

5 



517 



UeeM* l-^lowcrei und Ijove. 



Do I love her ; 

 Does the earth love the suu 



That it feeds upon i 

 Does the moon love the earth 



In its circling girth ? 

 Do the stars love the sky 



As they pale and die ; 

 Does the Held love the rain 



On its parched grain ; 

 Does the tish love the sea 



Where its life must be ; 

 -Does the dove love its mate 



As it coos elate ! 

 Do the bees love the flowers 



They cling to in bowers 1 

 Does the babe love the breast 



By its liplets pressed i 

 Does a man love his soul 



In his dying dole ? 

 Does the mouth love the kiss 



In its breath of bliss ? 

 Does young love love its dream 



Of a love supreme ? 

 More than all these loves stir 



Do I love her ! 



— WiLLAKD FiSKE. 



^ 



Uncapped Honey Absorbings 

 Poison from Bees' Brealli. 



Written for the Americ/in Bee Journal 



Query 720. — Why does uncapped honey 

 in the comb take up poison from the bees' 

 breath, when candy or flattened sugar will 

 not while being melted, as I suppose, by 

 the breath of the bees ? — Mich. 



Does it ?— C. C. Miller. 



I do not think it does. — A. J. (JooK. 



I cannot tell you. I am not posted in 

 that matter.— James Heddox. 



I think that you assume what is not true. 

 — R. L. Taylor. 



That's a " stunner." Ask James Hed- 

 don. — J. M. Hambaugh. 



Do you not believe you have a wrong 

 idea of this matter ? — H. D. Cutting. 



It does not. Your conclusion is based 

 upon false premises. — J. P. H. Browx. 



Who did imagine that the breath of bees 

 poisons the uncapped honey i— Dadant & 

 Son. 



It is unwise to attempt to account for a 

 thing that may have no existence. — M. 

 Mahin. 



I do not believe that it does so at all. — C. 



H. DiBBERN. 



Prove that it does before you ask the 

 question " why V — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I do not think that uncapped honey takes 

 ofl: poison from the bees. Imagination some- 

 times goes a long ways. — G. L. Tinker. 



Are you sure that a bee's breath contains 

 poison ? It breathes the same air that we 

 do. That the breath of the bee poisons 

 honey is something new to me. — G. M. 

 Doolittle. 



I did not know that honey does "take up 

 poison from the bees' breath." This, if 

 true, is strange : and strange, if true.— J. 

 M. Shuck. 



I was not aware that " the bees' breath " 

 was poison enough to affect the honey ; 

 and "flattened sugar" is, to me, a new 

 commodity. Is "Mich." giving us "taffy?" 

 —A. B. Mason. 



7)oe.S' " uncau'ied honey take up poi.son 

 from the bees' |)reath <" I do not believe 

 it. If the poisoju is in bees' breath as well 

 as in the posterior anatomy, it is a surprise 

 to me. — Eugene Skcok. 



I do not understand the above <]uestiou. 

 In fact, I do not know anything about the 

 idea attempted to be conveyed. I did not 

 know that bees' breath was poisonous ; 

 neither do I believe that it is. — J. B. Pond. 



I do not know that it is "so." Honey 

 gets its formic acid from the affluvium 

 thrown oB' in the natural way from the 

 bodies of the bees, but I do not regard 

 formic acid, imparted in this way, " poison 

 in honey." When you open a hive, you 

 can smell formic acid ; of course the liquid 

 honey will absorb a little of it, which I 

 think is a wise provision in nature. — G. W. 

 Demaree. 



This question is but a senseless jargon of 

 words — conveying no intelligent idea, and 

 having no foundation in fact, experience 

 or truth 1 From beginning to end, it is but 

 a supposition — a "vain imagination" — 

 nothing more ! — The Editor. 



Extreme Age when Queens liave 

 Been Known to mate. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



Query Til. — 1. How old was the oldest 

 queen when mated, that you have ever 

 known of ^ 2. Is six weeks too old for 

 queens to be mated ; — New York. 



I have no experience. — Eugene Secor. 



1. Thirty days. 3. Ordinarily, yes.— J. 

 M. Shuck. 



1. I have no record. 3. I think so. — Mrs. 

 L. Harrison. 



1. About 31 days. 3. Yes.— R. L. Taylor. 



Please ask me this question later. — H. D. 

 Cutting. 



