1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



87 



bay we located and stocked already 

 with nuclei four new apiaries on land 

 owned by Dr. Maldonado. At the 

 north side of the bay we bought four 

 small pieces of land from five to ten 

 acres each, to which I am bringing 

 nuclei as soon as I have them ready. 

 We also located places on the river 

 as far as we can go up in a motor- 

 boat. A railroad runs 31 miles from 

 Sanchez to the interior, and the 

 doctor secured places on it also for 

 apiaries. This is about all in the 

 vicinity of Sanchez. On the north 

 coast the doctor owns considerable 

 land. I went there once over the 

 mountains and came through the 

 towns or villages of Matanzas and 

 Cubreras. On the way we crossed 

 three good-sized rivers (one over a 

 hundred yards wide) in log canoes, 

 the animals swimming behind. In 

 this locality we have 30 colonies in 

 logs and have the hands instructed 

 to buy as many more as they can get 

 hold of. As soon as I have time I 

 will go there, take two breeding 

 queens along in two-frame nuclei, 

 transfer these bees, brood and good 

 comb, to 10-frame supers and start 

 apiaries there as I am doing here 

 now. The native bees are the worst 

 to handle I have ever met with, but 

 very fine cell builders. Five days 

 ago I received from a friend in Porto 

 Rico 13 queens of my stock in two- 

 frame nuclei. The honey here, 

 which I have examined, is lighter in 

 color than the Porto Rican honey 

 and of very good flavor. The coun- 

 try I have seen is thickly wooded or 

 virgin forest and only here and there 

 small patches in fruit and cacao, and 

 very thickly populated. The people 

 are good-natured and peaceful, but 

 do not like to work, and this is one 

 of my main difficulties. Nature pro- 

 duces most anything they need, so 

 it is necessary to pet and coax them, 

 if you want any help. With the rich 

 and cheap land the island has, it is 

 ,my opinion that as soon as settled 

 times return the small 5 to 10-acre 

 farmer will invade this island from 

 the north, start farming with poul- 

 try, bees, dairy, etc., and gain pros- 

 perity in no time. If he knows some- 

 thing about mechanics and carpen- 

 ter work, as we Texas farmers do, 

 he will be almost independent and 

 his independence secured. It is cer- 

 tainly amazing when I relate to my 

 friends here the stories circulating in 

 the States and even in Porto Rico 

 about the unsafety of Santo Do- 

 mingo and the wild and uncivilized 

 population. On my trip to the north 

 coast, which lasted 13 hours, the few 

 people we met always saluted first 

 and gave very polite information. In 

 the few huts we saw and entered we 

 had to rest and accept coffee and 

 fruit. My friends told me that even 

 in the revolutionary times they only 

 cut each other's throats and did not 

 harm the stranger who kept out of 

 politics. We have direct mail and 

 passenger service from New York to 

 Sanchez twice or three times each 

 month. To visit in the future the 

 apiaries situated near the water we 

 are going to use a small motor-moat, 

 which the doctor has already or- 

 dered. I could narrate some very in- 



teresting incidents, which I had on 

 my trip over the mountains and in 

 crossing the flooded rivers and the 

 trouble we had with the animals, es- 

 pecially the pack mules. On the 

 water we once had a rough sea and 

 had to return, bees and all, as the 

 motor was flooded and did not work. 

 For the next load I took a sailing 

 boat and had better luck. 

 Sanchez, Santo Domingo. 



The Hubbard Feeder 



HJBBARD Brothers, of Boyne 

 Falls, Mich., seldom resort to 

 feeding, since the shallow 

 combs which they use over their 

 comb-honey supers furnish a reserve 

 supply of stores for every colony. 

 However, in the best regulated api- 



THE HUBBARD FEEDER IS SAFE FROM 

 ROBERS. 



ary there will occasionally be a col- 

 ony which for one reason or another 

 must be fed. For this purpose they 

 have devised a feeder which is at- 

 tached to the back of the hive, as 

 shown in the picture. An inch 

 auger hole in the hive-body, which is 

 opposite a similar hole in the feeder, 

 gives the bees access to the syrup. 

