92 



TH© mBmmmiGMM mmm j^jammmi^. 



hunting a place to lodge, I saw some old- 

 fashioned box-hives, and as there was no 

 fence, I went up to them, and I never saw 

 bees carrying in honey faster — no, not in 

 America or Heidelberg. Being of an in- 

 quistive turn of mind, I looked to see where 

 the honey came from. Every fence-corner, 

 side of road, or pile of stones, was decked 

 out with the rich, golden plumes of golden- 

 rod, I did not take it for gi-anted that the 

 honey came from golden-rod, but I went up 

 to it, and I never saw so many bees to- 

 gether, gathering honey, before or since. 

 A few days afterwards I was at Burlington, 

 Vt., and I crossed a deep cut in the rail- 

 road, and on the side was a bed of golden- 

 rod, and there were as many as a score of 

 bees on one clump. The people there 

 seemed to think the feathery plumes of 

 golden-rod ornamental, as large vases of it 

 adorned their pulpits, and I saw a man in 

 New York City selling it. 

 Peoria, Ills. Mas. L. Harrisos. 



JMakins: Collect for Uee-Esc:ipe!i. 



Will Dr. G. L. Tinker please exjilain how 

 he makes the cones to the Dibbern bee-es- 

 cape* Do we understand that they are a 

 pear-shaped cone, and put in lengthwise, 

 and only one-half tacked down with a 

 smaller-shaped, but smaller-sized, cone in- 

 side, aud a hole bored through the board to 

 the smaller cone? Geo. W. Hamilton. 



North Syracuse, N. Y. 



Below is Dr. Tinker's reply to the fore- 

 going questions : 



The cones for the Dibbern bee-escape 

 may be made as following: Take a piece 

 of board 9-33 of an inch thick, and make a 

 triangular piece 3 inches across the base 

 and i long. Nail it to another board, and 

 it is ready to form the cones upon. Lay on 

 a square piece of green wire-cloth, aud 

 bend it to place with a strip of wood. If 

 the cloth is placed rightly, there will be 

 formed a flat cone with an opening at the 

 apex, just large enough for a bee to pass 

 through, and the base will be open. Make 

 two cones on the same form, but one 

 enough smaller than the other so that when 

 placed under the larger one, there will be 

 a space of }{ inch all around. Nail the 

 smaller cone over the ^^-inch hole in the 

 board, and close the base with a narrow 

 piece of wood, and nail it down. Then 

 nail the larger cone over it, and close the 

 base in the same way. If the cones are let 

 into an inside cover, as described on page 

 10, the whole may be used as a bee-escape, 

 or as a cover, as may be desired. When in 

 use as a cover, the |^-inch hole on top is to 

 be closed with a common cork. — G. L. 

 Tinker. 



Ciood Location— Swarming, etc. 



The past seasou has been a very good one 

 for honey here. I started last spring with 

 65 colonies in very poor condition, in- 

 creased them to 97, which are in good con- 

 dition, and took 8,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey. My bees were obliged to build the 

 comb that I used for extracting, as I had 

 no supers on hand — of course I gave them 

 foundation. I have the Langstroth 10- 

 frame hive, and I like it very well, My 

 bees are in warm quarters now — in a root- 

 house, or cave, as some call it. My great- 

 est trouble in bee-keeping is to keep the 

 bees from swarming. I have tried every- 

 thing that I know of, but all is of no use. 

 Tearing out the queen-cells has not kept 

 them from swarming, as some say it will. 

 I took out all of the queen-cells on one day, 

 and the next day they sent out a swarm. 

 My bees are a mixed strain— they are the 

 Italians and blacks, or hybrids, and were 



very cross the past season. I lost only one 

 swarm the past year, which left me while I 

 was trying to hive three others, all of them 

 in a bunch. 



Can kerosene-oil barrels be cleaned and 

 used to put honey in? If so, how? 



C. A. Davis. 



Bloom City, Wis., Jan. 17, 1890. 



[No; they will ruin any honey put into 

 them. — Ed.] 



TUe Place to Breed Piire Queens 



I take great pleasure in reading the Bee 

 Journal. My health failed so that I was 

 obliged to leave my bees and family last 

 July. I came here and pre-empted 160 

 acres of land in the great woods of Michi- 

 gan. I expect to return in March. This 

 would be a grand place to breed pure 

 queens, as there is not a wild honey-bee in 

 these woods, as I can find. A. M. Alton. 



Ontonagon, Mich., Jan. 6, 1890. 



Voiingf Bees Flyingf. 



We had very mild weather until Jan. 13, 

 when the mercury fell 40 degrees in the 

 afternoon. Bees had carried in pollen al- 

 most every day since Dec. 14. I have 

 young bees flying. Bees are in good condi- 

 tion, and show fair prospects of being very 

 strong for the early spring work. Last 

 year's crop was very poor — so poor that I 

 shall not attempt to make an accurate re- 

 port, being something like 20 pounds of 

 surplus, above what I had to feed back. 

 Jas. a. King. 



Sub Rosa, Ark., Jan. 31, 1890. 



