THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



419 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 





piijimw 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI, July 8, 1885. No. 27. 



APICULTTJRAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EBITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



It pays to wear a smiling' face 



And laug^h our troubles down ; 

 For all our little troubles wait 



Our ljiu;;litur or our frown. 

 Beneath tin- margin of a smile 



Our doubts will fade away, 

 As melts the frost in early spring 



Beneath the sunny ray. 



A Swarm of bees woig-hs from three to 

 five pounds. 



Wliite Clover is yielding honey well, and 

 basswood promises a fine honey yield. 



Honey is now being gathered lively in 

 some localities— the bees enjoying the fun, 

 and the bee-men looking happy ! 



AlAvays Select the best colonies from 

 ^which to rear queens. There is as much 

 difference in bees as in any other stock. 



Use Comb Foundation plentifully in 

 the sections. It helps the bees, strengthens 

 the comb, and adds to the shipping qualities 

 of the honey. 



Tlie Rev. K.. L. Langstrotli is again 

 busy with his pen, and our readers may 

 expect an article from him very soon. To 

 all our readers this will be welcome news. 



Bees Serve as Active Agents in the 



fertilization of plants, and are not destruc- 

 tive. They are profitable because they gather 

 and store up that which would be entirely 

 lost without their aid. 



Number all your Hives so that a record 

 may be kept of each colony. The Apiary 

 Register, with a faithfully-kept record of 

 each colony, is very desirable, If systematic 

 work is to be accomplished in the apiary. 



Foul Brood— Its Management and Cure, 

 is the name of a :i2-page pamphlet published 

 by D. A. Jones & Co., Beeton, Out. ft details 

 Mr. Jones' method of curing foul brood by 

 the "starvation plan." We can furnish it 

 for 15 cents, post-paid. 



The National Bee-Keepers' Union 



has been formed, for the purpose of defend- 

 ing the rights and protecting the interests of 

 the bee-keepers of America. Every person 

 interested in the pursuit shpuld at once 

 Bend for a copy of the Constitution, voting 

 blank, etc., and become a member. Address 

 "National Bee-Keepers' Union," 93.5 West 

 Madison street, Chicago, 111. 



Bee-keeping fully recommends itself to 

 women because it is an outdoor employment, 

 says an exchange. It cannot be denied that 

 our wives and daughters are confined too 

 much in-doors; this leads to physical enerva- 

 tion—loss of strength, of health, and of 

 beauty. 



moral Courage, says an exchange, is of 

 more worth than physical, not only because 

 it is a higher virtue, but because the demand 

 for it is more constant. Physical courage is 

 a virtue which is almost always put away in 

 the lumber-room. Moral courage is wanted 

 day by daj'. 



Tlie Honey Season is late, but at the 

 present writing it promises to be a good 

 crop, both in quantity and quality. If the 

 fall crop should also be a good one, there 

 will be nothing discouraging about the year 

 1S85, even if many bees did die during the 

 previous winter and spring. 



^*'ITIany liands make light ^vork," and 



many bees will gather much honey in a short 

 time, when the honey -tiow comes. The 

 sagacious apiarist endeavors to get full colo- 

 nies of bees to " bring in " the honey crop, 

 which lasts but a short time, and must be 

 immediately gathered, or it is lost ! 



Depopulated Hives, — Many inquiries 

 are received from beginners about the hives 

 that were depopulated by last winter's losses. 

 They should be taken care of, and put out of 

 the reach of the bees. If the frames contain 

 honey, give such to the bees in exchange for 

 empty ones. Those containing dead bees 

 should be given to strong colonies ; the bees 

 will clean them up much better and cheaper 

 than it can be done otherwise. 



'*If that Itaiv-suit was in Texas,'* 

 remarks a correspondent, " the owner of the 

 sheep who complains of trespassing bees, 

 would have to swear to ' brands ' and 

 'marks' on the bees, or he would be beaten 

 very quickly." There are many difficulties 

 in the way of the plaintiff, but ionorancc or 

 'prejudice on the part of the jury may easily 

 overrule many of such, and the pursuit may 

 thereby suffer. 



The Beautiful.— The Western Farmer 

 remarks as follows concerning the beauty of 

 honey : *' Extracted honey is certainly the 

 perfection of the product, though honey in 

 the comb as yet brings the higher price. 

