Murdering Bees, 42, 85 Machine Extracted Honey, 135. My Management of Bees, 182. Michigan Bee-Keepers' Association, 253 My Report, 199. N. A. Bee-Keepers' Association, 12, 273 North Eastern Association, 55 New Smoker, 106 New Subject, 110 Natural and Artificial Food, 133. Notes and Queries, 193, 209, 235, 261. Notice to Subscribers, 195. New Method of Wintering, 196. Our Queenless Colony, 82 Observations on Wintering, 229 Plants for Bee Forage, 89 Philosophy and Practice in Wintering, 230 Pure Queens working in Boxes, 271 Queen Breeding, etc., 31 Review of January Number, 66 Reports from Northern Kentucky, 253 Sundry Items, 19 Shall we clip Queen's Wings? 137. Successful Wintering, 141. Sundry Notes, 148. Seasonable Hints, 191, 216, 265, 290. Sale of Honey, 196, 225. Successful Bee-Keeping, 203. Sundry Questions and Answers, 125. 160 That Patent Bee Feeder, 89 To Beginners in Apiculture, 116, 139, 162 The Bee Disease, 156. The late Dr. T. B. Hamlin, 159. The Tulip Tree, 223 Test of Italian Purity, 225 Timely Suggestions, 241 The Folk-Lore of Bees, 249 The Bee in Southern California, 250 Test of Italian Purity, 258 This year's Honey Season, 270 Use of the Extractor, 65 Voice from the South, 228 Voice from Pennsylvania, 175. Visit to Adam Grimm, 103 Voices from Among the Hives, 24, 46, 70, 94, 118, 142, 168, 193, 217, 238, 245 Wings of the Bee, 9 What Killed the Bees, 37 What Gallup has Seen, 64 Why don't Farmers keep Bees? 114 Wintering Observations, 200. When Bee-Keeping don't pay, 203. Wintering and Springing, 206. Wintering Bees in Ohio, 231 What Killed the Bees, 233 Vol. X. DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEE CULTURE: CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1874. Correspondence. Correspondents should write only on one side of the sheet. Their best thoughts and practical ideas are always welcome; no matter how rough, we will cheerfully ** fix them up." Translated for the American Bee Journal. Bee-Keeping in the Valley of the Weser. The valley of the Weser, in the neighborhood of Rinteln, is admitted by every stranger to be one of the most beautiful and favored spots in Germany, and yet bee culture, especially rational bee culture, is so much neglected, that an improvement is greatly to be desired. In Rinteln, a town of over 5000 inhabitants, there are not, leaving out my apiary, fifteen swarms! That more bees are not And kept here is to be wondered at, as nearly every house has a large garden attached, and most of the owners of houses are also farmers to a greater or less extent. the open country could hardly be better adapted to bee culture. The largest apiaries are found five or six leagues from here, in the neighborhood of Stadhagen and Rodenberg. The bee-keepers of that locality wander about with the bees in the Heath. The Weser Valley here, however, having an early yield of honey which is unsurpassed, has for years been visited every Spring by bee-keepers with from 200 to 300 stocks in straw baskets. The apiarian remains here until the blossoming of the flowers in the Heath. The Spring honey harvest here is wonderful. Then comes the blossoming of the fruit trees, of which there are a great abundance in the gardens, and along the roadway, giv. ing an abundance of honey and pollen; then follows the harvest from the seed fields, which is usually very abundant. Nowhere are there greater quantities of rape raised than here. Along the Weser are found many meadows, rich in soil and producing much honey. Boundless fields are covered with the most beautiful flowers. On the heavy grounds beans are cultivated; and along the roadways, etc., millet grows and blossoms until late in Fall. I can this year report the honey yield to have been very good, because in the Summer fruit fields there was a great quantity of wild heather, so that they appeared as yellow as if covered with rape blossoms. Thus, it is no wonder the bees had no I observed that the queen stopped laying more room in which to store their honey.* for upwards of three weeks since, just as soon as the cells were built, and filled with honey. In such years those stocks are of the greatest advantage, which are the most populous. It is true we receive somewhat later pasturage from the forests, yet our main dependence is upon the previously mentioned plants. This year I learned the difference between the German and Italian bees. The latter are much earlier with their brood, and are, therefore, best suited for localities like this. For many years I have observed that the German bees only become strong and populous when the honey harvest is on the decline, while the reverse is the case with the Italians. I have the pleasure of being the first person in this neighborhood to adopt the movable comb system, and also to introduce Italian bees. I secured the Italian race without much trouble. I engaged a queen in the Autumn of 1871, from Herr Henrme of Nierburg, and received a beautiful specimen with a few worker bees. These I introduced in the usual way into a stock of German bees, which I had eight days preBefore introducing viously unqueened. *Here was a chance to use the honey emptying machine. the queen I carefully examined the hive, and destroyed the queen-cells that had been bg. The queen was warmly received, and in a few days the bees released her of their own accord. The stock wintered well, and was one of the best of my stocks. Towards Spring I found many young Italians. That Summer I made from it five new swarms. My greatest care was, to have these beautiful colored queens purely mated. I separated them half a league from the common bees, and attained my object. I could last Summer have raised a large number of queens, but I wished first to test the virtues of the race. I wintered six Italian stocks. As these made their appearance this Spring to my full satisfaction, towards June I made ten artificial swarms, some having most beautiful queens. The mother swarm I divided three times, and yet it swarmed four times. Through