52 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 24, 1901. 



iug: is in prospect, it is not an uncoramon 

 thing to see a number of bees busily engragred 

 day after day in cleaning: out a hive contain- 

 ing empty combs, when as yet no swarm has 

 issued. But when a swarm clusters, and re- 

 mains clustered 12. 24. or more hours, it seems 

 reasonable to believe either that no scouts had 

 been sent out. or that their search had been 

 unsuccessful. The fact that bees with a vir- 

 gin queen are not so sure to cluster as one 

 with a laying queen gives color to Prof. 

 Cook's view that a swarm clusters to rest the 

 queen. On the other hand, discredit is 

 thrown upon that belief by the fact that in 

 apiaries with dipt queens it is a thing of fre- 

 quent occurrence for swarms to settle without 

 any queen. Why should they settle to rest 

 the queen when no queen is with them t Or 

 do they go on the general principle that a 

 queen ought to be with them, and that she 

 ought to be tired ? 



In all these disputed matters, careful and 

 repeated observations made at different times 

 and under different circumstances will help to 

 general conclusions, and in the meantime it is 

 well to bear in mind that " bees do nothing 



invariablv." 



■♦ 



"We "Wish to Thank all who have writ- 

 ten us such kind letters referring to our re- 

 cent misfortune, occasioned by the fire on the 

 floors above us. Our "watered stock" is 

 drying out again, and soon we will be going 

 on as before. We feared that the old Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal might be delayed, or miss a 

 number or two, but we were able to get it out 

 so that our readers would scarcely know that 

 anything unusual had happend here. 



I Weekly Budget j 



SOMETIMES. 



'• The hand that rocks the cradle 

 Is the hand that rules the — "" Maybe : 



But 'the hand that rocks the cradle."" sure 

 Is the hand that spanks the baby. 



W. W. Mitchell, in Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



StR. T. F. BrsGHAM, of Clare Co.. Mich., 

 wrote us Jan. 4th : 



"The weather is fine, and the wintering 

 prospect outdoors is better.'" 



Mb. X. D. West, of Schoharie Co., N. T.. 

 wrote us Jan. 3d : 



" It is zero weather this morning: no snow, 

 good wheeling, and bees are quiet.'' 



The ArsTRAXASiAS Bee-Keeper is guilty 

 of the following: 



Jogging him: " Ello. Slumpy ! Wot's de 

 matter wid year face and hans '. Got de 

 hives '." 



■■So; I got de bees!" 



Editor HrTCHrssos, of the Bee-Keepers" 

 Review, says: 



■■ A pun. If a good one. is often quite en- 

 joyable. For instance, at the banquet held at 

 Niagara Falls dm-ing the Ontario convention. 

 There was an allusion to the green color of 

 the water in the rapids just below the falls, 

 and some curiosity exprest as to what this 

 color was due, when some one suggested that 

 it was green because it baAjant route over.'' 



Mr. Wm. a. Selser, of Philadelphia, we 

 learn in a letter from him dated Jan. 1.5th. 

 lost his beloved sister, by death, last month. 

 We had the pleasure of making her acquaiut- 

 ance when stopping at Mr. Selser's home a 

 year ago last fall, while attending the Na- 

 tional Convention. Among other things in 

 his letter, Mr. Selser says: 



■• She was so helpful to me in my business: 

 from the very start she helpt bottle honey. 

 Ten years ago. when I first began the idea of 

 bottling, there was no end of mishaps and 

 drawbacks caused from lack of experience on 

 my part, and loss of hundreds of dollars in 

 little accidents from the lack of knowledge as 

 to how to do it right: I would become dis- 

 couraged, and feel like giving it up. when she 

 would cheer my heart with encoiu-aging 

 words, and take right hold and try again, and 

 try to show me where I was wrong. We 

 would work side by side with my wife and 

 man. week after week, to make it go. For the 

 first few years she did all the labeling, then as 

 my business increast. and I had to employ a 

 larger force, she took charge of the molding 

 of some four tons of beeswax in 1-ounce. 4- 

 ounce. S-ounee. and 1-pound cakes, ijacking 

 them in boxes made for the different sizes, 

 and getting them in shape to ship to my trade 

 in Baltimore, New York, and Boston. She 

 also put up a large lot of sections and frames 

 for my made-up hive-sales in spring and sum- 

 mer. And in all the years she would never 

 accept one cent for her services : and upon the 

 auniversary of her birth, when I would desire 

 to remember her in a substantial way, she 

 would say. • Now, brother, you are doing too 

 much for me.' Her life was one of unselfish- 

 ness, and the very idea of pay would take her 

 real pleasure out of her service. 



•• The pecuniary loss is the smallest part to 

 me, but her bright, sunny. Christian disposi- 

 tion, so encouraging at every turn, will be 

 one that I will ever miss, and leaves a place 

 that never can be tilled. We laid her body 

 awav on Dec. "22d: her Christmas was with 

 Christ, the author of it. We left the New 

 York office to bring her home on account of 

 appendicitis: she was sick only six days." 



