AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



375 



Have Done Extraordinarily Well. 



My bees have done extraordinarily 

 well this season. I have 35 colonies, 

 and 31 of them are at work in the su- 

 pers. I have extracted twice already 

 from some of them, and I expect a large 

 crop from broom-weed, which is begin- 

 ning to bloom. 



I could not afford to do without the 

 Bee Journal, as it is the most handy 

 " tool " in my apiary. I read it care- 

 fully every week, and find that I am 

 greatly benefited by it. 



S. F. OZBURN. 



Meridian, Tex., Sept. 5, 1892. 



Lots of Buckwheat Honey. 



I had 3 swarms to-day. My bees are 

 getting lots of honey from buckwheat. 

 There are hundreds of acres of it within 

 reach of them. D. G. Webster. 



Blaine, Ills., Sept. 5, 1892. 



Good Prospect for a Fall Crop. 



Bees are doing finely. There is a good 

 showing for'a fall crop of honey. Bees 

 did not swarm much. I have had 12 

 swarms from 39 colonies, spring count. 

 I will report in full after I take off the 

 surplus honey. Sampson Stout. 



UdalirKans., Sept. 1, 1892. 



Drone-Brood Poisonous to Chicks. 



On page 182, I notice that Mr. Geo. 

 Poindexter recommends educating chick- 

 ens to catch drones. I do not suppose 

 these "drone-traps" would make any 

 distinction between drones and queens. 

 Besides this objection, I want to say 

 that the larvae of moth make a nice 

 morsel for chicks, but drones will scour 

 the old birds and kill the young ones. 



In the spring of 1891 I cut out half 

 a peck of drone-cells, and, cutting off 

 the caps, gave them to the fowls. The 

 little chicks would greatly relish pulling 

 the drones out of the cells. In a day or 

 two though, I noticed many of the chicks 

 drooping, and some died. I rarely lose 

 a chick after I get it out of its shell, and 

 did not like the condition of my young 

 broods at all. I suspected the drone 

 feeding, but decided to give them 

 another trial or two, as there were dis- 

 turbing causes. Last spring I had a 

 brood of chicks a month or six weeks 

 old off to themselves, and one day took 

 from some combs a handful or two of 

 drones of different ages — some could 



almost crawl ; as usual the chicks de- 

 voured them. The next morning I no- 

 ticed they were affected with the same 

 symptoms as before observed. Half of 

 them did not keep up with the old hen, 

 and before night three of them had 

 died. It took a week for the rest to re- 

 cover. I must be doubly sure before I 

 state a fact, and two weeks ago I tried 

 only a few upon a small brood of chicks, 

 and noticing the same effects, I wrote to 

 Mrs. Atchley, of Texas, not to use 

 drones for this purpose. Drones have 

 no poison-sacs, and I am at a loss to 

 know why they should poison chicks, 

 and scour the old birds — but I am con- 

 vinced that they will do it. 



Arthur T. Goldsborough. 

 Washington, D. C, Sept. 1, 1892. 



Working on Buckwheat, Etc. 



I put 50 colonies away last fall, and 

 lost 2 in wintering and 7 by spring 

 dwindling. I did uot feed any, and all 

 hives were empty of honey when the 

 spring flow began. We had about a 

 week's good flow of linden, when ex- 

 tremely hot, dry weather stopped the 

 white clover and linden flows. I have 

 now 63 colonies, with the bodies of the 

 hives full, and the bees are now working 

 on buckwheat and miscellaneous weeds, 

 and are storing some honey in the 

 supers. Richard Hopkins. 



Bear Grove, Iowa, Sept. 4, 1892. 



Combed and Extracted. 



Honey as Medicine. 



I do not think honey as an antidote 

 for the ills that flesh is heir to, receives 

 the attention it should. Pure liquid 

 honey as an alleviator for sore, inflamed 

 throats, has no equal. A lady who is a 

 great sufferer in this way, keeps a glass 

 of it on the stand by her bedside, and 

 finds relief by taking a tea-spoonful of 

 it whenever she awakecs, as it both 

 cleanses and relieves. Father Lang- 

 stroth, dear to all lovers of the honey- 

 bee, says that his wife was in Massa- 

 chusetts a sufferer from consumption, 

 and her friends and advisers thought 

 she could not live to reach her home. 

 She did, and then commenced to take 



