596 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



September 2'2. 



things ; I will not stay in the same coach with you." And 

 accordingly got down and left him, Richardson hallooing out 

 triumphantly, "Ah, you're beat, you're beat!" Nor was It 

 till the heat of his victory had a ll;tle cooled, that he found 

 out he was '• left in the lurch" to pay for Sheridan's three 

 hours' coaching !" 



Making One's Own Hives — I suppose it is perfectly in 

 order to criticise the critic. Mr. R. L. Taylor is promulgating 

 some rank heresies, and must be " called down." He says : 

 " One cannot afford to keep many bees unless he is skillful 

 enough workman to make his own hives," etc. I think a 

 show of hands will prove that 95 percent of the bee-keepers 

 don't agree with him. And how can the individual compete 

 with steam and high-priced special machinery, especially as 

 hot competition has given us one-fourth the prices of former 

 days ? I think the enormous demand for bee-hives and sup- 

 plies there has been for two or more years past, proves that 

 the majority know they ctmy^t afford to make their own hives, 

 etc. No man can make one dollar a day at the factory prices 

 making his own supplies, making no mention of workmanship, 

 either, which must of necessity be greatly in favor of machine- 

 made hives. 



Stimulative Feeding.— Again, Mr. Taylor says: "I 

 am satisfied stimulative feeding does not pay." Now, Mr. 

 Taylor, you're certainly dead wrong. I started with one 

 strong colony last spring, having 10 to 15 pounds of stores 

 left over from winter. I wanted to increase largely — to 10 

 colonies, if possible. I fed small amounts of honey and water 

 every evening for weeks, and the result — I have now seven 

 more colonies, all with young laying queens, and all the 

 progeny of the one colony on which I practiced stimulative 

 feeding. Now is not this the aim in all stimulative feeding '? 

 I can rear bees for less than $2.00 a colony by this means, 

 not including the hives, of course. 



Gbammar and Rhetoric. — As for Mr. Taylor's criticisms 

 of certain bee-keepers' grammar and rhetoric, all will agree 

 that they are entirely out of place in a bee-paper. But of 

 course it is nice to understand Michigan rhetoric, and know 

 wherein it differs from that of the settled portions of the 

 country. Cook Co., III. 



% 



Is Bee-Poison au Antidote for Snake-Poison? 



EV D. D. BLAKEMAN. 



On page 393 is the following paragraph : 



"Immunity from Snake-Poison. — Th. WeippI, editor of 

 Bienen-Vater, quotes from an Austrian paper, without vouch- 

 ing for its truth, the statement that a French chemist inocu- 

 lated dogs with poison extracted from bees, and the dogs were 

 then unharmed by the bite of deadly snakes." 



May 31 of this year, on picking up a hive-cover lying flat 

 on the ground, I was bitten by a rattler a foot and a half long, 

 coiled under the board. Th,<5 sensation was like having 

 needles driven deeply into the flesh of the end of the middle 

 finger, not like bee or mosquito stings. 



Now, I have 70 colonies of bees, and I attend to them 

 alone, and am almost immune to bee-stings. Does this im- 

 munity extend to snake-poison ? I will give an account of the 

 case : 



The swelling did not extend to the second joint, altho I 

 expected that it would at least reach to the shoulder. About 

 four hours after the bite, I had very considerable pain in the 

 wound, but not more than one would expect from needles 

 (fangs) driven nearly or quite to the bone of the finger. This 

 pain ceast so that I was able to sleep after five hours — no 

 further pain nor unnatural feeling In the finger. All that was 

 left of the injury was a very black spot one-fourth inch in 

 diameter, which faded out in two wegks. 



Now for treatment : I have always understood that any 

 treatment of a rattlesnake-bite is merely palliative. First, I 

 suckt vigorously at the wound for perhaps two minutes. Sec- 

 ond, I tied a tight ligature of twine about the finger. Third, 

 I used aqua ammonia upon the wound. After three hours I 

 took off the ligature and drest the wound in turpentine. 



Now, altho I have killed another rattlesnake since my 

 first encounter above described, I was not such an enthusiast 

 in science as to give it an opportunity to strike me in order to 

 test this immunity theory more thoroughly ; but there may be 

 persons among the readers of the American Bee Journal thor- 

 oughly saturated with bee-poison, who might give additional 

 information to establish or disprove any such theory. 



San Bernardino Co., Calif. 



Kreutzinger Apiaries and " Honey Harvest." 



BY J. T. HAMMERSMARK. 



My first acquaintance with Mr. Leo Kreutzinger, who 

 owns the most extensive apiaries in Cook Co., 111., was in 

 1897, and in August of that year I received an invitation 

 from him to attend a " honey harvest." Of course I was ready 

 for all such fun, and at the appointed time appeared with 

 smoker and veil, and thus armed we (Dr. Peiro and myself) 

 made for the bee-hives, and got the honey, of course, but 

 something else besides — stings, till we could not rest. One 

 fellow visitor got so many that he had to go off and rest, but 

 then he couldn't rest. 



But now it is of this year's doings that I wish to speak. 

 Tuesday, April 12, was a warm day, so I put the bees out on 

 the stands, as I commenced working for Mr. Kreutzinger April 

 1,1898. After spring dwindling was over, he had 58 colo- 

 nies of bees to start with. A great many nuclei, and some 

 full colonies, were bought last spring, and now, with the In- 



ly. Kreutzinger. 



crease of this season, he has 211 colonies of bees — 114 being 

 in his home yard, 85 in the out-yard, and 12 at his place of 

 residence. 



The "bee-palace," with observatory, which you see in the 

 picture, was built last spring. It is two stories high, and con- 

 tains four rooms down stairs — shop, honey-room, fumigating- 

 room, and a dwelling or sleeping room for the apiarist. 



The second story Is oue large room used for a storage- 

 room, etc. Above this is the cupola, wherein are at present 

 located four colonies of different strains of bees in glass ob- 

 servatory hives : common Italian, golden Italian, Holy Land, 

 and Adel bees. These were bought for the purpose of finding 

 out which was the best bee, as well as for observation, but it 

 will take a few seasons to settle that question properly. So 

 far our common Italians from our own yard have done the 

 best. 



August 27 (last month) Mr. Kreutzinger had another 

 " honey harvest." Amongst those present we had a Japanese 

 gentleman. He had just arrived from Japan, where he labors 

 as a missionary in the Presbyterian church. 



Mr. K., scarcely distinguishable, is standing near the en- 

 trance of the door at the left. (See illustration on first page.) 

 The young man in white, standing among the hives, is my- 

 self. I wear light-colored clothing, as I am convinced that it 

 is more agreeable to the bees than black or dark clothes. You 

 see very few if any of the people present have on veils. Well, 

 there were none needed, as the visitors, after a trial of 10 or 

 15 minutes with veils on laid them aside, for they see 

 that the army of bees about them are almost as gentle as flies. 

 1 do not think that any one got stung, altho the visitors were 

 roaming amongst the hives the greater part of the afternoon. 



