THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



659 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



jif^.^t^BMia^^,,^ 



Bn'Jtenw 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. Oct. 21, 1885. No. 42. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITOKIAL AND SELECTED. 



II' Your Work is made more easy 



liy a Irieiiilly, hclpint? hand. 

 Say SI) ! Speak out brave and truly, 



Cheering words to all our band. 

 Why should good words ne'er be said 



Of a friend— (in )ie is dead ? 

 Give him mur your words of ebeer, 



With thcnt check the falling- tear ! 



Persons who know most condemn the 

 least ; but those who know but little con- 

 demn much. 



Bee-^Ieii at Fairs attract crowds by 

 handling bees, and are looked upon with 

 amazement bj' those who witness the 

 manipulations. 



While lOO Years of bee-keeping will 

 teach some persons nolliing—as many days 

 will give others a knowledge of considerable 

 value. 



Abuse and Vituperation is not argu- 

 ment, and only shows the weakness of the 

 position taken by those who use sueh a 

 course of procedure. 



Tivel ve Hundred Fairs are to be held 

 this year in the United States and Terri- 

 tories, but in .'!!I7 counties no Fairs will be 

 held. In some localities there seems to be a 

 decline in the interest in such exhibitions. 



Asents^ can sell the Guide and Hand- 

 Book like "hot-cakes." Send us an order 

 for five copies (with $2.n0) and we will send 

 you the Weekly Bee .Journal free for a 

 year. This is a rare opportunity to get the 

 Weekly Bee Journal without cost ! 1 



Instruetion in bee-books and bee-per- 

 iodicals is prepared to aid those who need 

 information. While many use the sugges- 

 tions otfered, some mimiSG them, and think 

 they " know it all." But few, indeed, are so 

 skillful as to need no instruction or counsel. 



Mr. "W, H. Baleli desires a sentence in 

 the second paragraph of his article on page 

 *)'.'J4, corrected to read thus : " Not having 

 feeders, I raised the front ends of the hives 

 and poured the feed in at the entrances, the 

 bottom-boards being tight enough to con- 

 tain what feed was necessary," etc. He 

 (pmitted a few words when writing it. 



CoHsltlerable has lieen written against 

 bee-keeping because, forsooth, some per- 

 sons have been stung to death. Here is a 

 case where two persons died from the effect 

 of a calf's bite : 



Mrs. .John 'i'oung, of Winfleld, W. Va., a 

 few days ago, while altemptingto separate 

 a cow and calf, was slightly bitten on the 

 hand by the calf. Almost immediately she 

 was taken ill, and died in a few hours. An 

 intant which she had nurstid during the in- 

 terval, was also violently attacked, and died 

 in convulsions. 



Here is another case where a man was 

 killed by a bull ; 



Thonuis Bnswell, a well-known citizen of 

 Dinwiddle Cnunty, Va., went out to feed his 

 stock on Oft. 1 1, when ho was attacked by a 

 vicious bull and instantly killed, the body 

 presenting a horrible appearance. 



Would it not be jnst as reasonalde to claim 

 that stoelc should not be bred, and that the 

 milk, cream, butter and cheese business 

 should be interdicted because of the above 

 accidents— as to claim that bee-keeping 

 should be declared a nuisance because some 

 one had been stung, and died from the 

 etfects of the bee-poison on their already 

 diseased blood. 



A Neiv Bee-Book, in Oernian, is on 



our desk. It is entitled the " Gexchichte der 

 Bienenzucht" (History of Bee-Culture), by J. 

 G. Beszler, of Ludwigsburg, Germany. It is 

 an excellent work consisting of nearly 300 

 pages, giving an authentic and elaborate 

 account of the development of the art of 

 bee-culture from the earliest times to the 

 present, both in the Old World and in the 

 New. It contains a j^hotographie group of 

 84 of the most eminent European apiarists, 

 but mainly those from Germany. A very 

 interesting feature of the book is a chapter 

 entitled "The Bees in Poetry," in which is 

 found quotations relating to bees, selected 

 from celebrated European poets. Another 

 of its noticeable features is the biograph- 

 ical sketches of the most noted bee-keepers 

 of the Eastern Continent, including the Rev. 

 L. Ij. I/angstroth, the Father of Modern 

 American Apiculture. 



Tlie Slieep-Bees l.awsuit is called for 

 Tuesday, Oct. '27, ISft"). The opposition are 

 marshalling their forces to give Mr, Free- 

 born as hard a fight as they can. The Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Union, having the aid 

 of some 'i or good lawyers (thrc(i of them 

 being practical tjee-keepers), will make it 

 lively for Mr. Powers, the prosecutor. 

