no 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 11, 1904. 



never saw Ihem do it. But we can know a 

 thing is done without seeing the act. I have 

 placed a comb containing eggs in a hive con- 

 taining a queenless colony, and the eggs were 

 removed to another comb and they hatched 

 worker-bees. 



1 once transferred a queenless colony and 

 gave them brood, and they built 2 queen-cells 

 on the wood splint that held a dry comb, and 

 fhey hatched 2 fine queens from those ceils 

 before any other cells hatched. In either 

 case, if the eggs were laid by laying workers, 

 they ought to have produced drones, and it is 

 certain that the eggs were removed by the 

 bees and placed in the other combs, or they 

 were laid by laying workers, as there was no 

 queen in either hive. 



Thecasenows^oes to thejury of bee-keep- 

 ers, without further argument from me. 



Santa Barbara Co., Calif. Delos Wood. 



Dry Winter— Bees All Right. 



We are having a very open, mild and dry 

 winter, which is liable to dry the white clover 

 out if long continued, although I think it is 

 all right yet. . 



The bees are wintering well, and with tne 

 present weather continuing they will doubt- 

 less come through in good shape. 



E. S. Miles. 



Crawford Co., Iowa, Jan. 18. 



Destroying Ants— No Rain. 



Put a lump (about the size of a quarter) of 

 cyanide of potassium in the nest, wet it a lit- 

 tle, place a piece of paper on top and throw a 

 double handful of dirt on the paper to hold it 

 in place. In three days remove the cyanide 

 and put it in a new nest.J 



This drug is a deadly poison, taut is all right 

 to use if one exercises a Utile care. 



No rain here vet ; not a very good prospect 

 for a honey crop. There has been only one 

 day this winter that the bees did not fly. We 

 have had ice frequently this winter, at night. 



Kern Co., Calif., Jan. S. R. C. Corky. 



Severe Winter for Bees. 



We are having a very severe winter here. 

 The thermometer registered 30 degrees below 

 zero on Jan. 5. We have over two feet of 

 snow now, and it is snowing to-day at the 

 rate of V-^ inches per hour. I don't know 

 how my bees will come out ; they have not 

 had a flight since the middle of November. I 

 have not bothered them, as they are pretty 

 well snowed under. I predict a big loss in 

 this State this winter, unless we get a warm 

 spell soon. G. W. Bell. 



Clearfield Co., Pa., Jan. 13. 



Making Hive-Covers, Frames, Etc. 



I see sbme questions asked in regard to the 

 best hive-covers. I have tried almost every- 

 thing, and the very best cover I have found 

 yet I made from 4-inch flooring and 5-inch 

 matched rustic siding. I cut the pieces long 

 enough so I can nail them to a piece Ixl^.j on 

 the under side at each end, and allow }{ inch 

 play, so they will always go on and off easily. 

 Then get dry mineral roofing paint and mix it 

 quite thick with linseed oil, and give them 2 

 coats. I can make thera at a cost of 9 cents 

 apiece ; they will keep their shape better than 

 any patent cover on the market to-day, with 

 or without paint. 



I think poplar makes one of the best hive- 

 bodies. For frames I use the liest grade of 

 soft pine lath, costing 45 cents per hundred 

 here. I can make them average one frame to 

 a lath, and they are just as good as factory 

 made frames. Take one lath and saw off a 

 piece long enough for 2 bottom-bars; the 

 other piece will make an end-piece. Rip the 

 piece for bottom-bars through the center, so 

 it will make 4 bottom-bars; and one lath will 

 make 3 top-bars and one end-piece, or 5 end- 

 pieces. The top-liars I rip off 51C from one 

 edge; I then cut that into pieces just long 

 enough to go between the end-bars, and I 

 nail it to the under side of the top-bar with 

 fine wire nails made from No. IS wire; that 

 stiffens the top-liar, and makes a comb-guide 

 to fasten the foundation to. I use the same 



lOiOOO Plants for 1 6c 



i offer: 



For 16 Cents Postpaid yj) 



'" .lledlumnndLatwtubbaees, /j/j 



did Unloni 

 lUUU Rare LusciouH Itadlshea, 

 1000 (lloriousij Rrilllant Flowpr- 



nistiing bushels of brllUantfluM 



and lots and lots of choice vegeta- - 

 blea.to^ettier without great catalog, ( 



St^imps and this notice. 



iioth 140-page catalog alone, 4c. 

 JOHN A. SALZER SEEO CO., 

 '\ La Crosse, Wis. 



Please znention Bee Journal -when writing.' 



afGRAPEVINES 



100 Varieties. Also Small Fruits, Trees, Ac. Best root- 

 ed stock. Genuine, cheap. 2 sample vines mailed lor lOcs. 

 Uescripttve price-list tree. Lewis Roesch, Frodonia, N.Y. 



How to Organize 



A Farmers* Telephone Co, 



We have published a very In- 

 slruciive telephone book of K'8 

 pages, especially for the man 

 who wants to tnow j\LL about 

 telephone matters. It tells how 

 to organize, how to build tho 

 lines; about different types of 

 ■phones, construction, gives by- 

 laws, and constitutions, in fact 

 ephone encyclopedi 



We 



ent 



lion 



per. or we will send FHKE 

 our book V- 4. '■'Telephone Facts for 

 Fanners." Address nearest office. 



