198 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 22, 



Bee Stings.— I am an attentive reader 

 of the Weekly Bee Journal, and as 

 long as i have a colony of bees, 1 should 

 be sorry to have to do without it. I am 

 very much interested about bees, but 

 am rather afraid that nature did not in- 

 tend me for a bee-keeper, for it gives 

 me so much inconvenience when 1 am 

 stung. There seems less difficulty in 

 protecting the face by means of a veil 

 than in knowing the best way to pro- 

 tect the hands. 1 fancied myself safe 

 till yesterday, by wearing a rather thick 

 pair of brown kid gloves, but in han- 

 dling the frames without having pre- 

 viously smoked the bees, I was stung 

 on one of my fingers, from which my 

 whole hand is still quite swollen and 

 painful. For some time the inflamma- 

 tion extendeil all the way up my arm. 

 Perhaps you will say if I am so suscep- 

 tible to the poison of the sting I had 

 better keep clear of bees. Prof. Cook 

 says that people soon become inocu- 

 lated and feel every sting less, but 1 

 shrink from the idea of that process. 

 Would you advise me to get a pair of 

 rubber gloves 'i 1 have seen it recom- 

 mended to wear white cotton gloves, 

 but should think they would be no bet- 

 ter protection than kid. 1 only have 

 one colony ; lost 'Z last winter ; packed 

 one in chaff and the other in shavings. 



H. F. BULLER. 



Campbellford, Out., June 11, 1881. 



[Rubber gloves are better than kid, 

 because it is more difficult for a bee 

 sting to go through them.' It would be 

 more pleasant,as well as safer,to smoke 

 the bees if they are so cross, and thus 

 prevent them from attacking you. — Ed.] 



The Weather, Cause of Losses, etc.— 

 Are the fates combined against us poor 

 fellows, that aie trying to cultivate the 

 sweets of nature V it appears as if 

 something that is beyond tne power ot 

 mortals, is trying the endurance of us 

 poor bee-keepers; the elements, at 

 least, are not propitious for the replen- 

 ishing of our monuments of departed 

 sweetness— rain, rain, thunder and 

 lightning and rain, with a little sun oc- 

 casionally, just for an aggravation, thai 

 we may know that there is one. The 

 white clover is Justin its splendor, large 

 and full, and plenteous, but the rains 

 descend and the Hoods come, and our 

 bees stay, like sensible beings, in out 

 of the wet, getting ready for a grand 

 rush bye-and-bye — a sort of spitting on 

 the hands, like, waiting for the word 

 go — when the weather makers say 

 "now," and I wish they would soon, 

 for my hives are running over with 

 bees, gathering a little honey, just 

 enough to keep soul and body together, 

 a sort of a hand-to-mouth living; but 1 

 suppose it is the best they can do, con- 

 sidering how Prof. Vennor and the 

 rest of our weather-makers are run- 

 ning things, and, as .Novice says, I don't 

 understand it. By-the-way, what new 

 idea is he going to advance this year t 

 Almost everyone will have some new 

 idea to advance as to the fearful mortal- 

 ity among the bees, but how many will 

 profit by their past experience ? and 

 among us all, who has the right way to 

 winter beesV and unless we judge by 

 their success can we take their way as 

 being the right one V I never wintered 

 bees any better than last winter. From 

 Nov. 15 until April 17 they had no flight, 

 and yet I only lost 4 from 51, that 1 put 

 up right, and 3 of those starved, through 

 my own neglect. I had 6 that I took 

 extra care to have in a correct condi- 

 tion, according to authorities, young 

 bees, extra good queens, good sealed 

 honey, and a plenty of it, 3 packed in t> 

 inches of chaff on the G sides, and 3 

 with the same amount of dry pine saw- 

 dust on 5 sides, and a ts inch thick 

 blanket of chaff on top, and they all 

 went over the bridge together, for chaff 

 or dust did not save them, not a one. 

 This spring I found the combs moldy 

 and bees mostly on the bottom of the 

 hives, with honey in store — so I think 

 I have exploded to my satisfaction, at 

 least, that out-door chaff-packing is 

 chaff, as far as the successful wintering 

 of bees is concerned, and is not the cor- 

 rect way to do. Our friend, Lowmas- 

 ter, of Belle Vernon, Ohio, appears 

 jubilant about having a swarm of bees 

 the 29th of May, and gives his opinion 



that it cannot be beaten North of the 

 -loth parallel. You know it is not al- 

 ways safe to laugh as hard as you 

 can at the first story, for something 

 may come funnier. Well, lhad astrong 

 new swarm on the 31st, but that does 

 not beat his in time, although I am al- 

 most l}a° further north ; but I had one 

 the 25th, another the 27th, and have 

 had several since, although his was a 

 Sunday swarm (they are considered a 

 little extra, you know, for then you have 

 an excuse to stay home from church). 

