THE SMERICSK mMW JQU^RNSt. 



507 



that it was admissible ; but, if I am 

 wrong, I am willing to be set right. 



In regard to quilts : I have several 

 times bought bees in the spring in such 

 hives that quilts were a necessity. 

 When the bees were brought home, 

 and the wire-cloth covering talven oft", 

 the frames were covered with a quilt. 

 The bees were soon transferred to 

 more fashionable hives, and the quilts 

 removed ; and this is the extent of my 

 using quilts. When I wrote that I had 

 never used them, I meant that I had 

 never deliberately introduced them 

 into my apiary, and given them an ex- 

 tended trial ; and when I wrote later, 

 that I liad not used them to any great 

 extent, I was simply being very pre- 

 cise, because this point was under 

 criticism. 



I am not particular whether Mr. D. 

 tells whether he can extract the honey 

 from a large hive with as "kttle 

 labor " as from a small one, or 

 whether he can extract it "as soon 

 as " he can from a small one ; and the 

 fact that an Illinois man can care for 

 eight apiai-ies, while a Michigan man 

 employs a man in each apiarj-, does 

 not touch the point. 



The last article b}' Mr. Dadant is too 

 much given to h^ijer-criticism, to eva- 

 sions, to quibbles, to hair-splitting, and, 

 more than all, to accusations of un- 

 truthfulness ; and when discussion has 

 reached this plane, it is time that it 

 was dropped. Besides, to continue it 

 now would be to give my opponent an 

 unfair advantage, as I have unbounded 

 conddence in his integrity and veracity. 



Flint, Mich. 



[Both sides having now had three 

 articles each, and the discussion hav- 

 ing degenerated to personalities, this 

 article will end it in our columns. — 

 Ed.] 



SWARMING. 



Eggs from Laying Workers arc 

 L'seless. 



Written for Wie American Bee Jouma I 



BY BRUCE KNIGHT. 



Having discovered a strange per- 

 formance in one of my new Italian 

 colonies, I will relate the case, which 

 I desire answered in the Bee Journal. 



I first discovered that the hive was 

 being filled with drone-comb, and then 

 I thought that the queen was a drone- 

 layer ; but after securing a new queen 

 from a nuclei, I tried to introduce her, 

 but I could find no old queen. 1 looked 

 several times, but she could not be 

 found. There was any amount of 

 eggs — sometimes four or five in a cell 

 — but what puzzled me was the queen- 



cells that they had started. The queens 

 were well along, some almost ready 

 to seal over. I believe that there must 

 have been laying workers. I did not 

 think that queens could be reared from 

 their eggs ; and upon looking at them 

 in a few days, I saw that they had 

 torn down the cells.* 



Experience in IlivingligiM'arnis. 



I wonder why it is, that when a bee- 

 keeper has a swarm of bees in a hiving- 

 box, and meets people, they will give 

 the bee-keeper the whole i-oad, with- 

 out a word. This was my experience 

 a few weeks ago. It was after I had 

 chased the bees for half a mile or so, 

 and had succeeded in stopping them in 

 the middle of the town. I succeeded 

 in getting them into a hiving-box, and 

 then started toward home. 



It surprised me to see how every- 

 body rushed out of my way, just as if 

 I had been a cyclone ; until I met a 

 joung German, who was just starting 

 out to work. He evidently did not see 

 the bees, for his eyes were on the red 

 handkerchief which, I afterwards 

 found, contained his clothes. One bee, 

 which was rather inclined to be cross, 

 darted forward, and met the young 

 fellow about ten feet away (I was very 

 thankful that he was no closer) ; the 

 poor fellow jumped up in the air, and 

 said something which I could not un- 

 derstand, but it sounded very much 

 like swearing. He then swung his hat 

 and budget around his head, and 

 started on a bee-line across the field ; 

 so did the bees. 



He had not gone ten yards before 

 the budget became untied, and there 

 was a terrible spill of its contents, and 

 also of the poor fellow's wrath. The 

 last I saw of him he was gathering his 

 clothes up in his waist-coat, wiping his 

 face with his handkerchief, and mut- 

 tering something in German about 

 "dem pees." Tlie foregoing incident 

 occurred on May 25, and with my first 

 swarm. I have taken 60 pounds of 

 honey from that same colony this j-ear, 

 and have had all that I could do to 

 prevent it from swarming. This is the 

 "Italian" of it. 



Utica, Mich. 



[*The colonj^ doubtless had laying 

 workers, the eggs of which would not 

 produce worker-bees nor queens. — Ed.] 



^ew Posters for the American Bee 

 .Journal, printed in two colors, have just 

 been priuted, and will be sent free to all 

 who can use them. They are very hand- 

 some, and will "set off" an exhibit at 

 Fairs. It will tell Bee-Keepers how to 

 subscribe, for "Subscriptions Received 

 Here " is quite prominent at the bottom. 



We will also send sample copies of the 

 Bee Journal, for use at Fairs, if notified 

 a week or ten days in advance where to 

 send tbeui. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place ot MeeUna. 



Aug. 20.— Nortbern Illinois, at Guilford, Uls. 



l>. A. I'ullcr, Sec, Cherry Valley, Ills, 



Aug. 3I.-Haldiman(l, at Flaherville, Ont. 



K. C. Campbell. Sec, Cayuga, Ont 



Sept. —.—Maine, at Livermore Falls, Me. 



J. E. Fuller, Sec, Oxford, Me. 



Sept. 5.- Erie County, at Buffalo. N. Y. 

 O. L. Herehiser, Cor. Sec, Big Tree Corner, N. Y. 



Sept. 14.— Susquehanna Co., i^t New Mllford, Pa. 



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



Oct. 16— 18.-Northwestern, at Chicago, Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, sec, Flint, Mich. 



Dec4. 6.— International, at Brantford. Ont.. Canada. 

 K. F. Holtermaun, Sec, Brantford, Ont. 



^P" Id order to have this table complete, Secre* 

 caries are requested to forward full particulars ot 

 time and place of future meetings.- BD. 



inotlis in Comb Honey. — Mrs. P. 

 W. Minthoni, Elsinore, Calif., pro- 

 pounds the following questions : 



What is the cause of moths in white, 

 new comb honej' ? How can we pre- 

 vent them ? How can we get rid of 

 them ? The honey has been out of 

 the hives but a few weeks. It was 

 put into tight wooden boxes, and 

 placed in the upper story of the house. 

 The weather is very hot and drj'. The 

 moths seem to eat the caps, and most 

 of the honey. 



[For reply to the above, see Mr. 

 Doolittle's article on another page. — 

 Ed.] 



Ooort Season — Prolific Queens. 



—J. M. Pratt, Todd's Point, Ky., on 

 July 22, 1889, writes : 



We have had the best honey-flow in 

 five years. It is the only good honey 

 crop in this section since 1880 and 

 1884 ; and it may be four or five years 

 before we have another such a one. I 

 wintered my bees without any loss for 

 two years. I extracted 50 pounds per 

 colony last year ; but this year I have 

 taken 150 pounds per colony, spring 

 count, and doubled my number of col- 

 onies. Our honey season ends about 

 July 15 for surplus honey. I have 

 secured from one hive 179 pounds of 

 extracted honey, and cut out 4 pounds 

 of comb honey. It had to build only 

 four combs this year, neither did I let 

 it swarm. I am selling my honey at 

 10 cents a jjound, as heretofore I never 

 have sold any for less. We should not 

 increase our bees faster than we build 

 up a trade for honey. Honey, like 

 everything else, if forced upon a mar- 

 ket, will bring the prices down. On 



