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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAj 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



Beeville, Texas. 



Removing Beeswax or Propolis from 

 Clothing. 



Mbs. Atchley : — Has anything yet 

 been discovered that will remove spots 

 of beeswax or propolis from clothing ? 

 If so, what is it? G. F. T. 



Friend T., I do not know of any ef- 

 fectual remedy for removing beeswax 

 from clothing. If any of the readers of 

 of the Bee Journal know, will they 

 please tell us through these columns, so 

 that we may all learn ? 



Jennie Atchley. 



What Caused the Bees to Die ? Etc. 



Mrs. Atchley : — I wish to know what 

 kind of buildings they put up where you 

 live; if they use much brick and stone, 

 as I am a mason by trade, and I think if 

 I could go there and work awhile at my 

 trade, I would know then whether to 

 sell out here and move or not, as I have 

 taken quite a notion to that country 

 since reading about it. 



I have kept bees about a year, and 

 have read with interest the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and especially when you had your 

 class of " infants." I started last spring 

 with four colonies, and divided them 

 once, and have eight now, all in good 

 condition except one, which I found 

 about six weeks ago, with more than 

 half the bees dead in the bottom of the 

 hive. I cleaned out all the dead ones, 

 and since then there are no more dead, 

 and they seem to be all right. What do 

 you suppose was the cause of it ? 



John T. Brown. 



Sumas, Wash., March 18. 



Friend Brown, I will answer your 

 questions as best I can. There are four 

 large buildings now going up in Beeville, 

 and they are using brick and stone. One 

 of the buildings is a $50,000 college. 



and the others are three large business 

 houses. The ring of the mason's trowel 

 and the carpenter's hammer is heard on 

 almost all sides in this little city of 

 2,500 people; and all are seemingly 

 happy, and still we are reported starv- 

 ing ! But such reports do not hurt us, 

 as we know they are not true. 



I do not know what caused your bees 

 to die. 



I will start another "infant" school 

 soon in this department. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Does it Injure Queens to Cage Them 

 When in Full Laying Condition ? 



I say no, that it does not injure a 

 queen in the least. I see that Mr. Fay- 

 lor, on page 371, has had some experi- 

 ence the other way. So now I will re- 

 late my own experience along this line. 



As I have told you before, how we 

 keep cell-building colonies about 20 in 

 number, 10 of them have queens on the 

 start, and 10 are queenless. We rear a 

 batch of cells in the 10 queenless ones, 

 then take out the 10 queens that occupy 

 the other 10 hives, and introduce them 

 to the 10 queenless ones, just after the 

 cells are removed, and vice versa. Well, 

 we have often found it necessary during 

 the season to cage the "cell-building 

 queens," as we call them, and during 

 the summer they are always kept at the 

 top notch of their laying capacity when 

 in the hives. These 10 queens have 

 been caged as many as 20 times, and 

 each time they were at the hiqhest pitch 

 of laying, for if not kept so by natural 

 stores, they are kept fed up, and these 

 10 queens used last year are being used 

 again this year, and are as prolific to- 

 day as at this time last year. 



Now I deem this (dogmatic) positive 

 enough proof to convince me that it does 

 not injure a queen-bee as it does a hen, 

 to check her in egg-laying. The mother- 

 bee just empties her body of eggs, and is 

 at ease, while a hen cannot do so. 



Now, for fear that Mr. Faylor may 

 think that I am trying to head him off, 

 I will say that I am not, as he made 

 nothing positive about his third para- 

 graph, and gives nothing to prove that 

 it does hurt queens to suddenly stop lay- 

 ing ; and I have positive proof in my 

 own yard that it does not hurt a queen 

 to stop laying, as I have tried it. 



I do not like to cage a queen that is 

 full of eggs, and mail her at once. I 

 think we should always give her ample 

 time to free herself, which will be about 



