276 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



MOONS' BEE WORLD. 



Domesticating Bees. 

 Friend Moon remarks that " Bees can be 

 learned to i-ome at call;^^ and then adds: 



"We plac d a swarm in a dark room upon 

 the floor. TV e fed in flat dishes with floats 

 to prevent the bees from getting into the 

 food. At fiist we had to rap on tlie hive to 

 call them cmt. As soon as they found that 

 their food was administered in that way, 

 they were n t slow to come for it. We soon 

 found tliat wlien we entered the room, with 

 or without food, in the dark, and at the dis- 

 tance of 8 to 10 feet from the bees, by gentle 

 raps on the floor, they would come to us by 

 thousands. If we changed to another posi- 

 tion they would follow us, always peaceable 

 and kind." 



Introducing Virgin Queens. 



E. C. L. Larch gives the following as his 

 method of introducing a virgin queen: 



" She must be not more than a few hours 

 old — the sooner after hateiiing the better. 

 Place her on a comb where there is plenty 

 of lioney and close the hive. I have only 

 succeeded in introducing one virgin out of 

 several that were over twenty-four hours 

 old, and she was caged 6 days in a hive with 

 a laying queen. Wiien tlie laying queen 

 was removed, she did not commence laying 

 until about 2 weeks old. I prefer to give to 

 each new colony or nucleus a queen-cell, 

 nearly ready to hatch, and then waiting 

 about 6 hours. If I have the time, should 

 several queens hatch at once unexpectedly, 

 and they are discovered before being killed, 

 I endeavor to save all that I can by giving 

 all the suriilus queens to nuclei at once. 



"Mr. Boardman says he feeds his 

 bees with a composition of one spoonful of 

 sugar, boiled in four spoonsful of water, to 

 which is slowly added, (stirring always) 

 half a spoonful of wheat flour. It has the 

 appearance of white honey and answers the 

 purpose very well. The above preparation 

 can be increased to pounds, quarts, &c., if 

 large quantities are required." 



|^°We issue this number of The Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal a tew days earlier than 

 usual, in order to permit the publisher to 

 attend the National Convention and Honey 

 Show at the Centennial grounds, from Oct. 

 25th to Nov. 1st; a full report of which may 

 be expected in our next number. 



The publisher has gone to the Centennial 

 Meeting, at Philadelphia, and will not i-e- 

 turn till the 4th of November. So tliose 

 writing to this oflice before that time, must 

 not be disappointed if they do not get an 

 immediate reply. 



It^^No class of business suffers from the 

 hard times more than tlie business of jnib- 

 lishing a newspaper. Three-ciuarters of 

 tlie newspapers published in tliis country 

 are not paying expenses. 



Jt^'^Among our many callers this month, 

 we may name Mr. T. F. Bingham, of Ab- 

 ronia, Mich. He has already sent his bees 

 to the South to winter. He has 200 colonies. 

 He has a ton of comb and 1,500 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey. Mr. Staples, of Columbia, 



Tenn., of the firm of Staples, Andrews & 

 Vaughan. They have 400 stands of bees, 

 and have sold a large lot of queens and bees 

 this season as well as produced much 



honey. Mr. R. R. Murphy, of Fulton, 



111., who was on his way to the National B. 

 K. Convention. His extractor has already 

 been awarded a premium by the Centennial 



Committee. Mr. E. Osburn, Jackson Co., 



Iowa, also called. He has 56 colonies, many 

 of them having given 100 Ifes. of comb honey 

 each. He has a ton of box honey now on 



hand. Mr. George Thompson, of Geneva, 



and Mr. James Marvin, of St. Charles, of 

 Kane Co., 111., spent a pleasant hour with 

 us. The latter has several tons of extracted 

 honey; having sold his box honey, at 20 cts. 



per fi). in the quantity. Many others 



have also given us a pleasant call, whose 

 names we do not now remember. All of 

 them, however, report a good honey har- 

 vest. 



IIt^"The Governor of the Province of 

 Quebec, Canada, has just decreed that bee- 

 keeping be taught to the pupils of the Nor- 

 mal School of Montreal. Mr. Thos. Vali- 

 quet, of St. Hilaire, has been appointed 

 lecturer. We congratulate the Governor on 

 his decision, and the superintendent of the 

 schools upon the appointment of this ex- 

 perienced bee-keeper. He could not have 

 made a better choice. 



llI^°Mr. H. Alley, Wenham, Mass., has 

 sent us one of his Smokers. It is a tin tube 

 with a mouth-piece in one end, and a small 

 tin tube in the other to force the smoke 

 through. Mr. H. sends the following, des- 

 criptive of it and its use: 



"I have used these pipes for the past 18 

 years, and hardly know how I could get 

 along without one. I have taken 20 qvieens 

 from nuclei hives by the use of one of these 

 pipes, and put them into mailing boxes, 

 without re-loading or re-lighting the pipe. 

 Have opened and examined 4 Langstroth 

 hives by the use of one of them; there is no 

 trouble about the pipe going out. I hold it 

 between my teeth and direct the smoke to 

 any part of the hive I desire. If the bees 

 attempt to run up from between the combs, 

 I blow the smoke on them, and they soon 

 get out of my way. I find it very useful 

 when removing "boxes or introducing 

 queens." 



Agents.— We want a good agent in every 

 section of the United States and Canada. 

 Such are invited to correspond with us. 



