1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



91 



[For the American Bee Journal ] 



The Looking-glass Again. 



Mil. Editor: — I liave used the loo]<ing-glass 

 often for arresting swarms, rarely failing ; but 1 

 have always uxed it in eonjunction loith the shotgun. 

 Used tlius, it seems to induce in the bees the idea 

 of an approaching storm, and that the)'- ought to 

 be securing a place of safety as quick us possible. 



Out of a number of examples, I give the fol- 

 lowing : 



A second swarm proved to be bent on emigrat- 

 ing, for on six consecutive days it left as many 

 different hives. Each time it was brought to an- 

 chor by the looking-glass, »tc. The last time the 

 bees fell as if shot dead, at the tlasli and report. 

 And for aught I know and saw, they might have 

 kept trying to this day. 



In Some rare cases, however, I have failed to 

 bring the swarm to settle. 



My l)ees have swarmed heaviiy this year, and 

 for a rarity seemed to select the tops of the liigh- 

 est trees to settle on, and then would often leave 

 for the woods after hiving. Query, was there 

 any connection between the two facts? 



The early season, here, was superior for lione}^ 

 up to the blooming of ilie white clover, which 

 was very scarce, and almost devoid of honey. 

 The weather has been hot and drj-, and no honey 

 since. 



There has been no honey-dew since the war 

 near me ; whilst a large piece of woods, three 

 miles off, seemed, two years ago, to be literally 

 flowing with hone)'-dew, and alive with bees. 

 The tract was tline milts wide and five miles 

 long, and alive with bees, throughout its whole 

 extent, every day for several weeks. Did the 

 bees of the country gather there? 



Your paper is read with intense interest. Long 

 may it live to contribute to the pleasure and profit 

 of bee-keepers. 



J, B. ToWXLEY. 



Bed Hill Depot, Albemarle Co. , Va. 



[Fov tlu? American Bee Journal.] 



The Drouth, Bee Pasturage, and Queens. 



The honey season has not been good, in this 

 section of country, since the middle of June, in 

 consequence of continued hot and dry weather. 

 Two timely showers served to make a fair crop 

 of corn, but did not much increase the secretion 

 of honey — hence the bees have not gathered 

 more in that period of time than to supply their 

 daily consumption, and keep them brooding. 

 These points I have watched closely. The 

 white clover bloomed nearly two weeks earlier 

 this year, than usual here ; and, therefore, b}' the 

 time the colonies had brooded up to the point of 

 swarming, the chief honey harvest was gone. 

 Hence, but few natural swarms came off, and 

 most of these came near starving to death, and 

 will require doubling up for wintering. 



1 made a number of artificial swarms, by taking 

 a comb of brood, honey, and bees, from six full 

 hives and pulling them together into a new 

 hive— us'.ng empty frames to fill the vacancy 



made in the old hives. The swarms thus made 

 have done well, compared with natural ones, 

 and will be in fair condition for winter. 



It continues so diy yet that we cannot look for 

 a large yield of honey, either from buckwheat or 

 other flowers ; nor, if we could, can we expect 

 much honey to be stored in boxes, where comb 

 has to be built to receive it, as the nights are be- 

 coming too cool for comb-building. 



I have seen the bees work incessantly for U\o 

 or three weeks, this season, upon the plant 

 known as Carpenter's Square, (Scropiiulakea 

 NODOSA Maiiilandica, Nodose Scrophulavia, Fig- 

 icort,) and also, as usunl, on the Purple Polyne- 

 sia, which appears to yield honey remarkably in 

 hot and diy weather. In this vicinity, also, both 

 the black and the Italian bees have worked on the 

 red clover, during the last weeks of August. But, 

 more than all this, our bees this season seemed 

 compelled to visit the groceries for sugar and 

 other sweets, to suppl\' the lack of honey in the 

 flowers, and have perished by thousands in their 

 demoralized eagerness to obtain them. 



From all this we have learned again the neces- 

 sity of cultivating more extensively some crops or 

 plants thai will yield honey in the usual barren in- 

 terval between the failing of the white clover and 

 the Alsike and the coming in of the buckwheat 

 and fall flowers. The linden trees supply this in 

 some localities, but not in ours — being too re- 

 mote from them. Buckwheat sown about the 

 first of June, will often fill this interval, and that 

 sown a month later will make the fall pasturage. 

 Thus, by a proper disposition of crops, we may, 

 with favorable weather, make a continued honey 

 harvest all the summer montlis ; and, in unfa- 

 vorable weather, secure at least a partial su|)])ly 

 for the same period of time — thereby saving mil- 

 lions of bees from the demoralizing effects of 

 visiting grocerie.«, and the consequent loss of 

 their lives. 



This summer my bees have not been disposed 

 to start as many queen cells as I desired ; and, 

 hence, after supplying all my colonies with 

 queens, have not had as many as I wished, to 

 experiment with in the various proposed methods 

 of fertilization in confinement. But I have had 

 enough to show me that under our present knowl- 

 edge of these processes, none of them are as suc- 

 cessful as is desirable for the purposes of the 

 intelligent queen-raiser. I have learned, more- 

 over, that by most of tl'.e methods employed tlie 

 queens and drones become so excited, that, with- 

 out fostering the disposition for mating (the pur- 

 pose for which they are confined) they worry 

 tiiemselves to death in a very short time. To 

 remedy this, I have made cages on the same 

 jilan of mj^ Queen Nurserj' cages, but larger 

 every way, with the covered way at one end 

 converted into an antc-chamhcr for the introduc- 

 tion of the drones at the proper season, without 

 disturbing either the workers or the queen in the 

 queen's parlor. In this parlor we put two 

 square inches of comb, filled with mature lirood, 

 and, over this, three inches sciuare of comb filled 

 with honey for feed ; and in the vacant part of 

 it, we suspend a queen cell sealed over. Then, 

 after closing the door, place the cage in a popu- 

 lous stock of bees, for the queen and workers to 



