use, 

 with rubber bands, and when in a 

 critical place, I draw them down over 

 my hands. 



When bees swarm they sometimes 

 cluster in a place where it is very an- 

 noying to the apiarist. This can be 

 remedied by a liberal application of 

 smoke, when they will seek another 

 place. 



I find that dry corn-cobs make ex- 

 cellent fuel for smokers. To prepare 

 them, take a small mallet and strike 

 the cobs on the sides until they split, 

 which will generally be in four pieces. 



In uniting bees, smoke them well or 

 there will be a "light." To build up a 

 weak colony, remove a strong colony 

 and place the weak one in its place ; or, 

 in other words, exchange places with 

 the hives ; and last but not least, take 

 the Bee Jouknal and read it. 



There are some things I would like 

 to know : 1- Why will bees insist on 

 filling the brood-chamber full of honey, 

 when there is plenty of room above ? 



