1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



99 



\ 



Arkansas to the Front 



Arkansas has been overlooked in 

 the matter of beekeeping up to the 

 present time, but the people are 

 awakening up to the realization of 

 the fact that we have an ideal bee 

 country. We have very few wide- 

 awake beekeepers. Most of the bee- 

 keepers are of the old type, "Gums" 

 and "Swarms" and "Robbing the 

 Bees," and can remember the time 

 when "Grandpa cut down a tree and 

 got two or three tubs full of honey," 

 etc. But we have some men who are 

 right up to the minute, and the cli- 

 mate is ideal. 



On January 3 a meeting of the bee- 

 keepers was called at Fort Smith by 

 Mr. J. V. Ormond, Special Field 

 Agent, Bureau of Entomology, and 

 Mr. C. M. Tuggle, County Farm Dem- 

 onstrator of Sebastian County. We 

 were all surprised at the attendance, 

 as the weather was bad and the call 

 was short, but we perfected an or- 

 ganization with the following offi- 

 cers : Mr. H. P. Gunnaway, Presi- 

 dent ; J. L. Kelly, Vice President; C. 

 J. Cline, Secretary-Treasurer. There 

 were present many visitors from the 

 adjoining counties and all present 

 were very enthusiastic and went 

 away with the determination to get 

 their county organized as soon as 

 possible. 



We hope to help organize Craw- 

 ford County early in February, and 

 Franklin County later. 



This immediate community gath- 

 ered a fair crop of honey, consider- 

 ing the condition the bees wintered 

 over, as few beekeepers pack their 

 bees in winter. J. W. PRICE, 



Fort Smith, Ark. 



Yellow Sweet Clover 



It seems to me that the honey 

 made from the second crop of yel- 

 low sweet clover is best. We usually 

 cut it for hay after it has been three 

 weeks in bloom. In on<* weeks' time 

 the ground is again covered with a 

 yellow carpet. It blooms from the 

 ground up and continues until the 

 frost kills it. If one can't see the 

 bees on that bloom he can hear them, 

 and if barefooted he can feel them. 

 There are undoubtedly plants which 

 furnish more honey for a few days, 

 but for a long period there is nothing 

 like it. 



J. D. KAUFMAN, 

 Kalispel, Mont. 



Hamlin Miller Passes On 



Hamlin B. Miller, of Marshalltown, 

 la., for several years secretary of 

 the Iowa Beekeepers' Association 

 and vice president of the National, 

 is dead. Mr. Miller was an enthu- 

 siastic beekeeper and will be missed 

 at the Iowa conventions. He was 

 present at the first convention, when 

 the association was organized, and 

 has never missed one since. With 

 the exception of possibly one year he 

 has held office in the organization 

 since the beginning. He was a mem- 

 ber of the first board of directors, 

 later secretary for several years and 

 vice president at the time of his 

 death. Beekeeping was a side line 

 with Mr. Miller, to which he devoted 



himself largely on account of his 

 health. His friends have known that 

 he was afflicted with diabetes for 

 several years, but few were prepared 

 for the announcement of his death. 

 Mr. Miller was still in the prime of 

 life, being only 57 years old at the 

 time of his death. 



Paste for Labels on Tin 



In the February number is an en- 

 quiry for a paste that will stick la- 

 bels on tin. This recipe I have had 

 this past summer and have found it 

 to be a success, provided that it is 

 used liberally, not wastefully: 



Dissolve in a little cold water (soft 

 preferred) 2 heaping teaspoonfuls of 

 corn starch, in another vessel dis- 

 solve three-fourths of a teaspoonful 

 of Lewis lye in nearly \ pint of water 

 and pour into the corn starch. It is 

 now ready for use. For larger quan- 

 tities use the same proportion. I was 

 like "Michigan," could not get labels 

 to stick, till I ran across this recipe ; 

 have had no further trouble since; 

 gave it to two of my friends and 

 they have had no trouble, so will give 

 it to the general public. 



FRED TYLER. 

 San Jose, 111. 