1. We did not notice it. 2. We think 

 that six weeks is too much. — Dadant & 

 Son. 



I do not know anything about this. Ask 

 the queen-rearers. — C. H. Dibeeun. 



I cannot give exact flgures, but if a 

 queen did not lay at six weeks old, I would 

 smash her at three weeks old. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



1. About ten days. 3. I believe it is. I 

 have had non-fertile queens laying at less 

 than three weeks old. — A. B. Mason. 



1. I have known them to mate and be- 

 come good queens 13 days after coming 

 from the cell. 3. I should fear a delay 

 even of two weeks. — A. J. Cook. 



1. I think that early in the spring I have 

 had queens mated that were three weeks 

 old. 3. I should have no hope of the mat- 

 ing of a queen so old as that. — M. Mahin. 



1. I am not sure on this point. 2. I 

 doubt if a queen deprived of her nuptial 

 flight over two weeks, can be relied upon. — 

 J. M. Hambaugh. 



1. Thirty days old. She did not prove 

 very prolific. 3. Six weeks may not be too 

 old for them to mate, but I think that they 

 would be worthless. — G. L. Tinker. 



1. Well, I cannot say, but from 20 j'ears 

 of close observation I have found that 

 queens, if mated after 17 days old, are of 

 no account. 3. Yes. The exceptions would 

 be anomalous. — J. P. H. Brown. 



1. I do not know. 2. As a rule, most 

 surely ; still it is barely possible. I should 

 myself, however, consider it time thrown 

 away to wait for the chance of mating 

 with such a queen. —J. E. Pond. 



1. Twenty days. 2. Sucli a queen would 

 not be worth keeping, if she should mate at 

 that age. Queens usually mate when from 

 o to 7 days old.— G. M. Dddi.ittle. 



1. I do not remember of ever having a 

 queen fertilized after her age had much 

 exceeded the ordinary time. I may have, 

 and forgotten it. 3. Yes, a good deal too 

 old. — James Heudon. 



1. Eighteen days, and she proved a fail- 

 ure. 2. Yes, in my opinion, and I have 

 observed and experimented in this line no 

 little. A queen is not worth much if not 

 mated by the time she is 10 days old. 

 Nature is wonderful in her provisions. I 

 have had queens mated in the late autumn, 

 that did lay eggs until the following spring. 

 Perhaps they laid a little at the start, but 

 their eggs were neglected by the workers. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



Foul Ui'ood.- A correspondent asks 

 us to describe this disease in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and to tell how to detect its first 

 appearance : 



What is erroneously called foul brood is 

 a disease which attacks not only the brood 

 (sealed and unsealed), but also the full- 

 grown bees, and even the queen is some- 

 times affected by it. It is usually said that 

 "you will always find the cells sunken, and 

 a small hole the size of a pin head in the 

 centre of the comb looking brown and 

 bad;" that the "foul stench arising from 

 the diseased colony" will indicate the 

 disease, but there are so many different 

 shades and kinds of the disease that these 

 are not the only indications. Sometimes 

 brood, which to all outward appearance is 

 sound and healthy, upon closer inspection 

 will reveal the disease which has not yet 

 attained the condition of sickening stench 

 which is found in brood thoroughly ropy 

 and rotten. When it has reached the latter 

 condition, the only remedy we advise is to 

 utterly consume bees, hives, combs and 

 honey. 



In the milder forms of the disease, pure 

 phenol is no doubt the best remedy. But 

 as it is difficult to obtain the pure article 

 except at the large wholesale dealers, it 

 can be obtained at the office of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. One drop to 500 drops 

 of the syrup ss the formula recommended 

 by Mr. Cheshire, as will be seen by the 

 following from his pamphlet : 



" I found that 1-200 (that is one part of 

 pure phenol i, 300 parts of syrup) was 

 refused by the bees altogether ; that 1-400 

 might be given constantlj' to a sound 

 colony without appearing to limit the 

 queen in breeding, or tour-li her health : 

 that 1-750 dispatched foul brood quickly, 

 even while honey was coming in ; and that 

 1-500 appeared enough when it was not. 

 I have established these quantities as the 

 correct ones." Moderate quantities are, 

 therefore, not injurious. 



"Bees and Honey " is the title of one of 

 the very best books on bees. The present 

 edition is largely re-written, and is fully up 

 to the times. It is profusely illustrated. — 

 Farm, Field and Stockman. 