 Mine were 2 and 4 days earlier. Nearly 

 all the bees have died the past winter 

 in this county, within a radius of 12 

 miles, that I know of. Of 460 colonies, 

 now less than 70 are alive, aside from 

 my own, of which I lost 4 out of a lot 

 of 51. F. W. Chapman. 



Morrison, 111., June 11, 1881. 



Wintering on Cider.— The fall of 1880 

 came, but no honey crop ; there were 

 plenty of cider-mills, fruit-driers, vine- 

 yards, etc., all around here, and the 

 bees stored a goodly amount of " choice 

 wines and liquors," and were well fixed 

 for a winter's debauch. Winter caught 

 me with 5 colonies (1 black and 4 Ital- 

 ians). The blacks and one colony of 

 Italians had about 7 or 8 pounds of 

 honey, including their non-temperance 

 drinks, each. I packed them all in 

 chaff and made my second trial at win- 

 tering bees. About the middle of Jan- 

 uary, as a consequence of their intem- 

 perate habits. they all had the dysentery. 

 By the middle of February the blacks 

 had reaped the reward of inebriety, and 

 •gone down to a drunkard's grave." 

 They left behind them only empty 

 combs and bloated carcasses. Toward 

 the last of March the bees had their 

 first chance for a flight since Novem- 

 ber, and 4 colonies only took advantage 

 of the " let up " in the weather. The 

 colony that went into winter quarters 

 with 7 lbs., now had 3 lbs. 1 do not 

 think that many cellars will cause the 

 bees to winter on less than 4 lbs. The 

 mortality of bees in this county has 

 been very great, and I find myself (not- 

 withstanding 1 left my bees packed in 

 chaff on the summer stands) one of the 

 lightest losers, both among cellar and 

 chaff advocates. I would say to Mr. 

 I'liwnly, that he may, if it will benetil 

 anyone, inform his correspondent that 

 1 apply the chaff above, below and on 

 all sides, whole and unadulterated and 

 that it will not cause dysentery, if the 

 apiarist will only keep it dry, and if 

 any of his friends will drop into my 

 modest apiary, I will show them a hive 

 that will, every time, winter the bees 

 out-of-doors as well as they will winter 

 in a cellar. F. L. Dresser. 



Hillsdale, Mich., June 13, 1881. 



Swarming.— I have wintered 7 colo- 

 nies in chaff hives (Langstroth), with- 

 out loss, while so many have lost all 

 their bees. I purchased 15 colonies of 

 blacks in March, transferred them early 

 in April to Langstroth hives, making 

 my number 22, all in good condition for 

 business. As I preferred natural 

 swarming to dividing, I at once clipped 

 one wing of all the queens; 1 purchased 

 a lot of Dunham foundation, gave one 

 frame of it to each colony, every 5 days, 

 until every hive was full. 1 arranged 

 all my hives in a hexagonal figure, con- 

 sisting of 44 hives. My first swarm is- 

 sued May 18 ; I was ready with cage in 

 hand ; the queen was about the last to 

 leave the hive. I picked her from off 

 the sawdust, put her in the cage, put a 

 hive tilled with foundation in place of 

 the old one, placed the queen in front 

 of the new hive ; soon the bees missed 

 their mother, and came back to look for 

 her. The hive was black with bees, 

 and I let the queen out of the cage and 

 all was over. I have now 43 colonies, 

 all having swarmed but one from which 

 I removed the queen, in order to get 

 cells, in order to Italianize as I go along; 

 and this is the way I did it : Allowing 

 IB days for a queen to hatch, my queens 

 hatched June 1, at which time my bees 

 had swarmed ; as fast as they swarmed 

 1 cut out all the black cells and intro- 

 duced an Italian cell ; by June 2 all my 

 Italians were hatched. I purchased a 

 tine tested Italian queen, and all the 

 queens were from her, and they are 

 beauties. The 7 I wintered were Ital- 

 ians ; of course I depend on them for 



the drones. With my honey knife as 

 sharp as I could get it 1 went to my black 

 colonies every days and clipped the 

 heads of all the drones that were 

 capped. By repeating the process 

 above stated I have not a black drone 

 in my apiary, and none very close to it, 

 and my young queens stand a good 

 chance for a pure impregnation. In all 

 the swarming I lost only one queen, 

 which I failed to catch on coming out, 

 but she new to the hive, just in front of 

 one that had swarmed the day previous; 