these after swarms I received a number of queens which I substituted for common ones. I do not desire to remove all the common queens, yet it would be possible for me this Summer to have Italianized all my stocks. It is with great sadness that I see Bee culture so much neglected in this favorable locality. WILHELM BORNEMANN. Rinteln, July 10, 1873. For The American Bee Journal. Bee Anomalies. One pleasant afternoon last August, as I was standing near one of my nucleus hives, I observed a commotion at the entrance, and soon saw that the naughty little fellows had it in their heads to leave their home. I let them have their own way, contenting myself with observing their actions. They soon settled on a bush near by. After requesting my assistant to hive them in a small box, I went to the deserted hive and opened it, and found plenty of brood and honey, satisfying myself that they did not leave for the want of these. As the hive was well shaded, they did not desert because it was too hot. I put them immediately back into the hive from which they came; but I had no sooner done this, than another nucleus quit its hive and settled on the same spot that the first one did. This I also put back. Having some curiosity as to how the "pesky chaps" in the first hive were behaving themselves, I opened it and found them engaged in killing their queen. As this queen had mis-mated with a black drone, I let them alone, and in an hour's time they had her carried out "a corpse." From hive No. 1, I went to hive No. 2, and found them treating their queen in a similar manner. As the progeny of this queen was pure, I caged her, and kept her confined until their fiery ardor cooled down. She was then kindly received. I can only account for the strange conduct of these bees, by supposing that, as the honey harvest at the time was failing, they became discouraged, and determined to leave; and as I put them back against their will, they became enraged at their queen, and determined to kill her, and raise another. Have other bee-keepers met with similar cases? During the month of October, on opening a hive containing a very fine Italian queen, and removing a frame, I found a beautiful light colored queen on the side of comb next me, in the act of laying. As soon as my eye caught sight of her, I concluded at once that she was a usurper, and had displaced my old, familiar queen (sixteen months old, with one wing clipped). But on looking on the other side of the card of comb, I found my old queen, occupied with her usual pastime of laying, and looking as though she was perfectly at home. I caged the would-be usurper, and gave her to a colony from which I had taken a queen. My queen with the clipped wing seems to be as prolific as ever and so far as I can see, shows no signs of diminished vigor. This case, while it establishes no rule, proves that it is possible for two laying queens to be in one hive at the same time peaceably performing their functions. Augusta, Ga. J. P. II. BROWN. Prof. Gerstocker, of Berlin, Prussia, says: "The Egyptian bee is nearly a third smaller than the common bee. The abdomen resembles that of the Italian but the corselet is yellow, the downy hairs of the thorax are whitish.' The Honey Extractor. didn't gather so much, for it was "actually turning back to sugar." However, the AN ADDRESS BY A. I. ROOT, OF MEDINA, OHIO, honey all went somewhere before another BEFORE THE MICHIGAN BEE-KEEP ERS' ASSOCIATION. Mr. President, Ladies and GentlemenWe have been requested to address you on the "Honey Extractor, its use and benefits," but before so doing would remark, that should we here repeat much that has been gone over before, we hope to be excused on the ground that much repetition seems to be necessary to induce bee-keepers to give the credit that is due to this implement of the apiary. About the year 1856, we, as an experiment, moved a small colony from its stand in the month of June, and placed in its stead a hive containing only empty combs with a caged fertile queen. On releasing the queen, forty-eight hours afterward, we were so astonished at the appearance of things that we weighed the hive, bees and all, and found that it had gained in the interval, thirty pounds. The question at once arose whether they would not go on increasing at the rate of fifteen pounds per day, for some days to come, were they furnished with facilities in the shape of empty combs as fast as they were filled, for none of our other colonies, though equally strong, had made any such increase in the same time. Shortly afterward, E. Van Slyke, in the Bee-keepers' Gazette, solved the problem for us by his notice of the German Centrifugal Machine, and soon we had hastily extemporized a rude tin can with revolving frame inside, made of iron wire and haircloth. A brief trial of this rude machine, in a half finished state, convinced us that combs could be made empty in a twinkling and without injury, and before the season closed we had half a ton of nice honey put up in quart glass jars, neatly labelled, and these sold rapidly for a time at one dollar each. After cold weather came on, the honey of course, candied, and our beautiful honey that had been so much admired for its transparency and purity, presented more the appearance of jars of lard than anything else, and in spite of the fair reputation that we had always borne, there began to be considerable "talk" that we had manufactured the honey, and our bees season, and we indulged through the Winter in "bright visions," and before "fruit blossoms we had purchased one pound jars to hold a ton, and labels in two colors for all sources we could think of from which our bees might gather honey, so as to be all ready for the coming harvest. By the way, we have just been looking over our unused labels and find those printed for Fruit blossoms, Locust blossoms, Alsike Clover, (we had all of an eighth of an acre,) Buckwheat, and Autumn wildflowers nearly all remain on hand. clover and basswood being