 People say it is because it is more beautiful 

 to the eye ; but this cannot be true. Served 

 in a stand of crystal, extracted or clear 

 honey, golden in color, and transparent as 

 crystal itself, what object is more beautiful 

 upon a well-appointed table ?" 



E^mpty Hives, says the Indiana Farmer, 

 in which swarms are to be put. should be 

 kept in the shade, that they may be cool and 

 inviting to the new swarm. Newly-hived 

 swarms are better if protected from the sun 

 for the first several days after being hived. 

 Swarms that are hived on frames of 

 empty comb, should be given the section 

 boxes at once. If no extra room be given 

 thein, they will soon fill the combs below 

 with honey, crowding the queen for room in 

 which to lay, and with much honey below, 

 they are loth to commence in the sections 

 above. An excess of honey in the brood 

 chamber at this season of the year, is against 

 a full supply above. 



Industry of Bees.— The Iriah Farmern' 

 Gazette says that few people have any idea 

 of the labor that bees have to expend In the 

 gathering of honey. Here is a calcuhition 

 which will show how industrious the "busy" 

 bee really is. Let us suppose the insects 

 confine their attentions to clover flelds. 

 Each head of clover contains about sixty 

 separate fiower tubes, in each of which is 

 a portion of sugar not exceeding the five- 

 hundredth part of a grain. Therefore, before 

 one grain of sugar can be got, the bee must 

 insert its proboscis into 500 clover tubes. 

 Now, there are 7,000 grains in a pound, so 

 that it follows that .'i,500,000 clover tubes 

 must be sucked in order to obtain but one 

 pound of honey. 



A Queen Hatcher is received from Mr. 

 J. B. Hains, Bedford, O., which he describes 



as follows : 



"The cell is to be placed in the screen 

 cage, and the hatcher placed over a hive 

 full of bees so that it may receive warmth 

 from the hive, and the bees can cluster 

 around it. I made it a little small to send 

 through the mail. The case can be made 

 longer, and wider, to accommodate as many 

 cages as wanted. I make it to take a cage 

 I'i inches in diameter, and 2U inches deep, 

 to accommodate a cluster of cells, when 

 desired, but do not know which size is best, 

 as I have used it only enough to know that it 

 hatches queens with safety." 



It consists of a four-sided tin case, flaring at 

 the bottom in which hangs a wire-cloth cone 

 — covered at the top by mica, and it appears 

 to be a very safe and convenient arrangement 

 in which to hatch queens from the cell. 



Honey in the Bays of \'ore.— A corre- 

 spondent in the London Lancet remarks as 

 follows on this subject : " Not only the 

 Greeks and Romans, but most of the Asiatic 

 nations, had habitual recourse to honey in 

 the preparation of food. It figured abund- 

 antly in their rather composite "made" 

 dishes, and formed the standing adjunct of 

 simpler fare. Mixed with wine, milk, or even 

 water, it was also in universal demand for 

 beverages ; and it was for this purpose that 

 the Scandinavian and Celtic nations used 

 honey while beer was yet unknown, and 

 wines were mainly confined to the countries 

 that produced them. Mead and metheglin 

 are sometimes comfounded ; but the former 

 was obtained from the combs from which 

 the honey had already been taken, while the 

 latter required 11" pounds of honey to pro- 

 duce 24 gallons. Both were fermented 

 drinks; but metheglin— the "honey-wine" 

 of the banquetingtable, was rather viciously 

 intoxicating, while mead was chiefly used as 

 a vehicle for the flavoring of fruits and 

 aromatic herbs. Queen Elizabeth was ex- 

 tremely fond of this beverage ; and a mead 

 used to be specially prepared for her use, 

 blended with sweet-brier, thyme, rosemary, 

 and bay." 



Amusing Incident. — An exchange is 

 responsible for the following : 



" The other day a bee sank from sight in 

 the calyx of a groat white lily, when the 

 neighbor's cow, who had just dropped in to 

 see how things were getting along, stepped 

 up and swallowed the lily. The cow thought 

 the lily had been heated in a stove, because 

 it got in its work about 80 times a minute. 

 The cow spoiled that garden in two minutes. 

 It looked like a circus ring after the trick- 

 mules are through, and the cow went out 

 without taking the time to look for the g&te. 

 Plunging madly into the first pond, she filled 

 herself with water and drowned the bee. She 

 now leaves flowers alone." 



