1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



189 



those removed can be used in nuclei 

 previously prepared, or be given to col- 

 onies divided a few days in advance of 

 the hatching queens. If no other colo- 

 nies are ready CO divide, make nuclei by 

 taking 2 or 3 frames of brood and bees 

 from prosperous colonies, and to give 

 them the hatching cells. The nuclei 

 should be made the day previous, as 

 they will then more readily accept the 

 cells. Young queens will hatch and 

 become fertile while occupying these 

 nucleus colonies, and can then Be built 

 up from other colonies, or be given to 

 divided swarms, keeping the old colony 

 to gather and at work until the young 

 queens are ready. 



Starters in Surplus Boxes.— Bees com- 

 mence work much more readily in sur- 

 plus boxes, when provided with starters 

 of comb or foundation. All clean white 

 comb should be carefully saved for this 

 purpose. The larger the starter, the 

 better, but even a very small piece is of 

 great benefit. Where pieces of comb 

 are used, it can quickly be fastened in 

 the box or section, by holding it over a 

 candle or lamp until the edge is melted, 

 then set it injplace, and it will stick; 

 for foundation, this will not work so 

 well. We use the following, which is 

 very simple and effectual : Take a tin 

 dish, an oyster can with one side cut 

 out does admirably, till part full of bees- 

 wax and rosin of equal parts. Fix the 

 dish over a lamp, so as to keep the mix- 

 ture at the right temperature, which 

 you will soon learn. If too hot, it will 

 melt the edge of the foundation. If 

 not sufficiently heated, it will cool be- 

 fore you can get the starter in place, 

 and will not stick. Have your starters 

 all cut the right size. Take the section 

 in the left hand, top down, dip one 

 edge of the starter in the wax, and set 

 in place, and it will stick. With a lit- 

 tle practice you will be able to do this 

 very rapidly. 





Building Combs in the Open Air. — Mr. 



Frank Cheshire, in the London Journal 

 of Horticulture, says : 



Mr. Benton apologizes for Apis dor- 

 sata in these words—" We must not be 

 prejudiced against the bees because 

 they build their combs in the open air. 

 Our yellow bee does the same thing in 

 tropical countries, and when unable to 

 find a suitable place to settle." I 

 am glad to be able to corroborate Mr. 

 Benton by an instance of this, the evi- 

 dence of which still exists. 



In the beginning of September, 1874, 

 the Hon. and Rev. II. Bligh discovered 

 a colony of Apia mellifica (our common 

 bee) in a privet bush near Henley. 

 That the insects had been at least some 

 weeks established was certain, for not 

 only had a large quantity of worker 

 comb been built, but in a good patch of 

 drone comb the cells were stained by 

 the exuvia; of the males that had al- 

 ready left them, while a second set of 

 larvse were far advanced. Since 25 

 days are occupied in maturing a drone 

 from the egg, and 8 or 9 more would be 

 required to bring the succeeding larvae 

 to the condition in which they were 

 found, we have but 8 days left of our 

 hypothetical weeks for the bees to 

 build much worker comb and then make 

 preparation for colonizing by turning 

 their attention to the production of 

 drones. 



The handy work of this al fresco fam- 

 ily was secured by cutting through the 

 stems of privet and removing the combs 

 bodily, which was in no way difficult, as 

 the whole of them had been tied to- 

 gether by interlacing twigs. I was 

 honored by having this specimen pre- 

 sented to me by the aforesaid gentle- 

 man who discovered it, and a few times 

 since it has been used at lectures or 

 lent to grace collections of curiosities, 

 and has, in consequence, suffered after 

 the fashion of the Temple Bar Memo- 

 rial — going in parts to the cabinet of 

 the curious, or rather, perhaps, suffer- 

 ing under the thumb of the destructive; 

 but enough remains to bear testimony 

 to Mr. Benton's statement. The leaves 

 appear to have been carved from the 

 petiole by the clever bees, thus securing 

 room for their combs, and many points 

 to which to fasten them, so that the wind 

 would not disturb their arrangements. 



