1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



31 



may as well tell just here, liow to revive a queen 

 that has been ciiilled or starved. Place her in 

 the palm of the warm hand, and gently breathe 

 the moist breath in upon her ; and if there is 

 any vitality remaining in her, you will soon see 

 her legs begin to quiver. Persevere, and as soon 

 as she recovers sufficiently, give her a little food. 

 If placed by the warm stove or a fire, queens 

 will frequently show signs of life, and then die 

 past redemption. But I have digressed from 

 my subject. Mr. Hill's arrangement for cluster- 

 ing natural swarms is excellent ; and to my 

 notion he has a honey extractor of his own 

 getting up, that shows ingenuity and looks as 

 though it would work as satisfactorily as any 

 that I have seen, and I have seen several. Any 

 bee-keeper can spend a few hours with ]\Ir. Hill 

 to good advantage. From there my next 

 stopping place was with a brotber and a host of 

 cousins in southern Michigan, eight miles south 

 of Hudson. There I found as bee-nightcd a set 

 of inhabitants as I have seen in many a day. 

 They have not advanced one step beyond the 

 old brimstone practice. The salt barrel and 

 nail keg are in full blast for hives. I do not 

 know that I can do any better than to give 

 things just as I found them. One had two 

 colonies in the fall. One of them died, and the 

 other was set on a bench, and the woodpecker 

 pecked holes all through the hive. I guess the 

 woodpecker tapped on the hive, and the bees 

 came to see what was the matter. So Mr. 

 AVoodpecker fills his craw with bees, and of 

 course sips a little honey. The owner allowd 

 that his bees did not do much, or in other words 

 he did not have good luck with his bees ; and I 

 allowed so to. (A Yankee gueftses, an Tndianian 

 or Tennesseean reckons, and a Michigandcr 

 allows, that things are so and so.) At another 

 place they had three stocks in box hives, one in 

 a salt barrel, and a dead one in a nail keg. 

 They alloiced that bee-keeping did not i)ay, and 

 I guessed they were about right in that notion. 

 At another place ftill, they had a patent concern 

 for raising the moth miller ; but as their father 

 had died, they expected the bees to die too, and 

 when the bees died, as there was nothing to 

 keep the moths warm they died also, and the 

 poor moths' carcasses could be scraped up by 

 the har.dfvU. They allowed that they could not 

 have luck with bees, and with their hive and 

 treatment, I was not disposed to dispute their 

 judgment. Another individual had some seven 

 colonies. He was requested to come and see me 

 and have a talk. But he knew a woman up in 

 Iowa that knew more than all the bee-keepers in 

 the world, and consequently it was scarcely 

 worth while to have a talk with Gallup. But 

 before I left I transferred a swarm of bees on a 

 cold day in the above individual's kitchen, to a 

 movable comb hive, and set them to wcn-k in 

 good shape. One spectator would not have his 

 bees transferred as they always died. And 

 when I asked him how they were transferred, it 

 was in this wise : the hive was turned bottom 

 up in a large tub, and water ])oured in the tub. 

 As it rose in the hive the bees were compelled to 

 move or transfer themselves up into another 

 hive placed over the one containing the honey. 



So much for his transferring. Mine was simply 

 moving the family, furniture, food and all, out 

 of the old house into a new one. 



In this vicinity I met an old gray headed 

 gentleman, who volunteered to tell me all about 

 bees, as he had been acquainted with an extra- 

 ordinary bee-keeper. This bee-keeper took a 

 dozen worker bees, put them in a glass box and 

 fed them ; and in an incredible short time they 

 built a king's cell ; put one of their number in it, 

 and crowned bun king. And jMr. Editor, 

 whether you believe it or not, he said there was 

 one worker less ; bat that they had made a king 

 out of the other. You can easily see there is a 

 chance yet for us old fogies to learn something. 

 Word was given out that I was going to transfer 

 a swarm for my brother on Saturday. Conse- 

 quently there was a large crowd out. One said 

 he would like to see me handle a swarm of bees 

 that way in June ; another would bet his bees 

 would sting me to death, &c. Among the 

 spectators here I had one of Professor Flander's 

 pupils. He had seen the Professor perform 

 wonders with bees, and had purchased a bottle 

 of bee charm. The result was that he had gone 

 into one of his swarms with his charm, and got 

 most gloriously stung. He now has very little 

 faith in bee charm, yet still thinks he got the 

 worth of his money. In fact I had a terrible 

 time combatting and letting off gas with these 

 bce-n\ghted fellows in Michigan ; one of whom 

 knew that moths in Michigan grew from an egg 

 to full size in one night, for he had turned up 

 the hive at night, killed all and brushed off the 

 bottom board, and still next inorning there were 

 plenty of them there, full grown ! conclusive 

 evidence for him ! I introduced three Bee 

 Journals into the neighborhood, so look out for 

 breakers from southern ^lichigan. They will 

 be able to tell us all about their mode of bee- 

 keeping themselves he^'eafter. I left one poor 

 fellow with his brain badly affected ; but gave 

 directions if his head became too hot with bee 

 on the brain, to pour on cold water, and so keep 

 him cool. 



I left Hudson on the Gth of March, and arrived 

 home at four o'clock on the morning of the 8th. 

 Found everything all right, except that my bees 

 had been kept too wai-m daring the warm spell 

 while I was gone, and some of them had got the 

 "dysentery." But the boss is now on hand, 

 and all is well that ends well. Five weeks of 

 constant gas-blowing did not make me lose any 

 flesh. In fact I grew fat on it. 



E. Gallup. 



OrcJiard, Iowa. 



Balsam of Honey. 



Take fine pale honey .... 4 ounces. 



glycerine .... 1 " 

 Mix by a gentle heat, and when cold add 



alcohol 1 ounce. 



essence of ambergris 6 drops, 

 citric acid .... 3 drachms. 

 This is intended to remove discolorations aud 

 freckles, as well as to improve the general ap- 

 pearance of the skin. — Druggists' Circular. 



