THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



379 



keeping has been very successful. We 

 have no natural forest to aid us to any 

 extent, except on the IMissouri ri^'er. 

 If our bees can make their living until 

 August we are thankful, as our honey- 

 flow is from lieart's ease, which opens 

 about Aug. 10. White clover does 

 well, but the area covered by it is so 

 small that it adds but little. So far 

 the season has been good. A line 

 fruit- bloom followed by flowers of 

 many kinds has kept our bees boom- 

 ing ; but June is the hardest month 

 with us. Red clover is in bloom (and 

 plenty of it too), but the bees do not 

 vjfork upon it. When we get some- 

 thing to supply the bees in June and 

 July, that they may be ready for the 

 honey-flow, we can weigh surplus 

 with any State, and the quality is 

 hard to" excel. I will say for the 

 benefit of those whose apiaries are 

 troubled with ants, that I have been 

 very successful with the use of kero- 

 sine, by using it on the bottom-boards 

 and corners of the hives, and some on 

 the cushion or cloth. 



Starch Sugar in Honey.— Dr. G. II. 

 Kidney, Birmingham. Ala., gives 

 the following test : 



Ilager (Jour. Cheni. Soc.) proposes 

 the following test for the presence of 

 starch sugar in honey : Dilute the 

 honey with 3 volumes of water, and 

 filter; introduce 4 o. c. into a test 

 tube, add 6 drops of a 10 per cent, 

 solution of mercuric nitrate, then 

 4 c. c. of absolute alcohol. If the 

 honey is largely contaminated a pre- 

 cipitate gradually falls, on standing; 

 but there is only an opacity wi h 

 small proportions. Hager also ti'ids 

 that if some of the solution of honey 

 is put into a test tul>e and alcohol 

 poured upon it so as to form an upper 

 stratum, the development of a milky 

 opacity at the line of contact indicates 

 the presence of sugar. 



Plenty of Clover, but no Honey.— 



A. W. Cumins, Woodstock, 5 Ills., on 

 June 10, 1886, says : 



I put my single colony into the cel- 

 lar last fail, and put it out this spring 

 all right. It has done well, and yes- 

 terday it cast a large svsfarm. I "had 

 left the case containing 24 one-pound 

 sections on the hive all winter, and 

 last evening I removed it ; I found all 

 the sections tilled more or less with 

 drone brood sealed, but I got about 1-5 

 pounds of honey out of it. I notice 

 that many correspondents speak of 

 the abundance of white clover, and 

 seem to imagine that the bees ai'e 

 storing lots of honey from it. I can 

 bear the same testimony to the growth 

 of clover, but I have not been able to 

 detect a bee working on it, which has 

 been my observation in wet seasons. 

 There is no honey in it yet out here, 

 but if the weather continues dry for 

 another vv'eek I expect to see a change 

 in that respect. The swarming sea- 

 son is about two weeks earlier than 

 usual, and the absence of honey in 

 the clover is the only drawback that 

 I notice. 



Florida Bee Territory. — L. J. 



de Sobotker, Riverton,+oMiss., writes: 



I wish to call the attention of 

 Messrs. Hart and Detwiler to the fact 

 that New Smyrna and Hawk's Park 

 are not situated ii] central (©) Flor- 

 ida, but on its east coast, with only a 

 strip of land separating them from 

 the Atlantic Ocean. Mr. D. lives on 

 this strip of land, and Mr. II. on the 

 main side further south. I beg to 

 correct this, as it may lead apiarists 

 astray, as I was led last July when I 

 visited them in search of a location 

 for bee-keeping. As far as my in- 

 quiries and informationreceived about 

 that part of Florida, I think that Mr. 

 Detwiler's statements are correct in 

 his articles. All extensive lauded 

 proprietors there are constantly seek- 

 ing to run Florida and its resources 

 " up to the skies." I happened to 

 ask a pretty old inhabitant of that 

 musquito and sand-fly region how the 

 people make a living in general. The 

 answer was, " Why, in summer we 

 live by fishing and hunting, and in 

 winter we live on sick Yankees ; that 

 is, while we are getting an orange 

 grove established, which takes some 

 years, and jnst now the only ones 

 doing anything around here are the 

 bee-keepers, of which there are sev- 

 eral, and I think Mr. Hart is the most 

 extensive in both bees, orange groves 

 and lands among them." I have 

 written this as I think " fair play is a 

 jewel." We have right here plenty 

 of rausquitos and sand-flies, but not 

 as bad as that part of Florida. 



