1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



4b5 



which a great many people are not willing to give, hence their 

 failure. 



My son and I did quite a good deal of transferring bees 

 from box to movable-frame hives. In many directions for 

 miles around we had calls for this kind of work. I remember 

 on one occasion a man happened in while we were iu the midst 

 of transferring. Of course, before beginning we had drum- 

 med on the hive and frightened the bees until they had filled 

 themselves with honey, so of jiourse they were very docile, 

 and almost as easily handled as flies on a cold morning would 

 have been. He looked on in mute astonishment, and wanted 

 to know if we hadn't mesmerized them ? When we told him 

 no, he was a " doubting Thomas," and did not believe us. He 

 went off and told that we couldn't fool him that way, for, said 

 he, "They either gave them something to stupefy them, or 

 else they conjured them." Whatever the " conjuring " meant, 

 I am sure I don't know, for 1 had never heard it used except 

 by negroes. 



As the years rolled past, I was all the time reading and 

 studying everything I could get my hands on that treated 

 upon the subject of bee-culture. I subscribed for the Bee- 

 Keepers' Magazine, and eagerly devoured its contents ; but it 

 did not satisfy me. Its visits were too far apart. I then took 

 the American Bee Journal and the Apiculturist ; got "Bees 

 and Honey," by Thomas G. Newman, and "A Year Among 

 the Bees," by Dr. Miller; " Bee- Keepers' Guide," by Prof. 

 Cook ; Alley's " Handy-Book, or 30 Years Among the Bees ;" 

 " Blessed Bees," by John Allen; Gleanings in Bee-Culture, 

 and " A B C of Bee-Culture," by A. I. Root; Dr. Phin's " Dic- 

 tionary of Apicultural Terms," etc. I hardly know all that I 

 have read, for when I would get through a book there was 

 almost always some one who wanted it; I would let them have 

 it, and buy another from a different author. By this means I 

 read more than perhaps I otherwise would have done. I have 

 but few standard works on hand at this time, for reasons 

 above mentioned, but I have a good-sized trunk full of journals. 



I finally decided that I could get more honey and manage 

 it more easily by running more for extracted and less for comb 

 honey, so I sent a special order for 20 top stories for the 

 American hives, to run for extracted instead of comb honey. I 

 had them made the same as bottom stories, with the exception 

 of a bee-entrance which was not cut out. These I set on top, 

 after having filled them with heavy comb foundation. Thus, 

 the frames were interchangeable, which I found to be very 

 convenient. 



A little later on I ordered 100 Eclectic hives, 50 of 

 which I used for extracted honey, and the others were or- 

 dered for a gentleman in an adjoining county. He, too, was 

 very enthusiastic on the subject of bee-keeping. He said be- 

 fore he got bees and used so much honey that he always had 

 from $50 to .$100 doctor's bills to pay each year; afterwards 

 none at all, until his family took the measles; they then lost 

 one son. Both he and his wife told me about how very badly 

 she once had erysipelas, which extended half around her body, 

 several inches wide, from which she had been suffering the 

 most excruciating pain for several days and nights without 

 obtaining relief, notwithstanding there were several physi- 

 cians attending her. Finally, her husband asked the physi- 

 cians if they had any objection to his making and applying a 

 plaster composed of honey and flour. They replied no ; that 

 if it did no good it certainly would do no harm. They assured 

 me that in less than 15 minutes after it was applied she was 

 perfectly easy, and dropped off to sleep, and in three days it 

 was healed over so that she could dress herself and get around 

 the house. I relate this, thinking it might be of use to some 

 suffering human being. It is certainly worth remembering, 

 and given a trial in case one is similarly atllicted. 



I have received orders and shipped bees hundreds of miles 

 in various directions over the State — I mean full colonies. I 



quote a few lines from Mr. Wm. Little (now deceased), form- 

 erly of Hutchins, Dallas county, Tex., dated July 4, ISS-i : 



" Dear Mrs. Sherman : — I am glad to report to you that 

 the bees, etc., you shipped me arrived in good condition. You 

 certainly did a most excellent job in packing, etc., and I be- 

 lieve they would have gone across the continent by rail in 

 good order and condition. You fixed them up so nicely and 

 well. I am delighted with them, and they are doing splendid 

 work. I prepared and set the bees in a good place, made 

 good shade over them, and they went to work at once, and 

 seem to increase in numbers and working force every day. 



" Wm. Little." 



I always guaranteed safe arrival and full satisfaction in 

 every case. I never had a customer that I failed to satisfy. 



I learned a great deal from my observatory hive, which I 

 kept all through the working season with one frame of bees, 

 brood, etc., in my gallery, where I could see and study the in- 

 side workings of a full colony, so to speak, at any and every 

 leisure moment I had. I took great pleasure in showing it to 

 my friends wheu they visited me. I also had it on exhibition 

 at our county fairs, and at many farmers' institutes, which I 

 attended. In this way I have shown queens to thousands of 

 people, many of whom had never seen one before. I was 

 asked on one occasion to show a lady the "queen's throne." 

 Speaking of this reminds me of an incident that occurred at 

 Chicago, while attending the World's Fair and bee-keepers' 

 convention. Never having had the pleasure of meeting Mr. 

 G. M. Doolittle, and on being shown his bees that were on ex- 

 hibition, I asked for and obtained permission to get up on the 

 platform so I coulij see them better. I watched my oppor- 

 tunity and caught a drone, and then a worker-bee ; then in 

 company with a bee-keeper from Colorado, we went walking 

 around on a tour of inspection amongst the many bee-fixtures 

 there on exhibition. Presently we met a large Pennsylvanian, 

 who began talking bees; noticing the drone I held by one 

 wing, he said : 



" Them's the kind of bees we have down in our State, and 

 I'll tell you they haint made no honey there in several years." 



I asked him if he wasn't mistaken in the kind of bees. 



" No," said he, " them's the kind, shore." 



The bee-keeper and I laughed, and told him that that was 

 a drone. 



" I don't care if it is, them's the kind we've got down 

 there, shore, and they haint made no honey to amount to 

 anything in three or four years." 



We told him that we were not surprised at all at their 

 failure, if that was the kind they depended on for gathering 

 and storing the honey. 



I killed the worker-bee as soon as I caught it, but still 

 had it in my hand, and showed it to him, and told him that 

 that was the kind of bee that stored honey in Texas. 



" Why," said he, " that is nothing but a gad-fly I" 



I finally killed the drone and wrapped the two together 

 in a little piece of paper, and brought them home with me. In 

 looking over some papers, etc., a few weeks ago, I came across 

 them, or rather I opened the paper in which they were, and 

 found the dried shells or skins and half a dozen very queer- 

 looking, lively little insects, different from anything I had 

 overseen, which I suppose had devoured the bees. 



Bell County, Tex. 

 LTo be continued.] 



Alfalfa — Cleome — Sweet Clover — Somethlug 

 About Honey-Flows. 



BV R. C. AIKIN. 



Alfalfa is thought by many to be a sure yielder. Even 

 some of the writers from the alfalfa districts have been guilty 

 of giving the impression that it yields the whole summer 

 through. I have before this told the public, through the api- 



