1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



239 



not all, and a long and severe cold spell 

 now may prove disastrous. 



This valley of the Cache La Poiidre is a 

 ■wonderful honey-producing region, as well 

 as for other things. There are hundreds of 

 thousands of acres of alfalfa growing: the 

 banks of the irrigating ditches are lined 

 with sweet clover, and the profusion of 

 wild flowers, where the land is not culti- 

 vated—asters, cleome, and other honey- 

 producing plants— would drive an Eastern 

 bee-lieeper wild with delight. The princi- 

 pal forage plant is. of course, the alfalfa, 

 and if our ranchmen can only be convinced 

 that the hay is as good, or better, if cut 

 ■when fully in blossom, bee-keepers will be 

 happy, for then we will seldom miss a crop 

 of honey. D. A. McLean. 



Fort Collins, Colo., March 3. 



Bees Wintering Well. 



My 100 colonies of bees in the home api- 

 ary have pulled through all right. We 

 have had a very cold, steady winter. Bees 

 are very busy now working on peach, 

 plum, and box-elder. I saw a few drones 

 flying. I opened some of the hives to-day 

 for the first time, and found brood in as 

 many as four and five frames. 



Send my Bee Journal along, for I can't 

 keep house without it, when such men as 

 Doolittle, Dr. Miller, the Dadants, and 

 many others, contribute to it. 



J. H. SiPLE. 



Gunnison, Miss., March 34. 



■Uniting Colonies of Bees. 



In the late numbers of the American Bee 

 Journal I notice one or more methods of 

 uniting colonies. Having had a little ex- 

 perience in that line myself, andmymeibod 

 differing from those I have seen described, 

 I will here give it. 



In the first place, my hives have loose 

 bottom-boards. I wait till the sun sets, and 

 then go to the colony I wish to unite with, 

 give them a little smoke, and trim oil the 

 burr-combs, if any, and scrape olf every- 

 thing clean preparatory to setting the other 

 colony right on top. 



I then go to the other colony, give them 

 a little smoke at the entrance, then lift the 

 box right 09" the bottom-board, and set it 

 over on the other box to be united with. I 

 take my smoker and again give them some 

 smoke at the entrance below. 



I find this method very simple, and have 

 not had any trouble yet in uniting colonies. 

 As to the queens: I unite the inferior col- 

 ony with the better, and I find, as far as my 

 experience has been, that the strange 

 queen to that colony is the one that is 

 killed. If I am wrong in this, the queen 

 not wanted can be destroyed before unit- 

 ing, Geo. Tournat. 



San Antonio, Tex. 



Three Comments. 



Poisonous Honet. — "Novice," on page 

 146, agitates a subject of great interest to 

 bee-keepers. Though I kept bees in Penn- 

 sylvania for years within range of " moun- 

 tain laurel," as exactly described by him, I 

 have never known any ill-effects to con- 

 sumers of honey from my apiary. I am, 

 however, from a limited experience with 

 jessamine, prone to credit the prevalent 

 theory regarding its properties fatal to 

 bees, — [We will have a short symposium on 

 this suliject very soon. — Editok.] 



Foundation Fastening. — Referring to 

 the editorial foot-note, on page 148, regard- 

 ing the Daisy foundation fastener, permit 

 me to present my corroborative experience. 

 I have tugged at a Parker for weeks.daubed 

 with hot wax and glue ; in fact, employed 

 all kinds of methods that one would resort 

 to who has put foundation in sections by 

 the tens of thousands, but now, like Ram- 

 bler, with the bread and butter, I say, 

 "Blessed is the man that invented the 

 Daisy." A slight alteration which I find of 

 value, is a larger block, which serves as a 



gauge for the foundation, and by which 

 each section is squared as it is placed in 

 position. The "Daisy" is all the name 

 implies; it is easy to operate, clean, dur- 

 able, rapid and efficient. 



A Fellow-Feeling. — Rambler's inimit- 

 able " experiences," etc., on page 147, viv- 

 idly recall to my mind when, in that same 

 picturesque valley, an occasional mountain 

 zephyr, or the howl of the " cyote," only 

 broke the nocturnal stillness, as " I stood 

 alone at midnight," in that same six-ton 

 honey-tank with spade and rubber boots, 

 equipped to remove its contents, which 

 consisted of several hundred pounds of 

 granulated honey, several bushels of dead 

 bees, and a large, half-rotten rodent, which 

 had entered through the more liberal open- 

 ings of those days. H. E. Hill. 



Spruce Bluff, Fla., March 12. 



Honey & Beeswax Market Quotations. 



CHICAGO. III... April 4.— White clover and 

 basswoud comti is sought after In preference 

 to any other, aud commands a better price 

 and now sells at 1.5c. lor clover and i:j@14c. 

 for basswood. Other white comb honey sells 

 atll@12c.; dark, 8@9c. amber, 9@10c., and 

 very slow of sale. Extracted is unusually 

 dull, with large amounts on sale. White clo- 

 ver and linden, 6@7e. ; dark and amber grades, 

 4'/5@5c. 



Beeswax. 28@30c. R. A. B. & Co. 



KANSAS CITY, Mo., Mar. 18.— The demand 

 for comb and extracted Is fair. We quote: 

 No. 1 white, l-lbs.. i:!<ai4c.; No. 2, 10@llc, ; 

 No, 1 ambpr, ll@12c.; No. 2, 8@10c, Ex- 

 tracted, white. .5'/i@Gc.; amber, 5@5i4c. 



Beeswax, 20@22c. C. C. C. & Co. 



