THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



507 



principal business is in tlie bee-line. 

 The Michigan law states expressly 

 that no animal less than six months 

 old shall be taxed, or rather all over 

 six months shall, and all my bees but 

 the queen are less than six months 

 old. Are bees animals V Well, they 

 are not vegetable or mineral. Are 

 chickens animals V And are they 

 taxable ? 



Drouth Broken.— C. P. Dow, Cov- 

 ington, S Neb., on Aug. 2, ISSii, writes: 



I have about ISO colonies of bees. 

 We have no white clover here, and so 

 depend wholly on wild forage for our 

 honey, such as willow, box-elder, 

 sweet-elder, sumac, goldenrod, etc. ; 

 the latter is our main dependence, as 

 it yields bountifully, if not nipped by 

 frost. Our drouth of over 4a days is 

 at last broken by frequent showers, 

 and I expect to see an abundant yield 

 from goldenrod, although my bees 

 have done remarkably well so far. I 

 have taken off a good quantity of as 

 tine a quality of honey as can be found 

 in Sioux City, white clover not ex- 

 cepted. 



Peculiar Season.— AVilber G. Fish, 

 Ithaca.© N. Y., on Aug. 2, 1886, 

 writes : 



Tlie season here has been a peculiar 

 one. White clover bloomed very pro- 

 fusely, but the drouth was so severe 

 that no honey was secreted, and 

 apiaries depending solely upon that 

 for early honey, have no surplus. 

 Alsike yielded sparingly ; 1 have ex- 

 tracted an average of 2.5 pounds per 

 colony from it, and bees are now 

 working upon its second bloom. Bass- 

 wood is an entire failure. The late 

 rains have brought on buckwheat, and 

 the indications are favorable for a 

 good yield from it. 



Not Much Basswood Honey, etc.— 



S. S. Sleeper, H(illand,*oN. Y., writes; 



The honey crop in this county is 

 light. There is no basswood honey 

 compared with what we generally 

 have ; only about one-third of a crop. 

 The American Bee Journal is a 

 welcome me.ssenger every week. I 

 could not think of keeping bees with- 

 out it. What an inestimable beneUt 

 it has been to the bee-keepers of 

 America. It has placed apiculture in 

 in this country on a firm basis, so that 

 it can be relied upon as a pursuit. 



Unwise Bee-Keepers.— A. W. risk, 

 Buslmell,to Ills., on Aug. 2, 1S86, 

 writes : 



Bees in this locality that were prop- 

 erly managed did remarkably well the 

 foreiiart of the season, and honey was 

 abundant. Some bee-keepers sold 

 their honey too soon and flooded our 

 Bushnell market— some selling as low 

 as .5 cents per pound for extracted, 

 and 10 cents a pound for nice comb 

 honey. I think this is doing them- 

 selves a wrong, and damaging to the 

 bee-business. But it has been very 

 dry for the last four or live weeks, and 



bees are doing nothing, and the price 

 of honey is advancing, for there is no 

 show for a fall lioney crop unless we 

 have heavy rains immediately. 



The Chapman Honey-Plant.— T. F. 



Bingham, Abronia, ? Mich., on Aug. 



2, 1886, says ; 



I send you a half-open head of the 

 Chapman honey-plant. It isa wonder- 

 ful attraction to the bees. My plants 

 have one or more bees on every open 

 head from morn till dark. Their hum 

 is constant among my fifty plants. I 

 have never seen a plant half so fre- 

 quented before. 



Hunting Bees; in the Woods.— F. 



H. Webster, Lynn,^ Mass., on Aug. 

 2, 1886, writes to us asking for infor- 

 mation concerning the capture of 

 bees in the woods. Several others 

 have asked for similar information, 

 and as we have had no experience in 

 that line, we will let Mr. F. M. John- 

 son, an experienced bee-hunter, give 

 his methods as follows : 



You require a small box, which can 

 be made of any kind of wood. The 

 box is of a slanting shape, and should 

 be made according to the following 

 dimensions: Bottom, 4x6 inches; 

 sides, 4 inches at one end, beveled 

 down to IJ^ inches at the other; end 

 pieces, one, 4x4 inches, the other 114 

 deep by 4 inches long. The top should 

 be a separate piece, and made as fol- 

 lows : Width, 4 inches, whole length 

 12 inches ; cutting down 4 inches on 

 end for handle, and inserting a glass 

 3x1 inches, flush with the under side 

 at the other end, as near the end as 

 convenient. 



