1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE J0URNA1„ 



355 



They would tumble and roll around like clowns, and they 

 seemed to enjoy it as much as I did to look on. 



I have read that some have trouble to start bees on the 

 meal. I have had no trouble at all. The first time I fed I 

 sprinkled a little honey on top of the meal, and afterwards 

 they came without until pollen was to be had elsewhere, when 

 the meal remained untoucht. 



A very queer thing happened of which I have never read 

 in the papers. During the latter part of August, in taking off 

 supers, I put the escape on a certain hive, aud in about 2-i 

 hours I went to take the super off, expecting it to be empty of 

 bees, but it was the reverse. I waited another day, and still 

 quite a number of bees were in the super. I thought that 

 being late In the season was the cause of their not moving 

 down. I then took the super and emptied it about 10 feet 

 from the hive, brushing the bees off. Some fell to the ground, 

 and others flew off and I thought no more about it. 



The next day my father chanced to pass where I emptied 

 the super, saw a small ball of bees there, and on brushing the 

 bees apart he found the queen. We put her into a cage, 

 ■opened the hive from which the super came, and let her run 

 in, letting her take the consequences. The result was that in 

 a week's time, on examination, we found her all right, with 

 frames of eggs and brood, and I concluded the queen was not 

 a jot the worse for her one day's leave from her prosperous 

 and large family. Now the question arises in my mind. Why 

 did the queen stay there and the bees cluster around her ? 



Lehigh Co., Pa. 



Shall Everybody Keep Bees ? — How it Works 

 iu Practice. 



BY .t. H. MAKTIN. 



" Hello, there ! howdy do, neighbor Jones? Say, what 

 d'ye think about them editors, parsons, and preffessors advis- 

 ing every rancher to keep bees ? Wonder if they don't know 

 there's too many bee-keepers now ? And ain't the edge of the 

 market all knockt off now on that account?" 



" Wall, now, neighbor Spink, don'lyou worry about every 

 rancher keeping bees. Them fellers have got to have some- 

 thing to write about, and so they take up the universal-every- 

 body-bee-keeping brotherhood ; it sounds well on paper, but 

 bow does It work in practice ? You know old Toddlebottom 

 over on the north fork of the Santa Ana river ? Wall, he 

 bought a dozzen skeps of bees of Jimmy Ricks, and ha ! ha ! 

 He expected to load a hull car of honey the first year. But he 

 •didn't; oh, no. Yer see the season was agin him ; it didn't 

 rain ; there was no honey, and his bees all seemed to be going 

 to rack when somebody told him that he would have to feed 

 his bees. Then he went around axing people the cheapest 

 thing that he could feed. Jim Billcracker — you know Jim ? 

 Says he, 'Why, Mr. Toddlebottom, why don't you feed 'em on 

 watermelons ? You know that if you break open a melon how 

 •alfiredly the bees will work on it.' " 



"That's so," says Toddlebottom, " haddent thought of 

 that. Why, they dig out the hull inside of a melon in no 

 time. But, Jim, who's got the watermelons?'' 



"Why," says Jim Billcracker, " I'v got a snag of them. 

 Say, now, I'll sell you a whole wagon-load of them for two 

 dollars ; that orto feed your bees for a whole year." 



"Toddlebottom accordingly fed his bees on cheap water- 

 melon-juice, ha, ha ! And what yer think, neighbor Spink ?" 



" Why, I think they all turned up stone dead." 



"Yes, dead as a hammer." 



"Then there is another case, neighbor Spink. Joe Wind- 

 sucker, over on Hardscrabble Pint, he thought he'd keep bees, 

 jest to git enough honey fur the family, yer know. He started 

 in with 20 skeps, and sot them over by the corral. Every- 

 thing went along quite lovely till one day they had some 

 visitors, and Mrs. Windsucker, says she, 'Joe, you jest get 

 some honey for dinner; it'll be so nice a treat for Sister 

 Mehitable.'" 



" So Joe put on a mosquito-netting veil, and drew onto his 

 hands a pair of Mrs. Windsucker's long-legged stockings, and 

 ihe went forth to get the honey." 



"Joe had one of them cheap smokers, and in his hurry 

 and excitement he didn't get up half a smoke ; the bees got 

 awful mad, and they stung Joe through the stockings, crawled 

 up his trowsers, and stirred things up lively all around the 

 ranch. Joe got his honey, but I tell yer that he was mighty 

 glad to get into the house. He spent about an hour pulling 

 out beestings and putting saleratus on the wounds. But the 

 worst thing happened when Joe went out that evening to 

 milk Dinah, the black cow. She was lying down sort of 

 reposeful. 'Git up,' says Joe, giving her a kick. But Dinah 

 didn't stir, and never did any more ; her stripping days were 



ore. You see when Joe got out of the way the bees tackled 

 Dinah." 



