THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



523 



hive. Thanks to Mr. Dadant for his 

 advice to paint chitlis for covers for 

 sections ; they are just wiiat I wanted. 

 I use yellow ochre and linseed oil on 

 any coarse cloth, colTee sacking, etc. 

 I am decidedly opposed to bevels and 

 rabbets for tvvo-story hives. I think 

 a stjuare joint much the best, and 

 prefer loose top and bottom boards. 



[The plant is partridge pea {Cassia 

 chamcecrista), and furnishes nectar in 

 abundance. The flowers are very 

 attractive to honey-loving insects, 

 and are visited by such in great num- 

 bers. At the base of each compound 

 leaf there is a curiously-stalked, but- 

 ton-shaped gland, which also excretes 

 a sweet fluid, and which attracts the 

 bees.— Ed.] 



The Trials of Bee-Keeping,— W. 

 Stearns, Lima,<5 Iowa, on July 27, 

 1886, writes : 



We have had a very good flow of 

 honey from both white clover and 

 basswood, and now from the so-called 

 honey-dew. I am very much of the 

 opinion of ,T. II. Andre, as stated in 

 his article on page 4.5.3, that there is a 

 great deal of hard and hot work about 

 bee-keeping, if one is to be success- 

 ful. Although I have managed to 

 sell all of my honey up to date, the 

 outlook now is not very encouraging. 

 Honey is a drug in the market, and is 

 sold at ruinous prices. I am fully 

 convinced that honey will never be- 

 come a staple article of consumption, 

 as very many cannot eat honey, and 

 others do not like it. I have had both 

 rheumatic and malarial fevers, and 

 though I did not at the time attribute 

 my sickness to being stung often, and 

 thus poisoning my blood, yet I am 

 somewhat of that opinion at present. 



Building Drone-Comb — Hiving 



Swarms.— Chas. Mitchell, of Moles- 

 worth, Ont., writes : 



I cannot tell how I made such a 

 statement as Mr. Hutchinson alludes 

 to on page 437 ; if correctly printed it 

 is too sweeping. What does any one 

 suppose I do with my supers in use 

 before the bees swarm V I am not so 

 far behind the times as to let my bees 

 lose time building drone-comb in 6 

 empty frames, and my supers in the 

 house for a week. Many of my first 

 swarms had to get two comb honey 

 supers to let them inside at the time 

 of swarming. Next came the trouble 

 of swarming out from such pent up 

 colonies. I had more trouble with 

 swarming out than I have had in 6 

 years, until I gave them more room 

 below, when all went well. Those 

 are the colonies I meant, that got no 

 supers until they needed them. I had 

 several colonies finish 120 pounds of 

 comb honey which came off before 

 July 10, and every drop was clover 

 honey. That does not look like idle 

 supers. How many colonies had Mr. 

 H. that equalled this, in either the 

 reversible hive or the other V I cer- 

 tainly know that Mr. Hutchinson is 



not stingy with his bees, if he thinks 

 he will get it liack, as I think he has 

 changed liis Inves twice in about 8 

 years, whicli means expense. I can- 

 not conceive how his system destroys 

 all wish and instinct of tlie bees to 

 build any more drone comb. How- 

 ever, I will try it once more, and will 

 be very ready to give the author full 

 credit. In six years of close observa- 

 tion, only once have the bees, that 

 hatched after the Hist swarm, been of 

 any use to me. We have had two 

 very dry seasons ; honey failed alto- 

 gether about July 10. I have many 

 colonies that were given foundation, 

 that have about honey enough to 

 winter on, and those that had to 

 build their combs are starving. ThiS 

 has happened for 3 years. It is pretty 

 hard to have to turn round and buy 

 sugar for 100 colonies run on 6 frames 

 all summer ; this thing is fast putting 

 down the price of honey, and making 

 millionnaires of our sugar merchants. 



! did not seem to injure the bees any, 

 and did not kill any as I expected it 

 would. I regard tliis as a sure cure, 

 as the disease has not made its ap- 

 pearance since the treatment, and the 

 affected colonies did better at once 

 after being thus treated. 



Honey-Dew for Winter Stores.— 



P. Lattner, Worthington,o+ Iowa, on 

 Aug. G, 1886, writes : 



Bees have done well here. I started 

 with 50 colonies, extracted 11, .500 

 pounds of good white clover honey, 

 and have 100 pounds of comb honey. 

 On July 17 the bees bnjught in honey- 

 dew which spoiled the balance in the 

 hives. The hives are now full of that 

 kind of stuff. Will it do to winter 

 bees on V It is so dry now that I fear 

 we will have no fall crop, unless rains 

 should come soon. The stuff gath- 

 ered is of a dark green color, very 

 thick and sticky, and tastes as though 

 oak leaves had been stewed in 

 molasses. 



