1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



13 



it. You then want two or three different lengths 

 of poles, with a ring on each one, to fasten the 

 snap to. As soon as the swarm hegins to light, 

 let abont half of them cluster ; now jar the tree 

 with the butt end of the pole to make them take 

 wing ; again put the basket in the spot where 

 the bees begin to cluster, and they will enter the 

 basket. Then carry them to where you wish to 

 hive them. J. Butler. 



Jackson, Mich., May 14, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal 1 



Inquiries. 



Will it be safe to use for new swarms honey 

 from hives in which bees have died from dys- 

 entery '? 



I have lost more than half of mine by this dis- 

 ease in movable comb hives, and if I can use 

 them again I will be able to save something. 

 Your correspondent, who thinks that bees died 

 of dysentery caused by honey dew from the 

 beech, fails here, for there is not a beech within 

 one hundred miles ; and I think that beekeepers 

 have lost fully fifty per cent, of their colonies, 

 and certainly not from that cause. It has made 

 no difference whether they have been in-doors 

 or out ; the only exception to this is the case of 

 one man, who j>ave his bees a chance to fly in 

 February. He did not lose a swarm. 



S. P. Ballard. 



Sharon, Wis. 



Bees have wintered very poorly in these parts. 

 About one-third or a half died during the win- 

 ter, and many swarms have left their hives. I 

 am not surprised that the bees left such things. 

 Out of one small hive ten pieces of timber crossed 

 in all directions, so the bees had to brood on 

 timber, some of them as thick and broad as two 

 lingers. Hardly four inches of straight comb 

 could be found in the whole hive. Such a place 

 might do for chickens to roost in, but it is a very 

 poor place for bees to breed in. Another hive I 

 looked at was about eight inches wide, ten deep 

 and fifteen long, with a partition across the hive 

 which confined the queen to one end, and the 

 other end was all drone comb. They had tried 

 it one summer, and were satisfied it was best for 

 them to leave such a thing. 



I find that bees feed better on fine ground In- 

 dian meal, mixed with bran, than they do in 

 either rye flour or the cleanings from the smut 

 mill. I had three boxes containing the three 

 different articles, and they preferred the corn 

 meal and bran. 



I gave one of my hives last September some 

 Italian eggs to raise a queen. When I opened 

 the hive this spring I found a large number of 

 drones, but they have now all disappeared, and 

 a fiue specimen of workers appear. It is one of 

 the strongest hives I have. 1 intend trying W. 

 K. King's fertilizing tent this season. I may 

 report the result. J. Ldccock. 



[For Wagner's American Bee Journal. 1 



Natural, Hardy and Prolific Queens. 



ANSWER TO MR. JOHN M. PRICE. 



A renowned French lawyer has written some- 

 where : " Give me ten lines of the writing of an 

 honest man, and I will send him to the gallows." 

 Of course, to obtain such a result, it was neces- 

 sary to be able to give the words contained in 

 these ten lines another meaning than that in- 

 tended by their author. 



Mr. Price, in his last article, in the June No. 

 of the American Bee Journal, has gone further 

 with me, for not only by the interverting of the 

 extracts does he change the meaning of my let- 

 ters, but he has falsified them also. For in- 

 stance : I have written, "I am very little dis- 

 posed to sell you any more queens," and he 

 copies to let you (have) any more queens. As 

 I have already stated in the March number of 

 the American Bee Journal, the same John M. 

 Price, in a letter dated July, 1870, asking for 

 another queen, writes: "If you can send the 

 queen let me know with price." Mr. Wagner 

 has that letter in his hands. I have sent it to 

 him with another of Mr. Price's letters. 



In the July, 1870, letter, I answered that I 

 knew the queen 1 had sent was prolific, and that 

 Mr. Price had ill judged her, and, that with 

 spring, she would prove very prolific, &c. Two 

 months alter, I received another letter, dated 

 October 12th, 1870, in which I read : "Please 

 send me a queen that you know from experience 

 to be good, pure and prolific, either Italian or of 

 your own raising. C. 0. D. (collect on deliv- 

 ery, send Monday or Tuesday. Signed, J. M. 

 Price." 



I answered that I had no queens to spare ; 

 and that as soon as the bees could raise queens 

 in the spring, I would send him one, but at the 

 same time I gave him the advice to get one or 

 two imported queens. This queen or queens 

 were of course to be sent according to Mr. 

 Price's own terms, i. e., C. O. D. 



I beg the reader to remark that the second 

 paragraph of my answer which refers to the im- 

 ported queens is put purposely without date, and, 

 coming after my letter of April 21st, 1871, while 

 the whole was written about October, 1870. 

 Meanwhile the discussion between us on the ar- 

 tificial queens continued and the laugh being on 

 my side, as we say in France, Mr. Price lost his 

 temper, and, finding no good reason to combat 

 mine, he concluded to attack my honesty. 



To put an end to the personal dispute, for 

 which I beg leave to offer my excuse to the readers 

 of the Bee Journal, I offer to Mr. Price, that, 

 we both should send all the letters in our pos- 

 session to Messrs. Langstroth, or Gallup, or 

 Novice (A. I. Root), or Nesbit, or Quinby. 

 All these gentlemen are well known for their 

 honesty and impartiality. If the gentleman 

 chosen by Mr. Price, among those named, judges 

 that I engage myself to replace the queens in 

 question, then I promise to send ten tested 

 queens to Mr. Price. 1 will add this condition : 

 The verdict shall be inserted iu the three Bee 