Bees Doing Well.— About % of the 

 bees in this section are dead ; some 

 have lost all. I have Id, in good condi- 

 tion, left out of 59 last fall ; wintered 

 in the cellar. Had I followed more 

 closely the instructions given in the 

 Journal from time to time, I might 

 have fared better, I think. Still I feel 

 very thankful for so many to start with, 

 this season, and am hopeful for the fu- 

 ture. John Meader. 



Delaware, Iowa, June 2, 1881. 



Melilot Clover.— In Cook's Manual, 

 page 230, speaking of melilot clovers, 

 the author remarks" another disagreea- 

 ble fact ; they have no value except for 

 honey." I have had 5 acres of melilot 

 pasture for 7 or 8 years, and 1 give it as 

 my opinion from experience, that 1 acre 

 of melilot clover will furnish as much 

 pasturage as 2 of any other grasses in 

 common cultivation. Stock will eat it, 

 after becoming used to it, as freely as 

 blue grass or timothy, and its fatting 

 qualities, from a casual observation, I 

 judge to be equal to any. 



A. Salisbury. 



Camargo, 111., June 6, 1881. 



Foul Brood.— Allow me to suggest 

 that the recent articles on foul brood in 

 the Bee Journal should not pass 

 without some editorial comment. The 

 difference between chilled brood and 

 foul brood is too well known to most 

 of the older bee-keepers to need any 

 explanation, but many of the beginners 

 may be frightened into the belief that 

 they have foul brood on their hands, by 

 reading such articles from men who ev- 

 idently never saw a case of genuine 

 foul brood. I have lived and kept bees 

 for 10 years, in one of the worst foul 

 brood infested districts of this State, 

 and know the disease from sad expe- 

 rience ; have also seen chilled brood, 

 and do not see how one familiar with 

 both cases can mistake one for the 

 other. Wm. Muth-Rasmussen. 



Independence, Cal., May 20, 1881. 



[The above subject has been quite ably 

 discussed in the Bee Journal, and our 

 columns are still open to receive any 

 new ideas which may be advanced pro 

 et con. Perhaps in the multiplicity of 

 ideas the correct solution of the problem 

 may finally be reached, and its cause 

 prevention and cure be thoroughly un 

 derstood by every apiarist.— Ed.] 



4 or 5 queens each, and just before they 

 hatched 1 divided them, making 4 nu- 

 clei out Of the 2 ; each nuclei now has 

 a queen. 1 examined them yesterday 

 and found one of the queens laying; 

 the others are fertilized, I think, but 

 are not yet laying. Bees in this local- 

 ity are generally wintered on the sum- 

 mer stands, unprotected ; I am the only 

 one that has tried packing and cellar 

 wintering. Some have lost all, or nearly 

 so, while others came through all right. 

 One neighbor had about .'SO colonies and 

 now has -V, 2 others had 20, now one has 

 none, the other S or 4 ; another one had 

 2 colonies, both came through all right, 

 and are the stronest I have seen this 

 season. Yesterday a swarm issued 

 from one of them ; they are in box 

 hives. Permit me to say, I am highly 

 pleased with the Weekly. It is just 

 what every bee-keeper needs. 



Osman McCarthy. 

 Zollarsville, Pa., May 30, 1881. 



"The Harvest is Great, but the La- 

 borers are Few." — The harvest is fast 

 approaching; the locust trees are in full 

 bloom, so white are they that they pre- 

 sent the appearance of snow, and rival 

 that of basswood in richness and nectar. 

 White clover is just coming, and prom- 

 ises to be abundant ; but alas, the reap- 

 ers are few, although the loss in this lo- 

 cality is not so bad as reported in some 

 others, but it is bad enough. As near 

 as I am able to judge from reports, 

 nearly 50 per cent, of the bees in this 

 locality are dead, and a great many of 

 those living are very weak. It matters 

 little how good the season may be, but 

 little surplus will be the rule in this lo- 

 cality — Southwestern Pennsylvania — 

 and the prospect is promising now. 

