483 



unless you want the bees to pitch her 

 out of doors. Wait till she begins to j 

 lay, and if the colony is weak, as soon j 

 as her eggs hatch then give the colony j 

 brood in all stages, and you will find 

 things go on all right. 



Mr. S. speaks about his rearing Ital- 

 ian queens. I have reared over 1,000 

 since 1873, but I never knew everything 

 go wrong-end first as they have this 

 season. Sometimes you have them, and 

 very often when you look for them you 

 will find the combs covered with cells. 

 It has been so with me ever since June, 

 and I know of others that have been 

 troubled the same. Such a season has 

 not been known here before. 



Woodbury, Conn., Sept. 13, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Concert by the Bees. 



W. T. STEWART. 



Many concerts have been given in the 

 halls of our town— but the best exhibi- 

 tion in the line of music that has ever 

 been our pleasure to witness was a con- 

 cert given by the bees this summer(not in 

 a hall) but in a patch of Simpson honey 

 plant in my bee yard. There are about 

 one hundred plants. The bees com- 

 menced their work on the second of 

 July and the concert is still going on 

 lively. For over two months the plants 

 have been literally covered with bees 

 from daylight until dark every day 

 (Sundays not excepted), it looks and 

 sounds somewhat like a good swarm in 

 search of a good place to settle. It is 

 undoubtedly the best honey plant we 

 have. I have in the same yard almost 

 all the known honey plants and I take 

 a great delight in watching them. The 

 Simpson is by far the best of all. 

 Motherwort is second best. Both are 

 easily cultivated and bloom all through 

 July, August and September. If bee- 

 keepers would plant the fence corners 

 and waste ground in their respective 

 neighborhoods with these two plants 

 until they are well seeded, we might 

 have honey stored in boxes all summer, 

 and it would pay well. They both come 

 from the old root every year, for a life- 

 time, and also new plants are springing 

 up from the seed all around near the old 

 ones. 



I counted the seed pods on an average 

 Simpson plant, they amounted to the 

 enormous number of twenty-six hun- 

 dred pods or flowers on one stalk, and 

 there were four other stalks from the 

 same root. I am planting the seed as 

 fast as they ripen. I have seen but one 

 bee on melilot this season or last. 



I neglected to report my honey crop 

 last month. 1 commenced the season 

 with 35 colonies ; increased by natural 

 and artificial swarming to 73 ; I have 

 787 lbs. of white comb honey. I use 

 the book frame, 10 inches square in the 

 clear, 15 frames to the hive in summer 

 and 12 in winter, mostly chaff hives. I 

 work them by Doolittle v s plan of spread- 

 ing the frames in spring and towering 

 up boxes or sections. My bees are 

 mostly hybrids. Success to the Bee 

 Journal and Simpson honey plant. 



Eminence, Ky., Sept. 14, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee and Honey Show in Scotland. 



J. D. HUTCHINSON. 



Our bee and honey show was a fine 

 one, and was a success except in finan- 

 ces. It rained incessantly for the first 

 3 days, interfering very much with the 

 attendance. In Scotland we have had 

 an excellent, season, and I think bee- 

 keepers have nothing to complain of. 



The following is from the Kelso 

 Chronicle, in reference to our show : 



The Caledonian Apiarian Society 

 held its 7th annual honey and bee show 

 at Kelso, Scotland, on July 27 to 30, 1880. 



The Society was instituted in 1874, 

 and shortly afterwards was honored 

 with the patronage of the Highland 

 Agricultural Society. The aim of the 

 Society's existence is to foster through- 

 out the country a love for apiculture on 

 the most humane, as well as the most 

 profitable, principles ; and the result of 

 the Society's exhibitions, wherever they 

 have been held, has been to introduce 

 the bar-frame hive and the honey box, 

 as well as to stamp out the inhumane 

 system of killing the bees in order to 

 get their honey. The exhibits in the 

 show tent this year, although not so 

 numerous as on some previous years, 

 show a marked improvement in the 

 science of apiculture. The center of 

 interest to strangers was, as on other 

 occasions, the observatory hives, where 

 the Ligurians and the blacks were seen 

 working side by side. The place of 

 honor was awarded to an ordinary 

 nucleus of frames. Two well got-up 

 Woodbury hives in glass cases were 

 also much admired. Of greatest interest 

 to the bee-keeper, however, was the 

 excellent assortment of hives and bee- 

 gear exhibited, showing all the most 

 recent improvements, several of which 

 have not hitherto been before the pub- 

 lic. Mr. R. Steele, Fowlis, Dundee, 

 deservedly carried off most of the 

 honors in this department. It is to the 