" And she turned up stone dead, too ?" quoth neighbor 

 Spink. 



" Dead as a hammer," said Jones. That episode cured 

 Joe's bee-keeping. He sold the bees right off for half the 

 amount he gave for them. He says he has a cowlicky feeling 

 every time he sees bees or honey around." 



"Then there was Cephas Flitchmyer, he 



" Well, well, neighbor Jones, that's enough. I won't be 

 any further discouraged. Come to think of it I know of sev- 

 eral cases akin to those you mention. The farmer, the wid- 

 der, the widder's son, and the parson, nine times out of ten, 

 will throw up the job. There was widder Spiletuses' son. I 

 really thought he would make a dexterous bee-keeper with 

 his nice little apry, but he all at once degenerated into a 

 lawyer." 



" Du, tell, neighbor Spink ; what a pity. But don't you 

 worry, everybody'll never keep bees." 



" Ha, ha ! Good-bye." 



" Good-bye. Ha, ha !" Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



A Number of Notes and Comments. 



BV P. A. NEWCOMER. 



I have been a bee-keeper for 17 years, but never want at 

 it in earnest till seven years ago. I run for comb honey en- 

 tirely, only using the extractor in case of emergencies and 

 where some colonies are incined to loaf. This year I will run 

 mostly for extracted honey. 



I started in 1897 with 33 colonies, spring count, and in- 

 creast to 57 ; got 1,500 one-pound sections, and extracted 

 300 or 400 pounds. 



Our early white clover bloom was full of nectar, but after 

 the first rain the flow was very light. I set the hives with a 

 spirit-level, and give % inch or % slant to the front. I have 

 them IS inches apart in rows, the row that runs north and 

 south faces the east, the ones that runs east are set facing the 

 northeast. That gives the morning sun and a good view from 

 the house, as the apiary is west of the house. 



One thing I have been bothered with is queenless colo- 

 nies. Long after swarming-time, in the fall flow, I miss the 

 queens. It has always been a mystery what becomes of them. 

 I have made up my mind they enter the wrong hive from 

 their wedding flight. If not, what is it ? 



I winter my bees in the cellar, and have lost only four 

 colonies in seven years in that way ; but the last two years 

 they have had dysentery quite badly ; also the past winter. I 

 keep the room from 42-' to 45^. I would like to hear the 

 general causes of this disease described; oris it a disease ? 

 "To-day, while in the bee-cellar, they were very uneasy. All 

 wanting to fly out to empty themselves. I want to hear from 

 Dr. Miller on this question. 



I often read In the American Bee Journal about golden- 

 rod honey. I have been told by the oldest bee-men in the 

 State that the bees gather only pollen from it, and no nectar 

 whatever. Is this so ? If not, I want to know it. We have 

 a 25-acre pasture full of it, and I never saw a bee on it — I 

 mean the button or flat top — that is the variety they claim as 

 the honey-plant. 



A year ago a Des Moines gentleman and I rode 36 miles 

 right through a golden-rod district, and not a bee did we see 

 on it. But the sweet clover by the wayside swarmed with 

 them. 



So it is with alfalfa — not a particle of nectar in it here. 

 We have sown and tried it with the bees, and also applied it 

 to a glass, and not a bit of nectar did it contain. But in the 

 Western States It proves a success. 



I have always been told that heart's-ease honey is dark 

 and heavy — sort of a spicy flavor — while I am also told that it 

 is light, and has a smarty taste. I should like to send in a 

 sample of each flora (or honey), aud be informed as to the 

 plant that produced each variety of honey. 



I tell you, we can't educate ourselves too highly on this 

 subject. When frauds and swindlers surround us on every 

 hand, we must be able to stand by the truth (I mean honey) 

 and battle to the end. I had a man in southern Kansas tell 

 me last fall that manufactured honoy was just as good as what 

 bees produced. He said that God never did anything but 

 what man excelled it. He could see no difference between 

 genuine and imitation. Education did it. Let us educate our 

 children differently, and may God speed the time. 



Another singular thing Is, so many try keeping bees with- 

 out literature. They talk " gum " or "skep,"and say they 

 never read a bee-paper. I had a man undertake to tell a couple 

 of us that he could tell every bit of honey, if It was from a 



