AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



301 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY, 



Beeville, Texas. 



Melons by the Wagonload. 



This looks like the Paradise of the 

 world now. Great herds of fat cattle — 

 good beef at 4 cents per pound ; pastures 

 like a wheat field, and gardens with 

 great loads of vegetables. We are haul- 

 ing wagonloads of water-melons to our 

 hogs, and the bees are working like 

 May. Jennie Atchley. 



Beeville, Tex., Aug. 25. 



in a Court House. 



A sheriff in a neighboring county has 

 been trying to rid his county house of 

 bees for some time. After several un- 

 successful attempts by so-called bee- 

 men, to take the bees out, and each time 

 they being driven away with big noses, 

 showing they had the worst of the tight, 

 the " Bee-Hivers " were sent for (this is 

 the name Willie and Charlie go by), and 

 people gathered around that court house 

 like a circus crowd, to see Willie get 

 stung. But, alas, the "bee-hivers" 

 charmed the vicious hybrids with a 

 Bingham "Doctor" smoker the first 

 thing, and then " went into them " with- 

 out veil, gloves, or any more smoke, 

 with their sleeves rolled up, and took 

 out 80 pounds of nice honey from one 

 colony that had occupied that court 

 house 10 years. 



There had been 5 colonies in the court 

 house cornice, but the last July hot 

 wave " got away with" all but the old 

 tough one. The boys around town 

 caught gallons of dripping honey from 

 the melted combs, and the honey ran on 

 the ground for several yards around. 



Well, that people now sure enough be- 

 lieve that Willie is a bee-charmer, when 

 the only secret lies in knowing how. 



Willie took out all the honey, trans- 

 ferred the brood-combs into frames, put 

 the bees into an 8-frame hive, gave the 



people honey to eat, and drove off home 

 with his treasure, as happy as a boy 

 could well be, wishing he had a hundred 

 such court houses to rub. 



.We left a lot of empty hives at a 

 neighbor's on the road, and, when we 

 went after them, bees had taken up 

 lodging in one of them. 



We cut one bee-tree last week, and 

 took out 75 pounds of nice, white honey, 

 that we sold at 10 cents per pound, be- 

 sides putting plenty in the hive for the 

 bees. They were Italians, only 5 miles 

 from home. How does this sound for a 

 bee-tree in south Texas ? 



Jennie Atchley. 



Those "Moth-Worms." 



Dr. Miller gives me a good "send off" 

 on moth-worms. Yes, I am the guilty 

 party, Doctor. The compositor put it 

 just as the " copy " read. I know that 

 a moth is a winged insect, but what was 

 that winged insect before it could fly? I 

 think it was a worm and while in this 

 worm state is when it gets in its best 

 licks, as it seems to care but little what 

 it eats. But it must have something to 

 enable it to spin its silken house, and 

 will eat wood, beeswax, honey-comb, or 

 almost anything, and acts much like the 

 moth that gets in our clothes, sometimes, 

 when kept in trunks for awhile, and I 

 think they are properly called moth, for 

 they do corrupt and destroy whatever 

 they infest. Jennie Atchley. 



Another Fine Honey Country. 



Mks. Atchley : — We are still extract- 

 ing, and will have a crop of 10 tons. 

 The yield is nearly 100 pounds per col- 

 ony. R. C. AiKiN. 



Loveland, Colo., Aug. 20. 



Experience With Bees — Troubled by 

 Yellow Jackets. 



Mks. Atchley : — I came to Texas in 

 1859, and started with 10 colonies of 

 bees, and increased them to 60 the next 

 fall. I had one colony to winter between 

 two scantlings, with a board for roof. I 

 took pity on them and gave them a 

 home. We hear so such about chaff 

 cushions, etc., for wintering bees, that 

 we can hardly realize it, as we never 

 need anything but single-walled hives in 

 Texas. 



My bees did well before the War, but 



