THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



475 



And now tlie melancholy scene began 

 to cliange, and gave way to one in- 

 finitely more agreeable and pleasant. 

 " The bees presently missing their 

 queen, began to dislodge, and repair 

 to the hive, crowding into it in multi- 

 tudes, and in the greatest hurry im- 

 aginable; and in the space of two or 

 three minutes the maid had not a sin- 

 gle bee about her, neither had she so 

 much as one sting, a small number of 

 which would have quickly stopped 

 her breath." 





\^^0fp£^^^m 



Splendid Yield of Honey.— Mayer & 

 Didier. Marksville,© La., on July 16, 

 188-5, write : 



The yield of honey this season, in our 

 section of the country, has been very 

 good. We liave extracted three times, up 

 to tills date, and have measured 300 tjal- 

 loiis, or about S.OOO pounds in vs-eialit. The 

 average number of hives extracted from 

 was from 20 to '£A. This is our first ex- 

 tracting season, and we are yet new in the 

 business. 



Basswood at its Best.— D. Millard, 

 Mendon, 9 Mich., on July 16, 188.5, 

 writes : 



Fully 7.5 per cent, of the bees through- 

 out this section died during the past win- 

 ter and spring, and what were left were 

 weak, and did not eet in good working 

 condition in time for the white clover 

 bloom. Fruit bloom was light, and the 

 early white clover secreted little or no 

 honey. Basswood bloomed abundantly, 

 and is now at its best, and if the weather 

 continues good for a few days, we shall 

 get a good yield. 



Bees Not Doing Well. — Jar vis 



Kainey, Forestville, P X. !if ., on July 

 20, 1885, writes : 



Bees have n«f done very well in this 

 locality, up to tliis date. I wintered 63 out 

 of 6.5 last winter, on natural stores. I do 

 not believe in Heddon's pollen theory. I 

 believe that I have wintered bees better 

 for the last ten years than Mr. H. has ; I 

 pay no attention to pollen. 



"Enlist ror the War."— C. F. Green- 

 ing, Grand Meadow,<x Minn., on July 



20, 1885, says : 



I hope that all true hee-keepers will 

 "enlist for the war," on the question of 

 defending their rights, whether it is for 3 

 years or more. 



Slieep and Bees— Tlie Season.— D. 



L. Sliapley, Kandallsville,© jV. Y., on 

 July 14, 188-5, says: 



1 fully endorse all that has been written 

 in regard to that Wisconsin bee-suit. Mv 

 father kept from 80 to 100 colonies of bee's 

 until about 1S.5K, when he lost all, and 

 there have not been any bees kept on the 

 farm until 1 got them three years ago ; but 

 slieep have always been kept on the farm 

 in numbers from .5 to 1.50or more, and until 

 this suit came up we never heard or 

 thought of such a thing as bees driving 

 sheep from white clover, but alwavs 

 noticed that the bees left the flowers when 

 animals of any kind were grazing near it. 

 1 think it the most absurd charge that 



could be thought of, but as one or two have 

 said in the Bkk .Ioi'uxal, it will be hard 

 to jirovi^ the identity iif the bees. Bees 

 have stored hut littli'surplus honey so far: 

 there has liccn only a very few days that 

 tliey conid work on white clover. Bass- 

 wood is just beginning to blossom a very 

 little, and in about ten days the bees will 

 have an abundance of it to work on, if the 

 weather is such that they can get it. 1 

 never saw it budded as fuU as it is now. 



Bees Harmless as Flies. — A. L. V. 



Loomis, Roseiulale,o+ Wis., on July 

 20, 1885, writes : 



Any one who is acijuainted with bees 

 when gathering honey, know that they are 

 as harmless as flies ; they never sting 

 unless driven to it by injury. If sheep 

 were feeding, the bees would simply fly 

 away. A neighbor a few days since, 

 driving through a white clover pasture, 

 stopped his horses twice to discover the 

 cause of the buzzing before he noticed the 

 bees ; they simply gave room, and dis- 

 turbed neither horse nor driver. 



Defense Association.— T. E. Turner, 

 Sussex,? Wis., on July, 20, 18S5, 

 writes : 



I am heartily in favor of the defense 

 association, for, as I live in Wisconsin, 1 

 might need help some day, and tlieu if I 

 do not, the general interest of bee-keepers 

 may require such an association. The 

 bee and honey business is slow here tliis 

 spruig. If bees gather enough honey to 

 winter upon, they will do more than Is 

 anticipated in this section. 



Almost Unlimited Honej-Resources. 



— Eugene Secor, Forest City, 5 Iowa, 

 on Jidy 20, 1885, says : 



The honey prospect is very good. We 

 have had a very good bloom of white 

 clover, and now the bees are rollicking in 

 basswood blossoms. I feel quite confident 

 of a reasonable harvest, and prices are 

 going to be remunerative, from the fact 

 that so many lose all, or nearly all, their 

 bees every hard winter. The business is 

 not likely to be overdone. There are fewer 

 bees kept in this locality than there were 

 ten years ago, owing to losses from bad 

 manaHemeut, and want of success through 

 ignorance ; but the honey resources are 

 almost unlimited. It would seem almost 

 impossible to overstock this section. 