In addition to our own sympathy. Mr. Selser 

 will have that of all the bee-keeping friends 

 in the departure of his sister. But his loss 

 must be great gain on the other side, where 

 only character is valued. And then there is no 

 little gain to those who are left behind, for 

 the influence of her devoted life and example 

 will ever remain to bless those who knew her, 

 and be to their memories as pleasant as the 

 sweet fragrance of beautiful flowers. 



HoxETED Baked Apples.— Mr. A. E. 

 Willcutt sends us the following which he elipt 

 from some paper : 



-■ In baking apples, honey for sweetening is 

 trulv delicious. Wash the apples and core 

 them, but do not peel : a bit of cinnamon may 

 be put in the holes made by removal of the 

 cores. Put the apples into a baking-pan, 

 with just enough water to cover the bottom of 

 the pan. When the apples are baked for 20 

 minutes, add the honey and baste them fre- 

 quently until done. For very sour apples use 

 a half giU of honey to every six apples. 

 Eaten hot or cold, with or without cream, 

 they are good.'' 



We publisht this same information several 

 years ago. and we were quite certain it origi- 

 nated with the bee-keeper who then sent it 

 to us. 



Mr. W. L. Coggshall, of Tompkins Co,, 

 N. y.. writes us that it does not look very 

 bright for his bee-keeping in Cuba, as signs of 

 diseased brood are appearing. On page S-29 

 (1900) it was mentioned that Mr. CoggshaU 

 had shlpt a lot of bees to Cuba, expecting to 

 carrv on the business there. 



Mr. J. E. Crane, of Vermont, has an arti- 

 cle in the Bee-Keepers' Review telling how his 

 bees helpt to build his beautiful home, a pict- 

 ure of which forms the frontispiece. He says 

 that when .voung he was quite an invalid, and 

 the doctors advised living on a farm, but he 

 was not able to do heavy work, nor had he 

 the capital to employ some one to do it for 

 him. No one in his locality had made a busi- 

 ness of bee-keeping in those days — about 40 

 years ago — tho some of his neighbors kept 

 bees, and were able to sell some honey in 

 good seasons. He read the lx)oks of Qtiinby 

 and Langstroth — there were no periodicals 

 devoted to bee-keeping in those days. He was 

 led to believe that he could sell enough honey 

 to employ the needed help to work on his 

 farm, even if he did not produce enough to 

 make a living at the bee-business. He began 

 in a small way. as all beginners should do. and 

 did not get a pound of surplus the first season, 

 as it was a very poor one. The next year his 

 colonies averaged 100 pounds. He then in- 

 creast his apiary until he had six or seven 

 hundred colonies all his own. He used frame 

 hives from the very first, and had Italian bees. 

 The price of honey averaged 30 cents per 

 pound above the cost of selling, being fully 

 double what it is to-day. 



He thinks that more failures in bee-keeping 

 come from increasing too rapidly than from 

 any other cause. He has stuck to his bees 

 thru aU kinds of seasons, and believes that 

 they wUl pay as well, ordinarily, as any other 

 branch of rural industr,v. After 35 years of 

 work with them he is more interested than 

 ever. He thinks that it pays to persist in the 

 business rather than to sell out when a poor 

 year comes, or let them die. and go into some- 

 thing else. He realizes that many parts of 

 our country are unfit for keeping bees profit- 

 ably, the same as would apply to wheat-grow- 

 ing or fruit-raising, and that there is nothing 

 to be gained by trying to believe that bees can 

 be made a success everywhere. The way to 

 discover a good location is to investigate the 

 flora, and consult those who have kept bees 

 some years in such localities. 



The Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association 

 elected the following as its officiary for 1901, 

 at its meeting held at Niagara Falls last 

 month : 



President. John Newton, of Thamesford; 

 1st Vice-President. J. D. Evans: 'id Vice- 

 President. Jas. Armstrong: Secretary. Wm. 

 Couse. of Streetsville: Treasurer. ^Martin 

 Emigh : Foul-Brood Inspector, Wm. McEvoy, 

 of Woodburn: Assistant Inspector, F. A. 

 Gemmill. of Stratford. 



Woodstock. Ont.. was selected as the next 

 place of meeting. We learn that the last 

 meeting was the best ever held by the Associa- 

 tion. We hope soon to find room for an 

 epitome of at least a portion of the proceed- 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle has been down in 

 Arkansas for several weeks, looking after a 

 farm in which he is interested. He expects 

 to be at his home in New York State again 

 about Feb. 1st. Among other things he says 

 this in a letter to us dated Jan. 12th : 



" I do not see why bees ever need to die in 

 wintering bees here [Sebastian Co.. Ark.]. If 

 they have food enough, for more than one- 

 halt the days since I have been here have been 

 warm enough for them to fly. and the sun has 

 shone every day but two.'' 



