THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



581 



Explanatory — The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; *o northwest; 

 o* southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the Amencau Bee JoorDal. 



A Drone's Flea for his Sisters. 



GEORGE W. YORK. 



O, bee-men. won't you please listen 



To what [ am troinR to say, 

 HegardinK my ill-fated sisters 



Who toil for you day after day ? 



A selfish and hard-hearted shepherd. 

 In Wisconsin's fair land. I see. 



Has accused them very unjustly— 

 And swears vengeance on ev'ry bee. 



This shepherd has fields of white clover. 

 And claims he could easily see. 



When grazing, his sheep were molested 

 By many and many a bee, 



That came to the clover for honey ; 



(The charge he well knows is untrue), 

 And for sheep he lost the next winter. 



The bee-man he's going to sue. 



Now, bee-keepers, what I am after. 

 Is to ask you just to come out 



And stand by the poor, harmless workers. 

 And show sbeep-man what he's about. 



I speak in behalf of my sisters, — 

 Who always are tolling for you,— 



That you may bestow the attention 

 Which now Is so justly their due. 



The Journal has already announced 

 That a " Union's " well under way. 



To aid them in defending their rights. 

 On the great " Powers-Freeborn day." 



Now, bee-keepers, please join this Union, 

 And thus help your " pets of the hive, " 



By sending to Thomas U. Newman 

 The small sum of one-twenty-flve. 

 Chicago, Ills., Sept. 9, i88o. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Cell-Cappings," Balling "ftueens. etc. 



17— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (50—100). 



A correspondent writes : " What 

 is the significance of finding in the 

 morning, say from 20 to -50 little round 

 caps of wax near the hive-entrance y" 

 As far as my observation goes, the find- 

 ing of such caps signifies that drones 

 are hatching out; for if any one will 

 take the time to examine, he will 

 find that the drone, in liatchiug from 

 the cell, bites the cover to the cell 

 entirely off by a smooth cut, while the 

 worlcers leave only fragments of the 

 cappings of their cell-coverings in 

 hatching. 



The queen cuts off the capping to 

 her cell the same as does the drone, 

 except, as a rule, a little piece on one 

 side is left which acts like tlie hinge 

 to a door, the door often closing after 

 the queen has gone out. If it thus 

 closes, the bees often make it fast, so 

 the bee-keeper is often deceived into 

 thinking that the queen has not 

 hatched. It often happens as soon as 

 the queen has emerged from her cell, 

 that a worker goes into the cell to 

 partake of the royal jelly left in the 

 cell, after which the cell-cover flies 

 back, and the worker is a prisoner, 

 which has caused many to think that 

 the inmate of the cell was not a 

 queen, but a worker ; hence they call 

 their colony queenless, and send off 

 for a queen, or write to one or more 

 of the bee-papers about the strange 

 phenomenon. 



Some suppose that the round caps 

 spoken of by the correspondent, in- 

 dicate the uncapping of cells of 

 honey preparatory to the carrying of 

 honey from the outside to the centre 

 of the hive ; but I think this is a mis- 

 take, as the cappings to honey-cells 

 are gnawed off in little fragments, 

 and not in the round form as spoken 

 of. 



BEES VISITING ONLY ONE KIND OF 

 FLOWERS. 



Another correspondent writes : " In 

 gathering honey bees do not visit dif- 

 ferent kinds of flowers in one trip, 

 but gather honey from one kind of 

 flowers only." Now, if the corres- 

 pondent had said that bees only 

 gather pollen of one color, I should 

 have agreed with him, for I never 

 saw a bee with mixed colors of pollen 

 in the pollen-baskets, although differ- 

 ent colored pollen is put into the same 

 cell. But when we came to honey, I 

 have repeatedly seen bees fly froin a 

 gooseberry bush to a currant, and 

 from clover to raspberry bloom, and 

 vice versa. I have also seen bees 

 gather pollen from white, red, and 

 Alsike clover at the same time, but 

 those clovers give the same colored 

 pollen. I have also seen them go 

 from the red variety of raspberry to 

 the black, where the different kinds of 

 bushes were planted side by side. 



I used to think that if I planted for 

 bee-forage, I must not mix the dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants, but after a 

 close observation, I can see no cause 

 for not doing so where it is more con- 

 venient to have the rows of plants 

 mixed. When planting raspberries 

 (one of our best honey-plants, and of 

 great profit for its berries), it is better 

 to alternate the rows of the red and 

 black varieties, especially if it is 

 wished to keep pure plants ; for if the 

 different kinds of red are planted side 

 by side, the young plants will come 

 up indiscriminately between the rows, 

 unjess a greater distance is used than 

 is the usual custom. Nothing so dis- 

 gusts a customer as to buy mixed 

 plants. 



KNOWING IT ALL. 



Not many years ago this expression 

 was used about a certain bee-keeper, 

 " What he doesn't knOw about it, is 



hardly worth knowing." Well, if 

 this is so, I should really like to see 

 that man. Some 12 or 14 years ago I 

 felt a good deal that way, but now I 

 feel as if I was only just commenc- 

 ing to learn about our busy pets. In 

 fact, I think I 'have learned more of 

 bee-keeping thus far in the year 188-5, 

 than I ever learned during the same 

 length of time in my life. The one 

 item which I have lately given the 

 readers of the Bee Jouknal, relative 

 to having all swarming done up just 

 at the proper time, has been worth 

 several hundred pounds of honey to 

 me tliis year ; for I could not have 

 succeeded anything near as well by 

 the old plans. 



Let none of us get it into our heads 

 ttiat we know it all, but let us bend 

 every energy to the advancement of 

 our pursuit, giving our knowledge to 

 others till the time when our business 

 shall grow from where it now is, until 

 it shall be acknowledged by all to be 

 one of the foremost industries of the 

 age. 



BEES BALLING THEIR QUEEN. 



A correspondent says : " A swarm 

 came out on July 1, clustered, and was 

 hived. In tlie evening they swarmed 

 out and went back into the old hive, 

 leaving a small bunch of bees in the 

 hive ; these remained six days, when 

 they swarmed out. I found the queen 

 with them. AVhat made the most of 

 the bees leave their queen and go 

 back y" 



The above is one of the most per- 

 plexing things which occasionally 

 happens in the swarming season in a 

 large apiary. The general cause is, 

 that a few strange bees from another 

 swarm, or elsewhere, get in with the 

 swarm, and for this reason the queen 

 is balled for safe keeping, or for some 

 other purpose, just what I never 

 knew. 



Where the queen of a newly hived 

 swarm is thus balled, the bees seem 

 to think that they have lost their 

 queen, and so return to the old hive, 

 all except a few which are near the 

 ball of bees. If they are stooped from 

 going home, they will try to go into 

 other hives. I used to get a large 

 proportion of them killed in this way, 

 by they trying to go into other hives, 

 or else I had to let them go back until 

 I learned how to keep them from 

 going back. 



At first I hunted out the queen by 

 smoking the ball of bees until they 

 released her, when she was caged and 

 placed between the combs, or hung 

 down from the top-bars of the frames 

 when no combs were used. In about 

 one-half of these cases this satisfied 

 them, while at other times they would 

 ball the cage, so it did no good. I 

 now get the queen as before, but in- 

 stead of using a common cage, I make 

 a large flat one to reach clear across 

 the frames. Into this I put thequeen, 

 and lay it on top of the frames, when 

 the bees can get at her through the 

 wire-cloth between every frame in the 

 hive, which satisfies them. The next 

 morning I let her loose and remove 

 the cage, when all goes well. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



