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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



surely had not learned all the habits of 

 bees if he did not know that any colony 

 could be induced to take a queen by 

 taking away all of the brood, and shak- 

 ing the bees all out at the entrance a 

 time or two, as this was after the nature 

 of bees when they swarm, at which 

 time they will accept any queen. But 

 so long as you allow them brood, they 

 are apt to show fight to a queen or 

 worker. But while they are out as a 

 swarm, they will admit queens, drones 

 and workers, and perhaps bumble-bees, 

 for ought I know. And I said that 

 should I have one of that kind of hard 

 colonies to deal with, I would make 

 them take a queen after the nature that 

 a swarm takes a queen. 



Now, through some remarks Mr. A. 

 made to something like the above, I 

 " caught onto " it that he had been 

 more than 30 years learning the habits 

 of bees, and yet did not know their na- 

 ture. Well, neither do I know all the 

 habits of bees, but I happened to be ac- 

 quainted with that part of their nature, 

 and "Aunt Jennie" was just trying to 

 " larn" Mr. Alley, and it seems that he 

 doesn't want to take "larnin." 



Now, nothing that is said above has 

 anything to do with my plan of introduc- 

 ing queens, as you will find it described 

 on page 865 of the American Bee 

 Journal for Sept, 15, 1892. Now, let 

 all turn to it and read my plan, and 

 then I think they will count me among 

 one of Mr. Alley's " thousands" who are 

 making a success of introducing queens. 

 Yes, I make it very successful, for at 

 one time last year, in a single day, I 

 introduced 50 queens in less than 30 

 minutes, without the loss of a single 

 queen ! Now, Mr. Alley may be very 

 curious to know how I did all this so 

 quickly. Well, one of the boys had just 

 gone ahead of me and removed all the 

 old queens, and I only went from hive to 

 hive and raised the covers and laid the 

 cages on the frames, wire-cloth down ; 

 the end of the cages that contained the 

 candy had no strip on them, as there 

 had none been placed there. 



Now I hope the above will give Mr. 

 Alley satisfaction, but J have only quot- 

 ed from memory, and that is sometimes 

 faulty. 



Please Send. Us the Names of your 

 neighbors who keep bees, and we will 

 send them sample copies of the Bee 

 JotJRNAL,. Then please call upon them 

 and get them to subscribe with you, and 

 secure some of the premiums we offer. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, aud 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the 25 or more apiarists 

 who help to make " Queries and Replies " so 

 interesting on another page. In the main. It 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— En. 



Hives for Comb Honey. 



I have 8 colonies of bees in different 

 sized hives — 2 are in dovetailed hives, 2 

 in Danzenbaker, 2 in box-hives, and 2 

 are in hives of my own make. I want 

 to increase my bees, and I don't know 

 what kind of hives to use. WMch do 

 you think would be the best for comb 

 honey ? Please answer in the American 

 Bee Journal. Walter R. Wood. 



Bellevue, Del. 



Answer. — The Bee Journal cannot 

 undertake to recommend any particular 

 hive for any especial purpose, or any 

 other apiarian implement. The reason 

 for this must be apparent to all thinking 

 readers. There are many good hives, 

 and to single out any one would be un- 

 fair to the others. So it would be with 

 other bee-appliances. 



Yellow Jessamine — Poisonous Honey. 



Here in Florida, it is claimed that the 

 honey from the yellow jessamine is 

 poisonous, or at least makes people 

 deathly sick who eat it. I enclose a 

 sample of the plant, and should like to 

 know as to the truth of the claim. 



C. F. Greening. 



Orange Park, Fla. 



We sent the sample sprig of yellow 

 jessamine to Prof. Cook, requesting his 

 opinion as to the poisonous qualities of 

 its honey, and here Is his reply : 



There have been a few accounts of 

 bees gathering poisonous honey from a 

 few plants. I have much doubted the 

 truth of such assertions. In the first 

 place, the so-called poisonous plants 

 bloom every year, and yet how very rare 

 are even reported cases of poisonous 

 honey. Again, even our best honey is a 

 very rich food, and is poisonous to many, 

 especially if taken immoderately. May 

 it not be over-eating, or an idiosyncrasy 

 in the person that caused the sickness, 

 and not that the honey was poisonous ? 



I have heard of severaF cases of pois- 