 Last fall I had 16 good colonies (6 Ital- 

 ians and 10 blacks), and now I have 2 

 in moderately good condition. Five of 

 the Italians were packed in dry hay 

 and leaves, on the summer stands. I 

 had 4 colonies in the cellar, one Italian 

 and 3 blacks, the remainder out-of- 

 doors, unprotected. By the last of 

 February all that were out, unprotected, 

 and all that were in the cellar, except 

 the Italian, were dead ; some seemed to 

 be affected with dysentery, while oth- 

 ers did not. Those packed as above 

 described, came through the winter all 

 right ; all but 2 of them lost their queens 

 before the last of April ; had it not 

 been for this I would have had all my 

 Italians yet. However, I saved 2 of 

 the queenless colonies; they reared some 



dllucose as a Honey Plant.— I do not 

 believe a word that " Hix " says about 

 glucose being a good honey plant (see 

 page 154 of the Bee Journal). I 

 guess he is an own cousin to Petroleum 

 V. Nasby, and the next thing we ex- 

 pect to hear of him is that he will be 

 wanting to start a post office in some 

 glucose factory, so that orders for glu- 

 cose seed may be received with the 

 least possible delay. Let us see about 

 the glucose honey plant. Our friend, 

 A. I. Root, has always been a strong 

 advocate for the plant, and advertises 

 the seed (grape sugar) for sale at 5 cents 

 per lb. Well, he had 300 colonies of 

 bees last fall. He sold a few and dou- 

 bled the remainder down to 140, just be- 

 fore the cold weather in November. 

 On April 22, he says in Gleanings, " we 

 have but 12 colonies left, 5 or which 

 will probably pull through without 

 help." Either that neighborhood was 

 overstocked, or else glucose is a very 

 poor honey plant ; and it is not safe to 

 try and winter bees that have worked 

 on glucose. But I am too fast ; in the 

 May number of Gleanings he says : " it 

 was raising queens that did it." Well, 

 if it costs the loss of 300 colonies of 

 bees to rear dollar queens, I believe I 

 will not try it. Have the colonies 

 where these queens have been intro- 

 duced fared any better V If not, will it 

 not pay us to improve our bees till they 

 can stand it to be wintered on the sum- 

 mer stands any winter. I claim this 

 can be done with the use of chaff hives, 

 and until this is done, we shall not 

 make bee-keeping a success. We can- 

 not stand such fearful losses as we have 

 had during the past winter and make 

 bee-keeping pay. I wintered on the 

 summer stands, the past winter, with- 

 out the loss of a single colony, and have 

 no more fear of wintering out-of-doors 

 than I would in the best cellar in the 

 world. I know I have made a great 

 improvement in my bees, and if you 

 wish an article on improvement and 

 how it can be done, I will write one 

 soon, giving my experience and suc- 

 cess. L. R. Jackson. 



Fairland, Ind., June 4, 1881. 



[Give us the article, by all means. 

 We want all the light there is, and if 

 Mr. Jackson can tell us how he has im- 

 proved his bees we shall all thank him 

 for the light— Ed.] 



Prospects Flattering.— My bees are 

 doing finely. They came through the 

 winter with the loss of one, out "of 11 

 colonies. All were packed in chaff mi 

 the summer stands. The one lost 

 lacked honey. Good honey, plenty of 

 bees, and chaff packing are, the essen- 

 tials in wintering bees here. The pros- 

 pects for an abundant honey yield are 

 flattering. I cannot do without the Bee 

 Journal. J. W. Carter. 



Pleasantdale, W. Va., June 4, 1881. 



A Cellar Best for Wintering.— I saved 



5 colonies of bees out of about 30, which 

 I think is tolerably well, considering 

 that so many have lost all. I wintered 

 out-of-doors. Had my bees been put 

 in a good cellar I think that I should 

 have saved more than double that num- 

 ber. I have wintered bees in a cellar 

 for 6 seasons, but on account of having 

 moved 1 have no cellar now. My expe- 

 rience teaches me that a cellar kept at 

 a temperature that will keep the bees 

 quiet is the place to winter bees. All 

 the protection my bees had was straw 

 in the caps. Isaac Sharp. 



Waveland, Ind., June 7, 1881. 



Honey from the Locusts. — I saved (>S 

 out of the 80 colonies I put into winter 

 quarters. These outstrip anything I 

 ever beheld for gathering honey from 

 locusts; during their blooming the bees 

 filled every available cell with honey, 

 clear as crystal and of excellent flavor. 

