472 



THE AMERICAJS BEE JOailNAL. 



and one swarm containing a queen a 

 year old, built no drone-comb, while 

 the colonies with old queens built all 

 drone-combs for four or live days, 

 then worker-comb. I took out all 

 the drone-combs from the brood-nest, 

 and gave them to my "crazy" bees, 

 replacing with foundation that had 

 been partly drawn out in other 

 colonies. 



I have about 250 pounds of this 

 drone-comb full of as nice white 

 clover honey as man ever ate ; and as 

 Mr. Chaddock is always fearful that 

 we will run out of honey, I have 

 dedicated the whole lot to family use. 

 I believe I rather like the idea of 

 having honey in these big slices, 

 instead of prying out sections when 

 we want to eat the honey. 



Vermont,*o Ills. 



P. S.— The bees were given free 

 access to the sections before they 

 were all in the hive.— M. B. C. 



For tbe American Bee Joumai. 



Taxing Colonies of Bees, 



DR. E. B. SOUTHWICK. 



I notice that the question. '■ Are 

 bees taxable V" is gaining in notoriety. 

 and as I am the only one who has 

 said that they are not taxable with- 

 out a special law to that effect, it be- 

 comes necessary to give some reasons 

 why they are not taxed and should 

 not be. I will give the following 

 four reasons why they are not and 

 should not be taxed : 



1. They are wild and cannot be 

 tamed. 2. They are a public benefit. 

 3. They are teachers of industry and 

 frugality, and by the practice of the 

 same save millions of wealth to the 

 world. 4. They are not protected by 

 law, but are liable to be destroyed 

 ■when they can be without trespassing. 



First, bees are wild and cannot be 

 tamed. It is well known that a swarm 

 of bees coming out of a tree in the 

 woods can be hived and controlled 

 just as well as though they came out 

 of a hive in the apiary (convenience 

 for handling being the same). They 

 can be taken into a parlor, put in the 

 bay-window, given a chance to get 

 out and in, and they will work and 

 defend their home, sting the passers 

 by, if they come too close, and do in 

 every respect as they did in the 

 woods ; and when that" colony sends 

 out a swarm, and it goes to the 

 ■woods, that swarm will do just as its 

 parent colony did when it was in the 

 woods, and show thereby that its 

 nature has not been changed by its 

 sojourn in the domestic circle. 



It is well known to all handlers of 

 bees, that bees act and can be handled 

 just the same (convenience consid- 

 ered) in the woods as in the apiary. 

 If they are wild in the woods, they 

 are wild in the apiary. If they are 

 ever wild they are always wild. This 

 is settled by the California judge's 

 charge, where he states that the 

 owner can have only a qualified inter- 

 est in bees. That they are always 

 classed as qualitied property cannot 



be disputed, and if taxable in the 

 apiary they are taxable in the woods 

 also. The thing to be decided is, is 

 qualified property taxable V 



Second, they are public benefac- 

 tors. It is said that "he who 

 makes two spears of grass grow where 

 only one grew before, is a public 

 benetactor."' Do not bees, by con- 

 veying the fructifying dust from one 

 flower to another, fertilize them so 

 that not only two grow where one 

 did, but makes many grovp where 

 none would have been had it not been 

 for them. Botanists, I believe, agree 

 that fruit and seed are greatly in- 

 creased by bees flying from flower to 

 flower. If the man, who sued for 

 damages that the bees did his sheep, 

 had been a scientific man, he would 

 have known that the bees were doing 

 him a vast amount more good than 

 harm. Thus the "little busy bee" 

 flies from flower to flower, taking from 

 one its surplus, and leaving with 

 others what they lack ; thereby equal- 

 izing the life-producing dust, making 

 all productive, and so doing good to 

 all and harm to none. Should they 

 be taxed, considering the great beneflt 

 they are to the people, when millions 

 are exempt that are piled up in grand 

 edifices for no other purpose than for 

 the aristocrat, the monopolists, the 

 grinder of the poor, the robbers of 

 honest toil, to meet in and display 

 their ill-gotten wealth, and chuckle 

 over the poor honest people they are 

 abusing y I say no! 



