THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



227 



TTie Old Bee. 



[From the German of Johann Banmann] 



Br " A Devonshire Bee-keeper." 



How many journies hast thou travcll'd 



To distant hills — to di-<tant vales, — 

 How oft thn leafy maze unravell'd 



Where Q;iylight into twilight pales; 

 With wing untiring day by day, 

 From morning's dawn till ev'ning gray. 

 With honey or with pollen freighted 



Often and often can-'st thou home; 

 Brief was thy rest when overweighted, 



But prompt to fill the waxea comb; 

 Sole end and aim of all thy zeal 

 The progress of the common weal. 

 ff wheu on guard Tjefore the city 



Thy post were threatened by tte foe, 

 Tlien TiU'd-eterr'd by ruth or pity 



All hostile schemes thou'dst overthrnw. 

 He who attack'd whilst thou hadst breath. 

 Trod but the path that led to death. 

 To build the combs thy aid was given, 



To feed the brood, to rear the young; 

 With willing mind and temper even, 



Wi h active limb ard pliant tongue; 

 By day or night no rest for thee; 

 Say, if on earth ihy equal be? 

 Labor and toil thy portion ever, 



Thou faithful, clever, noble thing? 

 What thy reward for such endeavor — 



What crowning blessing doth it bring?— 

 Without remorse, when old and gray, 

 Tostai ve and die tho\i"rt turned away. 

 Thy wings that erst were full and rounded, 



By willing toil are chafed anc worn; 

 Yet with submission still unbounded 



T.iou tak'st thy last sad flight forlorn. 

 And slowly flutt'ring to the earth 

 Fersak'st the home that gave thee birth. 



T. W. WooDBURT. 



MoDKT Eadford, Exeter, 16th August, 1865. 



For the American Bee Journal and Gazette. 



Another Instance of Two Queens in 

 One Hive. 



On examining a nucleus hive in which I was 

 rearing queens, just at night, I found a fine 

 young Italian just hatched. As there was 

 little if any brood in the hive I went hastily to 

 a good strong colony and took out a frame of 

 brood to give to the small one, to prevent the 

 bees leaving when the C|ueen made her flight. 

 Two days aftei', on examining the hive to see if 

 the cjueen was depositing eggs, I found on the 

 first frame that I lifted out an old queen with 

 one wing clipped and the cells all filled with 

 eggs. I knew the queen as the mother of the 

 colony from which I had taken the brood comb 

 so hurriedly. On the other frame I found my 

 young ciueen unharmed, quite contrary to my 

 expectation. To observe the ending of the 

 matter I left both in it. Several days of bad 

 weather followed. I looked in the hive each 

 afternoon, and found both ciueens doing well. 

 Then came a bright warm day, and about noon, 

 as I passed the hive; I saw the bees dragging 

 out what proved to be my young queen, and on 

 opening it, the old one was found in full pos- 

 session. 



My inference is that the young one left the 

 hive and had been fertilized, and on her return 

 was killed by either queen or workers, who be- 

 fore had not distinguished her from a common 

 bee. Ellen S. Tupper. 



Brighton, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal aud Gazette. 



Bees in Canada. 



Mr. Editor : As I have not seen any notes 

 in your valuable Journal from subscrbers in 

 Canada, I thought if you would accept of some 

 from a bungler like myself, that I would occa- 

 sionally forward some to you. I am always 

 glad to hear from bee-keepers of my native land, 

 <the United States,) and perhaps they would 

 like occasionally to hear from us here in Can- 

 ada. I will send you a few notes now, and if 

 you think them worth anything for your Journal 

 you can use them. 



Last season was the poorest season fc> bees 

 that we have had for a number of years. The 

 spring was fine and warm, aud bees bev,an to 

 breed finely, and drones began to make their ap- 

 pearance, and there were all signs of early 

 swarms; when of a sudden the weather changed, 

 and a number of weeks of cold raw weather fol- 

 lowed. Bees could not work, and they nearly 

 stopped breeding. They also killed off their 

 drones, and the consequence was, bee-keepers 

 that depended on natural swarming did not get 

 any swarms until the season was so far advanced 

 that the young swarms did not gather honey 

 enough to carry them through the winter. Of 

 course many bee-keepers have lost a number oi 

 stocks, and are feeding and will have to feed a 

 good many more to keep them alive until they 

 can gather for themselves. But we are hoping for 

 a better season this year, although it would 

 look to some just now rather doubtful; for there 

 has been but two or three days warm enough 

 for bees to gather pollen, and to-day, April 24, 

 the snow has fallen two or three inches deep. 

 But I think we shall perhaps escape the long 

 cold spell we had last year. The Italian bees 

 do far better here than the common bees. They 

 were introduced here some three j^ears ago, by 

 myself and my brother, and now there are a 

 good number of stocks scattered through Cana- 

 da, and we are sending out a good many queens 

 every season. I hope soon to see tliem take 

 the place of the common bees altogether. 



H. M. Thomas. 



Brooklin, C. W., April 24, 1867. / 



For the American Bee Journal and Gazetto. 



Smoke for Bees. 



Mr. Editor : I wish to call ,your attention 

 to the subject of taming bees with smoke. I 

 use rotten wood, such as you can break to pieces 

 with j'our fingers. That called dry rot is best. 

 With a little care it will burn without a blaze. 

 To use it I take a common fire shovel with a 

 little fire on it, and lay some of the rotten 

 wood on it,' and then blow the smoke into 

 the entrance of the hive. It will soon quiet the 

 bees, but will not stupefy them. If the first 

 trial does not quiet them, blow more smoke into 

 the entrance of the hive. I am opposed to 

 using tobacco, and puff ball, and old rags; it is 

 too sickening and disgusting. But the rotten 

 wood has no bad effects imd costs nothing, and 

 the supply is inexhaustible. 



M. S. 

 New Salem, Ohio, April 30th, 1867. 