 I think we shall have a nice honey crop 

 this year; as about }4 of the bees are 

 dead, if there is anything in having "an 

 undivided field "for our bees, we should 

 have an excellent crop of honey. White 

 clover is opening nicely. 



James Rapp. 



Mullberry, O., June 4, 1881. 



Wintering in Cellar. — Father has kept 

 bees for several years. He winters in a 

 cellar, and would winter in no other 

 way in this latitude. He says he thinks 

 that it is just as easy to winter bees 

 successfully as it is to winter cattle and 

 sheep. He put 73 colonies into the cel- 

 lar about Dec. 1, and took them out 

 April 21, all alive but 3. One starved, 

 and the other 2 smothered from the en- 

 trance being closed. A few colonies 

 became weak in the spring, but by 

 doubling them up they are getting 

 strong, tor the honey harvest. Most of 

 the colonies are very strong, with quite 

 a number of drones flying. Not desir- 

 ing any more bees than he can take care 

 of himself, father restrains them from 

 swarming as much as he can. Some 

 colonies which did not swarm last year 

 averaged from 75 to 100 lbs. of comb 

 honey, while those that did swarm av- 

 eraged from 50 to 00 lbs., besides some 

 extracted honey. He keeps nothing 

 but hybrids, and uses the Langstroth 

 hive. I will give his method of winter- 

 ing bees and preventing robbing, in 

 some future number of the Journal, 

 if wanted. Being a carpenter, he makes 

 all his own hives and surplus boxes, 

 and also rears his own queens, so he 

 ought to succeed in the business. We 

 read the Bee Journal, and do not see 

 how we could get along without it. Pa 

 takes it out among his pets and reads it 

 through ; I do not know which likes it 

 the better, he or his pets ; they will 

 light upon it sometimes as if they were 

 trying to read it, too. 



Carrie M. Charles. 



Cedar Falls, Iowa, May 27, 1881. 



Locust Honey.— The locust bloom 

 yielded more honey this season than I 

 ever before knew it to do. I obtained 

 more than 1,000 lbs. of it nearly 2 weeks 

 ago. Bees are now filling up their hives 

 slowly with white clover honey. They 

 gathered more yesterday than all last 

 week. We need warm weather for 2 or 

 3 weeks to yield a honey crop. 



C. F. Muth. 



Cincinnati, O., June 8, 1881. 



Gathering Honev.— I had 20 swarms 

 in May, and 10 in June. The bees are 

 working finely, and have gathered con- 

 siderable honey. John Boerstler. 



Gilead, 111., June 7, 1881. 



CLUBBING LIST. 



We supply the Weekly American Ree Journal 



and any of the following periodicals, for 1881, at the 

 prices quoted in the last column of figures. The 

 first column Rives the regular price of both : 



Publishers* Price. Club. 



The Weekly Bee Journal (T. G. Newman) ..$2 00 



and Gleanings in Bee-Culture < A. I. Root) 3 00.. 2 75 



Bee-Keepers' Magazine (A. J. King).. 3 00.. 2 (» 



Bee-Keepers' Exchange (J. II. Nellis). 2 75.. 2 50 



The 4 above-named papers 4 75. . 3 75 



Bee-Keepers' Instructor < W.Thomas) 2 50. . 2 35 



Bee-Keepers' Guide (A.G.Hill) 250.. 2 35 



Kansas Bee-Keeper 2 25.. 2 50 



The 6 above-named papers 5 75.. 5 00 



Prof. Cook's Manual (bound in cloth) 3 25.. 3 00 



Bee-Culture (T.G.Newman) 2 40.. 2 25 



For Semi-monthly Bee Journal, $1.00 less. 

 For Monthly Bee Journal, J1.50 less. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1881. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Sept. National, at Lexington, Ky. 



—Kentucky State, at Louisville, Ky. 

 Oct, 11, 12— Northern Michigan, at Maple Rapids. 



12 -Ky. State, in Exposition B'd'ff, I-.ouisville.Ky. 



W. Williamson, Sec, Lexington, Ky. 

 27— Western Mich., at Berlin, Mich. 



Wm. M. S. Dodge, Coopersville, Sec. 

 |y In order to have this Table complete. Secreta- 

 ries are requested to forward full particulars of time 

 and place of future meetings.— Ed. 



