1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



79 



discouratred by what bee-keepers told us, we 

 should probably have commenced sooner. One 

 man purclinscd a hundred stocks, but utterly 

 played out the first year. Black bees are now 

 increasing around us at quite a brisk rate ; but 

 that is about all they do. 



Mr. Tillinghast says that amount of honey 

 (■),000), in the time, in his locality, "is simply 

 impossible." We think he would have done bet- 

 ter to have said, in his opinion. We poor mor- 

 tals very often have a very imperfect idea of what 

 is possible. After the account was given in 

 our county paper, that our bees were bringing 

 in two hundred pounds of honey per daj% and 

 that one stock alone gathered forty-thiee pounds 

 in tiirce days, it was pronounced utterly imjjossi- 

 ble ; and that if those who told it would consider, 

 they would see that it could not be ! And we were 

 obliged to invite them publicly to come down 

 and sit by one of our hives all day, weighing it 

 at intervals, if nothing else would convince them, 

 before they were still. 



Counting the number of flower heads that a 

 bee visits is a new idea to us ; but w^e cannot 

 think our bees visit more than a dozen certainly. 

 One day in June, when w^e examined the red 

 clover, we should think a bee would get a fair 

 load from a single blossom ; and many of them 

 were working in the red clover at the time. The 

 number stated seems as though the printer had 

 made a mistake with the figures. Nearly ten 

 blossoms in a minute for a whole hour, and not 

 more than a load then ! We agree that must be 

 poor pasturage. 



Nearly every year since we have kept bees has 

 been called, bj' more or less unsuccessful ones, 

 the " poorest " season ever known ; yet, so far as 

 honey is concerned, all ice ask is — more ju^t like 



til €711. 



The only plant we have ever cultivated for 

 bees is the Alsike clover, of which we have about 

 half an acre, sown last spring on the sn^w, and 

 which has bloomed quite profusely for the last 

 si.\ weeks, but is now nearly gone. We think 

 our bees kept at least one sentinel to the square 

 fuot of it, to watch for the honey as it collected. 



We had a visitor the other day (in fact, we 

 have visitors by the score, and we are ashamed 

 to say, to our sorrow sometimes). Well, this 

 one for a while did not tiiink proper to inform us 

 whether he kept bees on the "brimstone plan" 

 and came to convince us it was the best way, or 

 whether he was the Editor of the Bee .Jouunal 

 himself (of the latter we were very sure, as we 

 think we should know him anywhere); but even- 

 tuall}' he taught us some things, and we hope he 

 learned some things from us. His visit did not 

 last quite twentj'-four hours, but he reallj' made 

 us feel quite lonely, for more than that length of 

 time after he was gone. One simple thing, that 

 Gallup has often said before, but we did not be- 

 lii've it, our visitor convinced us of — namely, that 

 rotten wood is ahead of all tobacco, rags, or any- 

 thing else, for subduing bees, especially hybrids, 

 who will sometimes "fight till death" when to- 

 bacco is used, but would turn around and go 

 down between the frames "without ever a word " 

 under the influence of rotten wood smoke. But 

 don't do as we did next day after he left us, 



and drop fire into the saw-dust. We burnt up a 

 heavy two-story Langstroth of Italians before we 

 discovered the muss, and the stream of molted 

 wax and smoking honey that ran out in luva-like 

 channels was a warning to all Novices. 



And then we had some robbing at ouu house. 

 We got about half a dozen frames of empty comb 

 hastily put in a new hive, and removed the burnt 

 one, and got the bees to bringing in the honey 

 that had run out (they wouldn't eat melted wax); 

 but before they had got it all done, there arose 

 an " o«pleasantness " as to ownership that finally 

 mixed itself into a grand jubilee, in spite of 

 Novice. The burnt hive is patched up, and the 

 combs and bees are back into it, minus their 

 queen, ab ut forty pounds of honey, and ten 

 frames of comb of such evenness and beauty, that 

 some one (who wanted to pick a fuss) said we 

 thought more of them than uf our W'ife and fam- 



i'y- 



Our visitor aforementioned says he has never 

 written but one article on bees, and we think 

 that so richly deserves a place in the Journal, 

 that we mail it to you. 



And now, Mr. Editor, we would saj' before 

 closing, that in our Immble opinion, the results 

 we have achieved this year, are no nearer what 

 may be done in scientific bee-culture, than the old 

 brimstone way is to our present method, and 

 humbly beg to be still considered a 



Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bec-Oulture in Cities. 



Mr. Editor : — According to promise I will 

 try to answer the queries so often put in the 

 Journal: — "Are bees profitable?" and "Can 

 bees be kept in cities ?" 



I have kept bees for the last three years on the 

 roof of a two-story house in the city of Cincin- 

 nati, having kept bees before, when living on a 

 farm. We did then about as well with tliem, as 

 our neighbors did who also kept bees ; but we 

 were without the aid of the Bee Journal, and 

 kept our bees in common box hives — hence our 

 doings could hardly be called bee-keeping. 



Three years ago we took to the citj' the last 

 hive whicii the moths had left us, built a plat- 

 form on the roof of the house, and placed the 

 hive thereon. It threw off a swarm in June 

 following, and gave us some honey. In the fall 

 I introduced an Italian queen in each colony. 

 Two years ago I subscribed for the American 

 Bee Journal, and transferred my bees into 

 Langstroth hives. A year ago last spring I en- 

 tered on the campaign with five colonies of bees 

 — the two Italians in Langstroth hives, and three 

 in Townley hives, having bought the latter. 

 They produced during the si'ason nearl}^ five 

 hundred pounds of honey, all in small fiames 

 weighing froui one pound to one and a half 

 pounds each ; and the fall found me in posses- 

 sion of fifteen strong stands of bees, most of 

 them Italians. On the fourth of June, 1869, I 

 hived two second swarms, clustered together, 

 from two of the Townley hives. After giving 

 them an Italian queen and a full set of empty 



