582 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee .loumal. 



Correctness in Reporting, etc. 



W. H. STEWART. 



I fear that some may concUide from 

 the article by Mr. C. A. Hatch, on 

 page 503, that I was not very careful 

 to get at the facts, ilr. Hatch quotes 

 me thus : " W. H. Stewart says that 

 J. C. Hatch has lost; all of his bees, 

 blown over by a tornado." If my 

 article on pase 471 is read carefully, 

 it will be found that I did not state 

 that Mr. J. C. H. had lost any of his 

 bees. It will be seen also, that the 

 words " lost " and " tornado " are not 

 in my article at all, and that I stated 

 in my third paragraph, that '"I am 

 not informed whether Mr, Hatch 

 saved any of his bees or not." 



Mr. Ilatch is very kind to state that 

 he has " no fault to find with Mr. S.," 

 from the fact that " it was so reported 

 in our local paper at the time." All 

 will see that what I wrote in my first 

 paragraph, on page 471, about those 

 bee-hives being turned over, and 

 fences and orchards blown down, is 

 quoted, showing that the statement 

 was not original with me. 



Now I do not write this for the pur- 

 pose of criticizing Mr. Ilatch, but 

 rather as a plea for those who write 

 articles for the press. It cannot be 

 expected that a reporter is to have 

 absolute knowledge that all he reports 

 is true. Xo reporter can be omni- 

 present to see and hear every item 

 that he wishes to report ; but he is 

 dependent, in a great measure, upon 

 the statements of others, and must 

 give the facts as nearly correct as he 

 IS able to do under Ibecircumstances; 

 and all editors desire such reports. 



Many beekeepers have, this season, 

 reported that 2.5, 50, and some as high 

 as 75 per cent, of the bees in their 

 locality were lost last winter ; and the 

 Editor of the Bee .Journal has re- 

 quested bee-keepers to report in re- 

 gard to these things; but no editor or 

 intelligent reader expects that such 

 reporters have visited every apiary 

 and learned by personal observation 

 just ho w many bees each bee-man in his 

 vicinity had in the fall, and how many 

 were left in the following spring. 

 Each reporter has had to base his re- 

 port upon " Hying reports " and state- 

 ments of others ; and when he has 

 given the facts as correctly as pos- 

 sible under the circumstances, then 

 he has done liis duty, and is justifia- 

 ble; but when we, in writing for any 

 paper, quote the statements of other 

 writers, we should be careful to use 

 quotation marks, and thus save much 

 space that is of ten necessarily occupied 

 in correcting misrepresentations. I 

 often re-write my articles several times 

 for the purpose of correcting every 

 error, and I wish to have it under- 

 stood that I am careful to give them 

 the best that I have, and as nearly 

 correct as possible. 



. Mr. Hatch says : " Serious results 

 might have followed had not brother 

 and father hastened to the rescue, 

 and restored the covers as good as it 

 was possible in a drenching rain." 

 He also gives us to understand that a 



portion of the hives were " upset by 

 the wind." This shows the impor- 

 tance of protecting the hives against 

 the higli winds. This is what prompt- 

 ed me to write the article that ap- 

 peared on page 471, and the many 

 private letters that I have received 

 from different bee-keepers, since they 

 read my article, show that many 

 have been discussing ways and means 

 to secure safety against wind-storms. 

 Some have given me very good ideas, 

 and I think tliat they would do well 

 to make their plans public. 



I am happy to learn that Mr. J. C. 

 Hatch and his father saved their 

 bees ; but if tliey had been absent 

 from home at the time of the storm, 

 what would have been the result ? 

 Perhaps it would have been much 

 better to have lifted the rocks, as I do 

 many times. 



Orion,? Wis., Aug. 17, 1885. 



Pbthidelphia Times. 



A Bee-Farm near Philadelphia, Pa. 



A REPORTEU\S DESCRIPTION. 



A tortuous path, overhung with 

 crooked old trees, leads from German- 

 town lane to the Wissahickon bee- 

 farm, one of the largest in this State. 

 It is in a picturesque and historical 

 locality. Near by is the burial-place 

 of several monks, who long ago ten- 

 anted an adjoining monastery, since 

 merged into a farm house. The Wis- 

 sahickoy bee-farm has 120 hives, with 

 about 25,000 bees in each hive, placed 

 on terraces and watched over by 

 hundreds of sunfiowers. 



"You are in luck's way," said Ar- 

 thur Todd, the proprietor. " One of 

 my colonies is swarming. It is un- 

 usual and undersirable at this season. 

