THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



15 



suit of this season's operations in the September 

 number of the Bee Journal ; and hope Novice 

 will d» the same. If it then appears that he 

 has beat me, I will send him an Italian queen 

 of my own rearing. I am sorry for his rever- 

 ses, "as a man who cares as much for his bees 

 should not meet with such reverses. 



The Bee Journal should, by all means, be 

 sustained. What would beekeepers do without 

 it ? Then 1ft them pay in advance promptly, 

 and not neglect it like myself for a year, or 

 nearly so, simply because my last money was 

 stolen from the letter. Though I live Ihirteen 

 miles from the nearest money order post office, 

 I will procure an order, to insure safe transmis- 

 sion this time. 



R. M. Argo. 



Lowell, Ky., June 2, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Reply to Charles Dadant. 



Yes; the drone cells were cut down to the 

 same depth ; and made same size, on the other 

 end, as worker cells. And I have seen eggs, 

 after they were laid, in both worker and drooe 

 cells less than half the usual depth ; that is, 

 they were in process of construction when the 

 eggs were laid. On the 25Lh of May, this ye>ir, 

 I found a piece of drone comb that had l)een 

 placed on the honey or top-board, or sticks, so 

 that the bees could cany the honey out of both 

 sides ; and it being left too long, the bees built 

 new comb upward from the horizontal piece of 

 old comb, making curves until they could as- 

 sume tbe upright or perpendicular. There 

 were eggs and brood in both sides, old and new 

 comh ; some of the brood were capped. Now 

 would those that stand on their heads hatch out 

 queens? Being anxious to destroy nearly all 

 the drones in my apiary, having cut out all 

 drone cells from the worker combs, and inserted 

 enough in frames by themselves to control that 

 kind of stock, I did not like to be controlled 

 by the bees or queens, and hence destioj^ed the 

 piece of comb referred to, too soon for knowl- 

 edge. 



Bees have done better this spring on fruit, 

 flowers, and the dandelion, {taraxacum), than 

 ever before, having commenced to swarm on 

 the twenty-fifth of May. Many stocks have 

 more honey in their hives now than they had 

 last fall. 



James M. Marvin. 



St. Charles, III., June 3, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal] 



Non-Swarming. 



Oil of olives, or any mild oil, is thought by 

 many to be a cure for the pain and inflamma- 

 tion arising from the sting of a bee; but repeat- 

 ed experiments have shown that it fails oftener 

 ihan it succeeds. It seems probable that the 

 success sometimes met with, is rather an acci- 

 dent than a cure; for there are many j^eople to 

 wliom the sting of a bee does not occasion any 

 pain or inflammation. Some men disdain to 

 use the least precaution, even when they are 

 sure of manystings.— "R'YZdmaTi. 



In the May number of the Journal, C. E. 

 Thome, of Selma, Ohio, asks if the bee disease 

 can be connected witii the fact that the bees 

 cast no swarms during the season. I answer 

 positively. No. I have been keeping bees in a 

 small way about twelve years. I found a very 

 small swarm on a brush pile, late in June, 1856, 

 which I put into a hive ten inches square by 

 eighteen inches hieh. They managed to get 

 stores enough to carry them through the follow- 

 ing winter. The next season they filled up the 

 hive and got quite strong, but did not swarm. 

 In May, 1858, I found a swarm in a hollow 

 shell-bark tree, which I cut down and sawed off 

 immediately above and below their stores, 

 which occupied a space about four feet long and 

 from six to ten inches in diameter. The main 

 entrance was within six inches of the toii,'aud 

 a very small hole near the bottom. They 

 swarmed in about two weeks after I got them 

 home, and never failed to give me one or two 

 good swarms every year, until in 1867, the log 

 got so rotten that it would hardly stand alone. 

 My other long hive did abuut as well. I gave 

 away and sold several swarms, yet in the fall of 

 1867 I ha>d sixty. three stands, when I took up 

 some of the oldest and some of tlie weakest — 

 leaving me an even fifty over. These Avere in 

 good condition, and bid fair early in the follow- 

 ing season to yield a large harvest. All lived 

 through the winter, and yet I did not obtain a 

 single swarm from them. They are all doing 

 well, except two that lost their queens this 

 spring. These had got tolerably wormy when 

 my first swarm came off, on the 27th ult. 

 I put it into one of these old hives, with the old 

 combs and worms. Next morning I jjiiked up 

 about twenty cocoons, with moths nearly ready 

 to come out, and quite a number of worms. 

 They have cleaned it all out, s"' that I did not 

 find a single worm this morning ; and ihey 

 have commenced work in the honey boxes, 

 which I ]iut on the next day after hiving them. 

 I have another svv^arm which I put in with the 

 other weak stand, and they are doing about as 

 well as the first. I have already had eighteen 

 or nineteen swarms. My bees are all common 

 black bees, and are in common box hives made 

 according to Quinby's old plan. I have never 

 ]3aid much attention to them, except to hive 

 them when they swarmed and put on honey 

 boxes, and take them off again when full. I 

 have generally let them take caie of themselves. 



I think Mr. Gallup is a little mistaken about 

 bees all djing, unless they had access to buck- 

 wheat. I do not suppose there was a peck of 

 buckwheat sown within five miles of my bees, 

 yet I did not lose a single hive ; though many 

 died in town and ov.t on the prairie. I suppose 

 it was the crab apple honey that saved mine. 

 Some of them had two eight pound boxes rearly 

 full on the first of June last year. They all had 

 some, but cleaned it nearly all out before the 

 first of September. After the rain set in, iu 