[Both are in Volusia county, and 

 the' United States Postal Guide marks 

 that county thus :©; though it would 

 be more correctly marked thus, o+. 

 We follow the Postal Guide for mark- 

 ing localities, as we do Webster's Dic- 

 tionary for spelling and defining 

 words. Sometimes, it is true, both 

 may be improved a little.— £d.] 



Bees Not Keady for the Harvest.— 



C. W. Dayton, Bradford, (^ Iowa, on 

 June 3, 188G, says : 



In this locality the bees are at least 

 1.5 days behind vegetation. The col- 

 onies in my apiaries will average 

 about 1}4 combs of brood, and the 

 Helds are white with clover blossoms. 

 This season there has been lots of 

 warm weather ; but there has been 

 cold also, so that the bees built up 

 slowly. Since May 2-5 it has been so 

 warm that brood-rearing fairly 

 jumped. I have noticed some colo- 

 nies containing 7 combs that are 

 almost solid slieets of brood, only two 

 of which combs contained brood old 

 enough to cap. This morning there 

 was a heavy frost. Last evening I 

 covered thi"ckly with hay the colonies 

 whose brood-combs were the most 

 recently spread, so I think there will 

 be no brood destioyed. Some of our 

 clover harvest must be used in build- 

 ing up the colonies. I never knew 

 but one honey-yield to last until Aug. 

 1, so our prospects are not very sat- 

 isfactory. 



Are Bees a Nuisance?— Thomas 

 and Benjamin Young, La Salle, 5 Ills., 

 write thus on June 10, 1886 : 



We were taken before a Justice of 

 the Peace last Tuesday to answer a 

 complaint, made and sworn to, that 

 our bees are a nuisance. Our neigh- 

 bor lives at least .5oO feet west of us, 

 but passes our place to get to the 

 main road. Our bees are 2.") feet 

 from the narrow road (2 rods), and 150 

 feet from the main road. When our 

 neighbor came home for dinner on 

 that day there were two swarms in 

 the air, and he drove through them 

 and got stung " all up," as he puts it. 

 We have no fence on the south side 

 of our lot (one acre), and we do not 

 know whether that would go against 

 us. We had him agree to be satisfied 

 if we would put up a fence about 5^4 

 feet high. Now, what we want to 

 know is, have we any rights as bee- 

 keepers, and what are our rights ? If 

 we have to put away 5.5 or 60 colonies 

 of bees because a man got stung while 

 driving through two mixed up swarms, 

 it is ail up with bee-keeping. 



Open Questions.- O. P.Miner, Tay- 

 lor Centre.© N. Y., asks the follow- 

 ing questions. Any one may answer 

 them who feels competent, through 

 the Bee Journal : 



1. Is there any piping of queens 

 ever heard while the old queen is in 

 the hive, and before they swarm V 



2. Are virgin queens ever hatched 

 before the old queen issues with the 

 first swarm V 



3. If so, do they ever go with lier 

 and the swarm V 



The following circumstances sug- 

 gests these questions : On May 23 

 my first swarm issued, but returned 

 to the parent hive after my trying to 

 hive them in a new one, which they 

 were loth to enter. At the time they 

 had a queen-cell sealed. For several 

 days following it was cold. On the 

 morning of June 4 I found a dead 

 queen in front of the hive. I listened 

 at night and heard piping. The next 

 day— June 5—1 opened tlie hive and 

 found larva? 4 or 5 days old, but I did 

 not discover anv eggs. On May 30 

 another swarm issued (from another 

 hive), and in hiving them I saw three 

 queens. Upon opening this hive I 

 found nothing but sealed brood and 

 honey. Perhaps in this case the old 

 queen was superseded. 



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