1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



533 



I greatly prefer wood to tin separators, as the bees seem 

 to enter and work much better In the sections with wood than 

 tin. 



In making up the sections I usually wrapped a towel 

 around 75 or 100, and then poured boiling hot water at the 

 joints (I used and preferred the one-piece section holding two 

 pounds), being careful to keep the ends dry. I let them re- 

 main say a half hour, then bent and Joined them rapidly, 

 giving them a light tap on each side of the joint. This was 

 beautiful work. Having the Joints thus damp, It was very 

 rare that a section was spoiled. 



After using various kinds of brushes to get the bees off 

 with, I finally decided upon, and for years have used, the 

 wing-feather of a goose. If I failed to have them on hand a 

 turkey-wing feather was used. I don't want a bunch, but 

 simply one large feather. 



While working with the bees on one occasion, all at once 

 a swarm began settling on my bee-hat, which was on my 

 head. I stood still and laughed at their selection, when all of 

 a sudden I felt them crawling in my hair on top of my head. 

 There was a little rent in the hat that I was not aware of be- 

 fore, through which they were crawling, all the while keeping 

 up their joyful hum. I very cautiously and carefully lifted 

 the hat off my head and set it on a three-story hive near by. 

 They continued to settle until they were all on the hat, when 

 I carried them to a prepared hive and put them in, where 

 they went to work nicely. They were not from any of my 

 hives, but a swarm that came to me. 



For several years I had a certain hive that I called my 

 "drone hive." They were the finest drones I ever saw, and 

 in the greatest abundance, yet it was very strong In workers. 

 That particular queen seemed to take delight in piping or 

 making a very peculiar noise, which could be heard from 

 almost any part of the apiary. It was indeed pitiful to see 

 the drones from this hive in the fall, after they had no more 

 use for them. The workers would drive them out and keep 

 guard to see that none could re-enter. In front of the en- 

 trance, on the alighting-board, they would crawl around cry- 

 ing so pitifully, begging so meekly to be allowed to go Inside 

 their home where there was an abundance and to spare; yet 

 the heartless little workers were relentless — could not be pre- 

 vailed upon to share their sweet stores with their big brothers, 

 but actually let them starve to death. 



My experience in the swarming of bees is, that the queen 

 never leads a swarm. She generally comes out about midway, 

 sometimes even later. 



I have sometimes united weak colonies in the fall, but in 

 the spring I usually give eggs from which to rear a queen, 

 thus building them up to good, strong colonies, by adding 

 frames of brood from such as can spare a frame or two. By 

 strengthening and encouraging the weak ones in this way, I 

 think more than pays for the time and trouble thus'gone to. 



In getting my supplies, of course a soldering outfit was 

 one of the essentials. Well, I got so I could do quite a neat 

 job along this line. But, presto ! the first thing I knew, from 

 various directions, buckets, cups and pans came to be mended. 

 I only got clear of this gratuitous work by telling the parties 

 that I was not running a free soldering shop. 



Salado, Bell Co., Tex. 

 LTo be continued.] 



Honey as food and Medicine.— A new and revised 

 edition of this .33-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use of horey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and vhiuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are: Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 30 cts. ; 50 for $1.00 ; 100 for *1,75. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal oflace. 



Notes from Virgil — Somethiue Historical. 



BY EMERSON T. ABBOTT. 



Some years ago there came into my hands a copy of a 

 translation, with notes, of Virgil's works, made In 1653, by 

 one John Ogilby. His notes on the Fourth Georgic cannot fail 

 to be of interest to bee-keepers, as showing what was known 

 about this industry over 200 years ago. I give the notes as 

 they appear, spelling and all, with some few remarks. 



The annotation on the Argument is suggestive. It reads 

 as follows : 



" The fourth Book comprehends the choicest rules of the 

 ancients concerning Bees, which suit so well with ours that I 

 have heard an Honorable Lady of Great Judgment (the late 

 Countess of Kent) profess that she made an incredible Increase 

 of Bees, confining her servants who attended them precisely 

 to observance of this Book." 



On the line, 



" Next to Aetherlal Honey I'll proceed," 

 the translator remarks: 



"The poet (salth LaCerda) excellent In Natural Philoso- 

 phy, subverts the common opinion implying that the bees do 

 not make Honey, but only gather It together and compact it, 

 and therefore calls it Aerial and Celestial. To this assents 

 Aristotle. That Bees make not Honey, but carry only away 

 the falling Dew, may be argued from hence, that In one or 

 two days a Hive may be found full ; Besides, If you take 

 away their Honey in Autumn, they cannot recruit it, notwith- 

 standing there" are flowers at that time of year. And Pliny, 

 'Whether it be the Sweat of Heaven, or Spittle of the Stars, 

 or Moisture of the Air purging Itself, I wish It were as pure 

 and natural as it first descends ; Whereas now falling from 

 so great height. It contracts much of Impurity by the way, yet 

 retains much of the pleasantness of Its Celestial nature.' " 



This was before the days of glucose. Pliny seems to hava 



had some Idea of the adulteration craze, even In his time ; but 



he does not tell us whether he thought It done by men or the 



gods. 



" Wars, Labors, Manners, Nations. I'll recite." 



"Aristotle," says the translator, " numbers bees amongst 

 civil people. 'For the uses of life (says Pliny) they labor, 

 work, ordain a commonwealth, have their private Councels, 

 their public Warlike Actions, and, which Is strangest of all, 

 they have Morality.' " 



This looks as though they had rather a high Idea of the 

 little workers in early times. 



" For your Bee-hives flttin? Stations find." 



"The Station of Bees must be, according to Varro and 

 Columella, in an open. Sunshiny place, little subject to the in- 

 juries of the Weather, far from noise of Men or Cattle, par- 

 ticularly of sheep, because (says Pliny) they cannot easily dis- 

 en-tangle themselves out of their Wool ; He adds that the 

 Hive should open towards the East, If it may be, but by no 

 means to the North. Mr. Butler's rules for a Bee-garden are 

 these: It should be near home; fenced from Cattle and 

 Winds; the East and North fences high, the South (on which 

 side of the house they should set) and West fences good, but 

 not so high, by no means to shadow the South Sun, nor from 

 Sun-Setting ; The place Sweet ; not very cold in Winter, nor 

 hot in Summer ; grassy, but not suffered to grow up too high ; 

 beset with Trees and Bushes." 



This man had made some progress in solving the " winter 



problem." 



" But their abodes near Chrystal Fountains place 

 Where purling Streams glldu jreuLiy through the grass." 



"Varro and Columella advise the same as most necessary, 



that there be Water near the Hives, and. If possible, to run by 



them, clear for them to drink. So they order Stone and Wood 



to be thrown Into the Water, so as some part may appear out 



of It for the Bees to sit upon anddrlnk with more ease." 



