490 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the swarm, and I know she came out, 

 for I keep all my old queens' wings 

 clipped, and I am always at the hive 

 about as soon as a swarm commences 

 to issue, so I know just where she is. 

 If this queen hatched from one of the 

 eggs of the old queen, and hatched in 

 16 days after the swarm issued (which 

 is hardly probable, for they had 

 capped queen-cells, as stated before), 

 and had waited the full 21 days before 

 laying, it would make the full 37 

 days ; and I know that the colony was 

 without a laying queen for that length 

 of time, and as near as I can tell from 

 the larvse, a little longer. 



This young queen, I think, is a 

 hybrid, and the colony spoken of are 

 pure Italians. I have a few hybrid 

 colonies in my apiary. Do you not 

 suppose that that particular colony 

 stole an egg from a hybrid colony and 

 reared this young queen from it ? 

 This is my belief. But what about 

 their accepting the old queen when 

 they had a laying queen ? 



After fifty days of rain, the weather 

 has become settled and is flue now, 

 except the nights are a little cool ; but 

 our bees are doing nicely on sumac, 

 and we will have plenty of bloom for 

 two months vet, which will be mostly 

 cow-peas, fall asters and goldenrod. 



Pikeville,o Tenn., July 24, 1886. 



Local Convention Directory. 



Aug. 31. 



Time and place of Meeting. 



-stark County, at Canton, O. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Sept. 4.— Sheboygan Co., at Sheboygan Falls.Wls. 

 Mattle B. Thomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



Oct. 7.— Wis. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 



Ferd Zastrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 



Oct. 12— 14.— North American, at Indianapolis, Ind. 

 F. h. Dougherty, Sec, Indianapolis. Ind. 



Oct. 19. 20.— nilnols Central, at Mt. Sterling, Uls. 

 J. M. Hambaugh, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



Dec. 1, 2.— Michigan State, at Tpsilantl, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



^" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— ED. 





Bee-Stints for RkMatism. 



A bee-keeper in Iowa informed a 

 neighbor that the stinging of bees 

 was a cure for rheumatism. As the 

 neighbor was a sufferer from the dis- 

 ease, he concluded to try the remedy. 

 The story in his own words is as fol- 

 lows : 



" Thinks I, we've got the medicine 



right here at home, and it won't cost 



anything, and I will just try a few ; I 



think people, as a rule, take too much 



medicine any way ; better try more 



home remedies. So provided with a 



small paper sack and some courage 



(for I must confess I was always a I 



little careful not to disturb bees, for 



it hinders them from gathering honey, 



you know\ I held the open sack at 



their entrance and soon had it well 



filled with the buzzing creatures. I 



then made straight for the house, 



gave sack and bees to wife and held 



open my pants leg and said : ' Now 



start 'em up.' She pushed sack and 



all up arm's length, and laughed a 



little and asked, 'Are they going?' 



Says I, ' You bet I' Just then one 



administered, and I grabbed for him 



(as is natural on such occasions), and 



from that every last one laid to, and 



four doctors with eight resurrecters 



couldn't do business so lively as those 



bees did. I, in a rather commanding 



manner and tone, screamed for wife 



to take 'em out, but she seemed to be 



slow about it, so I got out, and left 



breeches and bees in the same room, 



and I went to bed in untold misery." 



The sufferer was, however, not in 



so bad a plight as the genius who 



thought if a little was good, a good 



deal was better, and so had a whole 



colony emptied into bed with him.— 



Exchange. 



"Paradise Regained."-P. P. Nel- 

 son, Manteno,o+ Ills., on July 23, 1886, 

 says : 



We are having a very prosperous 

 season with the " blessed bees ;" com- 

 pared with the past two seasons, it 

 seems like " Paradise Regained." 

 They have swarmed profusely, and 

 have stored and are still gathering an 

 abundance of the most beautiful 

 honey. 



