36 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 21, 1904. 



and Geo. W. Phillips makes the remarkable statement that according 

 to his experience (and he has had a large experience producing ex- 

 tracted honey in Jamaica), " bees will build drone-comb after a swarm 

 is shaken, about the same as before." 



c 



Miscellaneous Items 





Capt. J. E. Hetherington, of Otsego Co., N. Y., passed away 

 Dec. 31, after an illness of about three weeks. Had he lived until Jan. 

 7, he would have been 64 years of age. The notice came from his son, 

 Hubert B. Hetherington, dated Jan. 8. Capt. Hetherington was one 

 of the most extensive and successful bee-keepers in the whole world, 

 counting his colonies by the thousand. As soon as we can arrange it, 

 we will be pleased to give in these columns a picture and biographical 

 sketch of Capt. Hetherington, whose departure will be deeply felt by 

 not only all who knew him Intimately, but by thousands of bee-keep- 

 ers who were aware of his value as a leader in bee-keeping. 



Later.— Jan. 12 we also received the following from Mr. P. H. 

 Elwood, referring to the death of Capt. Hetherington: 



Friend York:— The closing hours of 1903 bereft us of our Ije- 

 loved Capt. Hetherington. To his family and intimate friends the 

 loss is immeasurable. Among bee-keepers the one has fallen who for 

 more than a generation has stood at the head of progressive, practical 

 bee-keeping in this country. Yours truly, 



P. H. Elwood. 



Picturesque Cincinnati is a most beautifully illustrated 80- 

 page pamphlet, 8;'.jXlOJ'.i inches, printed on the finest paper. It 

 " shows " that city in elegant style. It is indeed a work of art. It 

 was sent to us with the compliments of the publisher (Albert O. 

 Kraemer), J. C. Frohliger, and the Fred W. Muth Co. Price, 50 cents, 

 it you wish a copy. Mr. Frohliger asks in a letter, " How will this do 

 for a convention city?" We should say it is just the place for the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association to meet some time. 



Mr. Wni. F. Ware, of Cumberland Co., N. J., gives his opin- 

 ion of this journal in these words : 



" Thrf American Bee Journal has been a big help to me in working 

 with my bees. I can not get along without it. How any one who 

 keeps only a few bees can, is more than I can tell. So, please send 

 along the good " Old Reliable" for one more year, and If we do not 

 get a good crop of honey next season, it will not be its fault." 



A New Bee-Keepers' Organization. — The bee-keepers of 

 Jefferson Co., N. Y., recently organized with the following officers: 

 President, M. C. Harrington; 1st Vice-President, A. A.French; 2d 

 Vice-President, Pearl Symonds; Secretary, Geo. B. Howe, of Black 

 River; and Treasurer, D. R. Hardy. All beekeepers in that region 

 are invited to join. Dues are $1.00 a year. 



Mr. Etienne Giraud, of France, writes us as follows: 

 "The year 1903 was not a good one for queen-rearing. Rainy 

 weather is not propitious for the mating of queens. The bees pre- 

 ferred by us are produced from a Cyprian queen mated to an Italian 

 drone." 



The Apiary of Theodore Steger is shown on the first page. 

 Mr. Steger wrote us as follows: 



Mb. Editor:— I send you pictures of my house and apiary. The 

 hives all face to the southeast. Fifty-five colonies can be seen, the 

 other 7 being in the garden, and one is under a cherry-tree. The big 

 building on the right is the barn. The two boys on the right are Peter 

 and Paul, aged 13 and 15 years; I am standing next, then our oldest 

 child, Dora, 17 years old, and little Mary, aged 9; then her dear ma, 

 Mrs. Jennie Steger. The picture was taken about the middle of 

 August, and we were standing about with the bees flying around our 



I got 8400 pounds of extracted honey from 60 colonies. We could 

 not take any honey from the last swarms, but they stored enough for 

 winter. The supers are all removed, and as soon as cold weather 

 comes we can put them into the cellar. 



Dora and I enjoy reading the American Bee Journal, and I think 

 she will be a pretty good bee-keeper, too. The boys and little .Mary 

 are also very handy. 



I would write oftener about our bees and bee-keeping neighbors, 

 but I am a German, and it is hard for me to write letters. 



Washington Co., Wis., Nov. 7. Theodore Steger. 