 Several experts (prominent men who keep 

 both sheep and bees) are to be called as 

 witnesses, and Prof. Henry, of the College 

 at Madison, Wis., as well as other scientific 

 men, will aid the defense. Mr. W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson (who is a short-hand reporter) is 

 engaged to give a full report of the proceed- 

 ings to the public. We are all ready, Mr. 

 Powers— now, call your case, and do your 

 worst I 



The Guide and Hand-Book, is a book 

 of ready reference and an encyclopi^dia of 

 everything desirable to know. As a guide 

 to thchome-seeker, it is invaluable. Its con- 

 tents are partially given on page ti70, and 

 will convince any one of its value. We do 

 not think any of our readers can afford to 

 do without it. As a book of ready reference 

 we find it of great value in our library. We 

 will send the Weekly Bee Journ.il for a 

 year and the Guide for ^L.^O. ■ 



Honey In the 'Walls or Houses has 



been found in two Instances lately in Eng- 

 land, says the London Standard : 



For the last 10 or IK years a colony of bees 

 has takon possea.sion of a niche between the 

 walls of the Hantlioy and Fiddle public 

 hon.se at Ockham, near Ripley. The outer 

 walls of the building are about :i feet in 

 thickness, and the bees made choice of their 

 storehouse at the top of the building, which 

 is tl.i-ee stni-ies high. 



More than 'i feet square of the wall had to 

 be removed, when a large mass of comb 

 about 2 feet in thickness, filled with honey, 

 was e,\posed. The bees were fumigated, 

 after which large pieces of honey were cut 

 out. until dish alter dish was filled with a 

 total quantity of about 120 pounds. The 

 bricks have not been put into the wall again, 

 but a glass door has been inserted, so that 

 any one may have an opportunity of seeing 

 them. 



Another lot of honey has been secured at 

 Winters Hall, Bromley, the seat of Mr. 

 George Barrett. Some men were sent to 

 take some bees which had got between the 

 ceiling of the coach-hcnise and the granary. 

 They succeeded in taking .'iOO pounds of 

 honey. The bees had been engaged in their 

 novel hiding-place several years. 



Friendly t^ritirism is valuable, but in 

 order to criticise intelligently, one should 

 have considerable knowledge and experi- 

 ence, and have a better plan or train of 

 thought on the sub.ject than the one to be 

 criticised— else all such discussion is in vain. 



In Scotland it is the custom to move the 

 hives of bees to the Heather country in sum- 

 mer, but this year it gave but poor results. 

 A correspondent in the London Jaunial of 

 Horticidliirc gives the following as his opin- 

 ion concerning this year's crop in Scotland : 



Owing to the continued low temperature, 

 the honey harvest from the Heather, this 

 year, will not be great. Favored localities 

 may have yielded a fair quantity, but in 

 many it is»ii'(. In the south of Scotland I 

 hear of .W pounds being stored, but in the 

 north it is a failure. From statistics I should 

 say the average honey-gathering throughout 

 Scotland will not exceed I.t pounds per 

 colony. 



The Hum in the Hives is thus ex- 

 plained l)y the Scientific American : 



Duiing August, certainly the bee-keeper 

 expects to hear the "mighty hum" of the 

 bees if he be near a hive. If no sound pro- 

 ceeds from a hive in July and August, it 

 shows an unusual state of the weather. Last 

 winter, when the mercury was 10° below 

 zero, a thermometer was thrust into a clus- 

 ter of bees. On the inside of the cluster the 

 temperature was (l.")°, and on the outsde 45" 

 Fahr. If the heat generated bv the bees, 

 when the mercury is 10 below, is G.j°, what 

 must it be when the outside temperature is 

 !)0° ? It is intense, but the bees have a way 

 of reducing it, at least a way of creating a 

 draught and keeping the atmosphere pure. 



A number of bees— a thousand or more, 

 perhaps— act as ventilators or fanners. They 

 stand, heads down, with bodies at an angle 

 of 4.")°, and keep the wings in motion. 

 Throughout the hive, on all the combs, up 

 and down, the ventilators keep their fans 

 going. On the alighting-board, with bodies 

 pointing from the hive, they fan also. At 

 the entrance of one hive, on a day in Au- 

 gust, 280 bees, by actual count, were fan- 

 ning. The honey-gatherers dropped down 

 upon them, tumbled over them, hut they 

 kei)t to their work. Some writers have 

 spoken of the "hum of the hive," as though 

 the hum was the result of the work going 

 on within. 'Twasthehum of the fanners. 

 But in August this year there were nights 

 when the hives weie silent. Not an echo of 

 a hum came from any, showing that the air 

 was cold enough to dispense with the venti- 

 lators. 



Dr. B. Pitcher, Peoria, Ills., has sent ua 

 a copy of his treatise on the Horse's Foot. 

 It is a practical treatise on the foot of the 

 horse, its diseases and how to cure them. 



