THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



395 



business ; lives in peace with all nnen 

 as far as is in his power ; and has hnd 

 no trouble with his neighbors, except 

 from a few ignorant farmers who 

 claim tliat his bees damage their 

 clover, buckwheat and fruit crops. 



Mr. Editor, you say in your note on 

 page 339, " We call for a halt in such 

 a 'career of madness.'" Tliat ex- 

 presses my mind exactly. If need be 

 let all other subjects oh bee-keeping 

 give place in the Bee Journal, to 

 this matter, until we know wliether 

 one has a legal right to keep bees in 

 the United States. Let every one of 

 the .500,000 bee-keepers ot America be 

 heard, if they write no more tlian to 

 say, " Count" me in as a member of 

 the Defense Organization ;" and let 

 the fee be promptly sent with each 

 name. Let us pile up the dollars by 

 the thousands, for mutual defense, 

 and give the world to understand 

 that, if need be, we can employ the 

 ablest lawyers in America to defend 

 us in our chosen pursuit. 



I second Mr. Heddon's motion, that 

 Mr. T. G. Newman be chosen as our 

 secretary-treasurer and general man- 

 ager. Bee-keepers, one and all, will 

 send in their names at once! "and 

 don't you forget it !" 



Orion, p Wis. 





L£] 



sxrx' 



Gathering Honey Rapidly.— J. IL 



Andre, Lockwood, 9 K. 1'., on .Time 

 ■ 15, says : 



Wliite clover, for years the latest in 

 blossoniiug, is here at last, but the bees are 

 giving it the go-by for the more tempting 

 nectar of the red raspberry. In all of my 

 2.5 years' experience with" bees, I do not 

 recollect a season when bees gathered 

 stores as fast as at the present time. In 

 some sin-jilus boxes foundation has been 

 drawn out half an nich on eacli side in .3 

 days, and they keep it chock-full of honey 

 a.s fast as it is built. 



Large Honej Crop Expected.— B. F. 



Baldwin, Marion,© Ind., on June 12, 



1885, says : 



I put 43 colonies of bees into winter 

 quarters, and all came tlirouyh the whiter 

 in good condition, except one that starved, 

 one that was queenless, and one that bad 

 a drone-laying queen. I sold one colony, 

 and now I liave 39 strong ones left, some 

 of which I am unable to lift. The pros- 

 pect for a large honey crop in this section 

 is better than it has been for years. 



A Lace-Winged Insect.— G. W. Ash- 

 by, Valley Station, 5 Ky., says : 



I send an insect which I found in a Ixix- 

 hive when I was transfeiTing. Will Prof. 

 Cook please tell what it is ■• and whether 

 it lives on honey or on bees ? 



[This is a common laoe-wingof thegenus 

 Chanliodes. It is too much crushed to be 

 identified. These insects are common all 

 over the United States. It neither cares 

 for honey nor bees, and must have entered 

 the hive just for curiosity, which was 

 doubtless .satisfied.— A. J. Cook.] 



Queen -Nurseries. — A subscriber 

 from Canada writes as follows con- 

 cerning queen-nurseries : 



At the Toronto Fair 1 saw queen-nur- 

 series, i. e., a lot of metallic queen-cages in 

 a frame the same size as a brood-franu; ; 

 but I do not understand their use. Will 

 you please describe them in the Bee Jouu- 

 NAi,, as I wish to learn all I can about 

 queen-rearing. 



[The queen-nurseries referred to were 

 those invented by Dr. Jewell Davis, for 

 rearing queens for the purpose of Italianiz- 

 ing an apiary. Put into the cages ot the 

 nursery, between the tins, a few cells of 

 sealed honey, in new comb if possible. 

 Then cut from the combs of a pure Italian 

 colony as many queen cells, large and well 

 developed, as you liave jirepared cages with 

 the honey, as above. Suspend one of the 

 cells in each of the cages. Care shovdd be 



QUEEN NURSERV. 



taken to have the best cells, and not to 

 allow them to become injured by bruising, 

 handling or jarring. Having tlius supplied 

 each cage of flie nursery with a queen-cell 

 and food— the food is thus supplied that 

 the young iiueens may not starve if the 

 bees do not feed them, a thing they often 

 fail to do when there is a scarcity of honey 

 in the flowers— the nursery cages so pre- 

 pared are adjusted in the nursery -frame ; 

 then having removed a centre comb from a 

 strong colony, the queen-nursery may be 

 placed into the vacancy made by the re- 

 moval of the comb, there to remain until 

 the queens are hatched, which will be in 

 3 or 4 days, if the cells were not cut from 

 the combs too early, or before the ninth 

 day. When the queens have emerged from 

 the cells, remiive tlie cage and introduce 

 the caged queen to a black colony, liber- 

 ating her on the next day about sundown ; 

 if necessary, s])ra>"ing the bees with per- 

 fumed water with an atomizer.— Ed.] 