 The feeder has a metal cover which 

 fits very tight and thus prevents 

 rainwater from dripping in, or rob- 

 bers from getting a taste. A piece 

 of wire cloth, which slants across 

 the feeder from top to bottom, en- 

 ables the bees to get the last drop 

 without danger of drowning. 



This feeder can be filled at any 

 time without disturbing the bees, as 

 it is not necessary to open the hive 

 or interfere with the normal flight 

 of the bees at the entrance. 



Strained Honey 



By J. E. Crane 



STRAINED honey! What memo- 

 ries cluster about these words! 

 Again I see the old one-story 

 wood-colored house, with its huge 

 chimney and fireplace, where I was 

 born and lived my childhood life, 

 with father and mother, brothers and 

 sisters. And back of the house the 



orchard, and the well, with its old- 

 fashioned sweep for lifting the buck- 

 ets of water from between the walls 

 of stone. Near by was the bee- 

 house, for no one thought of keep- 

 ing bees, in those days, without a 

 bee-house. This house was really a 

 shed with one roof sloping to the 

 north, and boarded up on the north 

 side and open on the south side, so 

 the sun warmed the bees in winter, 

 causing many to fly out in cold 

 weather and get lost, or making it 

 so hot in summer as sometimes to 

 melt down the combs. And then 

 there were the long, golden autumn 

 days and frosty nights. Then father 

 would say it was time to "take up" 

 the bees, for "the brood was all out 

 of the combs." Mother and broth- 

 ers and sisters were all interested as 

 father melted some sulphur on a 

 shovel by the kitchen fire and pre- 

 pared some great "matches," as he 

 called them. Then we went to the 

 yard in front of the bee-house and 

 with a spade cut out a hole in the 

 ground ten or twelve inches square 

 and ten inches deep, sticking three 

 or four "matches" in the bottom. 

 After much knocking or thumping on 

 the hives to discover which were 

 lightest and not likely to winter, the 

 matches were lighted and the hives 

 set over the burning sulphur one 

 after another. How sorry I felt for 

 the poor bees to be smothered in this 

 way when they had done nothing to 

 merit such a fate. Soon the hives 

 father had decided to "take up" were 

 all silent and taken to the large 

 kitchen and the combs cut out ; some 

 of the whitest were saved for com- 

 pany and the rest piled into great 

 wooden bowls for "strained honey." 

 Later, when the little mother had 

 time, a milk pan holding six or 

 eight quarts was taken, two sticks 

 laid across the top and another pan 

 punched full of holes laid on the 

 sticks, into which the combs of 

 honey were placed after cutting 

 them crosswise and lengthwise and 

 every way, to drain for "strained 

 honey." I can almost hear that honey 

 today as it dripped into the empty 

 pan. How good it looked as the 

 lower pan slowly filled with the pure 

 honey free from the dark comb. And 

 once, I remember, when the little 

 mother was out of the room, and I 

 thought no one would see me, I 

 helped myself. Surely "stolen waters 

 are sweet and bread eaten in secret 

 is pleasant," but did ever a morsel 

 pass juvenile lips and taste more de- 

 licious than the scrap _ of wax 

 besmeared and dripping with amber 

 honey? As the honey ceased to drain 

 the old combs were stirred and 

 placed in the oven warm enough to 

 melt the combs, and the golden wax 

 ran over the honey. How wonderful 

 it seemed in those far-away days! 

 Yet how slow the process; but in 

 those days we cut our grass with a 

 scythe and our wheat with a sickle 

 and threshed it with a flail. Today 

 we have our mowers and reapers, 

 our threshers and seeders, our autos 

 and even our flying machines. But 

 how about strained honey? We do 

 not need to strain honey these days, 

 someone will say, for we have the 



