THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



459 



Bees in the Mails— H. Walter Mc- 

 Williama, Giitlin,*o Ga., on July 8, 

 1886, writes : 



In regard to shipping queen-bees I 

 have received the following through 

 the untiring efforts of N. J. Ham- 

 mond, of Georgia, a personal friend 

 of mine : 



" Hon. N. J. Hammond, House of 

 Representatives. — Dear Sir : Yours 

 of June 24 is received. In regard to 

 queen-bees mailed at Griffin, Ga., I will 

 say that it will be changed so as to 

 read queen-bees with necessanj attend- 

 ants. I think this will obviate the 

 difficulty. Will change next Guide. 



Yours, John Jameson, iSupt." 



Please give lion. K. J. Hammond 

 credit in the Journal for this. He 

 also informs me he will ,do all in his 

 power for the above, m the new- 

 treaty with Canada. 



[The thanks of beekeepers are due 

 to the Hon. N. J. Hammond for his 

 efforts in their belialf. We hope that 

 he will be able to help us also in the 

 formulation of the new treaty with 

 Canada. We caimot now send as 

 much as a small electrotype of a bee 

 into Canada by mail. The trouble on 

 the " line " is a very great annoyance 

 in very many ways. We can mail 

 many things to Europe more readily 

 and cheaply than we can to Canada, 

 even if we can do it at all. All this 

 needs revision and improvement — 

 Ed.1 



Securing Worker-Comb in Brood- 

 Frames.— 9— Jno. C. Gilliland, (1.5— 

 24), Bloomfield,p Ind.,on July 8, 1886, 

 writes : 



The Hutchinson-Doolittle plan of 

 securing worker-comb in brood- 

 frames, without foundation, works 

 like a charm. I use one section of 

 the new Heddon hive with comb- 

 foundation starters in each frame. % 

 to 1 inch wide, with queen-excluding 

 honey-board above, and put on sur- 

 plus boxes at the time of hiving 

 swarms ; part of ttie boxes containing 

 full sheets and part only starters of 

 foundation, and the bees build worker- 

 comb in brood-frames and store as 

 much in boxes as swarms hived on 

 full frames of foundation in brood 

 frames. You must 6esi(reto put on 

 the surplus-case at time of hiving, and 

 not the next day or next week, as 

 Chas. Mitchell did ; as in that case 

 they will only build drone-comb as 

 his bees did. From experience with 

 several colonies I do not believe that 

 the young queen hatches until within 

 an hour or so of the swarming of 

 second swarms. I have opened sev- 

 eral hives this season, one and two 

 days after the queens began to call, 

 to cut out qneen-cells, and I found 

 no queen out of the cell, but one or 

 two with caps of cells partly cut off, 

 and as soon as the frame was taken 



out of the hive the queen would come 

 out. I liave also seen queens fly in 

 one minute after coming out of the 

 cell. The bees decide whether to 

 swarm or not, and if swarming is the 

 programme, they keep all queens in 

 the cells uirtil about ready to start. 

 If they decide not to swarm they 

 allow the oldest cell to hatch and 

 then destroy the otlier cells. I had 

 one colony of black bees in which the 

 young queen was calling before the 

 prime swarm issued, and, taking the 

 frame containing the queen-cell, I 

 made a new colony which has never 

 swarmed, and this is the fourth sum- 

 mer since. The old colony swarmed 

 about four weeks after division, and 

 left for parts unknown. 



Honey-Dew from Oak— C. Theil- 

 mann, Theilmanton,o^Minn., on July 

 12, 1886, writes : 



I send a few oak branches on which 

 will be found honey-dew ; also acorns 

 which seem to be pierced by some 

 insect, or else it is an overflow of the 

 sap of the tree. My beeg are working 

 vigorously on both leaves and acorns, 

 while basswood is still in bloom. I 

 would like to know whether the 

 honey on the leaves is "bug-juice" 

 or louse honey, or Nature's own make. 

 What causes the honey on the acorn '? 

