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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 29, 1900. 



Honey^Poultices. — For boils, carbuncles, abscesses, 

 etc., and for injured bones, mix the honey with flour, and 

 spread on a piece of linen rag. If the abscess is coming to 

 a head, cut a hole in the center of the rag to allow of free 

 discharge of matter. Honey added to an ordinary bread- 

 poultice will answer the same purpose, or it may be used in 

 conjunction with linseed-meal poultices ; it will render them 

 more emollient. — British Bee Journal. 



Weak Colonies In Spring — J. B. Hall says in the Can- 

 adian Bee Journal : 



"My experience of over 20 years is that if you take 

 ■weak colonies and put them into three you will still have 

 three weak colonies ; if you shut them down and don't med- 

 dle with them at all there will sure to be some of them that 

 will come up and be good colonies, and the others that are 

 no good will die out, and if you put them together one of 

 the poor queens may be saved. We don't open them except 

 they are hungrj- ; we don't open a colony of bees in our 

 yards until the fruit blossoms. We let weak colonies die if 

 they choose." 



riore Hopeful of Cuba — Editor Hill refers to the report 

 of G. Rockenback in this journal as the bluest yet given, 

 and says : 



" Reliable information in regard to the apicultural outlook 

 in Cuba is now of interest to bee-keepers everywhere, and 

 it is gratifying to note that resident producers of honey 

 take a much more cheerful view of the situation than the 

 Journal's correspondent, whose article clearly shows that 

 he would not be clast in the language of the hour, as an 

 ' up-to-date bee-keeper.' " 



If Mr. Rockenback's testimony is thought hardly relia- 

 ble, what will Mr. Hill do with Harry Howe's, which was 

 given on page 185, last week ? Mr. Howe's simply corro- 

 borates Mr. Rockenback's, or is even stronger. 



Reform Spelling in Gleanings in Bee-Culture is given 

 up for the present, and a Stray Straw says : 



"Now that immediate danger of violence to English 

 spelling in Gleanings is no more, and that Mr. Wanser,who 

 wants spelling progress to 'emanate from our public schools 

 and colleges,' may not be too severe if he should happen to 

 see ' honor ' for ' honour,' or ' dipt " for ' clipped,' it may 

 be well to say that the changes he opposes with so much 

 earnestness have not emanated from a few cranky ignor- 

 amuses, but have emanated from colleges. The changes 

 were recommended by some of the most eminent scholars 

 of America and England, among them professors in Yale, 

 Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, St. Johns, Columbia, 

 etc., in this country, and, in England, in Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge." 



Fertilization of Fruit by Bees was discust by Frank 

 Benton at the Ontario Co. (N.Y.) Bee-Keepers' Convention, 

 as reported in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. In part, he said : 



" An apple-blossom has many stamens, and the pollen 

 is produced at the extreme end of each one, forming there 

 an enlargement called ' anther.' A single anther contains 

 one million or more grains of pollen, of which but five are 

 needed for the fertilization of one blossom. A raspberry 

 blossom is built differently from the forenamed one. The 

 raspberry (fruit) is composed of some 200 separate little sec- 

 tions, each containing a seed, and so the blossom is con- 

 structed in a like manner. What will later be the fruit is 

 already present in an embryo state, 200 little sections in 

 miniature, and from each of them protrudes the pistil, like 

 a fine short hair. A grain of pollen must be conducted thru 

 every little hair— really a tube, the end of which is recep- 

 tive thru the organ called 'stigma.' A bee, after alighting 

 on a blossom of this kind in search of honey, which is to be 

 found at the base of the blossoms, rubs over the anthers 

 with its body, which is covered, especially on the under 

 side, with many hairs of a compound feather-like nature, 

 and becomes covered with the pollen-dust. Whirling 

 around, first one way then another, in order to reach fully 

 all the nectar-secreting glands, it brushes again and again 

 over the 200 protruding pistils. One bee after another vis- 



its the same blossom at short intervals as long as the secre- 

 tion lasts ; and in time every one of the stigmas receives its 

 grain of pollen, and a perfect fruit results. 



