76 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



fall in with us and give all the assistance 

 in their power, as a perfect success should 

 be mutual to the entire brotherhood. 



J. H. Nellis, Sec'y. 

 J. E. Hetherington, Chairman. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Sundry Items. 



"The February number just to hand. 

 This is as we like it. The Journal, Maga- 

 zine, and Gleanings are usually on hand 

 within a few days of the first of the month 

 it calls for; would that 'The World' 

 could be induced to be equally as prompt. 



"We have had a very remarkable winter. 

 The coldest day was Saturday, Dec. 18th; 

 the thermometer ranging at 14 degress on 

 that day; the next being Friday, Jan. 14th, 

 thermometer, 20 degrees ; from these it has 

 ranged up to 60 degrees. Fully two-thirds 

 of the weather has been clear and fine, 

 having but little rain and only one slight 

 sprinkle of snow, which was on the 9th of 

 December. You and your readers are 

 doubtless aware that we, in this latitude, 

 winter our bees in their summer stands, so 

 you see, from what I have said of the 

 weather, that our bees have been able to 

 fly out very near the whole winter. We 

 have about 60 colonies in our queen- 

 rearing yard, and so far have lost only 

 three. The first lost was one which we 

 had purchased in a box-hive and had not 

 transferred: it was taken by the moths, 

 Nov. 19th. The next we discovered was 

 Jan. 13th, which went up for the want of 

 stores ; this, also, was a recent purchase. 

 The last was on Sunday, Jan. 23d, which 

 was by a " leave-taking," and to us, a very 

 mysterious one. The day was a very fine 

 one, but windy. We had taken a stroll 

 around the hives, but discovered nothing 

 unusual : returned to the house and was 

 seated upon the doorsteps, when a neigh- 

 bor came up and asked if we had lost a 

 swarm of bees, to which we replied, that 

 we had not, but in company with him took 

 another stroll among the hives, still find- 

 ing nothing wrong. We then went with 

 our neighbor to his house and found that 

 a swarm had entered one of his hives, and 

 a "big fight" was going on, with hund- 

 reds of the killed and wounded strewn 

 around. We now returned to our yard 

 and made another examination : we soon 

 came upon a hive beseiged with robbers, 

 a. considerable fight also going on, and 

 now and then a bee entering with pollen. 

 We opened the hive and found it totally 

 deserted, yet containing plenty of honey, 

 both capped and uncapped ; also pollen 

 in abundance, and eggs and brood, both 

 sealed and unsealed, sliowing that they 

 were not queenless, nor in a destitute con- 

 dition. The (jueen of this colony was one 

 of my own rearing, having hatched in 

 August; was fertilized and laying, Sept. 

 5th: she was very prolific. Now will 



some one inform me why she took her 

 departure ? 



" Friday, Jan. 2lst, made an examina- 

 tion of the most of our hives ; found the 

 majority of the queens laying, and all 

 with ample stores. Our truant queen had 

 sealed brood, and by this time, probably, 

 has young bees nestling about her." 



Wm. J. Andrews. 



Columbia, Tenn., Jan. 26, '76. 



For Wie American Bee Journal. 

 Visiting. 



On a beautiful morning in August I 

 found myself in Hamilton, 111. t went 

 there on a visit for which I had longed 

 for several years. From the various arti- 

 cles I had read, I anticipated that I was 

 soon to see an apiary, whose equal was 

 not to be found in America. Nor were 

 my expectations doomed to disappoint- 

 ment. By a little inquiry, I found that 

 the Messrs. Dadants lived about two miles 

 north of Hamilton, on a little stream 

 known as Chenny creek. Just a nice 

 morning walk all shaded by beautiful 

 little trees, quite a quantity of which were 

 Linden. The path crosses the creek quite 

 a number of times. The water is almost 

 as clear as crystal ; it runs over the rocks 

 very swiftly. In some places it runs by 

 high ledges of rock, out of which numer- 

 ous springs of pure, cold water flows. 

 The largest of these, is called " Wild Cat 

 Spring " and is known for miles around. 

 It is the favorite pleasure resort of hun- 

 dreds of people of Keokuk. It issyes 

 from a large cave and afi'ords hundreds of 

 gallons of water per hour. The water is 

 conducted through large wooden troughs 

 and falls in a large artificial reservoir. A 

 pretty grove right by tlie side of it is sur- 

 rounded by a cute, rustic fence ; here and 

 there ladies and gentlemen are seen stroll- 

 ing around playing croquet or other 

 games. The path, after leaving this 

 spring, passes by one or two cottages be- 

 fore coming to the home of the big bee 

 man of Chenny creek. 



After leaving the last cottage it is but a 

 very short distance; the view on both 

 sides of the path being cut ofl by a dense 

 growth of shrubs, until you find yourself 

 by the side of a regular liliputation city 

 with about a hundred and eighty houses 

 almost all alike except that they are 

 painted difi'erent colors. The apiary is 

 situated on both sides of a point of a hill; 

 the greater part of the apiary slopes to the 

 southeast, the remainder to the south. 

 Just at the north edge of the apiary they 

 are building a new house, I presume Mr. 

 Dadant, Jr., expects to import a queen to 

 introduce into it, for he assured me that 

 imported queens were the best. 



I was highly pleased to learn that they 

 expected to receive an invoice of queens 

 the next day, I accepted the pressing invi- 



