J J. 



•THB MIsaiERICKlf BE® J©I3RE«ai<. 



579 



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PUBLISHED HY^ ■ „ 



THOS. G.NEWMAK S^SON, 



CHIC/\GO, ILL. 



THOMAS G. WE^VSIAW, 



IDITOR. 



Vol, mi, An£. 30,1890. No, 35. 



Right is right — ever will be, 

 Ahd right the day must win ; 



To doubt would be disloyalty, 

 To falter would be sin. 



The Baltimore Farmer reviews our 

 book — " Bees and Honey " — and gives it a 

 very favorable notice. Thanks. 



Ammonia, as a bee-sting remedy, is 

 one of the best — that alkali naturally tends 

 to neutralize the acid of tbe poison. 



11^" The " Nebraska Bee-Keeper " is the 

 name of a new bee-paper just started by 

 L. D. Stilson & Sons, and edited by the 

 lather. It contains 16 pages, and the sec- 

 ond number is on our desk. It is to be 

 published monthly, and as there is no price 

 stated, we presume it is for free distribu- 

 tion among the members of the Nebraska 

 Association. It makes a creditable appear- 

 ance, and we wish it success. 



Bees may be trespassers as well as 

 our domestic animals. In a pending case 

 the Court of Appeals has been reached ; all 

 Courts below pronouncing in favor of the 

 plaintiff who sued for damages because the 

 bees invaded the flower-bed in his yard, 

 and stung members of the family.— So says 

 the Western Ilural. 



We may have been asleep— but we think 

 not ! Will the Rm-al kindly give us the 

 "particulars" of this very interesting case. 

 As Manager of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, we have had full charge of all law- 

 suits of this character, but of the one men- 

 tioned, we have no knowledge. It is evi- 

 dently another hoax ! 



Honey Statistics. — On July 18, 

 1890, Mr. A. I. Root, editor of Olcanlnrjs 

 in Bee-Culture, sent out a list of questions 

 to special reporters all over the United 

 States, thereby endeavoring to ascertain 

 the extent of the crop of • white honey 

 secured this year. In summarizing the 

 various replies to the queries propounded, 

 Mr. Root comments as follows : 



With very few exceptions, as we stated 

 in our last issue, the prospects are poor, 

 and the average yield per colony is exceed 

 ingly moderate. But as the reports were 

 sent out a little early, it is not impossible 

 that things will brighten up a little, even 

 yet. In fact, white clover seems to be 

 hanging on in some localities, where it was 

 expected that the yield from that source 

 had entirely ceased. 



California looms up with a large crop of 

 honey, and that means a good deal, for this 

 State produces not a small percentage of 

 all the honey produced in the United 

 States. Colorado has one reporter, and he 

 says, "Fair to good." Arizona, the State 

 where alfafa is produced, reports about 90 

 pounds per colony. Minnesota does not 

 seem to be uniform. In east-central and 

 eastern part of the State there is but very 

 little honey ; but in the central and west- 

 central parts, the yield seems to have been 

 good. Wisconsin, another usually good 

 State, has also no honey of any account. 

 Indiana, California, Arizona, Virginia, 

 West Virginia, and Washington, report the 

 prospects good. Almost all the rest of the 

 States are reported poor. 



Fruits will be rather scarce, and the bee- 

 keeper has not fared any worse than many 

 of those engaged in kindred industries. 



On July 28, 1890, the Canadian Bee 

 Journal also sent out requests for reports 

 regarding the honey crop "covei'ing the 

 entire Dominion, from Winnipeg to Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick." The editor 

 then recapitulates the answers as follows : 



The reports may be summarized in brief, 

 to say that all taken together the crop 

 throughout the country is small, perhaps 

 even below last year. New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia have done but very little 

 either in increase or honey crop. Quebec is 

 the same, only more so. Ontario reports 

 would indicate that, on the whole, swarm- 

 ing has been good, while the crop of honey 

 is below the usual average. In some sec- 

 tions the yield has been excellent, notably 

 York county, with Peel and Wellington not 

 far behind. Simcoe is behind in the race, 

 neither clover nor basswood having done 

 anything much. The trouble with a great 

 many colonies, was that the bees were too 

 weak to gather what did come. Oxford 

 county is medium. The writer was through 

 a portion of that county last week, and 

 visited one or two apiaries. 



