272 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



fore now? It is a little over 100 years 

 since you wrote it. 



I am not writing this just for the 

 pleasure of putting on the witness 

 stand a man who has probably been 

 dead SO years. It is the Huish hive 

 which I propose to describe. It was 

 in the shape of an inverted straw 

 skcp, but with "bars" on which the 

 bees built their combs. The flaring 

 shape of the hive enabled the api- 

 arist to remove the combs readily 

 after they had been cut away from 

 the side walls. This was not Huish's 

 original invention, for the Greek 

 beekeepers were at that time using 

 a similar hive. 



My readers, accustomed as they 

 are to our modern hives, will won- 

 der at the possibility of doing any 

 work with such top-bar hives. Yet 

 the great Dzierzon, who was so very 

 accurate, never used anything but 

 top-bars, and at each visit had to 

 separate the combs from the hive 

 walls. Neither were his hives built 

 flaring, but perpendicular, so the 

 work of removing the combs for ex- 

 amination was undoubtedly a great 

 task. 



It was only after Dzierzon's dis- 

 coveries that several apiarists de- 

 vised movable frames. Neither were 

 they as practical as the present hives. 

 Debeauvoys made his frames to fit 

 snugly in the hive, at first, and the 

 bees glued them fast, so they were 

 practically immovable. Berlepsch 

 used spaces around them but did not 

 make an open ceiling to the hive, so 

 that the combs had to be drawn out 

 from, the rear, where a door permit- 

 ted the removal. Hives of this kind 

 are still in use in many parts of Ger- 

 many. 



All this ancient history enables us 

 to see what a great step forward was 

 made when Langstroth invented the 



movable frame with the bee space all 

 around, below and above, with a re- 

 movable top, so that the combs could 

 be taken out without the use of 

 doors, hinges, drawers, and other 

 complicated contrivances. 



The time had evidently come for 

 the complete evolution of the bee 

 hive, for very shortly after the Lang- 

 stroth invention, similar hives were 

 devised by different apiarists. In 

 this country, A. F. Moon of Rome, 

 Ga., made a claim to having devised 

 a similar hive without having seen 

 the Langstroth invention. In France, 

 L'Abbe Sagot, a most excellent apia- 

 rist and a modest man, made an al- 

 most exact duplicate of the Lang- 

 stroth hive without having even seen 

 it. 



A Fuzz- Bearing Plant 



I see in the May number, page 170 

 "Poisoned with Propolis," by "Mis- 

 souri." 



I think that his bees have gathered 

 nectar, pollen or propolis from pois- 

 onous plants such as poison ivy, 

 poison oak or fuzz-bearing plants 

 such as goldenrod and fireweed, 

 which grow in some years abundant- 

 ly, are very irritable to the throat 

 and nose and make one feel like hav- 

 ing a cold or catarrh. 



There are many other fuzz-bearing 

 plants which are irritable and from 

 which bees gather pollen and pro- 

 polis. Enclosed is a so-called fire- 

 weed which grows abundantly this 

 year and annoyed my throat. 



B. SCHUNCHEL. 



The specimen enclosed, a very 

 hairy, slim stem, with orange-colored 

 flowers on a spike, was referred to 

 Dr. Pammel, who reports as follows : 



The plant is Amsinckia intermedia. I 

 might say that this plant has 

 been identified for me by W. A. 

 Setchell of the University of Califor- 

 nia. The note from your corres- 

 pondent is of interest. Many of the 

 plants of the Borage family are ex- 

 cellent honey plants, for instance 

 the common Borage (Borago offici- 

 nalis) ; some of the plants of this fam- 

 ily do not, however, furnish nectar. 

 Toxic substances are found in some 

 members of this family, for instance, 

 the European heliotrope, which has a 

 volatile poisonous alkaloid, and an- 

 other Borage, hound's tongue, con- 

 tains a poisonous alkaloid. 



I doubt very much whether the 

 symptoms described by Mr. Schun- 

 chel can be attributed to pollen from 

 this plant. I am inclined to think the 

 irritation is caused by the peculiar 

 hairs on the plant, as quite a number 

 of the plants of this family are irri- 

 tant and in some cases the symp- 

 toms are similar to those described 

 by your correspondent. 



Ames, Iowa. 



KEY Heating Outfit of G. M. Ranum, Mt. Hosf.b, Wis. 

 The tank behind the extractor can is a combined uncapping box, capping melter and comb heater 

 for warming combs when otherwise too cool for extracting. It sets on a brick fireplace and 

 has water-jacket like bone] Pipi leading to lower room, which is partly underground, 



has faucet to draw hot water into sink and for washing jars, i , ■, , cold water 



from reservoir, represented by opening cut in stone wall. Reservoir contains soft water 

 caught from roof of building, and a pitcher-spout pump in upper room draws from same for 

 filling jacket in either tank. We want soft water for washing jars, and they arc dried by 

 sun heat in large windows, Pipe leading to honey-tank connects with strainer under faucet 

 of extractor. 



Liquefying and Packing Honey 



By G. M. Ranum. 



Read at Wisconsin State Beekeepers' 



Convention, 1917. 



THE apparatus I am about to de- 

 scribe is the outgrowth of a 

 need felt for some convenient 

 way of heating honey, not only for 

 liquefying purposes but for rapidity 

 in bottling and also for prevention 

 of granulation. 



We had long since concluded that 

 the only proper way to sell extracted 

 honey was in the liquid state, and 

 had been making a practice of taking 

 back from the stores any of our 

 honey that had granulated, and re- 

 placing it with liquid honey. In fact, 

 we insisted on this change, believing 

 that a uniform appearing product 

 would sell better and satisfy better 

 than one that looks different each 

 time you see it, as will honey when 

 in various stages of granulation. Be- 

 sides, we were tired of explaining the 

 why and wherefore of honey getting 

 white and hard, and never did quite 

 fancy using a label with an apology 

 attached. 



This thing of keeping the stores 

 supplied with liquid honey in nice 

 condition made us no small amount 

 of trouble. We tried various ways of 

 heating the jars, and soon decided 

 that dry heat was better than plac- 

 ing the jars in water, as by the latter 

 plan one or more of the jars might 

 crack and the contents leak out, mak- 

 ing a bad mess of the whole thing. 

 And the labels would always be dam- 

 aged so as to necessitate relabeling 

 We used to place the jars on the 

 back of the kitchen stove, or in the 

 oven, with the door partly open. 



This plan worked all right for heat- 

 ing small quantities, but as the busi- 

 ness grew the women folks began to 

 grumble and complain. 



My outfit now consists of a brick 

 arch or fireplace built on the princi- 

 ple of a cookstove or kitchen range, 

 with a flat, open top for supporting 

 the honey tank directly over the fire 