Stock Undisturbed by Bees. — Chas. 

 Follett, Osage, 5 Iowa, on July 16, 

 1885, writes : 



One of my apiaries is located in a calf 

 and pig pasture, and they are undisturbed 

 by the'bees, tliougli they eat the grass all 

 around the hives and kee]i it down. 

 Another apiary is located between a house 

 and liaru in the city of Osage, which has 

 3.000 inhabitants, aild the members of the 

 family pass these hives without inter- 

 ruption. A well was drilled 79 feet deep 

 in that bee yard, and none of the workmen 

 were stung. Jly bees work on white 

 clover from 3 to 6 p. m. This season white 

 clover does not secrete honey until about 

 Ha. m. 



Rendering Wax.— Geo. E. Hilton, 

 Fremout.Kj Mich., writes as follows : 



The following is a description of a wax 

 extractor that I have made and am using 

 to my satisfaction : Make a can of heavy 

 tin, ai inches tleep and 13 in diameter, with 

 tight bottom, 'i'wo and one-half inches 

 from the bottom 1 put in a tin spout, .5 

 inches from the bottom 1 solder on several 

 lugs, upon which rests a wire screen 

 securely fastened into a tin rim that can be 

 taken out at jjleasure. This leaves a re- 



ceptacle 13x1.5 Inches, for old combs, above 

 the screen. This I keep in my extracting 

 room, and as often as it hecoiiies full, I 

 lilaee it on the kitelien stove and ]ioiir 

 hoiling water tliroujjh the combs until it 

 coiiimences to run out of the spout, and 

 then I stop up the spout, put on the cover, 

 and the steam is forced up througli the 

 combs, and the wax droiis through the 

 screen, and the refuse settles to the bottom 

 of thecal!, except what remains above the 

 .screen. When (Iciiie. tliewax can be drawn 

 off into a receptacle containing some hot 

 water, and allowed to cool, and it is ready 

 for use without a second melting. Mr. 

 James lleddou says wax put through his 

 doublerelining jiroccss shrinks about 10 

 per cent. : 1 sent liinx mine, made in this 

 way last winter, and he said it was so clean 

 that it would not shrink over 4 per cent., 

 and he sent me 4s pounds of thin foimda- 

 tion made from .50 pounds of m\' wax. 



That Insurance.- L. N. Tongue, 

 Hillsboro,to Wis., on July 18, ISSo, 

 writes : 



As Mr. Chas. Follett wishes to hear 

 from all in reference to his jilaii of an In- 

 surance Mutual Bee-Keepcis' Association 

 (see iiage444), 1 say no, most emphatically; 

 such an associatioii would kill the Bee- 

 Keeuers' Union. Who would wish to pay 

 B's loss in wintering (or from any other 

 cause) when we combine to defend the 

 common right of all against those who 

 would crusli a man because he saw fit to 

 engage in ajiicullure ;' The 1 See Keepers' 

 Union is the right thing in itself. If bee- 

 keepers wish to form a Mutual Insurance, 

 let tliem do so, but to connect it with the 

 Union— never. The Union has enough on 

 its hands, from present iutlications. 1 

 would call the attentifin of bee-keepers to 

 the article in the Bee J c iukx.-^l or July 

 1-5, on page 43.5. Tlie Union is not formed 

 any too soon, and every bee-keeper should 

 rally to its support. '' In imion there is 

 strength. A house divided against itself 

 cannot stand." 



[We certainly should not favor an insur- 

 ance business connected with the Bee- 

 Keepers' Union. The time has hardly 

 come yet, we imagine, for an Insurance 

 separate from the Insurance companies 

 now existing.— Ed.] 



Bee-Keei)ing in W. Virginia. — J. C. 



Tanner, liuntington,+o W. Va., on 

 July 15, 1885, writes : 



West Virginia is often called the Switz- 

 erland of America, and I believe that it is 

 well named, as 1 cannot imagine how 

 there could beany grander or finer scenery 

 anywhere than in the mountains of both 

 the Virginias, especially along the Kana- 

 wha and New rivers, a distance of nearly 

 100 miles, where the hills are 2,000 feet 

 high, and upwards, and filled with the 

 best of coal, and clad with the finest 

 timber— the kinds which please the bee- 

 keepers—such as poplar (or tulip as it is 

 often called) ; also chestmit, linden and 

 sour-wood in abundance ; the last three 

 are now in bloom in all the vales and 

 along the ba.se of the mountains, the 

 bloom coming out later and later the 

 higher up on the mountain-sides it is, 

 thereby making the honey season double 

 the usual length when on level ground. 

 Besides the above-named trees, there is a 

 host of other trees, shrubs and flowers too 

 numerous to mention. This is a good, 

 healthy country, with the purest of waters 

 of various kinds, such as sulphur, iron, 

 etc., many of which are noteil all over the 

 country. Here a person can sleep in- com- 

 fort nearly if not every night all summer, 

 and where there are no mosquitoes, nor 

 malaria, as both go together. The best of 



