234 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



call on my way home in the evening, and that 

 both of us should sit up and watch. This I ac- 

 ceded to. 



The night was calm and beautiful. The full 

 moon seemed to float in a sea of silver. We 

 put out the lights, closed the door, and seated 

 ourselves on the piazza behind, where we could 

 smoke our pipes and converse in>an undertone 

 without being observed. All was still around 

 the house. The ripple of the stream, a hundred 

 yards away, was all that could be heard. We 

 had sat thus for about two hours, and had 

 almost come to the conclusion to go to our beds, 

 when my attention was attracted by a dark ob- 

 ject about the size of a boy's cap, moving in 

 jerky leaps from the side of the house toward 

 the bee boxes. 



"Wallace," I whispered, "what is that?"_ 



Wallace careened over and watched the object 

 earnestly. 



"It's a frog," said he at last ; "no animal of 

 that size but a frog could take such strides." 



In the meantime the frog (for we had agreed 

 it was one) had reached the shade of the tree 

 under which the bee boxes stood. We resolved 

 to watch the midnight promenader. We left 

 the house by the front door, walked round 

 through the bushes, and ensconced ourselves in 

 a shady spot where we had full view of the boxes. 

 Our frog had vanished. Hearing a noise like the 

 cracking of dried leaves, we looked toward the 

 house and saw another frog, as we concluded 

 from its gait, moving from the same side whence 

 the first had come,, and following the same direc- 

 tion. While we were gazing on this new prowler, 

 we heard the bees in a box witliin six feet of us 

 begin to buzz as if in constei-nation. Presently 

 a stream of them flowed from under the box and 

 spread around. Almost at the same moment we 

 saw a dark object emerge from the box and com- 

 mence a series of very deliberate hops toward 

 the stream. We stealthily approached, still 

 under shade, however, and discovered a frog, 

 which we no doubt rightly surmised was our first 

 friend, literally covered with bees. Covered is 

 not the word. The bees were piled upon him, 

 and clinging in layers to his sides. A large 

 number also flew around him, and furnished 

 music to the procession. 



I turned round to see what had become of our 

 second visitor. There he was moving with joy- 

 ous leaps toward the bee boxes, followed by at 

 least twenty other frogs. One after another 

 these leaping bandits vanished under the box 

 from which our first friend had just come, with 

 the whole family of bees on his back and sides 

 and about his ears. 



We were tbo much astonished and interested 

 to speak. We slowly followed our frog with his 

 load of bees. He made straight for the river, 

 but at a very slow pace. He carried weight and 

 could not move fast. When he got to the water 

 he plunged right in. That was his way of 

 putting down his passengers. 



We then returned to the bee box. Our foot- 

 steps amid the dry brushwood must have startled 

 the burglars, for when we reached the tree they 

 were going at full speed for the stream. Next 

 morning we examined the box, and found that 



nearly all the honey had been stolen. The cells 

 were broken, and the honey was plastered round 

 in every direction. While the decoy had carried 

 off the family to a watering place, their mansion 

 had been thoroughly despoiled by his confeder- 

 ates. 



W. A. M. 



Correspondence. 



My apiary last spring consisted of sixteen 

 colones. My surplus honey from this apiary the 

 past season amounted to nineteen hundred and 

 eighty-six pounds. Seven hundred and sixty- 

 eight pounds of the above was extracted. Nine- 

 tenths of it all was basswood honey. Increase, 

 four new swarms. I use the Langstroth hive. 

 Like some others, have used it in an improved 

 style and form, but do not now ; cannot bear the 

 improvements any longer. Now use the old 

 form and style. 



James Heddon. 



Doicagiac, Mich., Feb. 26, 1873. 



Enclosed please find two dollars for current 

 volume of the Journal. You may as well con- 

 sider me a life subscriber, as the Journal is in- 

 dispensable ; a single number often being worth 

 more to me than the whole volume. This has 

 been a good season for bees, that is until the 

 linden blossoms failed, which was about the 15th 

 of July. All our surplus honey was white 

 clover and linden. In the way of swarming, our 

 bees done fine. My bees are nu)st all Italians 

 and hybrids, and in their winter-quarters in 

 good condition. I have one queen that I got 

 from Mr. A. Grimm of Wisconsin, and I think 

 she is a perfect beauty. With tlie honey ex- 

 tractor, I took from one of my hybrid stocks 225 

 pounds of white clover and linden honey. I 

 used a double hive and only extracted from the 

 upper hive. I think 40 pounds was the most 

 box honey I got from any one stock, and that 

 was a hybrid. 



Unexperiekced. 



West Union, loica. 



Information Wanted. 



I am starting with 12 stands Italian bees and 

 expect to have as many more black bees and wisli 

 to Italianize tliem this spring. I am witliin 40 

 rods of heavy timber on bottom land, the largest 

 share of the timber is elm and cotton wood. 

 There is also a large quantity of basswood and 

 maple, hard and soft, some willow and tag-alder. 

 I expect to sow something for bees, but do not 

 know what. Can you tell me if the Rocky Moun- 

 tain bee-plant is better for bees than Alsike clo- 

 ver, and will it pay to sow sweet clover for bees 

 and is it good for anything except bees'? Is there 

 anything preferable to either or all of the above 

 mentioned, for that purpose? I would like to 

 get a honey extractor. Do you know what kind is 

 best ? I am prepossessed in favor of the Gray and 