The Apiary of Hans Christensen appears on the first 

 page. When sending the picture, Mr. Christensen wrote as follows; 



I send you, under separate cover, pictures of myself, bee-yard, 

 and my house where I keep bachelor's hall. I am leaning against a 

 hive in the apiary, and the other person is Mr. Hansen. 



The hives in the picture look rather irregular, mainly because 

 some of them are raised in front, and an inch block put under the 

 corners, to enlarge the entrance. 



My honey harvest this year consisted of 160 pounds of extracted, 

 and 35 or 40 pounds of comb honey. A year ago I had 2300 pounds, 

 all extracted, but this year the bees gathered nothing since wine- 

 maple stopped blooming. Hans Christensen. 



Skagit Co., Wash., Oct. 6. 



Hon. Eugene Secor is still the " poet-laureate " of bee-keep- 

 ing. His latest production is the following, which will doubtless be 

 read with deepening interest by all: 



y When the Bees are Coming Home. ^ 



X\ 'Tis evening ; Day has folded its tired wings flj 



S^ To rest, fann'd by the scented Southern breeze; ^ 



"S And homeward fly the prudent honey-bees 2^ 



W To join their happy sisters 'neath the trees, W 



Xj Content if some small gain their labor brings. (J) 



"* The fragrant grass is cushion'd seat for me, SJ 



(j) And in my lap the head of soft brown hair W 



flr) That once my heart entangled lying there — ffl 



^ More youthful then, but not more dearly fair — flh 



y And sweet her lips as nectar sipt by bee. a 



M " What fools we mortals be !" We fume and fret (J) 



A Because of life's unceasing round of toil, fl) 



[S Permitting gold our happiness to spoil, A. 



w When love and service are the holy oil ^ 



® That sweetens all the things we need to get. W 



S The soft, low hum that falls upon our earf, a 



"* As darkness creeps upon the glowing West, 2: 



® Is Labor's song proclaiming that the best W 



(*| Of all that's good is found thro' daily quest — (!) 



(5 And duty leaves no time for useless tears. A 



«' Eugene Secor. 2, 



Accompanying the foregoing was this paragraph about the 

 weather and the bees: 



We are having most delightful winter weather. Several days of 

 late the bees might have flown a little if they had been out-of-doors, 

 but mine are in the cellar, as usual. I am practicing, of late winters, 

 a little of the Barber idea. The temperature of my cellar stands, from 

 fall until spring, at from 48 to 60 degrees. During the early part of 

 the season the bees are perfectly quiet at even the last-named tempera- 

 ture, but towards spring they get a little uneasy, and I have to keep 

 the room very dark. The trouble with my cellar is, that I can't con- 

 trol it entirely, as hot-water pipes run through it. 



Eugene Secor. 



Mr. Secor has been doing considerable writing on bees and bee- 

 keeping outside of the bee-papers the past year. He is now the bee- 

 editor of the Northwestern Agriculturist, which claims to have a 

 weekly audience of at least 150,000 people; and the Twentieth Cen- 

 tury Farmer, also, has contained quite a good deal apiarian matter 

 from Mr. Secor's bright pen-point. In addition to the foregoing, he has 

 written a number of papers for State associations to which he belongs. 

 Besides the multitude of interesting things in Mr. Secor's apiarian 

 contributions, they possess the additional very important character- 

 istic of authenticity. No errors or drivelling nonsense about them. 

 His readers can feel a confidence in reading his writings on bees that 

 they can not indulge when reading the most of the bee-matter found 

 outside the strictly bee-papers. 



The Apiary of H. M. Carr, a picture of which is on the 

 first page, is thus described by its owner : 



In regard to photograph sent, as will be seen, the hives are placed 

 in pairs— two pairs (4 hives) with entrances in opposite directions 

 form a group. There is a passage-way of about 2 feet between the 

 rear ends of the hives. The enclosure is 30 yards square, and contains 

 56 hives, honey-house and space for wax-extractor. There are some 

 advantages in haviut: the hives arranged in this way, but the bees get 

 confused, as all the hives and groups look just alike. I lost a large 

 percentage of virgin queens at this yard last spring, that could be 

 accounted for in no other way than that they went into the wrong hive 

 on returning from their first flight. The worker-bees do not mistake 

 any hive in their own group, but a hive in another group that has the 

 same position as their own, seems to trouble them. I intend placing 



