336 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cause he has put $500 or $1,000 into 

 improving some article. 



"When a man comes along selling 

 patent rights, don't be afraid of him. 

 He hardly ever Dites any one. Examine 

 his invention, and if you can see some 

 merit in it, give him credit for what you 

 see ; but if yon do not happen to see 

 lots of dollars and cents in it, don't call 

 him a fraud and swindler, for perhaps 

 the very next man he shows the device 

 to, has a different idea of the matter, 

 and can see that it is a good thing. 



Sometimes a man gets out a patent 

 similar to some rude article that some 

 one a thousand miles away has made 

 and used. These people think the in- 

 ventor has stolen their device. It would 

 keep a many busy to look into every 

 man's house in the United States to see 

 if they were making a machine like his. 



Osakis, Minn. 



My Experience Willi Punic Bees, 



C. E. MEAD. 



I bought a Punic queen " because the 

 bees were so gentle that it was hard to 

 make them sting." I introduced her in 

 October, 1891, but she did not lay any 

 last year. 



I watched for the little black bees, but 

 did not feel sure of seeing any until 

 April. (I put the queen in a colony of 

 hybrids when I introduced her.) I did 

 not see much increase until June 15th, 

 then they increased rapidly. On open- 

 ing the hive I got six stings in a very 

 short time. I find bees of all colors, 

 from black to three nice, yellow bands. 

 They are strong in bees and honey, but 

 do not go into the sections as readily as 

 the pure Italians. 



They are an entirely new race of bees. 

 They resent any jar to their hive, or to 

 a frame they are on. In actions and 

 size they resemble the Syrians. They 

 are not easy to control with smoke, 

 though they all can be driven out of the 

 hive with it. As soon as the smoke 

 stops, they are ready to come for the 

 operator again. 



They are the worst bees to handle I 

 ever saw. Their stings are not as viru- 

 lent as the Italians. They do not get 

 up any earlier in the morning than my 

 other bees. While they have done 

 fairly well, they have not done as well 

 as my other colonies, with one excep- 

 tion. I do not think I have the pure 

 Punic bees. 



This has not been a season to test any 

 bees. There was only three weeks 

 from March 15th to July 3rd that bees 

 could fly. We had cold, northeast rains 

 and winds. I had to feed my bees to 

 keep them from starving, which stimu- 

 lated them to work. The field or older 

 bees would go out, get caught in show- 

 ers, and never get back. The better 

 workers a colony was, the greater the 

 loss. 



My bees were no stronger on July 4th 

 than June 1st. July 4th found my hives 

 full of brood and young bees, with very 

 few field bees, and not more than 2 

 pounds of honey to the hive. The sur- 

 plus will not be more than 15 pounds 

 per colony. 



Chicago, Ills. 



■ ^ 



"To Scout" or Not " To Scont ?" 



ROBERT H. WILLIAMS. 



I am one of those "enthusiastic peo- 

 ple "of whom Mr. Demaree speaks in 

 his article on page 148, and I will try 

 to give a reason for the faith that is 

 within me. 



Last summer (1891) there was an 

 extra hive out by the side of the others, 

 with a frame of empty comb in it. It 

 had been there several days, when one 

 morning we noticed bees going in and 

 out, and crawling around the eutrance. 

 They were blacks, and ours were nearly 

 pure Italians, so we knew they were not 

 from the other hives. 



Having read about scouts in the books, 

 we at once concluded that they were 

 scouts. We watched them closely, and 

 by 11 o'clock very few bees were to be 

 seen. Just before dinner we were all 

 out in the yard looking at the hive, 

 which the bees had all left, and lament- 

 ing that they were gone, when over an 

 elm tree at the corner of the house came 

 a swarm of black bees. They alighted 

 on the front end of the hive, and in half 

 an hour were all in, and peacefully at 

 work. This was the 5th of July. 



Immediately another hive, with a 

 piece of comb in it, was mounted in a 

 box-elder tree in the horse-lot. The 

 boys watched it morning, noon and 

 night, as we went to and returned from 

 the fields. One evening, about a week 

 later, we noticed for the first time bees 

 going in and out of it. They acted just 

 as the others had done, and we thought 

 they were scouts. They left that night, 

 but returned the next morning, and 



