254 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 10, 





Bee Stiugs.— A writer in the Jour- 

 nal, some time since, gave us a rem- 

 edy for bee stings — " hold your 

 tongue." I find that one generally 

 has use for that member about the 

 time a bee sits down on him. If Mr. 

 "Hold-your-tongue " will smoke the 

 place thoroughly, where the stinger 

 went in, I think that he will find it a 

 much easier task, and in a short time 

 he will hardly know that he has been 

 stung. It serves not only to prevent 

 the scent from being communicated to 

 the rest of the colony, but kills the 

 poison. Try it. S. Goodrich. 



Saybrook, 111. 



Obscure, Scientillc, but Silent Bee- 

 Men.— On page ±26, of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, Mr. Clarke says that he has fer- 

 reted out an obscure scientific apiar- 

 ist. These are the kind of men we 

 like to hear about ; but we would 

 rather hear from than about them. 

 Mr. George Sturgeon, no doubt, has a 

 great deal of knowledge and experi- 

 ence, and if such men would write 

 an article, now and then, for the Bee 

 Journal, it would do some of us (es- 



Eecially those who are young in the 

 usiness) much good. It seems to 

 me, from last winter's reports, that 

 most of us have much to learn yet. I 

 visited a neighboring bee-keeper, a 

 short time ago, and handed him a 

 copy I had with me of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and asked him to subscribe for 

 it. lie replied : " No ; there is no ne- 

 cessity for me to spend my money In 

 that way ; I know all about bees." 

 Yet, out of the 9 colonies he prepared 

 for winter last fall, he has but 4 left. 

 Now, if the scientific obscure apiarists 

 would write an article now and then 

 for the Bee Journal, they would 

 most certainly gladden the hearts 

 of many of its readers, by letting 

 their light shine, for we desire to 

 profit by the experience of others. I 

 am well aware that we have many ex- 

 cellent writers now, whose efforts 

 have been and will be highly apprecia- 

 ted. I commenced the season with 

 one colony, which was divided May 

 16. I have received 35 pounds of 

 comb honey in 2-pound sections from 

 the younger colony. They are both 

 very strong, and are bringing in a lit- 

 tle honey from the second crop of 

 white clover, which is very short on 

 account of the dry weather. 



A. E. Foster. 

 Covington, Ky., July 30, 1881. 



Stung by Cyprians.— My little boy 

 was nearly stung to death by cross 

 Cyprian bees, a few days ago. The 

 child is 20 months old. " lie had not 

 been missed from the house when his 

 mother heard him scream in the 

 apiary. lie was in front of the hive, 

 and his head covered with bees. He 

 luckily recovered after 3 days of suf- 

 fering, by the application of cold 

 water. C. P. Dadant. 



Hamilton, 111.. Aug. 1,1881. 



A Colony Determined to Keep Two 

 Queens. — I have fought the elements 



for 8 months, and have had but little 

 reward, except bringing my bees 

 through with but little loss. The 

 winter here was quite favorable for 

 bees, though the spring lias been the 

 worst for bees that ever was known. 

 My bees are now in prime condition 

 for storing surplus. The basswood 

 will soon be in bloom ; we shall have 

 an abundance of it, as the late rain 

 has, with the warm weather, revived 

 things very much. My lues are mostly 

 Italians; I Bud them much ahead of 

 the blacks. 1 own 1 -, of a small apiary 

 located at Charles Barker's ; we have 

 things in fine condition to produce 

 honey. I think we are fortunate ; we 

 have one colony that accepted 2 queens 

 to lay, and seem tube perfectly thrown 

 out of order when one is remo\ ed. 1 

 have removed 2 this season, and the 



bees were very much excited until 

 they had another started. The first 

 daughter hatched before there were 

 drones. She remained with the mother 

 about 10 days, when I removed her, 

 and they at once made a queen-cell 

 and the mother remained in the hive ; 

 the daughter became fertilized and 

 also remained in the hive and laid 

 about one week. I removed her and 

 introduced her to another colony, where 

 she is tilling the combs profusely. I 

 see to-day the parent colony has a 

 queen-cell with an egg in it, which 

 proves that they are determined to 

 have 2 queens. The daughters seem 

 to be exactly like their mother. I 

 value these queens much. I will re- 

 port again hereafter. The Bee Jour- 

 nal is an excellent thing to keep 

 away the blues. I hope I shall be 

 able to be one of its readers as long as 

 I read anything. G. H. Green. 

 Athens, Maine, July 11, 1881. 



Very Little Surplus Honey.— Bees 



have done very little in the way of 

 collecting honey here, so far this sea- 

 son. Fruit blossoms and white clover 

 yielded comparatively no honey. 

 Basswood bloom was immense, but 

 lasted only a few days. Vegetation is 

 dying, being burned up by the heat 

 and drouth. Corn cannot make over 

 % of a crop. We have no show for 

 any surplus honey here at present ; 

 our hopes are blasted. T. J. Ward. 

 St. Mary's, Ind., Aug 1, 1881. 



