414 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



had entirely forgotten it," was the reply. 

 "In the niorniiiji; we will go out and tind 

 them, and bag the honey. Now, Pomp, you 

 may go," and as the old darkey retired, the 

 planter inquired ot us it we would like to 

 go a bee hunting. Of course, we replied in 

 the afiirmative. 



Tile next morning found us up bright and 

 early, and at the table it was thought best 

 to go to the swamp as soon as tile hands 

 could be got together. In about an hour 

 old Pomp and about five or six of his 

 African companions put in an appearance, 

 armed with axes, pails, one or two bundles 

 of rice straw and a sufficient quantity of 

 brimstone to kill all the bees in the State. 

 "Where is the swarm?" inquired our host 

 of Pomp, who carried an axe snfTiciently 

 large enough to have delighted the followers 

 of Richard, the J^ion-Hearted. "In de Cy- 

 prus; 'im near de brake," was the reply. 

 "Lead the way, then,"— and off we trudged 

 through the cane fields, until we reached 

 the edge of the swamp. 



" Dat's de tree, niassa," said Pomp, at 

 last, as we reached a large cyprus that had 

 doubtless raised its head aloft for many 

 years, above its fellows. We gazed at the 

 tree in silence, and at a height of over 20 ft. 

 or more from the ground, discovered a hole 

 from which the bees were going in and 

 coming out. " Down with it," said the 

 owner of the Cyprus, and the words were 

 no sooner spoken than Pomp and Black 

 Jake "laid too" with an earnestness that 

 was quite surprising. 



The tree was no sooner down than Pomp 

 moved cautiously towards the bee-hole in 

 her side, and after taking due observations, 

 gave it as his opinion "dat de ole tree liad a 

 powerful lot of honey in her." "You had 

 better chop into her side," said the planter, 

 addressing Pomp, wlio had taken the pre- 

 caution to stand at a safe distance from the 

 Cyprus. "Pears as how I'd like to know 

 where de honey is lodged," said Pomp. " I 

 reckons as how its above de hole, but I 

 dosen't zackly know," queried the old 

 darkey as he mounted the trunk of the tree 

 next the hole, keeping a sharp lookout in 

 the meanwhile for any stray bees that 

 might be flying round. Pomp raised his 

 axe and struck a few well-directed blows, 

 and at length a considerable opening was 

 made in its sides. In the meanwhile the 

 boys (or hands) had fixed a long pole to a 

 bundle of rice straw and filled it with brim- 

 stone, so as to destroy the bees. Pomp had 

 no sooner cleared off the last chip from the 

 tree, than the bees sallied out in numbers 

 to see what the intruders were about. 



Pomp gave one jump and landed a rod 

 from tlie tree, pitching in to the darkies 

 like a mad bull at a herd of strange cattle. 

 We all got away from the tree as fast as our 

 legs could carry us, and watched at a short 

 distance the doings of the honey makers. 

 At length the straw was lighted and young 

 Moore, who "wosen't affeared," approached 

 the tree and thrust the flaming brand into 

 the cavity. It blazed away in right good 

 earnest, the brimstone emitting a rank 

 odor, as if doing thoroughly its work. At 

 length it was all consumed and the long 

 pole withdrawn. A few bees only flew 

 arouiul the hole and their entire destruction 

 seemed well nigh ensured. 



Pomp now put on a pair of gloves, and 

 putting some coarse netting over his head, 

 mounted the tree and soon found the covet- 



ed sweets. The honey was considerably 

 jammed by the fall, but was of excellent 

 quality and of sufficient quantity to well 

 repay the trouble of getting "it. The 

 buckets were brought up, and Pomp took it 

 out, the pails being moved away by the lit- 

 tle darkeys, all anxious to lieip now that 

 the bees were "clean gone." Four right 

 good buckets were filled, and the boys 

 gathered up a quantity of broken and refuse 

 comb for "de chilen of de plantation." We 

 now wended our way back to "Magnolia 

 Grove," the older darkies singing a lively 

 song, while the younger ones were filling 

 themselves with the product of the old 

 Cyprus. E. R. Billings. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Novel Experiment. 



I conceive it is the duty of every reader of 

 the JouKNAL to contribute to its columns 

 every item which may come within the 

 range of his personal observation which 

 sa,vors of the "new." Not that anything is 

 absolutely new; but because a great many 

 things which are perfectly familiar to some 

 may be absolutely new to others less favor- 

 ed by circumstances or long experience. 

 And by so doing each may contribute his 

 "mite" to the fund of general, useful know- 

 ledge. This is my only apology for troubl- 

 ing the readers of the Journal with the 

 following: 



On yesterday, Sunday, Oct. 14th, in our 

 latitude, lol miles north of Cincinnati, the 

 thermometer, at 1 p.m., stood at 77% and the 

 day was every way lovely; yet my pets 

 seemed torpid; and while"^ watching a nu- 

 cleus which had a virgin queen of sufficient 

 age to take a " bridal lour," I discovered a 

 commotion at the entrance of the hive for 

 some ten minutes, as if her virgin majesty 

 intended to explore the outer world; but it 

 soon became quiet. I then visited two 

 other luiclei which had virgin queens of the 

 same age, but all was quiet — they were nu- 

 clei from which I had removed "queens, in- 

 tending to unite them, but had neglected it 

 until they had reared queens. I then 

 thought to try the effect of warming the 

 hive up, by feeding a little warm honey to 

 one. The effort worked like magic, for in 

 less than five minutes the whole colony had 

 lost its temper, antl in a very short space of 

 time her majesty aj)peared at the entrance 

 and made a fruitless effort to fly— her wings 

 were defective. 



I then tried tlie same experiment on the 

 remaining two nuclei, which had, up to that 

 time, shown no symptoms of the commo- 

 tion which usually attends the departure of 

 a queen on her mating flight; and in less 

 than five minutes both queens appeared at 

 the entrance and departed on their aerial 

 voyages. One returned in about 3 minutes 

 while the other was on the wing about 10 

 minutes, and when she returned she bore 

 evidences of fertilization. I was unable to 

 ascertain whether or not the other one left 

 the hive again, but on examination an hour 

 later I found that she had become fertilized. 

 From every indication neither of the queens 

 would have left the hive on that day, but 

 for the stimulating elfect of the warm 

 honey; and I think I am not claiming too 

 much to say that I owe the fertilization of 

 two queens to the novel experiment. 



