554 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



swarm on the weed. They have not 

 worked on it for three weeks. We had 

 quite a frost about three weeks ago. 

 The weed is from 4 to 5 feet high, and 

 is in a kind of a woolly state now, the 

 blossom, I mean. Some of the old men 

 here call it boneset, but I don't think it 

 is. It is not what I call boneset. 

 Riverton. Ills. C. V. Mann. 



Prof. Cook says this about the plant 

 that Mr. Mann sent us : 



The plant is one of the several species 

 of our very common and abundant Eupa- 

 toHum, or boneset. The bees often get 

 much honey from it, which, however, is 

 rather strong and dark. So we see that 

 "Old men for counsel" is a wise maxim. 

 A. J. Cook. 



Colonies Deserting — Swarming. 



I wonder if you have the same annoy- 

 ance which besets us here, viz.: colonies 

 unceremoniously quitting their comfort- 

 able frame hives and hieing themselves 

 off to the mountains and forests. I 

 have lost over 30 or 40 colonies this 

 way, and some old, settled colonies 

 which I have had two years. It seems 

 they wont brook the least interference. 

 A colony left, for instance, yesterday, 

 leaving behind unhatched brood, and a 

 comb quite full of honey. There are no 

 insect plagues to account for it, though 

 I must admit the " bee-catcher birds," as 

 we call them, have been very trouble- 

 some lately about the hives, sitting most 

 audaciously right at the hive-entrances, 

 and thus hindering the bees from work- 

 ing ; and I must admit I have been neg- 

 lectful in not having these rascals shot 

 lately. Would this perhaps account for 

 the bees' discontent ? 



I see a good deal in the Bee Jouknal 

 about preventing swarming. Allow me 

 to ask, why cannot swarming be pre- 

 vented by keeping queen-excluding zinc 

 always before the hive-entrances ? Why 

 all these "trapping" inventions, when 

 by simply preventing the exit of queens 

 in the manner I mention, swarming 

 cannot take place. 



"The drones," you will say, "what 

 about them ?" Well, ray answer is, 

 don't have any drones, or at least keep 

 queen-excluders before ten hives out of 

 eleven ; the eleventh's drones will suffice 

 for mating with young queens. By using 

 foundation of only brood size, no drones 

 will be created, nor are they wanted. 

 Should patches of drone-comb neverthe- 

 less be built, cut it out. 



As my bees are so apt to leave en 



masse, I am now compelled (not to pre- 

 vent swarming, but to retain my colo- 

 nies) to keep excluding-zinc before the 

 hive-entrances, and I find it neither 

 hinders, nor apparently Inconveniences 

 the workers. S. A. Deacon. 



Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. 



Answers. — The desertion of colonies 

 with you, leaving brood and honey In 

 them, seems somewhat like the deser- 

 tions that sometimes take place in the 

 northern United States in spring. But 

 one would hardly think your climate 

 cold enough for that. And does spring 

 come in July or August ? It is hardly 

 probable that the birds are responsible 

 for the desertions. Can any of our 

 readers help us out ? 



It may be a good thing for you to have 

 excluders to prevent your queens leav- 

 ing at the time of deserting colonies, 

 and we have wondered why no one ever 

 tried the same thing in the spring in the 

 Northern States ; but to use it for the 

 prevention of swarming is quite another 

 matter. It would prevent the queens 

 leaving, but it would not prevent the 

 rearing of young queens, when the old 

 queen would be killed, and if the young 

 queen should not be allowed a flight she 

 would be a drone-layer. 



No. 54 —Mrs. Sarali E. Sierman. 



We believe that so far in the Bee 

 Journal's biographical sketches, only 

 one lady bee-keeper from our "Sunny 

 Southland" has appeared, and that 

 "one" was Mrs. Jennie Atchley. This 

 week we are greatly pleased to be per- 

 mitted to present to our readers another 

 prominent lady apiarist in the person of 

 Mrs. Sallie E. Sherman, who also lives 

 in the big bee State of Texas. 



We met Mrs. Sherman at the recont 

 North American convention, she having 