The box should contain a piece of 

 honey comb about IM inches in 

 thickness, which should be scented 

 with beebait (the directions for mak- 

 ing this are given below), covering 

 the bottom of the box. Taking the 

 box in the left hand, and the cover in 

 the right, and approaching the bee 

 while at work on ttie flower or shrub, 

 you insert the box under the bee, and 

 quickly putting the cover on the top 

 (in such a manner that the light can 

 shine in), you have the bee secure in 

 the box ; then put the box on a stake 3 

 or 4 feet high, taking care not to jar 

 the box more than necessary. Then 

 shove the cover down so as to shut 

 out the light from the glass, when the 

 bee will go to work on the honey, 

 which can be ascertained by holding 

 the ear to the box, as it will cease its 

 " humming " as soon as it commences 

 on the comb. Then the cover can be 

 taken off and the bee will remain on 

 the honey. Then take a position 

 where you can have an unobstructed 

 view of the box and its surroundings, 

 and wait for the bee to come out, 

 which it will do in from one to three 

 minutes, and commence circling in 

 the air, gradually enlarging the circles 

 until it finds its latitude, at which it 

 will immediately start in a direct line 

 for its home, and here care must be 

 taken to accurately mark the direc- 



tion it goes. You must now wait for 

 a short time, when the bee will return 

 and re-enter the box, which it will re- 

 peat as long as the box remains. If 

 the tree should be near by, the other 

 bees will accompany it on its second 

 or third return ; if at a great distance 

 it will take a longer period for the 

 bees to " double up." 



If you have gotten 15 or 20 bees at 

 work on the line you can safely take 

 the box to a point as far distant, in 

 the course the bee has taken, as you 

 choose, being careful not to pass 

 where the bee is likely to tree, as they 

 will not follow the other way. Now, 

 open the box again, and if you are on 

 the line the bees will f5nd it in a very 

 few minutes. If they do not you will 

 know that you are off the line, or have 

 passed the tree, and should move 

 your box to a point that you know is 

 on the line. This is to be repeated 

 until you run the bee to its tree. 



If you have but a few bees it will be 

 necessary to shut them in the box 

 and move them in this manner from 

 30 to 60 rods at a time, then open your 

 box and wait for them to go and re- 

 turn. This is to be repeated until 

 you have found the tree. 



Cross lining is important. If any- 

 thing should prevent you from follow- 

 ing the bee in a direct line from where 

 you lirst start it, you can move the 

 box a distance to the right or left and 

 start it again, by which means you 

 can centre the bee on some prominent 

 object, whereby you can invariably 

 locate the tree within a radius of .5 or 

 6 rods. 



Half an ounce of tincture of annls 

 mixed with a half dozen drops of oil 

 of organum, to be kept in an air-tight 

 bottle. 



Instead of using honey in your box, 

 put a quantity of granulated sugar in 

 a bottle and dissolve it with cold 

 water until it becomes a thick syrup, 

 and fill the comb in the box with this 

 liquid, which is better than the real 

 honey. 



[A pair of climbers is quite neces- 

 sary when climbing trees, and a rope 

 tied around the waist with which to 

 draw up the desired tools. The limb 

 or tree should be cut ofiE above the 

 hollow containing the bees, and al- 

 lowed to fall. Then tie a stout rope 

 about the log hive, pass it over a limb 

 above, cut the hive off and lower it to 

 the ground. Let it there remain an 

 hour or so, or until sun-down, when 

 the bees will have found and entered 

 the hive again. Then cover the en- 

 trance with wire cloth, take it away, 

 and then transfer the bees in the 

 usual way to a frame hive.— Ed.] 



Convention Notices. 



tW The Cortland Dnlon Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will hold a basket picnic at Little ITork, N'. 

 Y..on WedDesday, Aut'. IK. i88fi. All interested 

 in bee-culture, with their families, are cordially 

 invited to attend and have a gooA time. 



D. T. SHATTUCK, Sec. Homer, N. Y. 



^" The next meeting of the Stark County Bee- 

 Keepers' Society will be held in Grange Hall, at 

 Canton, O., on Aug. 31, i«»6. M. Thomson, Sec. 



