540 



T'H® MBiERicsr* mmM ja^MifStr. 



why tliey tore dowu the queen-cell, 

 and then eulai-ged other cells, and put 

 all the eggs into them. So far this 

 has been a very poor season here for 

 honey. Bees have swarmed but little, 

 and have hardly gathered enough 

 honey to live on. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle replies to the 

 above in this way : 



The above is evidently a case of lay- 

 ing workers. The writer says he gave 

 the bees a comb having eggs, and after 

 a week had elapsed an examination 

 showed " a queen-cell with an egg in 

 it." Now all the eggs that he gave tlie 

 little colony at first, would have been 

 hatched at the end of the third day, 

 hence if there was an egg in a queen- 

 cell, something in the hive must have 

 put it there, or tlie bees must have 

 stolen it iu order to have found it there 

 one week after he gave the eggs. 

 That the bees did not steal it, is proven 

 by finding more eggs the next time he 

 looked ; and that the something which 

 put it in the queen-cell was not a queen, 

 is proven by the fact that queens never 

 deposit eggs in queen-cells under such 

 circumstances. The second examina- 

 tion proves conclusively to my mind 

 that there were laying workers present, 

 inasmuch as there were now eggs iu 

 two combs, and the fact that they tore 

 down the first queen-cell ; for bees sel- 

 dom bring a queen-cell to completion, 

 where the product which it contains 

 comes from an egg from a laying 

 worker. Wlierein our j'oung friend 

 makes a mistake, is in supposing that 

 the eggs which he saw each, time were 

 the ones that he put into the hive on the 

 start. The only puzzling question there 

 is about the matter to me, is, why the 

 bees did not try to rear a queen from 

 the eggs first given. This may be ac- 

 counted tor by the laying workers 

 being long present with the bees, in 

 which case bees rarely ever start queen- 

 cells from brood thus given. This is 

 also proven bj' the bees all being dead 

 at the last examination, showing that 

 they died of olrl age. — G.M.Doolittle. 



Tobacco and Bees L. T. Hill, 



Canton, Dak., on Aug. 11, 1889, writes: 



Will tobacco kill bees ? On July 4 

 I had a swarm of bees to come out and 

 cluster. I took a new Langstroth hive, 

 and, as usual, prepared some salt and 

 water to wash the frames with. Not 

 seeing a piece of cloth handy, I took a 

 sack that had contained smoking tobac- 

 co ; I turned it in-side-out, shook it, 

 and brushed it until I was sure that 

 there was no tobacco on it, aud used 

 it to wash the frames and side of the 

 hive. I put the bees into the hive at 

 11:30 a.m., and at 3 p.m. they were 

 there, but at sunset they were not 



there — they had left. In course of a 

 few days, I had another swarm come 

 out; I put them into the same hive, 

 after washing it with salt and water, 

 but with another dish and clean rag. 

 The third daj' after, the bees came out, 

 flew around a few moments, and went 

 back ; and about } of them went into 

 the same hive, and the other | into the 

 next hive to them. Three or four da3's 

 later I saw no signs of life around the 

 hive, and upon opening it, I found the 

 bottom-board covered about two inches 

 deep with dead bees, and not a live 

 bee in the hive. What killed the bees? 



[We have never used tobacco-smoke 

 on bees. Will some one please answer 

 the above question ? — Ed.] 



Only a moderate Yield E. M. 



Showers, Pine Bluff, Wis., on Aug. 12, 

 1889, writes : 



The honej- harvest seems to be over 

 for this season. It has not been very 

 good. There was a good deal of white 

 clover and much Alsike, but neither 

 seemed to produce much honej-. Bees 

 quit storing honey on Julj' 15. I never 

 had my bees to swarm so much as this 

 season, while the honey lasted ; so I 

 did not get a great deal of honey — only 

 about 1,200 pounds from 22 colonies 

 in the spring, and increased to 45 col- 

 onies ; 000 pounds of comb and 600 of 

 extracted, which I sell at 12i cents per 

 pound for the former, and 10 cents for 

 the latter. Some, I see, are selling 

 honej' for 8 cents ; I guess they do not 

 take the Bee Journal, or they would 

 know the price of honey better. 



Honey Crop Almost a Failure. 



— D. F. Park, Athens, Pa., on Aug. 8, 

 1889, writes : 



I am pleased to learn through the 

 Bee Journal, that bee-keepers are 

 getting a fair crop of honey in the 

 West. Throughout northern Pensyl- 

 vania aud southern New York, the 

 crop is almost an entire failure. My 

 apiary of 80 colonies, has, to date, 

 given me a total surplus of 40 pounds 

 of inferior honey. The most expert 

 bee-keepers of this vicinity have done 

 no better. White and sweet clover 

 have bloomed profusely, but constant 

 rains and cool nights have prevented 

 any flow of nectar. Golden-rod is 

 abundant, but merely keeps up brood- 

 rearing, and gives no surplus. Buck- 

 wheat is now coming into blossom. 

 As this county (Bradford) is the ban- 

 ner county of the United States, for the 

 amount of buckwheat raised, we might 

 hope for something from it ; but so far 

 we have only the smell, but not the 

 sight of houej'. 



Trembling: or Nameless Bee- 

 Disease. — Wm. Beall, Kimmell, Ind., 

 on Aug. 12, 1889, writes : 



I have 30 colonies of bees, and they 

 are doing verj' well at present; Honey 

 will not be plenty here. I had one 

 colony that had some kind of disease ; 

 the bees would come out of the hive, 

 and fall on the alighting-board, crawl 

 around, and then fall on their backs, 

 tremble, and some died. In twelve 

 hours the rest were all right, and are 

 all right now. I would like to know 

 what ailed them. Please state in the 

 Bee Journal. I cannot afford to do 

 without the American Bee Journal ; 

 but there are some things in it that I 

 cannot believe, and one is that the old 

 queens come out with the swarms. 

 They may sometimes. I have clipped 

 the queen's wings, and have had 

 swarms to come from the same hive. 

 It may be that their wings grew out 

 again. I have found several this year. 

 that were young queens, aud unable to 



fly- 



[This "trembling disease" has been 

 repeatedly commented upon, in the Bee 

 Journal, and on page 541 of this issue, 

 Mr. Alonzo Skinner gives his remedy 

 for it.— Ed.] 



A Oood 'White Clover Honey- 

 Flow. — Joseph Moser, Festina, Iowa, 



on Aug. 8, 1889, says : 



We have had one of the heaviest 

 flows of white clover honey that I ever 

 saw. My bees averaged 90 pounds of 

 white comb honey per colonj-, and I 

 extracted 200 gallons from 13 colonies. 

 The fall crop is to come yet ; it 

 promises to be a good one, as I usually 

 get some surplus from red clover, 

 which is verj' abundant here. My bees 

 are storing honey now from the acorns, 

 which were pierced bj- an insect, thus 

 causing honey to run out. We have 

 had a very dry time for the last four 

 weeks, and the white clover is almost 

 dried out, but we are getting a nice 

 shower to-day. 



Successful Bee-Keeping;. — I, N. 



Arnold, Richmond, Iowa, on Aug. 14. 

 1889, writes : 



I will now offer a report of my honey 

 crop. I have been a reader of the Bee 

 Journal for eleven years. I am a 

 bee-keeper by trade. I helped mj- 

 father-in-law, J. O. Todd, three years 

 before I owned a colony of bees ; I 

 now have 100 colonies in fine condition. 

 Mr. Todd and I, together, will get over 

 20,000 pounds of honey for the season. 

 I used to be a telegraph operator, and 



