Barrels for Honey.— Can I put honey 

 in oak barrels, with waxing, and have 

 them hold? O. C. Blanchard. 



Ironton, Wis., Sept, 3, 1880. 



[Yes, if properly waxed, which is very 

 difficult ; at least 75 per cent, of all the 

 oak barrels we ever saw (whether waxed 

 or otherwise) containing honey, leaked. 

 We advise the use of "sugar pine" or 

 spruce ; then make small casks, to hold 

 not less than 10 nor more than 20 galls. 

 (100 to 210 lbs). These will cost but lit- 

 tle, if any, more than barrels, are much 

 easier to handle, less liable to bruise in 

 transit, and will command a readier sale 

 in market. Few grocers or consumers 

 care to buy a 500 or 600-lb. pkg. of honey 

 atone time, and if the ''middle man" 

 has to repack to make a market, there 

 is shrinkage in weight, loss of time and 

 waste of barrel, all of which have to be 

 made good, either by the producer tak- 

 ing a less, or the consumer paying a 

 greater figure, or the " middle man" is 

 a loser, and declines to handle in future 

 without a larger margin. — Ed.] 



Deserted. — Mr. D. O. Byrne, a neigh- 

 bor and beginner in bee-culture, having 

 6 colonies in the "•golden" hives, re- 

 quested me to come over and examine 

 them. I found all doing well ; one col- 

 ony threatening to swarm ; upon open- 

 ing it, I found it heavy with brood, 

 plenty of eggs, honey, and 7 queen 

 cells, from 3 to 5 days old ; I destroyed 

 4, leaving 3 of the best developed, not 

 more than 2 days capped ; I straightened 

 some crooked combs, and closed it up to 

 await further development of the cells, 

 when I proposed to put them in nuclei. 

 I considered the colony in good condi- 

 tion, the honey boxes being about half 

 full. In about an hour after the bees 

 came rushing out pell-mell, jumping 

 from the alighting-board upon the 

 ground, sweeping a trail for 2 feet, and 

 arose. Mrs. B. ran out and settled them, 

 thinking it all right, but as soon as 

 settled they arose again and left for 

 parts unknown. Upon examining the 

 hive, every bee that could fly had de- 

 serted, leaving it with but a few young 

 bees. Mr. B. filled up the hive again 

 with bees from other colonies, to save 

 the brood and queen cells. We cannot 

 assign any cause, having never seen or 

 heard of a similar occurrence. Give us 

 your opinion of it. We use the golden 

 bee hive here generally, and are well 

 pleased with it. Bees are doing well 



this year, except that they swarm too 

 much ; they have been swarming all 

 this month ; this is the second season 

 for this year. W. A. Milling. 



Biard, Texas, Aug. 24, 1880. 



[It was a case of natural swarming. 

 The bees were fully prepared to go, and 

 were only awaiting a successor to the 

 old queen, when you facilitated their 

 departure by destroying the cells, thus 

 persuading her that a rival had already 

 commenced her work of destruction. 

 This, too, we judge to be a case where 

 the queen led out the swarm, from the 

 fact of their not taking wing from the 

 alighting-board, but following her on 

 the ground till she gained strength to 

 rise. — Ed.] 



Goldenrod.— Please name the enclosed 

 flower. I think it must be the much- 

 praised goldenrod. It grows wild, and 

 often covers the landscape for hundreds 

 of acres, and as it grows from 3 to ft. 

 high, it forms, as it were, a golden sea 

 of bloom for several weeks each fall. 

 David Higbee. 



Avoca, Iowa, Sept. 3, 1880. 



[It is one of the goldenrods. — Ed.] 



Killed by Glucose.— My bees all died 

 last winter from being fed on glucose, 

 so I am out of the business now and you 

 can stop my Bee Journal. II.M.M. 



[The only thing we regret is that the 

 writer of the above was so perverse as 

 to disregard all the warnings given in 

 the Bee Journal about feeding bees 

 such vile trash, and to deliberately mur- 

 der them in such a disgraceful manner. 

 We would as soon think of feeding our 

 children on sulphuric acid, as to shut up 

 our bees for the winter and give it to' 

 them to die on. Several similar cases 

 are reported, where bees have been 

 killed by feeding them on glucose.— Ed.] 



Clubbing Rates.— I have taken the 

 Bee Journal for years, and shall con- 

 tinue if I can get it at the same rate 

 that others can. I know of no one near 

 me who would subscribe for the Jour- 

 nal so that I can get it at club rates, 

 and now my only remedy is to send off 

 to some agency ; but this I dislike to do 

 from principle. I think that people vho 

 are scattered apart have a right to be 

 able to obtain public journals at the 

 same rates that those can who are in 

 more thickly settled places, where they 