CINCINNATI. O., Mar. 19.— Demand is fair 

 for best white comb honey, at 12@14c. In a 

 jobbing way. Extracted Is fair at 4®7c. Sup- 

 plies ot both are fair. 



Beeswax is iu good demand at 2o@30c. for 

 good to choice yellow. Arrivals are not ade- 

 quate to the demaud. C. F. M. & S. 



PHILADELPHIA. Pa.. April 4.— The de- 

 mand is falling otf very rapidly for comb 

 honey, and prices are decidedly lower. Ex- 

 tracted seems to be shipped in from all quar- 

 ters. We quote: Fancy comb, lie; fair to 

 good, 7'>4@yc. Extracted, 4@5o. 



Beeswax, 30c. W. A. S. 



NEW YORK, N. Y .. M.ar. 23.— There is afalr 

 demand for white comb honey, and the mar- 

 ket is well cleaned up. We have another car 

 now in transit tiom California. We quote 

 same: 12@14c. Plenty of buckwheat comb 

 Is on the market, and same is moving oft 

 slowly at 8c, Bxtracted, all grades, dull, at 

 unchanged prices. 



Beeswax firm at 300)310. H. B. & S. 



List of Honey and Beeswax Dealers. 



Most of whom Quote In this Journal. 



CtalcaKO, Ills. 



R. A. BtTRNETT & Co.. 163 South Water Street. 

 New York, N. Y. 



HiLDBETH Bros, & Segelken, 



130 & 122 West Broadway, 

 Chas. Israel & Bros., 486 Canal St. 



Kansas City, ITIo. 



C. C. Clemoms & Co., 423 Walnut St. 



Buffalo, N.Y. 

 Battbrson & Co., 167 & 169 Scott St. 



Hamilton, Ills. 

 CHAS. Dadant & Son. 



Pblladelphla, Pa. 

 Wm. a. Selser, 10 Vine St. 



Cincinnati, Oklo. 

 C. F. MUTH & Son, cor. Freeman & Central avB. 



Illinois.— The spring meeting of the Nor- 

 thern Illinois Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 be held at the home of Mr. O. J. Cummlngs. in 

 Guilford, on May 19, 1896. Come, and bring 

 your wives and Iriends interested in bees. 



New Mllford, Ills. B. Kennedy, Sec. 



Mr. E. B. Weed — the New-Process comb- 

 foundation man — called on us last Thursday 

 on his way back to The A. I. Root Co., from 

 Chas. Dadant & Son, where he had been 

 nearly a month putting in a machine for 

 making the New Process foundation. Mr. 

 Weed is a hustler. He will spend the sea- 

 son at Medina, experimenting in various 

 lines in the Root apiaries. 



Mr. & Miis. David Stice. of Swan 

 Creek, 111,, have 8 or 10 colonies of bees, 

 which they think pay them well for the 

 little work they do on them. They are too 

 humane to ever rob them, and the result is, 

 they are seldom without honey for their 

 taide, which is not a very small quantity, 

 as they generally have several hired hands 

 to help run their large and beantiful farm, 

 besides much company, and also have 

 some honey to sell nearly every year. 



" The Inimitable Hasty " is kept pretty 

 busy these days fishing out the good things 

 from- the other bee-papers in order to 

 "View" them for the Review. In his 

 March contribution he had only reached 

 page IS of the Bee Journal for this year. 

 Over 200 pages behind ! He'll have to move 

 more " Hastyly," or he'll get so far behind 

 as to be quite "out of sight." But it's a 

 bard matter to condense so many good 

 things into so limited a space as is at his 

 command. 



Mr. W. D. French, from Foster, Calif., 

 writes thus, March 24: 



Friend York:— Sunday, March 22, a 

 young lady came to my house in San Diego, 

 declaring her intentions to remain and be- 

 come a liiee-keeper. She weighs 10 pounds, 

 and all are doing nicely. 



"Now, Mr. Hilton, you can't go me one 

 better." 



We extend our heartiest congratulations 

 to the parents of that " little French girl." 



Mr. & Mrs. William DAVENroRT, of 

 Roseville, 111., have some 18 colonies of 

 bees in a hive that is very successful in 

 wintering: it holds 16 frames, double- 

 walled, with a dead air space. In the win- 

 ter they lay a sack of chaff on top of the 

 frames, and in summer they remove it aud 

 set in a super holding sections. The hive 

 has so many frames that they seldom have 

 to feed. The size of the frame is lO'.j inches 

 deep and U'l wide, inside measure. Mrs. 

 Davenport does much of the work herself. 

 She remarked one day that she dearly 

 loved to work among her bees. She and 

 her husband are so good-natured it is no 

 wonder their bees do fairly well for them. 



"And their bees improve all shining hours 

 When there is honey in the flowers. 



She oft among her bees is seen. 

 While they store rich cakes of nectar. 



Fit to grace the table of a queen." 



Fine Catalogue for Poultrymen. — 

 If our readers have not availed themselves 

 of the privilege offered by the Reliable In- 

 cubator & Brooder Co.. of Quincy, Ills., of 

 getting a first-class poultry catalogue and 

 incubator book free, they are missing a 

 great deal. All they ask is enough to pay 

 postage — 4 cents. Better send at once, be- 

 fore they are all gone. This firm is rightly 

 named — " Reliable." 



Xoroiito 4'onTention Report has 



been issued in pamphlet form, and will be 

 mailed from the Bee Journal office for 25 

 cents. Better have a copy, if you have not 

 read it. Only a limited number of copies 

 were bound. 