[Those who take the risk of winter- 

 ing bees on honey-dew, take a very 

 heavy one. — Ed.] 



Phenol for Foul Brood.— A sub- 

 scriber in Michigan gives the follow- 

 ing experience with it : 



I notice on page 491 a request to 

 know if any one has been successful 

 in treating foul brood by the Cheshire 

 method. I will say that I have cured 

 foul brood with phenol, and did not 

 take the pains to follow the treatment 

 as laid down by Mr. Cheshire. In 1884 

 I received a large number of colonies 

 of bees from the South. Late in 

 September I found that they were 

 affected with foul brood. As it was 

 late in the season nothing was done, 

 and several colonies were lost. The 

 next season it again made its appear- 

 ance ; the stores were extracted at 

 once, and the bees were fed a syrup 

 made of honey and water, which was 

 boiled and skimmed, and about one- 

 fourth tea-spoonful of the absolute 

 phenol added to the syrup, which was 

 •5 quarts. The mixture wns then put 

 into the combs, the cells being filled ; 

 the brood also being covered and 

 some spilled on the bees. As I had 

 some quite bad, and did not have 

 much failh in curing them, I experi- 

 mented some with thus feeding the 

 medicated syrup quite strong, but it 



Some Honey-Dew, Marketing, etc. 

 —2— J. II. Larrabee, (16— :«), Larra- 

 bee's Point,K3 Vt., writes : 



I think that I have a case of honey- 

 dew, even in the old " Green Moun- 

 tain State." An elm-tree situated in 

 the centre of the pasture near the 

 house, I found the other morning to 

 be swarming with bees, and upon ob- 

 taining some of the leaves they were 

 found to have small, sticky, shiny and 

 sweet spots on their upper surface, 

 and from 3 to 6 small green aphidse 

 on the under surface of eiich leaf. My 

 bees have had an average season, but 

 are doing nothing now but draw from 

 their winter stores-. I have a colony 

 which, on June 15, sent out a first 

 swarm, that lost its queen and re- 

 turned to the old hive. I supposed, 

 of course, that the young queen would 

 come around all right, but upon ex- 

 amining them about July 20, 1 found 

 them queenless, with no brood or eggs 

 in the hive, showing that they had 

 had no laying queen since swarming. 

 I am unable to find laying-worker 

 signs. I introduced a virgin queen 

 which they would not accept. I have 

 removed three frames replacing them 

 with frames of brood, and will in- 

 troduce a queen. I wish that some 

 able apicultural writer would give us 

 a good, practical article in the Bke 

 JouuNAL on " Relative market val- 

 ues, city and country." Ignorance 

 and carelessness as to cost of pro- 

 duction, etc., are responsible for much 

 of the low prices. We need much 

 more light on markets, not marketing 

 honey. 



Convention Notices. 



tW~ 'riie next meetintf uf the Stark County Bee- 

 Keepers' Society will be held in Orange Uall, at 

 Canton, O., on Auk. 31. itwii. M. Thomson, Sec. 



tsr The N. W. Ill«. & S. W. Wis. Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will hold its next meeting at the resi- 

 dence f)f F. n. McKlbiien. \}4 mlleseast of Dakota, 

 on the Milwaukee * St. I'aul K. K..on Sept. 6, I8H6. 

 Jonathan Stewart, Sec. 



tW The Cedar Valley Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will hold its annual meetinK at the otHce of Jerry 

 Mosher. East Side Waterloo, Iowa, on Aug. 18 and 

 ly, 18H6. An exceedingly good programme has 

 been arranged. All Interested in apiculture are 

 most cordially invited to attend. 



H. E. Hubbard, /Sec. 



ZW The 4th annual basket picnic of the East- 

 ern Iowa and Western Illinois llee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation will be held at Sclmetzen I'ark, Iowa, on 

 Thursday, Aug. lit:, IKst;. All interested in bee- 

 culture are earnestly requested to be present and 

 make this the grandest picnic in the history of 

 the Organization.— I. V. McCagg. Wm. (ironroll, 

 and Wm. Goos. Committee of Arrangements, Da- 

 venport, Iowa. 



ly The Iowa State Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will meet on the Fair Grounds in Des Moines, on 

 Tuesday. Sept. 7. IHHn. at 2 p.m., continuing in 

 session during tlnit and the following two or three 

 days. A large and Bubstitntial tent has been se- 

 cured and is now at liand for the use of the soci- 

 ety. Any or all of the c.ooo bee-keepers of Iowa 

 are urgently requestetl to be present and beip 

 make the meeting a pleasant and profitable one. 

 A. J. Noifuis, Sec. 



O. O. Poi'i'LETON, Pres. 



