1907] 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



137 



currency a penny each per section, successfully imported Italian golden 



which is simply absurd and ridiculous, queens, and from his six colonies of 



The writer having spent several bees gets in a season on an average 



years in various parts of Natal knbws 70 sections per hive, which is disposed 



the market value is twenty four cents of by us at never less than 2 shillings 



or I shilling per section. 



In Pretoria, nearly 500 miles inland 

 from the Natal sea coast, honey in 

 sections 4 1-4x4 1-4x1 7-8 is sold for 

 thirty six cents per section. 



In proof of this we enclose a market 

 receipt from which you will see that 

 we bought at i shilling 6 pence and 

 for the same we get 2 shillings and 

 for well-filled sections 2 shillings 6 

 pence. A cash slip we also enclose 

 showing two sections sold for 5 shil- 

 lings. 

 . Yesterday a bee-keeper (Mr. Wil- 



6 pence each. 



Yours faithfully, 



Cairncross & Zillen. 



PLAGUE OF WILD BEES, 



For Four Years They Have Terror- 

 ized an English Hospital Keeper 

 and His Wife. 



A remarkable story of the "wrath of 

 the bee' comes from Sedgebrook 

 farm, near Plumpton, Sussex. The 

 farm is the East Sussex smallpox hos- 



DR. CLAUSSEN S APIARY IN SUMMER. 



son, who owns over 50 colonies) 

 called on us for the purpose of selling 

 his honey and we made him an offer 

 of I shilling 6 pence e^ch for all well 

 filled sections, but this offer was re- 

 fused, his price being 2 shillings 6 

 pence. 



If Mir. Drummond will communi- 

 cate with us we are prepared to take 

 all the honey he can produce and will 

 pay him i shilling 6 pence each for all 

 well-filled sections weighing not less 

 than 14 ounces delivered in sound 

 condition at our stores in Pretoria. 



Our Mr. D. Cairncross, who is very 

 much interested in bee culture, has 



pital, the caretaker of which and, in 

 a lesser degree, his wife have been 

 terrorized by bees for nearly five 

 years. 



The bees are not hive bees, though 

 it is possible that their progenitors at 

 some remote date were domesticated. 

 They are a swarm of countless thou- 

 sands (some local gossips say mil- 

 lions) which for years at least have 

 had their abode under the tiles of the 

 farmhouse and have lived the wildest 

 of wild lives. 



When the present caretaker came 

 into residence, four Decembers ago, 

 he little dreamed of the unpleasant 