" During the earlier part of the season, when pear and 

 apple trees bloom, the weather is often unfavorable for pol- 

 lination — the pollen remains too moist and sticky. In such 

 a case, not much fruit can set. Should the sun come out for 

 but an hour, the pollen becomes dry. The bees turn in ; 

 and the more numerous the bees are, the more fruit will set. 

 There may be seasons when fruit would set abundantly 

 without the help of the honey-bees. In an unfavorable sea- 

 son, however, they are an absolute necessity. Cross-fertili- 

 zation is strictly necessary for raspberry, gooseberry, and 

 huckleberry. When the bee visits a blossom of the last- 

 named kind, and pushes its body into the bell-shaped flower, 

 it seems that the stamens are so arranged that the white 

 pollen is dusted upon the head and thorax of the bee. The 

 bee is unable to remove the dust from these places ; and 

 when the next blossom is entered, the head and thorax of 

 the bee come in contact with the stigma first, and before 

 the anthers are toucht, and in this manner cross-fertiliza- 

 tion is assured. 



" It would take too much space to go thru the long list 

 of flowers benefited by bees. However, bees are not the 

 only agents to perform this work. There are other insects 

 and the wind. In the early springtime bees are most nu- 

 merous, and therefore indispensable." 



Cure for Bee-Paralysis — After many trials with differ- 

 ent drugs I found ultimate success with a mixture of sul- 

 phurous acid and tincture of podophyllin in the proportion 

 of one of the former to four of the latter. I wanted a purge 

 and an antiseptic for after effects, or in other words, some- 

 thing that would expel the excrement and leave the intes- 

 tine in a condition afterwards not conducive to the growth 

 of bacilli. 



To '< -ounce of this mixture I added one pound of ex- 

 tracted honey heated to 90° Fahr., and then with a mouth- 

 spray I daily sprayed combs, bees, brood, etc., as I took 

 frame after frame out of a diseased hive. I applied the 

 remedy in this way, as I found it the easiest to get the bees 

 to take the medicated honey, each cleaned up her neighbor 

 and combs, and thus unintentionally imbibed the dose re- 

 quired. Result : In from 3 to S days a clean, healthy hive. 

 — The Australasian Bee-Keeper. 



Artificial Increase. — When an increase of not more than 

 50 percent is desired, with a chance for a goodly store of 

 surplus, the following excellent plan is given in Gleanings 

 in Bee-Culture, by G. M. Doolittle : 



" About 8 to 10 days before your expected honey-flow, go 

 to a populous colon}', which for convenience we will call 

 No. 1, and shake all the bees and queen from their combs 

 into a hive filled with empty comb or frames filled with 

 foundation, placed where the old one stood, placing the sur- 

 plus arrangement from the old hive on the colony thus 

 made. In this way you have a strong colony containing all 

 the bees and queen from one of your very strongest colo- 

 nies, a hive full of comb or foundation, and the partly filled 

 sections from No. 1, all being in readiness to take advan- 

 tage of the harvest as soon as it comes. Now take the 

 combs of brood taken from No. 1 to No. 2, and set them on 

 No. 2's stand, having previously moved No. 2 to a new 

 stand a rod or two away. Just before setting the combs on 

 the stand of No. 2, go to one of your nuclei and get the 

 comb the queen is on and take it, bees and all ; and as soon 

 as the combs are on the stand of No. 2, shake the bees and 

 queen from it in front of the hive on No. 2 stand, and let 

 them run in with the bees from No. 2, now hovering about 

 trying to find their old home. Put sections on this hive, 

 and the work is done. Thus you have a colony composed 

 of a full hive of combs and brood, a good young queen, and 

 workers to protect her, and all the field or working force 

 from No. 2, which make a big, strong colony ready for busi- 

 ness as soon as the honey harvest arrives. No. 2 has a 

 hive of combs and brood, their old queen and sections 

 parti)' filled, but they have lost their working force. In 

 from 8 to 10 days they are quite well stockt with workers 

 again, when they are also in fine shape for the harvest 

 which is now on. 



" I have told you this plan at length as you wisht it 

 made plain, and because I consider it the best plan of arti- 

 ficial increase in existence. If you wish a greater increase, 

 go thru the same operation again just after the harvest, 

 less the sections, and see that No. 1 is fed in some way, or 

 supplied with combs of honey." 



