286 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 7, 





Over 100 Pounds per Colony.— Honey 

 gathering in this part of the country, 

 so far, has been good. My 68 colonies 

 I bad left in the spring out of 108 last 

 fall, have averaged over 100 lbs., with 

 a prospect of gathering considerable 

 more. Can you tell me the cause of a 

 queen's eggs not hatching '? I have a 

 fine-looking queen that I reared this 

 summer. It is over two months since 

 she began to lay, but not a single egg 

 has hutched yet. C. H. Stordock. 



Durand, 111., Aug. 27, 1881. 



[It is a strange case. The queen has 

 probably been injured in some man- 

 ner, which has caused sterility.— Ed.] 



"The Coming Bee."— Permit me 

 through the Journal, to offer an 

 amendment to my original proposi- 

 tion, and that is as follows : 



"Largest and longest worker bees," 

 progeny of a queen reared by the ex- 

 hibitor—this will exclude Apis Dor- 

 sata, or any other race of bees, not in 

 reach of all. I do not know that I shall 

 send any myself, but think now I 

 shall. I can hardly expect to win the 

 prize, and if I do not, I cheerfully pay 

 the small sum of 25 cts. to know who 

 has the best bees, that I may get 

 of him. I have experimented a great 

 deal in crossing, in breeding for 

 length of tongue, size of bees, and 

 gentleness, and find a marked differ- 

 ence in the different crosses. I am 

 also satisfied that the mother of the 

 bees that take the prize, will have 

 been rocked in a horizontal cradle. I 

 send in my 25 cts.; let the ball keep 

 rolling. I hope friend Briggs has re- 

 ceived his champion queen, but 

 neither 810 nor $25 would tempt me to 

 unqueen my best colonies. Let all 

 who wish for better colonies, send in 

 25 cts., and the sum will be large 

 enough in the aggregate to find the 

 " coming bee,'" and if fertilization in 

 confinement can be accomplished, a 

 good reward in cash will bring it 

 about. J. S. Tadlock. 



Kingsbury, Texas, Aug. 23, 1881. 



Lycium Barlmrum.— I send you all 

 the parts of an ornamental shrub grow- 

 ing in my grounds; will you kindly 

 give its name in the Bee Journal, 

 and how best propagated V It is a re- 

 markable shrub for honey, my bees 

 having been constantly busy on its 

 succession of flowers for over 2 months, 

 and are still so, when everything else 

 is suffering from drouth. It has also 

 the merit of being a verv pretty hedge. 

 I. C. Thorn, M. D. 



Streetsville, Can., Aug. 17, 1881. 



[The specimen sent is Lycium bar- 

 bar um,oi matrimony vine. It belongs 

 to the order Solanacec?, which includes 

 the tomato, potato, nightshade, bitter- 

 sweet, egg-plant, pepper, ground- 

 cherry, horse-nettle, etc. It is easily 

 propagated by layering. — W. J. Beal.] 



The Bee Journal worth $10. a Year. 



— The Weekly Bee Journal comes 

 to hand with the regularity of clock- 

 work, and fills the bill every time. I 

 could not think of getting along with- 

 out it, if it cost $10. a year. Our bees 

 are not gathering much buckwheat 

 honey. What is the reason V 



Wji. Cairns. 

 Rockland, N. V., Aug. 30, 1881. 



Royal Jelly, etc.— In the Bee Jour- 

 nal for Aug. 24, page 268, Mr. C. J. 

 Robinson advances a theory that I 

 do not understand. He writes : " I 

 claim, as set forth in a former article, 

 that queens are impregnated with 

 royal jelly (drone's semen), while in 

 the larval state." What I wish to 

 learn is,how a nucleus colony composed 

 of all young bees, furnished with only 

 worker eggs to raise a queen, obtain 

 this royal jelly to impregnate the 

 queen in the larval state V 



W. II. Stout. 



Pine Grove, Pa., Aug. 29, 1881. 



Drouth in Texas.— The great drouth 

 still continues. The top of the ground 

 is drier than at any time since 1861. 

 It cannot well be described better 

 than to say that everything is burnt 

 up. W. il. Andrews. 



McKinney, Texas, Aug. 20, 1881. 



Dry and Hot.— The early part of the 

 season was good for bees, in this sec- 

 tion. I started with 3 weak colonies, 

 and bought 4 more. I now have 2s 

 good colonies. I sowed buckwheat, 

 but it was too dry and hot ; it does 

 not afford much honey, and unless it 

 rains soon, I shall have to feed to get 

 through the winter. 



E. Armstrong. 



Jerseyville, 111. 



The Nicest Honey for Years.— The 

 bees almost all died in this locality 

 last winter, but those that were left 

 after the cold winds had passed, and 

 the sun warmed the bees, began 

 to gather pollen, and increase in num- 

 bers and stores. I have 65 colonies 

 now. They have done very nicely. I 

 have the purest and whitest honey 

 this season that I have had for the 

 past 5 years. My honey is mostly in 

 prize packages ; have extracted but 

 very little. The greatest question now 

 is, how to winter them without loss. 

