American ^ae Journal 



August, 1907. 



accord. On the second morning of our 

 visit we noticed a number of bees busy 

 at one of the decoy hives, and Mr. 

 Stolley asserted that they must be 

 scouts, getting ready to swarm into this 

 hive. Two hours later the issuing of a 

 natural swarm confirmed his assertion. 

 But the swarm was hived and the 

 scouts abandoned the decoy hive at once. 

 This shows conclusively what I had 

 already decided in my own mind from 

 some ulterior observations; that when 

 a colony is about to swarm, some of 

 the bees, probably among the most active 

 and most experienced, start out early 

 in search of a home and begin to clean 

 it up at once, while some of their num- 

 ber direct the swarm to this selected 

 home. But the swarm generally alights 

 first on a branch or a bush, in order 

 to get together. This little indication 

 of the great intellect of the bees was 

 very interesting to me. 



Our host is no longer in active busi- 

 ness, his farm is rented, and he and his 

 son (the only one of his sons who is 

 at home) are both busy taking care of 

 their surroundings, and making home 

 comfortable. Some of the nicest nooks 

 and corners are to be found about that 

 apiary, that are in existence anywhere. 



■Little grass plots, carefully cut with 

 the lawn-mower are discovered here and 

 there, surrounded with beds of flowers 

 and a few fruit-trees. To any one who 

 has visited the naked plains of the West, 

 it is a charming thing to find such de- 

 lightful spots produced by the careful 

 hand of progressive men. 



Mr. Stolley is a lover of Nature, and 

 it is no wonder that he loves the bees. 

 Two or three easy chairs are kept in 

 one end of the bee-shed, and in these 

 chairs, brought out under the trees, we 

 spent several of the warm hours of the 

 day, while the bees were hurrying back 

 and forth. The honey crop had hardly 

 yet fairly begun, for some hives had no 

 honey. But the fields were thick with 

 white clover, alfalfa and sweet clover. 

 A number of the honey-plants are tried 

 by him, but those named are the main 

 reliance for honey. 



While walking about among the trees, 

 and from one little lawn to another, 

 we came to an open space containing 

 one little bunch of dried grass, evi- 

 dently freshly cut. Mr. Stolley called 

 to my wife, "Mrs. Dadant, let me show 

 you something nice." He lifted up the 

 grass and showed us — five little rab- 

 bits snugly hidden in their nest. " I 

 found them," said he. "while cutting 

 this grass, and for fear they might 

 be hurt, I covered them with this bunch 

 of hay. But I left an opening in the 

 hay, so the mother could get to them. 

 When I came back, I found that the 

 mother had discovered them and had 

 carefully trampled the hay down, so that 

 no trace of them could be seen. Do 

 you hear my dog howl at the barn? 

 Yes, I have him tied, for fear he might 

 hurt these little fellows. In 2 or 3 

 days they will be able to take care of 

 themselves, and I will turn the dog 

 loose again." It is of such mettle that 

 our good apiarists are buiU — lovers of 

 nature and observers. 



Mr. Stolley is 76 years old, looks 

 hardly 60, and is of such cheerful dis- 

 position that he is probably good for 20 

 years or more. His ambition seems to be 

 to be happy and make others happy 

 around lum, and I believe he succeeds. 

 After all, are we not all seeking happi- 

 ness, and does happiness consist only in 

 piling up dollars behind the doors of a 

 bank vault? 



Mr. StoUey's grove, his bees, and his 

 pets, give him ample satisfaction. We 

 were told that some 3 years ago Roose- 

 velt visited Grand Island and made a 

 speech there. And as the Stolley grove 

 is the finest drive around that section, 

 the citizens took Roosevelt to the Stol- 

 ley grove. He saw the lanes, the ar- 

 bors, the lawns and the bees, and he 

 was so delighted that he enthusiastic- 

 ally remarked, "Mr. Stolley, I envy 

 you." 



But I am not through with the bee- 

 question. Mr. Stolley cures rheumatism 

 with bee-stings. Before I tell you of 

 his method, I must first inspire your 

 faith in his medical skill, by telling 

 you that in the old days— in the '6o's— 

 he was a "medicine man" among the 

 Indians, and had many friends in their 

 tribes. Being naturally of an observing 

 mind, as I have shown above, he had 

 noticed that the Indians suffered gen- 

 erally from over-eating. Accustomed 

 to fasting for days and weeks when 

 the game was scarce, if they happened 

 to kill a buffalo or a deer, they would 

 eat to excess, and their intemperance 

 led to indigestion. Mr. Stolley took 

 note of this, and repeatedly cured his 

 sick savage friends by giving them a 

 good dose of epsom salts. That is how 

 he became a renowned medicine man. 

