66 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



production into the more ethereal realms 

 of salaried situations {"■please send in 

 money to pay expenses"). If I have in- 

 sulted any one, wouldn't it be better if K. 

 and S. would not repeat the insult by tel- 

 ling them of it, as though they would not 

 find if out alone ? From the tone of letters 

 I have received and the conversation of 

 all I have talked with upon this subject, 

 I am not afraid of anj'' " contempt," except 

 frojn contemptible sources. Now Bros. 

 King and Slocum, don't begin to " cud- 

 dle" up to Gleanings so soon ; all the 

 attaches to apiculture are not going 

 back on you. Only the few who are try- 

 ing to support their families by the pro- 

 duction of honey and bees, are going to 

 wake up to their interests, as the Califor- 

 nians have done, and help to skim off the 

 froth and get at the real substance of the 

 pursuit. All those fellows who form a 

 double-line gauntlet, which nearly every 

 one of us have run, and been bled there- 

 by, will stick to you as long as you will 

 float them by advertising their wares and 

 capturing new victims for them. 



No matter how much money maj^ be 

 made in vending worthless apiarian sup- 

 plies at high, unreasonable prices, if there 

 is not a living to be found in the real pro- 

 duction of honey and bees, I, for one, am 

 ready to break ranks and seek some other 

 way of bettering the condition of my 

 family and the world. We expect many 

 who have no adaptability to apiculture, 

 and who have been led to its adoption by 

 one-sided reports, "garbling," etc., to- 

 gether with the big delusive stories told 

 by supply venders, will noiselessly drop 

 out of the business, while new ones will 

 embark in it. 



What we want is "free and accepted" 

 bee-keepers, and honesty follows. Those 

 who have carefully weighed both sides, 

 and whose natural adaptability to the 

 business, tells them to stem the current. 

 To such, and all honey producers, do we 

 extend the right hand of feliow^ship. If 

 all those who have lost, and given up in 

 disgust, would SPEAK OUT, the clamorers 

 would drown the hum of all the bees in 

 the world. We w^ant a Bee Journal. 

 One will do — one not run to the interest 

 of hives or other fixtures — one that 

 welcomes every new comer as one of our 

 little squad slowly trudging up the hill, 

 but seeks to proselyte none — one devot- 

 ed TO the interest of the honey pro- 

 ducers OF America. Jas. Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Feb. 5, 1876. 



Mr. Walker, a Cincinnati scientist, has 

 allowed himself to be stung once a day 

 for three weeks by bees, to ascertain the 

 effect. He says that after about the tenth 

 time the pain and the swelling were 

 slight, the body seeming to become inocu- 

 lated with the poison. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Economize their Labors. 



Mr. Editor : — No doubt but thousands 

 are situated like myself in respect to bee- 

 pasturage. We have white clover in 

 abundance, but little basswood. We have 

 also a pretty good fall pasture. What 

 honey we get comes in fiirts, and is of 

 short duration. 



And now comes the question: How 

 shall we work our bees so as to take ad- 

 vantage of their labors ? If we build up 

 powerful colonies, either natural or arti- 

 ficial, by the time we get them well 

 started to work in boxes, they send out 

 swarms, and our nice calculation is 

 spoiled. Messrs. Langstroth and Quinby 

 tell us, and all experience corroborates 

 the truth they state, namely, that newly 

 hived swarms work with more energy 

 than old stocks, and will accumulate 

 stores much faster. Now if this be a 

 fact, shall we not take advantage of their 

 labors and have them store their honey 

 for us in nice neat glass boxes or small 

 frames for market, instead of having 

 them filling new hives with brood combs ? 

 I have been testing a plan, more or less 

 for two seasons, and am very much 

 pleased with it, and will hereafter work 

 my entire apiary upon it. I like it, first, 

 because I can run my apiary of sixty 

 colonies with but a small increase of 

 stocks, no matter how much they may be 

 disposed to swarm; and, secondly, be- 

 cause I get a great deal more honey and 

 in better shape. 



I will now give a description of the 

 plan. For example, I have 60 swarms to 

 commence the season with. I shall work 

 40 for box or small frame hone}', as comb- 

 honey is our hobby ; in 20 swarms I want 

 to build combs and furnish brood. The 

 brood I want to keep up the strength of 

 honey-storing stocks. Now, then, natural 

 swarming is what I practice, as it's the 

 only plan that w'ill succeed this way. As 

 soon as a swarm is on the wing 1 take 

 from ai c d oi my reserved stocks and fill 

 the hive to be used, all but one or two 

 combs; allowing them to build them in 

 the center ; all those combs must be well 

 filled with hatching brood. Now cover 

 the entire top with boxes or frames and 

 hive your swarms, then compel them to 

 go into the boxes, as all below is full and 

 every day those stocks are growing 

 stronger, from hatching brood. Such 

 swarms are very strong and must be well 

 ventilated by raising the hive up, so as to 

 make a passage for bees all around. 

 If honey is plenty boxes will be filled in 

 6 or 8 days, but of course this time will 

 depend on the flow of honey, but in the 

 course of twenty days you must overhaul 

 these swarms, remove all frames from 

 hives that are nearly filled with honey, 

 and fill in with hatching brood to keep up 



