22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



queenless colony in place of those removed, fixing a 

 comb of honey before, near the brood, and an empty 

 oue in front of that. The honey will soon cause the 

 bees to fly ; they will then cover the brood, and the 

 young bees obtained from the strong stocks, have 

 brought with them the natural qualification, by di- 

 vine irapartation, to labor and produce a new queen 

 in about fourteen days." 



Here we have, in pretty accurate detail, the whole 

 art and mystery of artificial queen raising, as it was 

 practiced two centuries before Schirach was born. By 

 the way, Schirach never claimed as a discovery, that 

 which has been so generally ascribed to him. He 

 professed to have fouud the practice in use among the 

 Lusatiau peasantry, and to have merely tested it and 

 recommended its adoption, after bringing it' to the 

 notice of bee-keepers and naturalists. Huber men- 

 tions these trials as "Schirach's beautiful experi- 

 ments;" and so, we think, does Bonnet, in his '■'■Con- 

 timplations de la N'aiure." The term " discovery," as 

 applied to them, was first used in the caption of one 

 of Huber's letters, and is undoubtedly an error. 



And then, too, in this old book, we find a full de- 

 scription of the surplus honey boxes, which are re- 

 garded by some apiarians as a recent invention. A 

 minute account is there given of them, illustrated by 

 a cut, which shows that these boxes were not placed 

 on top, but applied laterally, aud the special reasons 

 for this arrangement are clearly stated. Those who 

 wish for swarms are advised not to apply these boxes 

 " till the swarming season is over, because the smaller 

 the hives are then kept the more disposed are the bees 

 to fill them rapidly ;" — otherwise apply them early, 

 to " avoid the necessity of deranging the combs in 

 the main hive, and keep the bees from becoming in- 

 dolent." These "small surplus boxes may at times, 

 also, serve for hiving small swarms." 



Unquestionably surplus honey boxes are not of re- 

 cent introduction, even in this country. They were 

 used and recommended by Col. Feuwick, in Virginia, 

 by Mrs. Griffith, in New Jersey, and by Drs. Thatcher 

 and Smith, in Massachusetts, years before Weeks of 

 Vermont tried to make a ?iobby of them. 



23= To an inquiring correspondent we would say, 

 " to present bees from working on fruit," gather it 

 before it is dead ripe and attacked by birds, wasps, 

 and hornets. Plenty of mischievous children in the 

 neighborhood is,. also, commonly an efficient prevent- 

 ive; and "children of larger growth" are ofttiraes 

 serviceable in the same way. 



CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BEE JOURNAL. 



TowANDA, Iixs., May 17, 1871.— Our Bee-keepers' 

 Association for this section of the State is a swctws. 

 At a meeting thelst of this month, we had a pleasant 

 and instructive discussion on various topics interest- 

 ing to bee-keepers, at this season of the year. One 



member said, that as he examined his stocks when 

 taking them out of the cellar last February, he found 

 one that had a perfect queen cell. He looked for the 

 queen, hut could not find her. Later in the month 

 (Feb. 35th), he found that the young queen had 

 hatched out. Hnving no drones, he supposed he 

 would have a drone-laying queen. Following up his 

 examinations, he fouud no esrgs until the first of this 

 month (May). I saw him the other day, when he 

 told me his young queen had a large quantity of 

 worker brood ready to hatch. Thus, it seems, she 

 went from the 25lh of February to the last of April, 

 before she was impregnated. What will tht; doctors 

 say to this ? Maybe Dr. Gallup can answer. 



The season is very dry, aud many are losing their 

 bees for want of timely feeding. S. C. Ware. 



Border Plains, Iovta, May 22. — My bees arc 

 breeding fast, but have not gathered any honey yet, 

 over the/ir immediate wants, though some are prepar- 

 ing to swarm. G. M. Dale. 



Nashville, Tenn., May 37. — We are blessed with 

 an abundant crop of white clover, and the largest 

 yield of honey we ever had. Dr. P. W. Davis. 



Eddtville, Iowa, May 27. — Bees are doing very 

 well here. I have had several swarms. Hoping the 

 Bee Journal may soon come semi-monthly, yours, E. 

 T. Walker. 



Light Street, Pa., May 29. — Bees are doing pretty 

 well here. Had an Italian swarm, April oOth, — early 

 for this latitude. H. H. Brown. 



Willow Branch, Ind., May 29. — My bees are doing 

 a big business in the way of increase this spring. 1 

 had twenty-four stands, all nice, to start with this 

 spring. Wintered fine in the Langstrotb hive, Ital- 

 ianized last summer, and now have thirty-six at 

 home, besides two that I sold. The increase is 

 mostly by natural swarming, notwithstanding I have 

 been making heavy drafts on them to raise queens, 

 as I had the only Italian bees within ten miles of 

 where I live. Black bees are not swarming yet, 

 though my Italians commenced doing so nearly three 

 weeks ago. I expect to get lots of honey this season, 

 but do not expect to get within gunsliot of Isovice, 

 as I have too much else to attend to. to use the honey- 

 slinger this season. I am transferring and Italian- 

 izing bees in various parts of this county, and have 

 introduced eighteen queens this spring. I have been 

 successful in every case, except one, — which, I think, 

 is doing pretty well for a raw hand. My mode is to 

 scent the bees well with sweetened water, scented 

 with peppermint, either sprinkling the bees with it or 

 the combs, or in the mass as they are run into the 

 hive ; then sprinkling the queen with it also, put her 

 in with the bees, and all is well, provided you have 

 taken the old queen away. I would say, further, that 

 the queens that 1 bought and those I raised last year, 

 so far as I know, were all what Mr. John M. Price 

 would call artificial queens, and they all came through 

 the winter right. And the way they are increasing 

 this spring makes them good enough for me, Mr. 

 Price to the contrary notwithstanding. Jona. Smith. 



Walpole, N. H., June 3. — We are having dry wea- 

 ther, but favorable for bees. White clover is coming 

 out, and I have a few very populous colonies that are 

 taking advantage of it. J. L. Hubbako. 



Winchester, Va., June 6. — The bees about here 

 have gathered very little honey, up to this date. It 

 has been so very dry that the white clover, of wliich 

 there was a very large quantity, has yielded very little 

 honey. I have heard of very few swarms, no black 

 swarms, and only two or three Italians. J. F. 

 Brown. 



