1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



their pivot, and that I was now suffering from a terrible at- 

 tack of toothache In the legs ! 



The pains not having subsided much by the following 

 morning, and we having frequently read in the columns of 

 the American Uee Journal of the almost magical effects of 

 small, hypodermic injections of formic acid, in the shape of 

 bee-stings, in allaying rheumatic pains, I resolved to try old 

 Mr. Blobbs' plan, so humorously illustrated in the Bee Jour- 

 nal of Nov. 23, 1893. To that end I donned ray face-veil, 

 encased my hands in a pair of woolen socks,and bared my suf- 

 iering legs, holding the latter in front of a hive while my son 

 roused and irritated the inmates. I stood it bravely for 

 awhile, till, like old Blobbs, I had to scoot for dear life ! How- 

 ever, to make a long story short, the pains subsided at onrc, 

 and I have had Immunity from both them and the tooOuwhc 

 ever since ! I am still too far from the edge of the wood to 

 whistle ; tho, should either of the friends return to a renewal 

 of the attack. Dr. A. Mellifica is always within reach. 



I am prompted to relate this experience by a feeling of 

 philanthropy, that other sufferers may be enabled to adopt 

 the same remedy. The stings act as a counter-irritant, and 

 the remedy Is far quicker, less troublesome, and more cleanly 

 than would be a blister, embrocation, or a mustard poultice ; 

 and, what is more, in my opinion, far more efficacious and 

 lasting in its effects than any of these. 



I do not believe it to be necessary, in case of neuralgia or 

 toothache, that the stings should be inflicted just in the 

 neighborhood of the seat of pain, but that placing, say the 

 hand and bare arm, in close proximity to a disturbed hive 

 would do the business quite effectually. We even know — or 

 perhaps some of us do — that a remedy frequently had recourse 

 to for toothache, is to tie a mustard poultice over the thumb, 

 and that on the opposite sjde, or hand, to that of the jaw in 

 which the enemy is quartered. 



Tho I may some day perhaps give up bee-keeping as a 

 pursuit adopted as a means of procuring butter for my bread, 

 I shall certainly always find a nook in garden or yard for a 

 hive of bees, so' as to have Dr. Apis Mellifica always on hand. 



I hope others similarly affected will give the cure a trial 

 and report. Perhaps Dr. Peiro will kindly explain the why 

 and the wherefore, and tell us in what way formic acid acts 

 on the nerves and blood. South Africa. 



Chunk Honey — Quilts for Bees. 



BY MRS. L. C. AXTELL. 



S. M. S., of Knox Co., Nebr., asks what he should do with 

 his brood-combs filled with honey, some of it candied. If it is 

 white and new, or has not been used by the bees for rearing 

 young, or is not full of pollen, etc., I should cut it up into nice 

 square chunks, put it in a new milkpan and take it to a 

 grocery, or sell it or exchange it for groceries, or exchange it 

 at the meat market for meat, taking a due-bill for the pan 

 and honey, and weekly, as I wanted the meat, get only what 

 I wanted from time to time, and set it down on the due-bill 

 until all was traded out. Our meat man buys our chunk 

 honey readily this way. When he sells he puts a pound or 

 more in the little wooden butter or lard dishes, and sells with 

 the honey. He does Dot object to handling our honey in that 

 way. 



Often the neighbors will prefer to buy it cut out of sec- 

 tions, because they have no wood to buy when they buy 

 directly of us. We never have any trouble to work off all 

 such chunk honey. Grocerymen generally think or say it is 

 too dauby to handle, and will not readily take hold of it until 

 the combs in sections are sold out; after that, rather than be 

 without, they will take hold of it and sell. But to have them 

 sell fast, we must pay them a cent or two for handling. 



MATERIAL FOR QUILTS FOR BKES. 



After years of experience with coverings for bees in win- 

 ter, I have come to the conclusion that common, coarse sheet- 

 ing — the coarsest we can get — is cheaper than burlap or duck, 

 as it i.* much wider and cheaper, and bees will cover either 

 over with propolis in two or three winters, so we need to have 

 a clean one. 



Then, farther, I go to some one in the nearest village and 

 ask them to let me pick over some of their heavy paper rags, 

 such as old carpets, quilts, pant, coats and vests — these I get 

 by the pound very cheap (generally one cent), and I fold them 

 and lay on top of them clean cotton cloth, and then If the bees 

 eat through the cloth, or if the cloth is old, and has some 

 holes in it, they do not drag the chaff down among the bees, 

 and I put on enough of such thick quilts to make the bees 

 much warmer than the light chaff. As far as I have time I 

 cut and fit over those old clothes Into square quilts, by piec- 



ing, sewing, and tacking together, until now we have enough 

 for all our 150 hives. I never put them on the hive without 

 a cotton cloth underneath, because I do not want them cov- 

 ered with propolis ; and 1 do not line them with the new cloth 

 because when the cloth gets coverpd with propolis I want a 

 new one, and if the old clothes (unless strong cloth) are laid 

 directly on the frames, bees will tear them to pieces. 