 The weather has been so mild that 

 the bees have mistaken it for spring." 



A cloud of bees was rising in the 

 air. It hovered about a hickory tree 

 and disappeared among its topmost 

 branches. Forty thousand bees ac- 

 companied by their qieen had alight- 

 ed, and the apiarist proceeded to cap- 

 ture them, which he did by using a 

 " smoker " and a wooden box. He 

 climbed the tree without any face 

 covering, and took the insects by 

 handf uls without being stung. 



" Now these fellows want to start 

 house-keeping on their own account," 

 he said, "and I must furnish them a 

 home, or they will fly away. Scien- 

 tific l>ee-keeping has rendered this 

 easy of accomplishment. The hives 

 are all of one size, so that frames can 

 be put together with dispatch." 



A hive was rapidly constructed, and 

 the master of the bees scooped them 

 up with both hands, placed them on 

 the tops of the frames filled with 

 comb foundation, and the bees at once 

 went in and tlie cover was put on. 



" Now just listen to their hum," 

 said Mr. Todd. "It's a different 

 hum to their ordinary one. They are 

 starting a fresh colony, and the hum 

 is a song of rejoicing. By-and-by the 

 hum will be siibdued— that will be a 

 contented hum. Yes, bees express 

 their feelings. Those with vicious 

 tempers will hum about like a buzz- 



saw. The Cyprian is one of that 

 class. It is a good worker, but it is 

 such a stinger that bee-keepers will 

 not have much to do with it. The 

 Italian bee has a low, sweet hum, in- 

 dicating docility. It won't attack you 

 unless it is provoked. Then it dashes 

 about like a moth after a light, and 

 its hum says plainly, ' 1 am mad.' " 



Bees are instinctively industrious, 

 which accounts for their hatred of 

 thieves. Their laws are unwritten, 

 but severe. Illustrative of this : Sev- 

 eral robber bees had entered a hive 

 and began stealing honey. Sounds of 

 wrath were immediately heard within. 

 Soon afterwards a crowd of bees came 

 outside, whei'e they ferociously as- 

 saulted each other. The war lasted 

 two hours. At dusk over a hundred 

 dead bees were lying in front of the 

 hive and the bees were bringing out 

 their slain foes and throwing them 

 about irreverently. 



A pretty specimen of a stately 

 Syrian queen-bee was pointed out. 

 Its mother was born in the Holy 

 Land. It is two months old, and may 

 live three years. It has a golden 

 shield on the thorax, and a small 

 mark like a black half moon. It is 

 swift on tlie wing, flies a longdistance 

 in search of flower petals, and is 

 strong and active. The race is 

 numerous near Jerusalem. Monks 

 residing there believe that Syrian bees 

 have descended from the first bees 

 given to man. 



The introduction of the queen-bee 

 into a colony is an important item in 

 bee-fai'ming. She is put in a separate 

 cell, with provisions. The bees eat 

 their way into her cell and escort her 

 thence to their combs, where she 

 wanders about, always with innumer- 

 able courtiers in her train. If she en- 

 tered a cell without this introduction, 

 she probably would be killed. 



The baby-bee is hardy from the 

 time it leaves its cell and is strong 

 enough to fly. It is not allowed that 

 liberty, however, until it is domesti- 

 cated. The big bees teach it how 

 baby-bees ought to behave when at 

 home. It nurses the grubs, and 

 serves the young queens with food. 

 When it is perfect, it goes out with 

 its elders in quest of honey, and soon 

 develops into an elder itself. 



The principal sources of food are 

 the maple, poplar, and " jolly smoker" 

 trees, w-hich abound in the neighbor- 

 hood of the farm. There are clover 

 fields not far away, whose crops are 

 fertilized bv the bumble and honey 

 bees that visit them. Mr. Todd has 

 seven or eight acres of buckwheat, 

 representing the winter supplies for 



"There is one matter connected 

 with bee-farming," said Mr. Todd, 

 " that has not been ventilated much 

 as yet. The bee-laws are imperfect ; 

 indeed, they are in a chaotic state. 

 They are not sufficiently defined to 

 protect bee-farmers against people 

 who are so ignorant as to suppose 

 bees will molest cattle and destr9y 

 crops. A case is now in the courts in 

 which a bee keeper named Freeborn 

 is being sued by a farmer for $500 

 damages done by bees on the clover 

 fields of the plaintiff, and preventing 