 I shall be glad to receive the Bee 

 Journal in its new form next year, 

 and I hope it may increase in interest 

 in the future, as it has in the past. 

 Thos. Pierce. 



Gansevoort, N. Y., Aug. 25, 1881. 



A Terror. — This summer has been a 

 terrible one for the bees of this Prov- 

 ince, for ever since the blooming of 

 white clover to the present, continu- 

 ous rains have fallen. My 12 colonies 

 have hardly a pound of surplus honey 

 in them at this date. 



J. Matthew Jones. 



Waterville, N. S., Aug. 25, 1881. 



Melilot on Timbered Land. —Please 

 tell us in the Bee Journal, whether 

 melilot will do well if sown on timber 

 land, if only the underbrush is cut 

 out ? Will the shade of the timber 

 prevent it from yielding honey ? 



J. S. Hughes. 



Mt. Zion, 111., Aug. 26, 1881. 



[We think it would be difficult to 

 find shade dense enough to prevent its 

 blooming and secretion of honey. It 

 would be better, however, to harrow 

 or brush in the seeds, as birds are very 

 fond of them. — Ed.] 



Two Queeus in One Hive.— I have 

 found 2 queens in a colony of bees ; 

 both are good laying queens, and both 

 seem very peaceable in the hive. About 

 the middle of June the bees prepared 

 to swarm ; they had 3 queen-cells, 

 capped over ; I waited, and looked in 

 the hive every few days. One day I 

 found that one queen-cell was already 

 hatched, but I could not find the 

 young queen. I then made up my 

 mind to divide the colony, and took 

 out one frame of bees containing the 

 queen, and placed it in an empty hive 

 with comb foundation, leaving it in 

 place of the old hive, and put that in a 

 new place, and by the next day I had 

 a pretty fair colony of bees with the 

 old queen ; but on that frame where 

 the old queen was, I found no queen- 

 cell. I left all the queen-cells with 

 the young bees. About a week after 

 dividing. I looked in the hive where 

 the old queen was, and could not find 

 her, and found they had a queen-cell 

 started. I then thought the old queen 

 was lost, or the bees had killed her ; 

 3 weeks ago I found every frame — 

 even the outside ones full of brood, 

 all ready to hatch, and no young eggs 

 or larva 3 ; that drew my attention, and 

 I looked for the queen, but found 2 

 queens — the old one which was in the 

 colony when I divided it, also a new 

 one, both on one frame, about 4 inches 

 apart, and it seemed to me both were 



busy looking for empty cells. I have 

 looked once every week since, and al- 

 ways find the 2 queens peaceably busy, 

 with the difference that the old queen 

 creeps around pretty slow, while the 

 young one is quite lively. 



F. W. Dittmer. 

 Defiance, O., Aug. 25, 1881. 



A Good Honey Plant.— Please name 

 this plant ; it commences blooming a 

 little before basswood, and the bees 

 prefer it to basswood ; it yields honey 

 as white as water, and pollen as blue 

 as blue paint. I got about 100 pounds 

 of honey per colony from this plant. 

 The honey is very sweet, and has but 

 little flavor ; people say I make it of 

 white sugar, and object to buy it. The 

 bees ceased to work on it about a week 

 ago on account of bad weather, and 

 brood-rearing stopped. Bees will rear 

 no more brood now, as the last brood 

 usually hatches here the first week in 

 September. I would like the name of 

 the plant so as to know what to call 

 my honey. It would be excellent to 

 cultivate for honey, as it will thrive 

 anywhere, and the seeds fly all over 

 the country. It grows between 3 and 

 5 feet high. Wm. Fritze. 



Duluth, Minn., Aug. 14, 1881. 



[Prof . Beal informs me that the plant 

 is willow herb Epilobiumaugustifolium. 

 It is also known as gnat weed and fire 

 weed, and is common throughout the 

 North.— A. J. Cook.] 



Eggs that Will Sot Hatch.— I pur- 

 chased an Italian queen of a breeder 

 in Kentucky about a month ago ; she 

 was somewhat daubed when I received 

 her, but I introduced her into a good, 

 strong colony. In 5 or 6 days after I 

 found the queen apparently all right, 

 and laying in 1 sheet of comb ; being 

 busy, I did not look at her any more 

 until yesterday, which was about 25 

 or 30 days from the time I had intro- 

 duced her. As she was a warranted 

 queen, I thought I would look at her 

 worker progeny. I found the queen 

 crawling over the combs as large as 

 life, and appeared to be prolific, but 

 to my great surprise there was no lar- 

 vae in the hive, but plenty of eggs in 

 the same sheet. The bees appeared 

 to be perfectly satisfied with her, and 

 did not build queen cells, as with a 

 fertile worker or drone-laying queen. 

 It is something new to me. what do 

 you think about it? J. R. Reeve. 



Martinsburg, Tex., Aug. 30, 1881. 



[We can assign no positive cause 

 for the phenomenon. You will find 

 in this number a similar instance re- 

 lated by Mr. C. H. Stordock, of Dur- 

 and, 111.— Ed.] 



