746 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 19, 190:-. 



and an effort to open the market of our larger cities will be 

 pushed with vigor. 



Protection of the producers has also been carried out 

 within the association, by the heavy bonding of the secre- 

 tary and manager, Lafayette Haines, and treasurer, J. H. 

 Brown. 



[ Our Bee-Heepin$ Sisters j 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Introducing- Queens— A Bee-House. 



Our bees wintered all right last winter. We increased 

 from 7 to 8 colonies, and our bees are getting along fine. 



I would like to ask a few questions, the first about in- 

 troducing queens. What time is the best ? 



The next is about a bee-house. My papa made a bee- 

 house SO feet long, 7 feet high, and 7 feet wide ; that makes 

 a space in front of 7 feet, and that makes two shelves. We 

 would like to know if we could put the hives one above the 

 other, or if we would have to put them on one shelf. We 

 live in a town, and our lot is not very large, so we must 

 keep our bees as close together as we can. 



I like to read what the bee-keeping sisters have to say 

 about their bees. We make our own hives, and I helped to 

 put up the frames, and wire them, and put in the founda- 

 tion. Hope H. Abbl. 



Northampton Co., Pa. Oct. 25. 



1. The best time in the season to introduce queens is 

 when the bees are gathering honey most freely. The best 

 time in the day is toward evening, when the bees have about 

 ceased to fly. 



2. Certainly, you can put them on two shelves, one 

 above the other. 



So, Miss Hope, you help make hives and frames, and 

 put in the foundation ? I imagine papa thinks you are a 

 big help to him. Wish you had told us how old you are. 



Arizona Bachelor Bee-Keepers Want Wives. 



The following clipping has been received : 



WANTS CAR-LOAD OF WIVES. 



Richmond, Va., Oct. 21.— .J. Few Brown, cashier of the Valley 

 National bank at Winchester, is asked to send a car-load of Virginia 

 wives to the bachelor bee-farmers of Arizona. 



Mr. Brown is a member of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 and the letter is from B. A. Hodsell, an Arizona bee-keeper, also a 

 member. He says he Isnows of SO prominent young men in that sec- 

 tion who are greatly in need of wives, and who will make faithful and 

 acceptable husbands. He asks that a car-load of girls eligible for 

 wives be sent. 



Mr. Hodsell was in Winchester a year ago, and was favorably im- 

 pressed with the girls in the valley of Virginia. 



It's all right for bachelor bee-keepers to desire good 

 wives, but there may be some question whether the best 

 sort of material will be willing to be peddled out in that sort 

 of style. Some inquiries sent in to this department go to 

 show that there is a desire for women bee-keepers as wives, 

 but it may as well be understood first as last, that this de- 

 partment is not a matrimonial bureau. 



A Bee-Keeping- Sister Too Successful. 



Mr. A. I. Root, relating in Gleanings in Bee-Culture his 

 travels in Michigan, tells of his surprise at finding that 

 Mrs. Charles Shuneman was going to give up bee-keeping 

 because of too great success ! Many of the sisters would 

 gladly share her bee-keeping burden with her, at least the 

 burden of harvesting a big crop of honey. But here is Mr. 

 Root's story : 



"I don't know that I ever before in my life found a 

 bee-keeper (or bee-keeper^M) who was going to quit the 

 business because of being too successful. Mrs. S. says she 

 greatly enjoyed bees until this season. She had enjoyed 

 studying them and building up colonies ; and this present 



year all that marred her enjoyment was the fact that she 

 had secured a tremendous honey crop ! The honey was 

 beautiful in quality and great in quantity ; but she said it 

 was too hard work for any woman, and her husband was in 

 other business, so he could not give her any assistance ; 

 so she wanted to sell out and give it up. If the crop 

 had been more moderate, or possibly none at all, she 

 might have gone on keeping bees. There are very queer 

 things in this world of ours, and there are some funny peo- 

 ple in it. Perhaps Mrs. S. may conclude that, with the help 

 of the bright boys and girls around her, she may, after a 

 winter's rest, go on with the bee-business." 



Honey-Plant Seed— Wintering Weak Colonies. 



1. Will you please inform me w'nere seed of the follow- 

 ing honey-plants can be obtained : Blue vervain, partridge 

 pea, phacelia tanacetifolia, and cleome ? 



2. Is it not better to contract the space of hives with 

 weak colonies to save the queens for early spring work, 

 than to unite the colonies ? They have plenty of stores to 

 keep them over. Mrs. L. M. Russei.1.. 



Monroe Co., N. Y. 



1. Any leading seedsman ought to be able to furnish 

 them. Perhaps the A. I. Root Co. can do so. 



2. Contracting the space will help, but not a great deal, 

 after all. It is safer to unite than to risk wintering a weak 

 colony. But they can be safely wintered by putting two 

 weak colonies in one hive, as described in " Forty Years 

 Among the Bees." 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hastt, Sla. B Rural, Toledo. Ohio. 



BBES PROTRUDING SMALI, DROPS OF NECTAR. 



I have begun to be ashamed of it already — and instead 

 of getting well I shall probably get " wuss and wuss " — my 

 last " Afterthink," on page 633. Mr. Arthur C. Miller says 

 it's all right about bees protruding small drops of nectar 

 when roaring at night ; but they do it with their mouths, 

 not with the ligula. Not much doubt that he is entirely 

 right in the matter. 



THAT SWARM IN A TREE FIVE DAYS. 



Uncle Frank's September swarm, which staid five days 

 while nobody dared to meddle with them any more, were 

 quite interesting eccentrics for our instruction. Went west 

 finally. Page 637. 



THE C. O. D. MAIL BUSINESS. 



A tremendous hint to Uncle Sam is given by the chap 

 who makes the mail do C. O. D. business for him. That the 

 plan should succeed a thousand times is a matter of pleas- 

 ant interest. No postmaster charged more than ten cents, 

 it seems. No record of what some of them may have said 

 about non-required business when they were too busy al- 

 ready. Should the thing spread till postmasters were very 

 often asked to make such collections, there might be a con- 

 cert of refusal. 



Queens by mail C. O. D. Is there anything in that ? 

 Established breeder wouldn't like it, I ween. New breeder 

 might offer it to get custom — and then the old chaps might 

 have to fall in. Customers could dance with glee, thinking 

 of the poetic justice (perhaps more than justice) it would 

 give him — means of compelling' promptness. " Give you one 

 week, and then if she isn't here this transaction's off" — in 

 place of the sickening ^^wait, wait, wait from month to 

 month. Page 643. 



NO HONEY-TRUST RIGHT AWAY. 



If we don't have a honey-trust till little, small, local 

 trusts first succeed and then gradually unite, we'uns the 

 " skeery " folks can give our trembling thoughts to several 

 other bogies first. Not during A. D. 1904, will the sweet 

 octopus make us feel how bitter it can be — not quite sure 

 about A. D. 2904. 



Half the electricity about this subject, which we feel in 