 I gave the new swarm a cell instead of 

 the old queen. There is one great 

 trouble with swarming as above men- 

 tioned : the bees on returning would 

 try and get in any hive they could, un- 

 til I was compelled to close all the en- 

 trances when a swarm issued. Has any 

 one had similar troubles with swarms 't 

 Poseyville, Ind. J. F. Kight. 



Winter and Spring.— The long, cold 

 winter has passed away, and with it 

 most of our bees. I commenced the 

 winter with 23 colonies ; 1 intended to 

 pack them in straw and chaff, but was 

 unavoidably prevented. I left 15 of the 

 heaviest out without protection, except 

 a bank on the north that broke the 

 force of the wind, and during part of 

 the time they were under the snow ; 8 

 of the lightest I buried in a pit out oi 

 the reach of frost ; of these 5 came out 

 with live bees in them, but 2 were very 

 weak, so that I united them with one ot 

 the others, one I have lost since from 

 queenlessness ; out of the 8 1 have but 

 2 good colonies left. Of the other 15 1 

 have 5 good colonies left ; one cast a 

 good swarm on the 5th, which makes 8 

 colonies, at present, in good condition. 

 The loss of bees was heavy here, the 

 past winter, but the spring has been 

 very favorable for what came through 

 to build up, and they are generally in 

 good condition now. Bees are getting 

 some honey from white clover, but we 

 have never got any surplus from 

 that source yet. The prospect for 

 basswood is good, of which we have an 

 abundance. As to the cause of our dis- 

 asters in wintering I cannot indorse Mr. 

 lleddon's theory. Mr. Dooliftle ex- 

 presses my views, exactly. I like the 

 Weekly Bee Journal, and intend to 

 renew, so as not to miss a number. 



Li. G. Purvis. 



Hartford, Iowa, June 13, 1881. 



White. Clover Short.— Bees are build- 

 ing up very slowly. White clover is 

 not more than half a crop, so far, ow- 

 ing to severe spring drouth. We have 

 had line rains during the past few days, 

 and I hope for a good crop of honey. 

 I am much pleased with the Journal ; 

 wish you and it success. 



G. W. Jenkins. 



New Liberty, Ky., June 9, 1881. 



Spring Dwindling. — My loss of 9 out 

 of 18 colonies occurred during the first 

 part of April — the worst time for bees 



1 ever saw — they are now in good condi- 

 tion. My best Italian colony supplied 



2 full frames of capped brood to help 

 build up those weak. I have had a large 

 natural swarm, and now have 18 two-lb. 

 boxes nearly tilled with honey. White 

 clover is abundant. There is at least 

 1 ,000 acres to every colony of bees near 

 here. Philip P. Nelson. 



Manteno, 111., June 10, 1881. 



Grafting Wax.— Can any of the read- 

 ers of the Bee Journal give a receipt 

 for grafting wax, that the bees will not 

 gnaw V My orchard surrounds my 

 apiary, and the bees trouble it very 

 much in this way. I would like a re- 

 ceipt that is nut composed in part of 

 beeswax, if any such is known. 



Glensdale, N. Y. N. F. Case. 



Mood Prospect for Honey. — Basswood 

 is full of buds, and there is plenty of 

 honey in all the flowers. My lirst 

 swarm came out on June 6 ; I have 30 

 colonies, and 2 young queens laying. I 

 bought 10 colonies for $50. .Some of 

 them had brood in every comb. The 

 cause of bees dying last winter was 

 dampness, cold, long conhnement, 

 breeding too soon in winter quarters, 

 and being put out too early. 



Fayette Lee. 



Cokato, Minn., June 11, 1881. 



Do Bees ever get to be a Nuisance J — 



In your No. 23 Mr. Heddon asks for in- 

 formation relative to the above subject. 