Feeding Full Winter Stores.— Is it 

 possible to feed up and carry through 

 the winter bees in box hives, after be- 

 ing robbed clean at frost? A friend 

 told me he was going to brimstone a 

 part of his bees. I can have the bees 

 and brood comb free— would it pay me 

 to try to carry them over? I wonder 

 if the balance of the country is as dry 

 as Southern Illinois is at this time. 

 We have not had any rain for six weeks 

 to-day. Grass and clover are dead ; 

 in fact, the meadows would burn like 

 old grass, if the match was applied. 

 If it does not rain, and that soon, there 

 will not be corn raised to fatten the 

 hogs. This has been, and I fear will 

 remain an extremely bad year for bees. 

 They are now consuming the white 

 clover surplus. Another question : 

 Do bees usually store sufficient honey 

 in brood frames to carry them through 

 the winter ? Longlive'the Bee Jour- 

 nal. D. W. Bellemey. 



Vienna, 111., July 31, 1881. 



[It is possible with an entrance feed- 

 er, or a division-bflard feeder, such as 

 Prof. Cook describes in his " Manual 

 of i he Apiary," to feed enough sugar- 

 syrup to winter the bees nicely; and 

 if bees at an extreme cost of $2.50 per 

 colony are any object, it will pay you 

 to take them. Ordinarily, with a me- 

 dium-sized brood chamber, bees will 

 store an abundance in the brood frames 

 for wintering on. We saw many colo- 

 nies last fall in Kane Co.. 111., which 

 had not honey enough in the brood 

 frames to hist half the winter ; but it 

 was because they could not find the 

 honey to store, not from lack of room. 

 —Ed.] 



On the Wing. — We left our home, 

 Peoria, 111., on the evening of July 

 27.0U1' destination being St. Johns- 

 bury, Vt.,the birth-place of Fairbanks' 

 scales. All the way we were on the 

 qui vive for honey plants, but recog- 

 nized very few until we arrived at Al- 

 bany, N. V. From there to Troy we 

 were gladdened by the sight of sweet 

 clover in all the rocky crevices. The 

 road from Greenfield, Mass., to this 

 place, is edged with gold— golden rod 

 everywhere — against the side of de- 

 pots, lumber, etc.. in some places ap- 

 pearing like a cultivated crop — a sea 

 of waving gold. The bouquets in the 

 church decorations were composed in 

 part of golden rod. mingling with 

 lems and golden-banded lilies, un- 

 knowingly doing honor to a bee-keeper 

 from Illinois. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Drouth.— My bees have done very 

 poorly this season ; I have had very 

 few natural swarms, not over 1,000 

 pounds of extracted honey and 125 

 pounds of comb honey; and with 70 

 or 75 colonies we are in the midst of 

 one of the most disastrous drouths I 

 ever saw, and not a drop of rain for 

 nearly 5 weeks. It was very wet un- 

 til the dry weather set in. What has 

 become of M. B., of Fincastle, Ind., 

 and that promised article on "Fertil- 

 ization," in time for the present sea- 

 son ? Has he or she or thev forgot it, 

 or did their bees all die in the spring, 

 or, or— what ? The season is march- 

 ing on, and still it does not come. 



J. F. Love. 



Cornersville, Tenn., Aug. 2, 1881. 



[M. B. is making experiments and 

 will report when there is anything re- 

 liable to report. — Ed.] 



Ants.— Every bee-keeper in the land 

 has met and fought the intolerable 

 ant-nuisance, in one shape or another, 

 and yet they are not conquered. 1 

 have had them wade over seas of car- 

 bon oil, to reach the hive, where they 

 might domicile on the upper side of a 

 warm honey-board, among the caps 

 and supers to propagate their millions. 

 Now for the remedy. Look up an old 

 milk pan, holding about a gallon, or 

 larger is better, whittle a handle on 

 the thick end of half a pine shingle, 

 slip the thin end under and nail with 

 clinch tacks from the inside bottom of 

 pan, and your cremator is finished. 

 Fill your pan about half full of dry 

 shavings or excelsior, and you are now 

 ready for the conflict. Fire the shav- 

 ings first, then quickly take off the top 

 or covering of your hive, with the 

 flaming pan in one hand and a broom- 

 corn whisk in the other, yo"u will scoop 

 both eggs and ants in the flames. 

 Those escaping, you can get on a sec- 

 ond trial. For 25 years I have fought 

 this ant nuisance in vain. This year 

 I have conquered; on a hundred hives 

 in my apiary not a spoonful of ants 

 can be found to-day. Give it a trial ; 

 when a thing is burned up that is about 

 the end of it. J. \V. Bayard. 



Athens, O., Aug. 13, 1881. 



Bees in Kansas.— Last winter being 

 a very severe one, about % of the bees 

 in this neighborhood died. I lost all 

 but 3 colonies; I had 20 in the fall, in 

 Langstroth hives ; I wintered out-of- 

 doors, unprotected. The 3 that came 

 through the winter were very weak in 

 the spring. I took good care of them, 

 following the directions given in the 

 Bee Journal, and in the manuals. 