There is no question as to the scarcity of 

 peaches, plums, pears, etc., and with this 

 fact in view, honey-producers should be 

 firm in their prices. The remarks of one 

 or two of our correspondents in this direc- 

 tion should be heeded. We should advise 

 that no honey be sold at wholesale at less 

 than 10 cents per pound. 



Xlie Honey in France is very thin and 

 watery. They have had too much rain, 

 while, in America, we have been scorched 

 by the burning rays of the sun. Had the 

 moisture been more evenly distributed, it 

 would have been far better. 



Ue«s as V«jitlIaf*rs.—'Ehet>t. James 

 Oazette, of London, Engla&d, is jresponsi- 

 ble for this item of foreign news :| 



I do not know whether it is' generally 

 known that in India, au*Lb»Heve in other 

 tropical countries, there are in every hive 

 what one can only describe as "ventilat- 

 ing bees." I mean that during the hot 

 season two or three bees post themselves, 

 on their heads, at the entrance of the hive 

 and fan the interior with the incessant 

 motion of their wings. They are relieved 

 at intervals by fresh bees, who carry on the 

 process. They are kept to their duty by a 

 sort of patrol of bees to insure their inces- 

 sant activity. This is a well authenticated 

 and known fact. 



It is certainly "generally known" in 

 America that bees fan with their wings for 

 purposes of ventilation, whether it is 

 known by the Gazette or not. The bees 

 practice the fanning process here as well as 

 in India. 



Spiders in the Apiary.— Mrs. L. 



Harrison remarks as follows in the Prairie 

 Farmer about her treatment of spiders in 

 the apiary : 



I used to make war on them. Sorry to 

 own it, but I formerly killed every one that 

 I could. Ugh ! the great ugly things ! How 

 horrid ! They might bite me. But I have 

 repented in sackcloth and ashes. We have 

 kissed and made up, and now we are the 

 best of friends. I catch every one I can 

 and carry it to a hive containing unoccu- 

 pied combs and put it in. You see our 

 good friend Father Langstroth ("may his 

 shadow ne'er grow less ") called our atten- 

 tion to the fact that the spiders keep all 

 the moth-worms from combs. Where the 

 mother spider has her home, the moths 

 cannot flourish. I sometimes take their 

 eggs encased in a downy web, and place 

 them into a hive of unoccupied comb, to 

 live and flourish. 



,iaa We appreciate the following from 

 the American Apicultiirist for July, writ- 

 ten by Mr. M. A. Kelley : 



The American Bee Journal is certainly 

 the "wheel-horse" of bee-joiu-nalism. 



The fraternity of bee-keepers surely have 

 great reason to be proud of the noble band 

 of men that have editorial control of our 

 different bee-periodicals. 



As one of that "noble army of martyrs," 

 we make our politest bow. 



tVliat IVcxt?— F. E. Merriman, of 

 Massachusetts, has patented a " bridge " to 

 enable bees to pass through the chaff or 

 packing of a .double storied hive— two 

 strips nailed to cleats allowing space for a 

 bee to pass constitutes this " bridge," 

 which, like many another device, has been 

 used by apiarists, in some form, of neces- 

 sity for years. 



Iflany Per$ions are naturally unfit for 

 the bee-business, from carelessness and in- 

 accuracy about their w;k. I know of no 

 out-door pursuit where so much depends 

 on the right thing being done at the right 

 time, and in the right way. A willingness 

 to woi'k hard, and a determination to suc- 

 ceed, are characteristics of the prosperous 

 bee-keeper.— G. M. Doolittle. 