 Our Iowa "code" defines a "nuisance " 

 to be "whatever is injurious to health, 

 or indecent or offensive to the senses, 

 or an obstruction to the free use of 

 property so as essentially to interfere 

 with the comfortable enjoyment of life 

 and property," and when found to be a 

 nuisance under the above definition 

 may be enjoined or abated. Under the 

 last clause of the section above quoted 

 it would seem that bees might, at times, 

 be included. If my neighbor owns and 

 operates a sugar refinery, and I keep 

 adjacent thereto a large apiary, to his 

 annoyance, discomfort or disadvantage, 

 1 do not see why the bees could not be 

 declared a nuisance just as a stinking 

 hog pen, kept within easy range of his 

 olfactory nerves, could. I do not know 

 of a case where the question of dam- 

 ages by bees has arisen in our courts, 

 but I do not see why they should not be 

 controlled to the extent of not interfer- 

 ing with our neighbors' rights, as well 

 as any other class of property. While 

 we are supposed to have a right to life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in 

 our own chosen vocation, and the en- 

 joyment of property, we are not to de- 

 prive another of the same right. Our 

 individual rights ought to be subser- 

 vient to the public good, and if we can- 

 not pursue an occupation without in- 

 jury to our fellow citizens, we ought to 

 choose some other business. If bee- 

 keepers would also keep the Golden 

 Rule in their hearts, and when so un- 

 fortunately located as to cause annoy- 

 ance or discomfort to their neighbors, 

 whose occupations attract the bees, if 

 they would endeavor to do right, very 

 little complaint would be made. 



Eugene Secor. 

 Forest City, Iowa, May 13, 1881. 



Died of Dysentery. — I lost about 80 

 per cent, of my bees. I had them 

 packed on their summer stands ; they 

 were confined too long and died with 

 dysentery. They are doing well now ; 

 beginning to swarm and working in 

 sections. I wish the Bee Journal 

 success. Hiram J. Ward. 



Farmington, Kan., May 8, 1881. 



CLUBBING LIST. 



We supply the Weekly American Bee Journal 

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

 pi-ices quoted in tbe last column of figures. Toe 

 first column gives 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. Kim?)-. 3 00.. 2 60 



Bee-Keepers' Exchange (J.H.Nellts). 2 75.. 2 50 



The 4 above-named papers 4 75. . 3 76 



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



Bee-Keepers' Guide (A. G. Hill) 2 60.. 2 36 



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



Kansas Bee-Keeper 226.. 2 50 



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, fl.00 less. 

 For Monthly Bee Journal, I1.5U less. 

 1 i ^ * - 



Local Convention Directory. 



1881. Time and Place oj 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'g, Loutsville.Ky. 



W. Williamson, Sec, Lexington, Ky. 

 27— Western Mich., at Berlin, Mich. 



Wm. M. S. Dodge. CoopersvUle, Sec. 

 jy In order to have this Table complete. Secreta- 

 ries are requested to forward full particulars of time 

 and place of future meetings.— ED. 



Honey and Beeswax Market. 



BUYERS' QUOTATIONS. 

 CHICAGO. 



HONEY- The market Is plentifully supplied with 

 honey, and sales are slow at weak, easy prices. Quo- 

 table at 15(j51«c. for strictly choice white comb in 1 

 and 2 lb. boxes; at io<y.i2e. for common dark-colored 

 and broken lots. Extracted, 7.^<<&yHc. 



BEESWAX.-Choice yellow, 2U(*23c; dark, 15017. 



NEW YORK. 



HONEY.— Best white comb honey, small neat 

 packages, 14<al7c.; dark 1I"< 12 ; large boxes 2c. less.— 

 White extruded, Hi*luc.; dark, 7<a.8c. 



BEESWAX.— Prime quality, 20<gi25c. 



CINCINNATI. 



HONE Y.— The market for extracted clover honey 

 is good, at8@iuc. Comb honey is of slow sale at 10c. 

 for the best. 



BEESWAX-18(at22c. C. F. MUTH. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



HONEY.— A few case:* of new, both extracted and 

 comb, have arrived— not enough to attract anyone 

 but a rttali buyer. Large oiTerings woul not be apt 

 to solicit much attention from canners just now, as 

 they are busily engaged on fruits. Stocks of old ex- 

 tracted are firmly neid. 



We quote white comb, J2@l4c; dark to goud, 9@ 

 lie. Extracted, choice to extra white, 6<<ji7c.; dark 

 und candied, 5<sj5HjC. BEESWAX— 2l«t25c., 



Steakns & Smith, 423 Front Street. 



San Francisco, Cal.. June 9, lb81. 