As soon as the chaff is taken out of the hives, these old 

 cloths and quilts and cotton cloths are laid away, carefully 

 spread out and piled up smooth. If thrown loosely in a pile, 

 when wanted the following season, they are not so quickly 

 put upon the hives, and the sheets stick together with the 

 propolis, and it takes considerable time to pull them out 

 straight. 



Ever so much time is saved if everything is cared for and 

 kept in readiness to use when wanted. Often, when these old 

 things are taken out they look so useless. I knew of one 

 woman who wanted to bi;rn all such. One is tempted not to 

 carefully save them altogether, and then we have a big time 

 to hunt for them when wanted. Warren Co, 111. 



The Detestable Bee-Space Severely Arraigned. 



BY " COM.MOM-SENSE BEE-KEEPING." 



Among the fruitful causes of success in bee-keeping, the 

 centralization of heat is the cltlef poiiit to be observed. I would 

 not "stick a pin there," but I would plant a post on that point 

 as big as the largest tree in the Yosemite Valley, and tall 

 enough to be seen by the bee-keepers all over the world; be- 

 cause it may be claimed without fear of successful contradic- 

 tion, that it is the main point in bee-keeping. First, for a 

 fruitful brood-chamber ; second, for rich results in surplus 

 honey ; and third, for success in solving the wintering problem. 



I believe that the bee-space craze has killed thousands of 

 bushels of bee-brood in the comb, in the spring, as well as 

 many more mature bees between the combs in the winter. 



Do you ask, " How ?" I answer: — by preparing the hive 

 for the sudden contraction of the cluster, which uncovers the 

 brood-nest in the spring when the weather changes from the 

 intensely warm midday sunlight to the cold and shriveling 

 storms so common to the spring season, which blow the cold 

 breath of Death into the bee-hive, by puffing away the heat of 

 the brood-nest, and scattering it through the bee-spaces 

 around and above the brood-frames to the farther corners of 

 the hive, to condense and waste, while shivering bees huddle 

 together to avoid the chilling draft, prompted by the instinct 

 for self-preservation of life, ( which is the first law in all ani- 

 mal nature), leaviug the outer portions of the brood-nest un- 

 covered for the brood to chill and die ; which they need not 

 have done had it not been for the ventilation caused by the 

 bee-space which forces the hovering cluster to contract and 

 expose a portion of their young to perish. 



The bee-spaces act in the same way in a hive that a dozen 

 or more holes would act in the bottom of a hen's nest — while 

 the faithful mother hen might be doing her best to hatch her 

 eggs, all of the time that the holey old nest was cooling them 

 down under her, and spoiling them. And it is just as plain to 

 see that the same cause and principle would work similar un- 

 happy results when the heat in the bees' brood-nest full of 

 eggs is disturbed by the cooling influence of the ventilating 

 draft encouraged by the open bee-spaces around and above the 

 nest full of bees' eggs. 



The voice of Nature demands the concentration and reten- 

 tion of heat in the brood-nest, and if her demand is disregard- 

 ed. Death will walk into the bee-hive, and claim every naked 

 body he may find uncovered to blow his cold breath upon. 

 Close up the bee-space around and above the brood-chamber 

 aud keep him out. 



The bee-space may be handy for the bee-keeper's fingers, 

 but it is bad for his pocket in still another way. 



What a din there has been for many years over the ques- 

 tion of "how to make the bees work in the sections;" when, 

 it; fact, if the right conditions of proximity and heat exist you 

 can't keep the bees out of the sections when they have surplus 

 honey to store ; but we have been putting a discouraging con- 

 dition between the sections aud the brood-nest, by interposing 

 bee-space arrangements, single, double, and triple, alonf? 

 with hook-and-cruok honey-boards with bracket edges, queen- 

 excluding, doublebreak-joint, joint and put-outof-joint clap- 

 trap arrangements, ad inftnitiun — ti-o-n, tion — t-y-ty, and so 

 on. And these are just what my bees have objected to till I 

 have pitcht them out of my apiary — not the bees, but the 

 spaces, and some other clink traps which are like the Yankee's 

 razors — " Good to sell, but not fit to use ;" and I adopted some- 