Motherwort.— Jno. D. Gill, Philips- 

 burg,© Fa., on July 26, 1886, wrote as 

 follows : 



1. I send by this mail a specimen of 

 a plant on which bees have worked 

 vigorously for several weeks. Please 

 give its name and characteristics. It 

 IS a rare plant here. I have never 

 noticed it before. 



2. Do bees get honey or only pollen 

 from asparagus ¥ 



[1. The plant is motherwort, which 

 yields honey in abundance, and is a 

 great favorite with the bees. 



2. Asparagus furnishes nectar to 

 the bees.— Ed.] 



Leaves Containing Honey-Dew.— 



J. W. Sanders, Le Grand,© Iowa, on 

 July ,"0, 1886, writes : 



I send a sample of leaves containing 

 the so-called honey-dew. I desire 

 Prof. Cook's opinion on it, through 

 the Bee Journal, as there are many 

 bee-keepers interested in it, and I 

 fear are misled about its origin. Some 

 claim that there was so much sweet 

 in the flowers ; that it evaporates 

 through the day, condenses at night, 

 and is found in the form of dew on 

 the foliage the following morning. 

 The idea amused me, as I supposed it 

 was from an aphis of some kind. So 

 I went yesterday six miles and ob- 

 tained these samples. They are not 

 as good as could have been obtained 

 two weeks ago. The leaves that are 

 whitened are some that were covered 

 with it then. I send several kinds of 



leaves that contain more or less of it. 

 The grove in which it is found is 

 principally oak of small growth. I 

 also send some of the leaves of the 

 oak taken from the above place, 

 where the sweet substance was to be 

 found. Some leaves showed large 

 drops of it, and others a Bne spray. 

 Yesterday it was only to be found in 

 spots, while about two weeks ago it 

 was generally on the lower foliage. 

 The proprietor had not seen his bees 

 working on it, but supposed they did. 

 White clover and linden were at the 

 time at their best, and he has a nice 

 lot of fine comb honey in his apiary ; 

 but from what I could see and learn I 

 think but little was from the so-called 

 honey-dew. If my samples are suffi- 

 cient, I hope the Professor will give 

 the origin of this sweet substance, 

 and tell us if it is produced in any 

 other way except by plant-lice of 

 some kind. 



[The leaves and secretion are so 

 well described by Mr. Sanders that I 

 need not repeat. The nectar, as 

 secreted, is in such quantity that we 

 can get quite a taste. There are no 

 cost skins of lice on the leaves, which 

 there would be if the sweet was 

 secreted by lice working on the leaves 

 containing the sweet. With others I 

 tasted of the nectar, and could plainly 

 discern not only sugar — probably 

 starch sugar— but also a perceptible 

 taste like oak-juice or tannin. I pre- 

 sume this sweet comes from the same 

 source as mentioned in the last num- 

 ber of the Bee Journal, from acorns 

 attacked by an insect. This would 

 account for the peculiar oak-juice 

 flavor, and for the appearance of the 

 nectar in such considerable quantities 

 in a single place ; a wounded acorn 

 was just above. 



That the sweet secretions or nectar 

 from flowers ever evaporate and then 

 fall as dew, I have never seen reason 

 to believe. I think that we can always 

 find other explanations. Even in a 

 sugar-house where hundreds of gal- 

 lons of nectar are evaporated, we 

 never find a deposit sufficient to at- 

 tract insects, although in such a case 

 a little sugar— very little, is driven off 

 with the steam, probably by the ex- 

 pulsive force of the steam. — A. J. 

 Cook.] 



Bee-Culture and Silk-Worms.— H. 



Fisher, Oshkosh,©* Wis., on July 18, 

 1886, writes : 



While I am unable to report good 

 news about my bees, on account of 

 unsuccessful vvintering, I am engaged 

 in an industry as interesting as bee- 

 culture, whicli proves more successful 

 because the work is done before cold 

 weather comes, and no keeping 

 through the winter is necessay ; I 

 mean " silk-culture," which assumes 