the principal well defined sources. White Well our jars to hold a ton were soon filled, and we need not tell here how we borrowed all the wash boilers in the neighborhood, and washing day did come, and onr bottles didn't come; but it was all made "lovely" and we sold nearly three tons of honey in the one and two pound bottles. But cold weather came again, and again it looked like lard and wouldn't sell, and, "more too," in the candying process it pushed the corks out of the bottles, and some of the boxes had been left "wrong side up," and the labels were spoiled on those that weren't wrong side up, and as a last resort we poured or tried to pour the honey out those little bottles into barrels, and they had to be warmed, and if we hurried them to get through the "muss" they broke, and now we don't put our honey into glass jars until they are ordered in that shape. We use nothing smaller than quart fruit jars, and never try to hold honey with corks, but use those jars that have secure fastenings equal to all emergencies; those with glass covers and a metal clamp, called the Haines Fruit Jar, we like best. Again, during a very rapid yield of honey, combs are sometimes filled before the honey has had time to ripen, and some that we bottled in that state came so near fermenting that it gave extracted honey rather a bad reputation, and justly so, for we were astonished at the contents of some of our own when picked out at random and brought to the table. At first the idea was quite romantic of bottling the "nectar" fresh from the flowers the same day it was gathered, but even our favorite White Clover under such circumstances had a decidedly green taste, and, unless evaporated by setting the jars in an oven until the honey attained the desired consistency, would most assuredly encourage a preference for old-fashioned comb honey. Honey when extracted from sealed combs, or at a time when the bees jnst begin to seal it, we think, however, is in no respect different from, or inferior to comb honey, and we think most people will, after a time decide that wax is not particularly desirable as an article of food. Instructions for the use of the extractor we think are hardly needed now, for "Young America" very soon finds a way to get out the honey after he once gets an idea of the modus operandi. Uncapping the combs, it is true, once seemed a formidable task, but just hand your honey knife (it must be very thin, very sharp, and of the finest steel), to some one of our bright, keen, go-ahead feminine friends, tell her what is to be done and after a little practice her knife will glide under the caps and roll them off in a sheet (no hot water is needed) at a rate that will convince any "lord of creation" that at least a part of bee culture is women's work. Also in using the extractor, many have been led to think the operation a laborious task because their machines were heavy and cumbrous, with gearing like a fanning mill, and even yet we find it hard work to convince many that it is a great waste of strength and time to whirl a can, honey and all, at the speed necessary for the honey to fly out, when only the comb itself needs whirling. It is for this reason that we so strongly urge that every apiarist should have but one sized frames in his apiary, and have his extractor made to fit them and no others; for to make a frame of wire cloth with the necessary supports and braces larger than the comb we use, to be constantly brought up to the proper speed and quickly stopped, simply because the manufacturer was obliged to make his machines large that they might fit all frames, it seems to us, is very poor economy. The smallest frame generally in use is the Gallup frame, eleven and one-fourth inches square, and the largest is the Quin by, twelve by eighteen and one-half inches. Now to revolve the ponderous frame necessary to receive the latter in extracting combs of the former size would be a constant waste of strength; yet there is no objection to using the large frame and large extractor, for with all large frames work is pushed more rapidly to compensate for an increase of power being demanded. Also with the small extractor the small frames could be handled and extracted with much greater rapidity. An extractor made expressly for the Langstroth frames may be made very light and work very easy, for if placed longest way up and down, the wire cloth may come within five inches of the shaft, and its length may just as well be two inches less than the length of the frame, for the attachment of the comb to the wood is ample support. Now as the Langstroth frame is but ten and one-eighth inches broad, we cannot afford to make the extractor frame more than ten inches, and nine and one-half inches would be better economy for a very light running extractor; but this could not be used for the Gallup frame, unless increased to eleven and one-half inches or more. Then comes the American frame, twelve by twelve inches, or old style, twelve by sixteen inches, and perhaps we might as well use a Quinby extractor for all of the American frames, even at the expense of whirling some superfluous metals below the comb. Strips of folded tin seem to combine more of the qualities of strength and lightness than any other material we know of for making the inside framework to an extractor, and a tin tube makes all the shaft that can be needed. We would always have both top and bottom bearings of tempered steel, and, to conclude, we know of no better winter amusement for the bee-keeper than to see how nice an extractor (i. e., light, strong, and easy running) he can make, or at least can make with the assistance of his tinner, and we would advise every bee keeper to get on friendly terms with his neighboring tinsmith by all means, for they are destined, it seems to us, to be our greatest allies. As to the "use and benefits" of the extractor, really it seems to us that our friends need no remarks on this head. We have learned to build up colonies, rear |