H. A. Burch Again.— This has been 

 a good season for bees, here, up to 

 about July 10, when dry weather set 

 in. We have had no rain here from 

 that time until to-day. We are hav- 

 ing a line rain now, and I hope we 

 will have a good fall for honey. The 

 drouth has been tolerably hard on us, 

 but not so severe as it has been else- 

 where. I have increased my bees 

 In mi 5 colonies to 18 by natural and 

 artificial means, and think they are in 

 tolerably good condition. I am sorry 

 that H. A. Burch has disappointed 

 his customers so; I recommended him 

 to some of my bee-keeping friends 

 last spring. He now has their money 

 and gave nothing in return. 



Isaac Sharp. 



Waveland, Ind., Aug. 31, 1881. 



Rolling in Honey.— We began the 

 season with 30 colonies, and now have 

 72. We increase by dividing and al- 

 ways succeed ; 1 colony gave us 5 ; 2 

 were artificial and 3 natural. We 

 have 4 acres in buckwheat, and the 

 bees are rolling in the honey. If the 

 weather keeps good we shall have an 

 immense yield. In queen rearing, we 

 were successful. 1 notice, in other lo- 

 calities, some breeders were unsuc- 

 cessful. Moller & Son. 



Fremont, Neb., Aug. 23, 1881. 



Yeiinor's Predictions. — I think Ven- 

 nor should have a leather medal, in 

 place of frequent storms. We have a 

 disastrous drouth ; for frosts, 100° in 

 the shade. There has not been rain 

 enough here for 6 weeks to lay the 

 dust fairly. Of fall honey we have 

 about J4 a crop ; basswood about the 

 same, and white clover about % a 

 crop. H. D. Burrell. 



Bangor, Mich., Sept. 1, 1881. 



My Report.— Early drouth made 

 the clover crop less than \i the aver- 

 age. Something unknown to me made 

 the basswood the same. We are now 

 in the middle of the fall harvest, and 

 as it is 5 weeks and 2 days since we 

 had any rain ( we never knew such a 

 severe drouth in this locality before), 

 our fall yield will not be but J£ of an 

 average crop. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Aug. 29, 1881. 



That Bojrns Dunham Foundation. — 



The apiarian supply dealers of Michi- 

 gan (one of whom I have found to be 

 very punctual and honest in business 

 transactions), wish me to give the 

 name of the firm from whom I pur- 

 chased foundation, spoken of on page 

 29 of the American Bee Journal 

 of 1881. As by keeping the name from 

 the public, they are all suffering; loss of 

 business, I cheerfully comply with their 

 request. Messrs. II. A. Burch & Co., of 

 South Haven, Mich., are the parties 

 that supplied the bogus Dunham foun- 

 dation. J. B. Hall. 

 Woodstock, Ont., Aug. 31, 1881. 



"The Bridal Eve."— Mrs. E. D. E. 

 N. Southworth's powerful and highly 

 absorbing novel " The Bridal Eve" is 

 shortly to be issued by Messrs. T, B. 

 Peterson & Brothers of Philadelphia, 

 Pa., in excellent style at the exceed- 

 ingly low price of 75 cents a copy. 

 This fascinating story deals with 

 love, romance, crime, and woman's 

 devotion, and has a plot of the most 

 ingenious and effective description. 

 The scene is laid in England, and the 

 characters mostly move in high social 

 circles. The cheapness of the work 

 should give it an immense sale. Every- 

 body will be delighted with it. 



©• The St. Joseph Democrat says 

 that Missouri was the second State in 

 the Union for the production of honey 

 in 1870. The following shows the sur- 

 plus production of the counties named, 

 in that year: Atchison, 10,608 lbs. ; 

 Andrew, 16,183; Buchanan, 7,626; 

 Caldwell, 21.340; Carroll, 20,812 ; Clin- 

 ton, 18,891 ; DeKalb. 10,627 : Daviess, 

 25,052; Gentry, 23.480; Harrison, 46,- 

 024; Livingston, 17,331 ; Holt, 15,670; 

 Nodaway ,15,335; Platte, 12,044; Worth, 

 17,000. 



(gf The South Eastern Mich. Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, will hold its 4th 

 meeting at the Court House, in Ann 

 Arbor, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1881, at 9 

 o'clock a. m.; the week of the County 

 Fair. An adjourned meeting may be 

 held during the week. All interested 

 are invited to attend. By order of the 

 Executive Committee. 



N. A. Prudden, Chairman. 



0° The North Eastern Wis. Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, will hold its 

 fall meeting at Peewaukee, Wis., on 

 Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 11 and 

 12. A "full attendance is cordially re- 

 quested. Notice of the plauce of 

 meeting will be found at the local 

 Post Office. 



Geo. Church, Pres., Neenah, Wis. 

 Frances Dunham, ,Sce.,Depere,Wis. 



(£g° 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. 



gl° The Southwestern Wisconsin 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its 

 next meeting in Platteville, Grant Co., 

 Wis.. Nov. 30, 1881. 



N. E. France, Sec, Platteville, Wis. 