Bees Under the Snow.— Chas. Mitch- 

 ell, Molesworth, Ont., on June 15, 1885, 

 writes as follows : 



Mr. Doolittle's statement and mine must 

 be ntost confusing to beginners. Mr. W. F. 

 Clarke visited me lately, and I showed 

 him the first and only colony tliat I have 

 lost ih 6 years. My two rows ot hives next 

 to the fence are generally under .5 feet of 

 snow ; the stands being 6 inches high and 

 large emingh to place on a packing-box 

 witliout a bottom, and with a movable lid. 

 My bees being packed in boxes is why 

 they do not smother with full summer en- 

 trance open. 1 have concluded to place 



most of my bees next to the fence this fall, 

 as no such even temperatun^ can be had 

 outside as we get under the snow. I am 

 very careful to not even go inside of the 

 yard during winter, and more so if the 

 snow is crusted. Mr. Clarke would pre- 

 fer his bees above the snow-line, tiut with 

 me it just goes to the snow-line, but down 

 instead of up. My bees were about equal 

 on shallow frames and deei) ones, and my 

 success was 300 per cent, in favor of shal- 

 low frames. My bees liave died badly this 

 spring, the cause of which I lay at the 

 door of cold and moisture. I think Mr. 

 Doolittle need not worry about his school- 

 ing, as he possesses something few colleges 

 in America can give on his calling. I have 

 been in favor of out-door wintering, but 

 from the iiast cold winter 1 have concluded 

 to build a ]iroper house, as out-door pack- 

 ing in such winters does not keep the bees 

 warm enough to steer clear of bee-diarrhea. 

 Can it be possible that Mr. D. packs his 

 bees, or is our snow in Ontario more 

 porous ? 



Defense Fund.— J. C. Wilson, Ridge- 

 land, 9 S. C, on June 13, 188-5, says : 



I think well of Mr. Heddon's plan sug- 

 gested on page 340, to raise a "defense 

 fund," and I also name Thos. G. Newman 

 as my choice for secretary-treasurer and 

 general manager of the good work. In my 

 opinion nothing can elevate our calling 

 more flian to band ourselves toirether as a 

 fiiitcniity. We all realize the force of the 

 ohi Ullage, " in unitythero is streogth." 



Bees Under Snow in Winter.— O. O. 



Poppleton, VVilliamstown,c$ Iowa, on 

 June 12, 188-5, writes as follows : 



On page 357, Mr. Doolittle asks hoV far 

 hives were from the ground in which bees 

 have been successfully wintered under 

 snow. My hives are from '2 to 4 inches 

 above the grinind, and I cannot think that 

 Mr. House is correct in his opinion, for 

 two reasons. Close setting to the ground 

 has been no detriment to my bees, and I 

 do not think thatlhe snow does thaw fro<t 

 ont of the ground; at least it does not 

 work that way up here in Northern Iowa. 

 During the winter of 1880-8I,about.50 of my 

 colonies were entirely buried under the 

 snow for at least two months, and I never 

 had bees winter better. During the win- 

 ter of 1SS3-83, a part of my bees were 

 where the snow was blown almost en- 

 tirely away from the hives, and this part 

 of tlie apiary suffered much more severely 

 than did those so situated that the snow 

 was piled over and around the hives. I 

 cannot account for Mr. Doolittle's non- 

 success in wintering bees under snow, 

 unless it may be that his method of pack- 

 ing leaves no large air-space around and 

 above the chaff-cushions inside the hive 

 or packing-case, as my hives do. 



Rapid Honey Gathering.— J. W. 



Eckman, Richmond, o, Tex., on June 



12, 1885, says : 



Bees are just booming. Three weeks 

 ago 1 had to work bant to keep young 

 swarms, andsomeold ones, from starving; 

 last week 1 had to work harder to give 

 ttieni room in which to store honey. I 

 have never seen hives fill up so fast. My 

 best colony, on June 3, gathered 34 lbs. of 

 honey; on .June 4, '3'Ji^ lbs. ; on June fi, 

 29 lbs. ; on June T, '39 lbs. ; and 8 days 

 previous to June 3, I had to feed it to keep 

 it from starving. The spring was wet and 

 cold, and thus kept back swarming until 

 March <i. They stopped swarming about 

 tlie middle of April. From May 1 until 

 linden and horse-mint blooms there is 

 nothing for them to gather, and we have 

 to wafch them closely as they consume all 

 gathered in early spring. I am busy now 

 extracting, and finer honey I never have 

 seen. 



