THE SMERICaiS: BE© JQUmjUSJL. 



137 



ined them, in taking out the second 

 frame, oh, the infernal foul brood ! 

 How I regretted using combs with the 

 honey in ; being taught when a boy 

 not to " cry over spilt milk," I con- 

 cluded to do the best I could under 

 the circumstances. I immediatelj' took 

 away the queen, and I suppose for 

 sometime I troubled them with more 

 sulphuric and carbolic acid than was 

 agreeable to them. I afterward gave 

 them a queen, but being late, and the 

 weather cold, they reared no brood. I 

 do not fear but what they will come 

 out all right. 



I put them into the cellar the last of 

 November, without one drop of liouej- 

 in their combs — they are living on 

 sugar candy, and doing first-rate. 

 However they maj- come out I cannot 

 believe that either the queen or bees 

 ever become affected, but if kept two 

 days in empty bo.xes, then put into 

 perfectly clean or new boxes, there 

 will be no return of foul brood, unless 

 they get access to foul-broody honey. 



The afterpart of the summer here 

 was anything but agreeable or profit- 

 able to bee-keepers. There was no 

 buckwheat honey ; fall flowers would 

 have produced abundantlj-. but the 

 weather was so wet and cold, so that 

 the bees could not harvest it. The 

 winter has been open, wet and warm — 

 favorable for out-door wintering. Mj' 

 bees (over 30 colonies in all) are rest- 

 ing verj' contentedly in the cellar, 

 without giving me any concern what- 

 ever. I have them right under the 

 kitchen, where we keep potatoes. 

 Some of the family go in with a light 

 every day, and neither that nor the 

 noise from above annoys them in the 

 least. 



Itees Cioing' 40 ^Miles. 



I was telling a dutchman the other 

 day that there was a man somewhere 

 in America, who had bees that went 40 

 miles to gather honey. "Oh," said 

 he, " dos ist nix. Ouse in Schermanj' 

 der vos von verry schmart man, vot 

 dinks he likes to go in der pee-pisness. 

 So dot man he pj-s some bees — great 

 big uns- — shust annoder dime so big as 

 yours. So vot you dink him do ? Vy, 

 dot man he pe so schmart, so he dinks 

 he makes von air-line railroat, vay up 

 in de air ; ond ob, oh, sich berry fine 

 wire midout von ent, so de pees dey 

 haf to go von way unt dej' haf to gome 

 von odder wa}-. Den dot man him 

 git oh, so hundrets ob sich wee tiny 

 leedle cars, mit a little loop, so dot 

 dem pees shust fly riet mit dare headts 

 in dos loop, unt avay gos dem cars. 

 Now dos ist so. I dells you, dot man 

 he pe so schmart, him quick git dem 

 pees draned shust so goot all-do-ged- 

 der as dem fire gompanies in de citties 

 haf der horses. 



Greensburg, Pa. 



Onl}' a Clover Blossom. 



Written for the American Bee Jourtml 



BV QEORGE W. YORK. 



It was only a clover blosBom, 

 So modest, so pure aod sweet. 



That irrew by the roadside so humbly. 

 The bee In its flight to greet. 



The bee knew the blossom had in it 



A drop of liquid so rare. 

 That 'twere worih an extra exertion. 



To search for it far and near. 



'Twas a drop of such precious nectar— 



Quite fit for i he gods to Sip- 

 That the bee gathered up so gently, 

 Lilse a kiss that leaves the lip. 



'Twas only one drop of sweetness, 

 Yet Joy to the heart it brought. 



Of the bee that hovered, so weary — 

 For long had the drop been sought. 



'Twas only a smile that was given. 

 But it bore a wealth of cheer 



To the poor and youthful toiler, 

 Whose life was so dark and drear. 



'Twas only a moment of life yet. 

 For one who was called to Heaven, 



But that was a time quite abundant. 

 To forgive, and be forgiven. 



Thus the drop of nectar was ample. 



To gladden the weary bee ; 

 The 8mi7f to make lighter the burden- 



The moment, a life to free. 

 Chicago, Ills., Feb. 7, 1889. 



WINTERING. 



Report for Two Winters — Ex- 

 periinent§. 



Written for the American Bee Jourtuil 



BY DANIEL WHITMER. 



On Nov. 20, 1887, I placed in my 

 bee-cellar, under the dining-room, 207 

 colonies of bees in good condition 

 (with the exception of about six, two 

 or three of which were queenless), and 

 left 36 colonies on the summer stands. 

 I wintered them very well, with the 

 loss of 14 colonies by winter and spring 

 dwindling. 



In the spring, by selling some, and 

 uniting others, I started with 150 colo- 

 nies of Italian bees, but on the account 

 of a very dry season, I secured only 

 4,500 pounds of honey, mainly amber, 

 and increased my apiary to 204 colo- 

 nies, 14 of which are hybrids. 



On Nov. 19 and 20, 1888, I placed 

 190 colonies in the cellar very heavy 

 with bees and honey, with but few ex- 

 ceptions, and left 14 colonies on the 

 summer stands. All seem to be win- 

 tering well as 3'et. The temperature 

 in the cellar has been a little higher 

 this winter than desirable, in conse- 

 quence of the mild weather. It is now 

 where I want it — 40- to 42=. They 

 seem to be doing quite well, and I 

 have lost none that I know of yet. 



Plenty of Ventilation. 



I am experimenting with one col- 

 ony. Late in the summer, the last 

 pririie swarm that issued I put into a 

 7-frame Langstroth-size hive, made 

 for the purpose Avithout end-boards, 

 the bees being exposed to the weather. 

 They were allowed to build their own 

 comb, and tliey did well, making no 

 drone-comb, and they filled the hive 

 with brood-comb as straight ,is a 

 shingle, and gathered enough to win- 

 ter on. 



I placed them in the cellar in that 

 condition, to know how they would 

 winter, and I must say that I never 

 saw bees do better. They are as quiet 

 as it is possible to be, and hardly a 

 dozen dead bees are on the bottom- 

 board — bees and hive being perfectly 

 clean and sweet. This proves that 

 plenty of ventilation in the cellar is a 

 necessity, at least in my locality. 



Not a colony in the cellar or on the 

 suiamer stands shows any signs of 

 diarrhea as yet, and my bees always 

 winter on natural stores. I never ex- 

 pect to fuss with feeding sugar, when 

 the bees can get honey. I have 

 enough trouble in these days of adul- 

 teration, to convince some people that 

 honey from the producer is pure and 

 good. 



As to the market here, it is not an\- 

 higher this season than it was last, not- 

 withstanding the scarcity of honey. 

 The market was kept down early in 

 the fall b}' some injudicious honey-pr<j- 

 ducers selling their honey at less than 

 it would have brought in the market, 

 hence it still remains at from 12i to 15 

 cents. 



South Bend, Ind., Feb. 15, 1889. 



NECTAR. 



The Process of Evaporation by 

 the Bees. 



Written for the American Rural Home 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Some bee-keepers hold that bees 

 gather honey from the flowers and ile- 

 posit it in the cells immediately, and 

 if the hive is patented on purpose for 

 evaporating nectar, or the watery 

 parts of it evaporates itself, the bees 

 will, when suitably thickened, seal it 

 up. So they will seal it up, when 

 properlj- thickened, but the hive has 

 very little if anything to do with it. 



When bees gathernectar, maple sap, 

 or anj- other thin sweet, more than can 

 be contained in the honey-sacs of the 

 bees which staj- in the hive, they de- 

 posit it in the cells until evening, 

 when tliey hang in festoons in the hive 

 to evaporate it. 