 Please answer tlirough the Amekican 

 Bee Journal, as it will probably 

 interest a great many bee-keepers. 



[The nectar which seemed to stream 

 out of the acorns and drop on the 

 leaves came wholly, so far as I could 

 learn, from acorns which were pierced 

 by a caterpillar, probably a Tortricid 

 or a Tteueid. I do not know the moth 

 that comes from these larvse, but I 

 should like to know. The acorns were 

 being eaten by the larvoe, and prob- 

 ably tlie saliva of the insect acted as 

 a ferment to change the starch of the 

 acorn into sugar. The nectar then 

 may be called sap from the nut, which 

 owes its existence to the irritating 

 presence of an insect. This nectar 

 was in such quantities that it could 

 easily be sampled, and I pronounced 

 it very pleasant, as did several of our 

 students. I could see no sign of 

 plant-lice anywhere. We often read 

 of bees getting honey -dew from oak. 

 It would be interesting to know if it 

 is always from this same source. 



In the third line from the end of my 

 reply to Mr. Waller's question on page 

 442, for " trees " read 6ees.— A. J.Cook.] 



Bee-Cellar, etc.— F. Roulo, Port- 

 ville, P N. Y., on July 13, 1886, en- 

 quires thus : 



1. Would it be safe to winter 100 

 colonies of bees in a bee-cellar mostly 

 on the top of the ground? It is 16 

 feet square inside, and 7 feet from 

 the ground to the upper floor in the 



middle, and 4 feet under the eaves. 

 The upper floor is arched, with a ven- 

 tilator 5x6 ; a ventilator under ground 

 of two 3-inch tiles. There is a bank 

 of dirt 3 feet thick up to the eaves, 

 and the rest is covered with 18 inches 

 of sawdust and a board roof over it. 

 I wintered (>2 colonies of bees in it 

 last winter. They wintered well; 

 only one colony was dead when I 

 took them out. 2. My bees are in 

 Heddon hives. Would it be best to 

 take the cover off and cover the 

 frames with a piece of burlap before 

 putting them in the cellar, and put a 

 stick on the back part of the hive in 

 piling them up, for ventilation V How 

 thick should the stick be V 



[1. Yes, I should prefer 100 colonies 

 rather than less in a repository like 

 the one you describe. When the 

 weather is cold keep the temperature 

 of the repository up, by closing the 

 ventilators. Do not allow the mer- 

 cury to go below 45°, Fahr. 



2. No, if I removed the cover I 

 should replace something thicker and 

 more non-conducting than " a piece 

 of burlap." I believe that if you will 

 experiment you will find that you will 

 not need to remove the board covers 

 at all. Give full lower ventilation. 



In my reply to Mr. Weidman, on 

 page 442, and closing on page 443, the 

 last four words, "cells of full length," 

 should read comb foundation. — James 

 Heddon.] 



Bees Near a Railroad.— A sub- 

 scriber at North Manchester, 6 Ind., 

 asks the following : 



A friend of mine who had been 

 very successful with bees for 15 years, 

 moved to town where he aimed to 

 keep a few for • his own use ; but he 

 was compelled to place them within 

 50 feet of a railroad track. The three 

 years he has had tiiem there have 

 been followed with heavy winter 

 losses, and loss of swarms in summer. 

 Will they ever do well that close to 

 the track i* 



[The above is replied to fully in the 

 answers to Queries 198 and 199, page 

 100.— Ed.] 



Drouth in New York.— A. Flag 

 Robson, Italy ,»o N. Y., on July 9, 

 1886, says : 



The best prospect for years, of a 

 large honey crop, is blighted by the 

 drouth in this locality. Basswood 

 yields scarcely a living for the bees ; 

 although there is a fair bloom on the 

 same the bees seem to be taking a 

 midsummer vacation. 



iB§~ By some oversight the address of 

 M. & H; F. Coffin, Milton, Kentucky, in an 

 advertisement, has been published for 3 or 4 

 times as N. Y., instead of Ky. 