Honey From Corn 



I see you ask about bees working 

 on corn, or Indian maize. Many 

 years ago, after my bees had secured 

 the early crop, I knew they had been 

 at work on corn. I extracted the 

 honey and found it what I thought 

 rather poor quality. I know they se- 

 cured this from the corn tassel, as I 

 saw them at work on it in great 

 numbers. I secured four 5-gallon 

 cans of this honey and set it aside, 

 thinking I could use it to feed back 

 to the bees in the spring. Along in 

 the winter I tasted it and found it 

 very fair honey, and then sold it out 

 and had no complaint from it. It 

 was of a light amber color and had 

 a very good flavor after it had set 

 awhile. 



I also once secured some smart- 

 weed honey, and when first taken it 

 had the smartweed taste, that is, it 

 would bite like the taste of smart- 

 weed. I set it aside for awhile, when 

 it got to be of a very good taste, 

 and one, after trying it, came back 

 and bought a 5-gallon can of it; I 

 have never secured either of the 

 above mentioned honeys pure since, 

 but it would be mixed with other 

 sources. In the cases mentioned I 

 secured it pure, as stated. 



J. W. ROUSE, Mexico, Mo. 



The Metal Honeycomb 



Last spring I secured ten aluminum 

 honeycombs and gave them a good 

 trial, both in the brood-chamber and 

 as extracting-combs. I have written 

 of the frailty of the cells, and found 

 that I was not mistaken, for in un- 

 capping, the dragging of wax parti- 

 cles over the edges of the cells bent 

 the metal, while a bit of hard pro- 

 polis damaged twenty or more cell 

 edges. 



This will, I believe, spoil them for 

 use in the brood-chamber; but there 

 is another feature which does not 



look good to me, and that is that it 

 seems to be impossible to remove 

 the old larval skins from the cells. I 

 washed a frame in boiling water and 

 dried it, and found that the skins 

 were not removed, and I think that 

 it would not be long before the 

 frames would have to be replaced, 

 the same as with wax combs. 



I am not at all prejudiced against 

 the metal comb; on the contrary, it 

 looked good to me, and I may draw 

 wrong conclusions; but I write that 

 others may save work and study, or, 

 if they wish, repeat my experiments. 

 A. F. BONNEY, 

 Buck Grove, la. 



Mild Winter 



We are having very mild weather 

 here; most too mild, I fear, for so 

 early. Bees have been flying and 

 carrying some water for several days 

 and I fear a cold spell coming now 

 would cause considerable loss. 



C. E. SHELDON, 

 Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. 



Early Spring in Texas 



On January 28, at noon hour, the 

 sun shines warm. It is amusing to 

 see my bees chasing house flies and 

 green or bottle flies, away from the 

 entrance. I wonder what these flies 

 are trying so hard to get into the 

 hive for. Quite a number of bees are 

 carrying in pollen. Where can they 

 get pollen at this season? I was sur- 

 prised to see so many bees carrying 

 in beebread. M. S. PARRISH, 



Milan, Texas. 



A Good Location 



Eleven thousand six hundred dol- 

 lars from less than 600 colonies of 

 bees is not so bad for a young man 

 only 64 years old. I purchased 600 

 new hives, power extracting outfit 

 and Peterson capping melter. The 

 capping melter is too slow, and I set 

 it aside the second day. 



My automobile comes handy to pull 

 loads of honey away from the bee- 

 yard before hitching on the mule 

 team or pulling loads of bees in or 

 out of the apiary, where there are 

 600 colonies of bees flying. I keep 

 mine all together in one yard, in a 

 mesquite location, and a thousand 

 seem to do as well as a hundred 

 would do. J. M. HERMAN,_ 



Chandler, Ariz. 



Monroe County, New York, Organized 



The beekeepers of Monroe County, 

 New York, organized an association 

 at Rochester on February 1, with 41 

 members. F. M. Pillsbury is the sec- 

 retary. 



It Pays to Advertise 



In the People's Home Journal for 

 December, 1918, is a paragraph in a 

 story written by Anna Brownell 

 Dunaway, which reads as follows: 



"'Honey,' offered Hiram, shortly. 



" 'Oh, yes,' laughed Mr. Posey, 

 'that's it — honey. Eat Bonney Honey. # 

 Alfred Bonney, King Bee,' is the way 

 the advertisement reads. But being 

 as he's retired, I suppose he's what 

 you might call a drone now.'" 



The above quotation indicates that 