 I bought 2 colonies of bees, one black 

 and one Italian, making 5 colonies to 

 start with again in the spring. I 

 increased to 8, which are in good con- 

 dition now, except one weak. This 

 season has not been very promising 

 for bees. In the spring they com- 

 menced work in the section boxes, but 

 in May, June, and July it became so 

 dry that they used till the honey they 

 had. Luring the past week they be- 

 gan to work on buckwheat, and are 

 fast tilling the hives up with brood. 

 The bees and queens of some colonies 

 are breeding in the upper story and 

 leave the lower story empty. What 

 shall I do to get the brood down in the 

 lower story again ? Ernst Zabel. 



Williamsburg, Kan., Aug 1, 1881. 



[But in the center of the brood- 

 chamber 2or 3 empty combs.or frames 

 Idled with foundation.— Ed.] 



their grand undertaking, they surely 

 may feel the proud satisfaction of 

 knowing that they have done a great 

 favor to apiarists. A. J. Cook. 



Gratitude to Messrs. Jones and Ben- 

 ton.— The readers of the Bee Jour- 

 nal will be pained to learn that a 

 recent letter from Mr. Benton, just 

 received, states that his health is not 

 restored. The effects of the severe 

 exertions and great hardships incident 

 to his arduous labors to secure the A. 

 dorsata , are slow to leave him. All of 

 us will surely hope that they will 

 not be lasting, as, surely, Mr. Benton 

 has richly earned the hearty gratitude 

 not only of American apiarists, but 

 those of the whole world. Though 

 Messrs. Jones and Benton may not 

 secure great pecuniary benefits for 



Fresh Every Week.— The Weekly 

 Bee Journal is so valuable to me 

 that I can hardly wait for the next 

 number. I have been reading nearly 

 all the literature devoted to bee cul- 

 ture, and I find the American Bee 

 Journal the best; perhaps that is in 

 part, because it conies so fresh and 

 clean every week. L. J. Diehl. 



Butler, Ind. 



Stizus Grandis.— I send you two spe- 

 cimens of the great wasp family (I 

 use the word wasp in the broad sense), 

 which inhabits the Middle and South- 

 ern States. They were captured and 

 presented to me by my nephew, Mr. 

 L. W. Demaree. They are quite for- 

 midable-looking insects when alive 

 and active. Being somewhat rare 

 here, I have not been able to study 

 their habits successfully. What ac- 

 count can you give of them in the Bee 

 Journal? G. W. Dejiaree. 



Christiansburg, Ky., July 28, 1881. 



[This is Stizus grandis, Say. It is 

 one of our largest and handsomest 

 wasps, and is over 1J£ inches long. 

 The color is black, handsomely orna- 

 mented with yellow bands. Like all 

 wasps, these are predacious, and by 

 destroying other insects (mostly those 

 that are noxious) they do no little good. 

 Their stings are formidable; but like 

 other Hymenoptera, they seldom sting 

 unless rudely treated. The fear of 

 bees and wasps that is so often felt, is 

 unnecessary. Let them alone, and 

 they will almost always return the 

 civility ; maltreat them, and they will 

 repay with interest.— A. J. Cook.] 



tlgr The time selected by the Execu- 

 tive Committee for holding the Na- 

 tional Convention, at Lexington, Ky., 

 is October 5, 6, and 7, 1881. All bee- 

 keepers are invited to attend and take 

 part in the deliberations of the Con- 

 vention. As Lexington is a central 

 point, the Executive Committee hope 

 to have a large attendance from the 

 the North, South, East and West, and 

 from Canada, and that the 12 th annual 

 meeting of the North American Bee- 

 Keepers' Society will be the most in- 

 teresting meeting that the bee-keepers 

 of the United States have ever held. 



The National Convention will be 

 held during the time of holding the 

 St. Louis Fair and the Expositions at 

 Cincinnati and Louisville, and that all 

 passing through those cities can get 

 the benefit of excursion rates. 



N. P. Allen, Pres. 



(gT The Northwestern Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will meet in Chicago, on 

 Tuesday and Wednesday, October 25 

 and 26. All bee-keepers are cordially 

 invited to attend. It is desired to 

 make this one of the most interesting 

 conventions ever held in the United 

 States. C. C. Miller, M. D., Pres. 



C. C. COFFINBERRY, See. 



®" The Northern Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its 

 fourth Annual Convention at Maple 

 Rapids, Clinton Co., Mich.. Oct. 11 

 and 12, 1881. O. R. Goodno. Sec. 



$3T The Northwestern Illinois and 

 Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will hold its next meeting 

 Aug. 30, at Rock City, Stephenson Co., 

 111. Jonathan Stewart, Sec. . 



KT The Southwestern Wisconsin 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its 

 next meeting in Platteville, GrantCo., 



Wis.. Nov. 30. 1881 

 N. E. Frani ■]•:. Sec 



.Platteville, Wis. 



gg-The Eastern Michigan bee-keep- 

 ers'Association will hold its fall meet- 

 ing in Detroit, Oct. 4, in the Y. M. C. 

 A. hall, at 10 o'clock a. m. 



A. B. Weed, Sec. 



