tion, his farm demands all his energies, 

 and one or the other must suffer. But 

 one says his wife can attend to the bees. 

 Now, if she does that, and gives them 

 anything like the attention they de- 

 mand, then her household duties must 

 suffer. A lady remarked to me but a 

 short time since that she became so 

 much interested in her bees that she 

 had to give up her housework and hire 

 a Chinaman to do it. It may have been 

 the most pleasing work for her ; I ques- 

 tion whether it was the most profitable. 



It is a common remark that the bee 

 business is a lazy business, and induces 

 indolence. It is my experience, how- 

 ever, that to be successful requires quite 

 as much care and attention as any busi- 

 ness, and willadmit of as much economy. 

 I have said the law of supply and de- 

 mand must regulate the price of honey, 

 so the adaptability to producing honey 

 of a locality regulates the number that 

 can engage in the business profitably. 

 It is a law of trade and commerce, that 

 the locality that can produce the largest 

 returns for the amount invested, all else 

 being equal, is the locality that estab- 

 lishes the price of that product. The 

 production of honey has increased rap- 

 idly in the past few years, and to-day 

 there is no fixed data in any locality of 

 what it costs to produce honey, and as 

 long asthe producers are unsettled upon 

 this point, there will be no fixed price, 

 and the dealers will be unsettled upon 

 just how much they are warranted in 

 paying, and the producer will be sub- 

 jected to ail the tricks of trade conse- 

 quent upon an unsettled market. My 

 suggestion would be then, first, for bee 

 men to determine at their conventions 

 jjiist how much it costs to produce honey 

 by the average bee man ; then what an 

 expert, or a successful man, under the 

 most favorable circumstances, can pro- 

 duce it for. 



The remarks of the Editor of the 

 Journal, in the December number, 

 upon the Bingham smoker, remind me 

 of my first impression of it when it 

 came to me by mail and was handed me. 

 After I had retired, my anxiety to in- 

 spect it was so great I had to do so be- 

 fore I could sleep, and a number of 

 improvements suggested themselves to 

 me at once, and I thought I saw them 

 so clearly I resolved to write to Bing- 

 ham, that he might have the bene- 

 fit of them. But when I put it to use, 

 one by one those improvements van- 

 ished, and a thorough trial of it has 

 satisfied me that the combination of its 

 good qualities are so arranged, that to j 

 attempt an improvement would be but 

 to disarrange them. 



Santa Monica, Gal., Dec. 16. '78, 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Smothering Bees. 



PROF. S. S. WEATHERLY. 



A heavy snow of 18 inches fell during 

 the last week of November. I desired 

 to test whether bees would smother 

 under snow and ice. I covered two 

 colonies and packed the snow around 

 and over them, as solid as damp snow 

 could be packed, and as high as a 

 shock of wheat. For six weeks they 

 were under the snow and in the mean- 

 time there was a heavy rain, which 

 freezing, formed a crust an inch thick 

 thus they were hermetically sealed. 

 But not only did they not smother but 

 they raised brood and came out in the 

 spring much stronger than they were in 

 the fall. Colonies by the side of them 

 exposed to our terrible winter, and 

 those which were in the cellar, were 

 greatly weakened by the continued cold 

 and by disease. The efforts of a cor- 

 respondent of the Journal, who dug 

 away the ice from the entrance with 

 a knife makes me smile. Bees don't 

 die that way. Why do not men in the 

 northern states pack the snow and ice 

 around their hives and thus keep the 

 bees warm V 



Baldwin City, Kansas. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Sketches from Tennessee. 



S. D. M'LBAN. 



Queenlessness.— In seeking infor- 

 mation, uninformed persons often ask 

 questions as to the seemingly strange 

 manoeuvers of bees. To all. such a cor- 

 rect answer should be given, or they are 

 liable to be led into error. One among 

 the various propounded is that of bees 

 leaving their hives, or " swarming out," 

 as it is called. The answer almost in- 

 variably given to such questions is, 

 " They are queenless." Such answer is 

 certainly premature and thoughtlessly 

 given. Well informed apiarists know 

 that a swarm never leaves the hive 

 withouta queen to accompany it. When 

 bees leave the hive in a body, it is prima 

 facia evidence there is a queen present. 

 When colonies are addicted to such 

 strange proceedings, remove the queen ; 

 that effectually stops it. 



Nuclei. — Nuclei colonies for queen- 

 rearing can be formed in single-story 

 hives by using division-boards, making 

 two nuclei in each hive. To guide the 

 bees aright, reverse the entrance blocks. 

 Such are very convenient, and save the 

 expense of separate boxes. Theory : 