Third, they are teachers of industry 

 and frugality ; not as is taught in the 

 pulpit by precept, but by that nobler 

 and more impressive way — by ex- 

 ample. In the working season they 

 are always busy. In the daytime they 

 are prospecting over the country seek- 

 ing and saving every little particle of 

 sweet that would without them be 

 totally lost, and in the still hours of 

 midnight you can hear the continued 

 buzz of their industry. They save 

 thousands of dollars worth of wealth 

 that would be entirely lost were it 

 not for them. AVe can say of them 

 what we cannot say of many men and 

 women, viz : The world is better for 

 their being in it. 



The man who brings bees into a 

 country greatly benefits that country. 

 He saves for them what they cannot 

 save, and places before them a healthy 

 article of food or luxury. In short, he 

 is a public benefactor. 



We exempt our school-houses be- 

 cause they assist education, and edu- 

 cation is a public good. But a man 

 pays his money for his education 

 which enables him to earn much more 

 than he could without it ; ought he to 

 be taxed for it V He gives to others 

 without lessening his own, but rather 

 increases his own and benefits all. So 

 with bees; they gather from the 

 flowers'wealth without lessening their 

 value and usefulness, but, on the 

 contrary, they increase them. If a 

 man should be taxed for his bees, the 

 educated man should be taxed for his 

 education. 



Fourth, bees are not protected by 

 law. If they are killed away from 

 home the owner has no redress, any 

 more than he has if his tamed wild 



turkeys are killed away from home. 

 Michigan offers a premium on the 

 using of wide-tire wagons because 

 they benefit the roads. They ought 

 to offer a premium on bees for the 

 good they do in increasing the pro- 

 duction of the country and saving its 

 choicest sweets, which produce 

 wealth, health and happiness for all. 



Tax your siloons. your liquor- 

 makers, your olemargar'iue manufac- 

 tors, your t<ihaccomongers, your 

 gamblers of all classes and kinds; your 

 high-stee[>led edifices where the rich 

 congregate, not to worship God, but 

 to exhibit their finery, their diamonds 

 and their silks, gotten by wrongs in- 

 flicted on the working class— the only 

 real wealth-producers outside of na- 

 ture in the country ; and tax all other 

 nuisances— tax them heavily ; but let 

 the little,innocerit. industrious, frugal, 

 honey-saving.cliildren-pleasing honey- 

 bees "go free. 



Sherman,^ Mich. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



f interim Bees, Hiving Swarms, etc. 



GEO. A. WIIIGHT. 



On page 411, Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson 

 claims that " when bees are imdis- 

 turbed by man's reason, they meet 

 an untimely fate;" and so they do 

 when disturbed by man's reason. My 

 father kept quite a large number of 

 colonies of bees in large box- hives, up 

 to the time of his death, four years 

 ago, and he rarely lost any " when 

 left to their own sweet will ;" but 

 when he began to put on boxes, and 

 take all of the early honey, and then 

 compel the bees to live on pollen and 

 poor honey, then they began to die. 

 If Mr. H. were here I could take him 

 to a man that hives his bees in large 

 box-hives, and " leaves them to their 

 own sweet will," and when all of the 

 rest of us have lost heavily this man 

 has passed winter after winter with- 

 out the loss of a single colony. 



lean winter bees just as well on 

 early, well-ripened honey as I can on 

 sugar. When the bees have gathered 

 no honey, and we are obliged to feed 

 or let them die, it may be all right to 

 feed sugar ; but as long as we feed 

 sugar we may expect to be accused 

 of adulteration. 



I notice that some are having 

 trouble in trying to get the bees to 

 build worker-coinb. With me this 

 season it has worked like a charm. I 

 hive my swarms on from 5 to 7 frames; 

 the frames are spaced 1^:^ inches from 

 centre to centre. If they are put 

 farther than this they are sure to 

 build drone-comb. I ' look through 

 the hives four days after hiving, and 

 if drone-comb is started I cut it out, 

 and they usually give no trouble after 

 that. Some colonies built their five 

 frames full of worker-comb without 

 being touched. 



I put the boxes on when I hive the 

 swarm. Where this is done a queen- 

 excluder is needed. I had no queen- 

 excluder, and 3 or 4 queens entered 

 the boxes and filled a few of the sec- 

 tions with brood. 



