XMS ItV&mmiGMJ^ BEES JQURNat. 



829 



race for patronage, and it excited my 

 sympatlij' for friend Langstroth, and I 

 aimed at his rescne. 



I wrote to Messrs. Dad ant after read- 

 ing their response to my article in the 

 American Bee Journal, and referred 

 them to Mr. Langstroth to corroborate 

 my statement as being first to mail 

 queens. They answered by saying 

 that Mr. Langstroth is not in a condi- 

 tion to answer inquiries. Certain it is 

 he has been able to answer as to the 

 origin of mailing since they (Dadants) 

 commenced the revision. If they 

 wished to record that history, they 

 ought to have sought the information 

 from reliable sources, and if they were 

 unable, as they confess, to obtain re- 

 liable information, not record any his- 

 toiy relating to the origin of the plan. 



The American Bee Journal was 

 discontinued during a period of some 

 three years. I well remember its be- 

 ing discontinued because the war ab- 

 sorbed the attention of our whole 

 country to that extent that infant en- 

 terprises were neglected — could not 

 weather the storm. If I am not mis- 

 taken, the American Bee Journal 

 was not issued in the summer of 1863, 

 the time of mailing the first queens 

 thus sent out. 



On page 270 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1881, appears an article 

 written by myself, under the heading, 

 "Origin of sending queens by mail." 

 Prior to that date, the editor mentions 

 my claim, copied it, I think, from the 

 Bee-Keepers'' Magazine. In a letter re- 

 ceived from Mr. Frank Benton a short 

 time ago, he said that he was cog- 

 nizant of the fact that I was the tirst 

 to send a queen in the mails, and that 

 he was the first who succeeded in send- 

 ing safely queens per mail across the 

 seas. I propose giving Mr. Lang- 

 stroth the honor of being the Mrst who 

 shipped queens bj' mail to purchasei"s. 



[The American Bee Journal was 

 suspended during the war, from Jan- 

 uary, 1862, to June, 1866, and that ac- 

 counts for the lack of historj- of the 

 passing events during that time. Our 

 friends, Messrs. Dadant, we feel sure, 

 will make the necessary coi'rection in 

 the next edition, which will be issued 

 at no distant day. Meanwhile, the 

 American Bee Journal most cheer- 

 fully records the interesting bit of his- 

 tory, and gives credit and honor to 

 whom honor is due. This, we think, 

 will satisfy all reasonable beings. The 

 copy of the Country (Jentlemati for 

 July 28, 1864, which Mr. Robinson 

 sends, fully corroborates his assertions 

 about bees being then sent in the mails 

 by Mr. Langstroth. — Ed.] 



VISITING. 



Description of a Visit to a Con- 

 necticut Apiary. 



Written, fur Vie American BeeJuwnml 



BY LUCY jane SHERMAN. 



I have recently visited an apiary 

 situated about five miles from here, 

 and I will give a short account of it. 



It is called the " Riverside Apiary," 

 and is in West Norwalk, Conn. To 

 one "not to the manor born," the 

 drives between the Norwalks, Noroton, 

 Rowayton, and New Canaan, are all 

 interesting. Everywhere we see very 

 old houses with gable-roofs and stone 

 chimneys, and shingles in place of 

 clap-boards. Stone-walls abound, and 

 in every direction the land looks 

 "rock-ribbed and ancient as the 

 sun." 



Riverside Apiary belongs to a Mr. 

 Johnson. He is preparing to winter 

 28 colonies. His hives are almost ex- 

 actly like the Cary chaft-hive. His 

 specialty is rearing queens, though he 

 sells both comb and extracted honej'. 

 He has sold U tons of honey the past 

 summer, 1,200 pounds of which was 

 from white clover, and sold in July for 

 25 cents per pound. The rest has 

 brought 20 cents — even for the ex- 

 tracted honey. He considers this one- 

 third of a crop. He has two extractors 

 in the honey-house. 



A SUN WAX-EXTRACTOR. 



He has one machine which I have 

 never seen before, and which he claims 

 is his own invention. I think that he 

 called it a wax separator. Its object is 

 to melt the wax and separate it from 

 the impurities. It consists of a wooden 

 box lined with tin, which contains 

 water about one inch deep. The cover 

 is lined with some highlj'-polished 

 metal, and is fastened to the box with 

 hinges. Within the box is a tin-pan 

 made to fit the box, only not so deep, 

 with a depression in the bottom, and 

 something like an inverted tea-strainer 

 inserted. 



The scrapings of the wax are put 

 into this pan, and covered with a 

 tightly-fitting glass cover. The outside 

 cover is left up, at right angles with 

 the box. The sun strikes the highly- 

 polished lining, is reflected on the 

 glass cover below, causing heat sufli- 

 cient to melt the wax, which runs 

 through the inverted tea-strainer, into 

 the water below, while the refuse re- 

 mains in the pan. 



There are no trees in this apiary — it 

 is a sort of •' five-acre lot" behind the 

 house. On one side, full 50 feet be- 

 low, is Five Mile river, which, at this 

 point, is only a respectable brook in 

 size. 



decoy for securing swarms. 



Mr. Johnson does not use a drone 

 and queen trap ; to secure swarms, he 

 clips the wings of every queen, and 

 when a swarm issues, he uses a decoy. 

 I had never seen a decoy, and for the 

 benefit of those equally ignorant, I 

 will try to describe this : 



Two pieces of wire-cloth of equal 

 size are fastened to frames, perhaps six 

 inches square, connected by hinges, 

 and fastened to a pole 4 or 5 feet long. 

 This pole is fastened to two other poles 

 shorter than the first, but equal to each 

 other. These three poles are set in 

 the ground in front of the hive which 

 is casting a swarm. 



The wire-cloth frames open like a 

 book, and some part of the swarm is 

 likely to settle underneath them. Mean- 

 while the bee-keeper takes what he 

 calls a "queen-bottle" — that is, a 

 piece of wire-cloth joined so as to form 

 a cylinder, with a cork at each end — 

 picks up the queen (she will be found 

 in front of the hive, as her wings are 

 clipped), puts her into the bottle, puts 

 in the cork, and hangs the l)ottle on 

 the decoy. Of course, all the other 

 bees join those on the decoy, and the 

 swarm may be hived easily. 



I visited another apiary the same 

 morning, but it was no larger than the 

 first-mentioned, and apparently had no 

 distinctive features. 



Rowayton, Conn., Nov. 19, 1889. 



BEE-TALK. 



International Convention at 

 Brantford, Ont. 



Written Jor the American Bee Jmunial 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



T HI HID TDA.^Sr. 



MORNING SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 8:30 a.m., with President Mason in 

 the chair. The exei-cises were opened 

 with prayer, by President-elect R. L. 

 Taylor. 



It was voted that Thomas G. New- 

 man & Son be paid $15.00 towards 

 printing in pamphlet form the Report 

 of the proceedings of this Convention, 

 and to furnish a copy for each of the 

 members, by mail. 



ConlradiclinK ReporLs ■iijiirioiis 

 to Bee-Kvc-ping. 



E. R. Root called attention to the 

 Chicago Herald affiiir. It had pub- 

 lished false and misleading stories re- 

 garding "manufactured lioney." and 

 bailed to retract until numerous letters 

 from subscribers came pouring in. A 

 large number of letters from siihscrihers 

 seems to have a wonderful eft'ect upon 

 an editor. Mr. Root urged all bee- 



