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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec, 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The November "Journal." 



We were well pleased to receive our Journal 

 for this month, several clays earlier than usual, 

 and hope you will, Mr. Editor, send it out so 

 that it may reach us western people as near the 

 first of each month as you can conveniently. 

 The value of any periodical is greatly enhanced 

 by being issued with regularity, while on the 

 other hand, nothing so fills the mind of the sub- 

 scriber with distrust and uncertainty, as to have 

 paper come to hand all the way from the first to 

 the last of the month. But, lest we be regarded 

 as being "personal," we break right off here, 

 and take up our "review." The first thing that 

 attracts attention this month, is the translation 

 of a dissertation upon the value of honey. Both 

 as an article of diet and a remedy for certain 

 "ills that human flesh is heir to." We can cor- 

 roborate, from personal experience, much of 

 what Karl Gatter says of the value of honey. 

 Possessing, as it does, in a marked degree, diu- 

 retic properties, and alterative and mucilagen- 

 ous qualties also, it is in very many cases much 

 more efficacious as a medicine than pills and 

 powders, being at the same time far pleasauter 

 to the taste. But honey, like everything else, 

 should be eaten in moderation ; for some kinds 

 of honey are found to disagree with many people. 

 Pure liquid honey is one of the very best appli- 

 cations for cuts, sores, swellings, &c. In fact, 

 we think that the American people but vaguely 

 realize the very great value of "natures choicests 

 sweets ;" and we hope the day is not far distant 

 when the mel-extractor will place honey in its 

 most wholesome form, within the reach of all the 

 people, from the Atlantic to the Paciiic. And 

 we verily believe, that if certain bee-hive venders 

 would turn their attention to honey bee culture, 

 instead of trying to obtain money from people 

 for worthless moth trap contrivances, adding 

 honey to their articles of diet, that they might 

 in time be able to speak of their brother bee- 

 keepers a little more respectfully, using less 

 abusive language — a consummation we devoutly 

 hope to see accomplished. 



The proceedings of the Michigan Beekeepers 

 Association will, no doubt, be read with interest. 

 They bring back to us some " personal recollec- 

 tions" of what we saw and heard at Kalamazoo. 

 Many of our readers have, no doubt, had experi- 

 ence in sending box honey to market, and there- 

 by know how pleasant (?) it is to learn that 

 much of it had arrived in a sadly "delapidated 

 condition." JVIr. Bingham exhibted a box of 

 honey, v* ith two glass sides, holding about four 

 and one-half pounds, we believe, which he said 

 could be " safely shipped a thousand miles." 

 The box was nearly square, and three small 

 pieces of comb had been attached to the top pre- 

 vious to being put upon the hive, so as to hav£ 

 the combs built parallel to the glass. Where 

 thick combs of honey are fastened to glass, they 

 are almost sure to leak ; for the glass expands 

 and contracts with the variations in tempera- 

 ture. By inserting these small "guide combs," 

 we can secure our combs, built of proper thick- 



ness and securely attached to the wooden sides. 

 Moreover, such box honey looks better in mar- 

 ket, and sells more readily at better figures ; 

 oftentimes making a considerable difference in 

 the profits of the aparian. You all know that it 

 has often been asserted that it is an impossibility 

 to fertilize queens in confinement. Well ; let us 

 see. By invitation, we visited the apiary of Mr. 

 A. C. Balch, a whole-souled, intelligent and 

 practical aparian, who resides in this, the largest 

 village in the United States, the lovely and pic- 

 turesque Kalamazoo. He showed us some fine 

 Italian stocks, the mothers of which he mated 

 in his hands by force. But we hear some 

 "doubting Thomas" ask, "How did he knoto 

 this was so ? How could he tell that the queen 

 did afterwards leave the hive and mate with the 

 drone?" Just the point, dear reader, we were 

 about to consider, when ■ you interrupted us. 

 The way that Mr. Balch discovered that queens 

 could be mated with any drone (not five, ten, 

 twenty, or a hundred, but just one) desired, was 

 something like this : He had a fine Italian queen 

 that lacked one wing, and could not fly out to 

 meet the drones, in the usual manner. Know- 

 ing that he could no more than lose her, he 

 thought he would try the experiment of forced 

 fertalization. He accordingly took her from the 

 hive, caught a pure Italian drone, and mated 

 them. He observed an increased size of the 

 queen the moment she mated with the drone. 

 Replacing her in the hive, she commenced laying, 

 and proved to be a fine, prolific mother. Is this 

 evidence conclusive? Lest some one, who is de- 

 termined not to believe in the possibility of con- 

 trolling pure fertilization, may still doubt, we 

 will relate just one more incident, as related by 

 Mr. Balch. He had a young queen that laid 

 only non hatching eggs. Tninking that the 

 fault might be in the bees, he inserted a card of 

 eggs and larva?, taken from another hive, when 

 they were hatched in due time. Repeating the 

 experiment, with like results, he became satisfied 

 that the queen was, in some way, defective. He 

 then mated her with a selected drone. She then 

 being about one month old, and her eggs hatched 

 with uniformity afterwards. Does not this look, 

 just a trifle, as though fertilization might be con- 

 trolled ? There is very much more we would 

 like to say about what we saw and heard ; some 

 things about our good looking president, who 

 abounds in sparkling wit and humor ; the practi- 

 cal, sensible vice-president, the frank and genial 



secretary, and the Well, we don't believe 



that we have anything to say about the treasu- 

 rer. But, as it is now nearly midnight, we must 

 not longer dwell in "the village of shade and 

 beauty, the bright Kalamazoo." 



The story of "Scientific" will, probably, read 

 to many as though it were a delineation of their 

 own experience in wintering bees a year ago. 

 Mr. Hazen gives us another column of figures to 

 ponder over, as usual. We do not wonder that 

 he is called by many the "figurative" aparian. 

 We are pleased to hear that bees do so well away 

 off on the plains of Colorado. At the time we 

 visited the spot, where Greeley now stands, we 

 could not help think, that even Hazen's non- 

 swarmer would stand a poor chance of piling up 