Stromberg-Carlson Tel. Mfg. Co. 

 Rochester. N. Y.-Chicago, III. 



Eucalyptus Trees ! 



We can furnish them, and invite correspon- 

 dence. Address, GtO. W. BERCAW, 



4A4t El Toko, Orange Co., Calif. 



WEAK 

 EYES 

 CURED 



AT HOME. 

 C VARAN TEED 



Cataracts, Granulated Lids,. Inflammat io 

 Eve Growths, Opti'- >erve Diseaf_e8 Fa i. 

 ■ ve'iii.'ht and all eve diseases can be cur 

 vltliouttlie knife ut home at little cost and 



'^C^iiiairEye" Treatment 



hirsTtemSni'MUt^ ""i/nc!/. NoUiingtopay for but aiitual 



ChTllan"'Remedy Co"! 67 o'street, Bushneil, llllrois 



iq MONEY IN POULTRY 



For the Next 30 Days Only, 



lall our line vahiublel-oi: try 

 Tells yo 

 ig roont. 

 1 colored plate i 



tttir natural cvlura. Send lOo for mailing arm y^\i^. 



JOHN BAUSCHER, JR., Boi 94. FREEPORT, ILL. 



fine wire nails driven througti each end-bar 

 about equal distanee apart, and bend good 

 hooks on them with a pair of round-nose 

 pliers, like bicycle pliers; bend the hooks all 

 one way to put the wire on, and it is no job at 

 all to wire the frames. For a wire embedder, 

 i,'et a balance wheel from one of those small 

 round clocks, as thick a wheel as you can get; 

 the teeth are sharp like saw-teeth. Set the 

 wheel in a vise to hold it solid, then with a 

 small, three-cornered file cut a nick in the 

 ceuter of each tooth l-ji2 inch deep. For a 

 handle get a stick '\ square and 6 inches long, 

 saw into the end to let the wheel in deep 

 enough, and put a wire-nail through for the 

 wheel to run on. That makes the best wire 

 embedder there is riiade. If it gets off of the 

 wire it won't cut the foundation. 



W. A. Moore. 

 Delaware Co., Ohio, Jan. 6. 



A Discouraging Ppopliet. 



Bees are wintering well, and white clover is 

 in abundance, and up to date is covered with 

 snow and in fine shape. However, for all this, 

 I still hold fast to the idea that this part of 

 the country will not yield nectar from clover 

 next season anything like the past season. 

 This idea is drawn from the fact that hard 

 freezing weather has prevailed ever since win- 

 ter set in, with only a light covering of snow 

 on the ground. Let us watch for the outcome. 

 Frank Coverdale. 



•lackson Co., Iowa, .Jan. 18. 



Managing Swarming. 



My bees were very weak last spring, and I 

 had to feed a good deal. I lost several colonies. 

 I had 58 colonies when the honey-flow from 

 white clover commenced, increased to 100, 

 and extracted 8000 pounds of as fine white 

 clover honey as you ever saw ; it averaged me 

 8 cents per pound. 



The last year I did not move the bees to the 

 bottoms, as I have been doing for the past 

 7' years; I had so much at home. When they 

 had the swarming fever so badly I would take 

 a frame of brood and nice queen-cells almost 

 ready to hatch, and the bees that were on it, 

 and then go to another strong colony and take 

 another frame of hatching brood, beesandall, 

 and put them in a new hive with one frame of 

 honey, and close them up bee-tight for 3 days 

 and nights on a new stand, and let them alone, 

 and they did well. I got about half of my in- 

 crease in this way. Of course, I helped them 

 when they needed it. 



I was making a liee-cellar last fall, and it 

 made me late about getting my bees into win- 

 ter quarters. I put in 73 colonies Dec. 26, 

 and left 28 outside, as I want to see which 

 do the best. My bee-house is 12x10, and the 

 cellar is the same, and G feet and 2 inches 

 deep, walled with stone 4 feet under the 

 ground and 2 feet above, banked up roof. I 

 was in the cellar to-day, and everything was as 

 quiet as the dead hour of night. 



I use the Simplicity lO-frame hive, and run 

 for extracted honey altogether. I had my 

 honey all sold 2 months ago. I could have 

 sold as much more if I had had it. 



I used a 2-frame extractor, but I want a 4- 

 frame one, reversible. I have 2 hands in the 

 honey-house, aud myself out-of-doors, and we 

 extract 2 barrels of honey a day. 



James Grover. 



Brown Co., 111., Jan. 4. 



Please mention tiee .journal wnen "wiitir^ 



Fumigating a Wliole Apiary. 



A few days before Christmas I completed a 

 thorough job of fumigating ray entire apiary 

 for what seemed to be black brood. .The 

 odor was that of foul brood — also the coffee 

 color — but it would not stand the toothpick 

 test — seemed more like black, muddy water, 

 only a little thicker, but would hang to the 

 pick, break, and fly back. I used my honey- 

 tank, which is 3 feet high and about 6 feet in 

 diameter. I took the bees out of enough 

 hives to 811 the tank, shaking aud brushing 

 them into boxes, and when the tank was filled 

 with hives I placed a 'soup dish in the center 

 on the bottom of the tank and in it put two 

 spoonfuls of formaldehyde and one of water, 

 using a big iron spoon with a capacity of V 