 So I take it for granted that the knowl- 

 edge of this will make you more will- 

 ing to try his rheumatism cure. 



Mr. Stolley has cured numerous cases 

 of the worst kind of rheumatism — in 

 some instances where persons had al- 

 most entirely lost the use of their limbs 

 — by administering bee-stings; begin- 

 ning with one sting, if there was any 

 doubt of the ability of the patient to 

 stand a greater number, but usually 

 beginning with 5 the first day, then 7 

 or 8 the second day after, then increas- 

 ing tlie dose once a week, until 12 

 or IS were inflicted at one time. His 

 method of applying the stings is as fol- 

 lows: 



Catch the bees, bring them to the 

 house and let them fly to the window- 

 pane. Then with a wet sponge catch 

 a bee while it is on the window, bring 

 it to the suffering limb and press the 

 sponge down, slightly releasing the bee 

 from the grasp of the sponge, and it 

 will at once protrude its sting in self- 

 defence. Mr. S. asserts that he has 

 cured many diflficult cases which the 

 doctors could not improve. ' This rem- 

 edy is worth trying. 



After a two day's visit, during which 

 we enjoyed many a chat, and heard 

 dozens of interesting anecdotes con- 

 cerning the life of the pioneer amon.e: 

 the Indians and the buffaloes, wetook 

 leave of our kind friends and continued 

 our journey towards the West. 



From Foreign Fields, 

 With Notes. 



BY F. GREINER. 



Such old veteran bee-keepers of Ger- 

 many as Dzierzon and Guenther held, 

 and hold, that the queens from post- 

 constructed cells are just as serviceable 

 and long-livied as queens from pre-con- 

 structed cells, and E. Bohm, forester 

 in Seegefeld, defends this theory in the 

 late number of Leipz-Bztg., at the same 

 time he condemns American methods of 

 rearing queens; I suppose he refers here 

 to the transferring of larvae into artifi- 

 cial or otherwise obtained cells, pre- 

 dicting that this practice will soon be 

 out of date and disappear like an in- 

 fertile blossom, which will wither and 

 drop off. 



The only difference between a queen 

 from a post-constructed cell and one 

 obtained by transferring larvse to pre- 

 pared or natural cells, is the trans- 

 ferring act, for we have it in our power 

 to select larvae of the same age, as would 

 be taken by the bees. If cells were con- 

 structed by the bees over eggs (nor- 

 mally) there might be more reason for 

 objecting to the American practice of 

 transferring larvas, but as the bees do 

 not do so there can be no objection 

 except it can be shown that in trans- 

 ferring the larva is injured. 



We know that bees have no sympathy 

 with any of their kind when accidents 

 occur, or when a sister is ailing. On 

 the other hand, they show no mercy, and 

 cast the injured babies or sisters out of 

 the hive. They are the worst cannibals 

 that may be imagined, for they appro- 

 priate the blood of the cast-out babies 

 to their own use before casting the ca- 

 daver aside. If we injure a larva or 

 nymph, the inmates of the hive discover 

 this at once and proceed to remove it. 

 If we injure a larva in transferring, 

 I judge they will not be slow to re- 

 move it; the fact that they do not re- 

 move it is in itself the proof that the 

 little bee-baby is all right. If it had 

 been injured, it would not grow and 

 develop into a perfect insect, as we have 

 occasion to see it every season. 



It is my opinion that, if a queen 

 reared according to the American meth- 

 od, is not as good as one reared from 

 the eggs as in swarming-time, or a su- 

 persedure-queen, then the queens from 

 post-constructed cells are not as good. 

 Our German friends claim that our 

 American queens are short-lived. How 

 true this is I am not prepared to say, 

 but I have not observed that there is 

 any difference in this respect between 

 naturally-reared queens from untam- 

 pered black stock and the queens we 

 rear by transferring larvx to artificial 

 or natural cells. 



It is possible, perhaps, to overtax a 

 colony of bees by compelling them to 

 rear too many queens, or to have queens 

 reared at an unseasonable time. It may 

 be that inferior queens are thus reared 

 and sent out by some queen-breeders. 

 But when a big, rousing colony during 

 the honey season rears no more than 8 

 or 10 queens at a time, I can see no 

 reason why these queens should not be 

 as good as any grown in post-con- 



