1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



485 



Also, referring to Mr. Aikin's closing sentence on the same 

 page — does not sacred and profane history teach us also that 

 a land might bring forth in plenty, and yet on account of the 

 sinfulness of the people of that land it would not do them 

 good, but rather harm ? Look at the heathen of old ; was 

 not their land " a land flowing with milk and honey ?" And 

 yet, the promise to the Israelites of that good land was God's 

 means of destroying them. And does not our land now flow 

 with milk and honey ? The only trouble is, the energy and 

 enterprise of this country is bottled up in pools and combines, 

 the producer getting only the barest kind of a living out of 

 bounteous crops, and the consumer almost starving on every 

 hand. Denison, Iowa, July 11. 



The Honey-Guide — Bee-Keepiug in the South. 



BY .TAMES B. DRURr. 



The Youth's Companion of a recent date said there 

 are 998 patented bee-hives. Just think of it, and out of the 

 998 I suppose there are about 50 in use. However, the ma- 

 jority stick to the standard Langstroth, which I do not think 

 is patented. In the same paper (June 4, 1896,) is an account 

 of a bird called the " honey-guide," under the head, "Are Ani- 

 mals Moral '?" from which I extract the following : 



" Consider the little 'honey-guide,' the Indicator minar, 

 as one example, well known in South Africa. Wild honey is 

 plentiful, and the honey-guide is well aware of its existence, 

 but is incapable of opening up the rich store and getting what 

 it most prefers— the grubs — found in the comb. It therefore 

 having discovered a nest of honey, immediately seeks the aid 

 of some human being. Fluttering restlessly about him, it 

 utters loudly its chiding cry. Every African native knows 

 this invitation perfectly well, and at once follows. As soon as 

 it sees the man following, the little bird flutters delightfully 

 through forest and bush. At length the honey-guide reaches 

 the hollow tree in which the honey is deposited. The native, 

 with his hatchet, or ' assegai,' opens up the nest and extracts 

 the comb. Usually he breaks off a piece containing the larva}, 

 which the bird loves, and places it on the ground by way of 

 tribute to his feathered friend." 



Now, I would like to make a few remarks about this bird. 

 What a boon it would be to bee-keepers who make it a part of 

 their trade to hunt bees in the woods, a la Hutchinson's 

 method, as per Cosmopolitan. .Just think of the time saved in 

 hunting for them, if there were to be a few thousand of these 

 birds imported to this vast country. Some would say, 

 '•'Twouldbe like the English sparrow — soon to become a 

 pest;" but take into consideration that the "honey-guide" 

 cannot get at the larvas without the aid of man. Then, again, 

 they might (?) be tamed to find bee-trees, as the Chinese train 

 their "cormorants to catch fish for them." Only we want 

 bees and honey, not so much flsh. 



I hope our bee-keeping friend in South Africa— Mr. S. A. 

 Deacon — may see this, and give us, if possible, some informa- 

 tion about this wonderful bird. 



In the last number of the "Old Reliable," the editor 

 speaks of "the wonderful South " as the "bee-keepers' para- 

 dise." Well, it is so in one respect, and would be if it were 

 not for the pests and enemies bee-keepers here have to con- 

 tend with. In the North you have the foul brood and bee- 

 diarrhea, while in the South we have a multitude of pests. 

 First the bee-moth (the most feared of all by Southern bee- 

 keepers), which we have all the year around. Let a colony 

 become in any way weak, whether it be Italian or black, the 

 bae-moth is sure to take possession. 



Then the cockroach, that has a hard shell which is im- 

 possible for the bee to pierce with its sting ; which lives on the 

 sweets of the land up in the supers of the hives, daubing the 

 sections and everything else with its excrements. 



Then the small red ant, which builds its nest between the 

 space under the sections not lilled with propolis, living on 



dead bees and honey. And at night, if the hives are on the 

 ground, the toad sits in front of the alighting-board snapping 

 up the choicest and largest bees quicker than a wink ; and 

 just at or near dusk you sometimes lose a number of late 

 comers, by having the bee-martin snap them up as they (the 

 martins) skim over the hives. 



Bees have been doing well in this section of the country 

 since April 1st; they are gathering lots of pollen from Chero- 

 kee rose, spiderwort and touch-me-not; and both pollen and 

 nectar from beans, peas, niggerhead, sunflower and willow, 

 which is still in bloom ; to say nothing of the vast number of 

 cultivated flowers in this " Garden City." White clover has 

 been furnishing a lot of nectar, but is beginning to die out, 

 owing to the heat. 



I planted some buckwheat in the early spring, but must 

 say that it is a failure here as a honey-plant. I did not see a 

 single bee on it as long as it was in bloom. 



When I first handled bees, if I was stung, I would puff up 

 at once, but now I do not mind it at all. I have become " vac- 

 cinated " against stings, not with vaccine matter, however, 

 but with formic acid by the bees. 



We have here a few wild bees, some small, about 9b inch 

 long, the same color and markings as Italians, with wings out- 

 stretched like a fly ; and some large black ones twice the size 

 of an Italian worker, with four white, hairy bands across the 

 abdomen, which flit from flower to flower like so many flies. 

 I tried to capture some to send with this letter, but they were 

 too wary and active to allow themselves to be caught. 



We have an abundance of dandelion here, but I have 

 never seen any bees of any kind working on it. It is Just 

 overflowing with pollen, but no other insect seems to like it 

 but the "yellow-jacket." 



A young friend of mine told me he had caught two 

 swarms of bees, and wanted me to buy them. I looked at 

 them and found that both were without queens, and in lieu 

 had a number of drone-laying workers, rearing drones by the 

 hundreds. I counted as many as ten or more eggs in the bot- 

 tom of the worker-cells ; in some the bottoms were covered 

 with them. I would like to have caught some of the laying- 

 workers, so as to dissect them, but it was next to impossible 

 to distinguish them from any others. 



A neighbor had me take some honey from a hive of hers ; 

 she told me that a week or two previously a swarm issued and 

 hung in a plum-tree ; and looking where they were, I saw on 

 a thin limb a piece of comb (all worker) about the size of two 

 hands, with quite a number of cells filled with pollen, but nary 

 a bee or drop of honey. 



Last winter was a bad one here, one man losing 15 per 

 cent., and another about 10 per cent., of their colonies by the 

 bee-moth. I lost one colony, and had another desert from the 

 plagued things ; but I managed to capture the deserters, and 

 hived them on full sheets of foundation ; they are now doing 

 well — the bees, not the moths. 



I saw a queer-looking bee this morning ; it was just a lit- 

 tle under the size of a black, the same shape, but its back and 

 abdomen was a bright, glistening green; it had pollen-bags, 

 and was gathering nectar from the sunflower, the same as any 

 bee. I have seen a good many wild bees, but it is the first 

 time I ever saw one like this. 



I have teen using the 8-frame Langstroth hive, but I find 

 it too small for this country, so I am going to try the large 

 Uadant hive and the 10-frame Langstroth, so as to see which 

 is best for this locality. 



What is a " V hive V" It is said, " They are self-cleaning, 

 and the best hives for queen-roaring we have yet tried." It I 

 understand rightly, the " V hives " are hives that have one or 

 more V-shaped grooves in the bottom-board, for all trash to 

 go out when it drops, but not large enough for a bee to pass 

 through. If they are as I think, I would not use them, as 