Swarmin;; — tjoIden-Rod Honey. 



I have 32 colonies of bees, and would like 

 to have them swarm once apiece. In this 

 case, would it be proper to put on supers 

 before swarming? 



There seems to be a disunion among bee- 

 men in regard to golden-rod as a honey- 

 plant. Mr. A says that he never saw but 

 one bee on this plant in his life, and that 

 looked as if it were lost. I want my friend 

 A to know that I have seen as many as 20 

 bees on one stalk. Next comes Mr. B, who 

 said that there are about 40 different kinds 

 of golden-rod. I never saw but one genuine 

 golden-rod; but we have a species of 

 golden-rod which we call " Spanish-needle," 

 and the latter seems to be one of the very 

 best of honey-plants. Had it not been for 

 this beautiful flower, I would not have had 

 honey enough to pay for taking it off. I 

 vote for golden-rod, every time; not only 

 for honey, but for our "national flower." 



Stockbridge, Mich. Orville Jones. 



[After the first swarm issues, put on the 

 supers. — Ed.] 



■Seasons for !\ot Xaxins' Bees. 



I send an item from the Nashua (Iowa) 

 Post, which I wrote for the purpose of 

 bringing the minds of the people to the 

 absurdity of taxing bees ; and to bring the 

 question more directly before the bee-keep- 

 ers of this State, I request its insertion in 

 the American Bee Journal. To make a 

 full statement of the case, would take too 

 much space. Thos. Tracy. 



Nashua, Iowa. 



The item referred to by Mr. Tracy, reads 

 thus: 



In the first place, bees are insects, and 

 are not taxable under the laws of the State. 

 Second, the State attorney decided, some 

 years ago, that they were not taxable. The 



law allows all animals under one year old, 

 exempt, and all products of the season, as 

 hay, grain, or other farm produce. Any 

 man or woman can build a fish-pond, and 

 keep fish of any age ; build a fine poidtry- 

 house, and keep anj' amount of poultry of 

 any age. They can procure silk-worms, 

 and go into the silk-business, and so on. 



Now with regard to bees : There is but 

 one kind of bee that lives to be a year old 

 — th(xt is the queen, and not one in one hun- 

 dred of them. At the time of the yearly 

 assessment of personal property, no one 

 knows how many colonies of bees he has 

 alive, or whether he will have any at the 

 first of June, when it is time for the season 

 to begin. There is no honesty in the law, 

 nor in the manner of using it. Some coun- 

 ties tax them, and some do not. Some 

 people report 15 or 30 per cent, of what 

 they think they may have, and so on. 

 There is nothing that tempts people to be 

 dishonest, like dishonest laws. Let the law 

 be repealed. 



Kesults of'tlie Past Season. 



I commenced the spring of 1889 with 16 

 colonies. The forepart of the season was 

 poor, on account of cool aud wet weather; 

 the latter part of the season was too dry, 

 the frost in June killed the linden bloom, 

 yet amid all this discouragement, I got 

 3,136 pounds of honey (mo.stly extracted), 

 and increased my apiary to 50 colonies, 

 with an average of 25 pounds per colony, 

 of good honey. They seem to be wintering 

 all right in the cellar. O. P. Miller. 



Glendon, Iowa, Jan. 26, 1890. 



YViiite Clover I.,ooks IVell. 



Bees are doing well here ; they have been 

 carrying flour from the mill for several 

 days with a vim, but the weather is some 

 cooler now, and they have ceased to fly. 

 My report for 1889 is as follows: 750 

 pounds of extracted honey, 50 pounds of 

 comb honey, 5 pounds of wax, and 5 

 swarms, from 20 colonies, spring count. 

 The honey was principally from white 

 clover and asters. White clover is looking 

 very well here at present. I vote for clover, 

 for the " national flower." 



Geo. W. Morris. 



Cornishville, Ky., Jan. 13, 1890. 



IVild Honey— 3io %Vinter. 



Will some one tell me (Mrs. Harrison, 

 especially) what wild honey is? I was 

 perusing some of the old copies of the Bee 

 Journal, and noticed a piece about Lizzie 

 Cotton ; I instantlj- thought of what a nar- 

 row escape I had from being a victim to 

 her cheating ways. 



My 5 colonies of bees are snugly tucked 

 away on the summer stands for the winter. 

 As yet we have had scarcely any snow . 

 here, and very little cold weather. We do 

 uot know what it is to see ice one inch 

 thick this winter. My partner and I in- 

 tend to buy an apiary of 7 colonies, as the 

 owner made a failure last year, and now 

 wants to sell. We had poor results last 

 season, but we are not discouraged, by any 

 means. O. R. Hawkins. 



Bellport, N. Y., Jan. 23, 1890. 



Superiority of (lie Clialt Hire. 



In the replies to queries on page 37, there 

 seems to be some difficulty about chaff 

 hives. I think that too much chaff causes 

 more of the trouble than anything else. A 

 chaff hive of the right sort, should have no 

 chaff where the surplus honey is stored. 

 The hive that I have used for a number of 



