THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



for a constant honey-flow, for in a 

 large tract covered with these plants 

 of varying dispositions, some would 

 be continually under the proper condi- 

 tion no matter how often the shitting 

 of the weatlier should occur. 



Through the influence of conven- 

 tions and publications on bee-keeping, 

 the ideas and devices of our best and 

 most experienced apiarists relating to 

 all the different phases of the subject, 

 from the rearing of the bees to the 

 disposition of their products have 

 been widely disseminated, and the 

 causes of failure have been constantly 

 lessening, until now it may be truth- 

 fully said that he who embarks in the 

 bee business and fails to realize a fair 

 compensation for the time and capital 

 invested will very generally find the 

 causes of his ill-success within him- 

 self. He has most probably gone into 

 the business under the popular delu- 

 sion that bees not only " work for 

 nothing and board themselves " but 

 they clothe their owner in " purple 

 and fine linen," and enable him to 

 "• fare sumptuously every day." 



Success is the product of a great 

 many factors in the bee-keeper's arith- 

 metic, multiplication, subtraction and 

 division may be profitably resorted to 

 at times, but if addition (feeding) be 

 neglected, the result will surely reveal 

 neither quotient nor remainder, and 

 the answer of the season will be a pro- 

 duct of blasted hopes. Judicious and 

 timely feeding, both stimulative and 

 otherwise, is a positive prerequisite to 

 success, and he who is too lazy or 

 stingy to supply this requirement had 

 better not embark in the business. In 

 short, the man or the woman who ex- 

 jiects to realize all the possibilities of 

 fortune in apicult«re, must acquire an 

 ardent love for the pursuit, by a faith- 

 ful and student-like perusal of all the 

 best books and papers devoted to the 

 subject, and this should be supple- 

 mented by practical lessons among the 

 bees, involving all the operations re- 

 ferred to in the previous lessons, and 

 this under the eye and supervision of 

 an experienced apiarist. 



The intending bee-keeper must 

 realize that he is entering on a pursuit 

 whicli requires much hard labor, both 

 physical and mental. That to secure 

 the best results lie must inwardly di- 

 gest the fact that if a good workman 

 requires good tools in order to do a 

 well finished job, it is doubly true in 

 regard to himself. That attempting 

 to make his own bee-fixtures, and 

 depetjding on his agricultural paper 

 for instruction, is biit poor economy, 

 if indeed it deserves the name at all. 

 That a month or more spent with a 

 practical and therefore scientific bee- 

 keeper in the busiest part of the sea- 

 son, would be of incalculable benefit 

 to bim. even though he pay for the 

 privilege. 



Apiarists as a class, are men of large 

 hearts and genuine sympathies, and 

 seldom refuse to advise beginners, if 

 solicited in the proper spirit, but if 

 approached by one who, upon a hasty 

 reading of the " Blessed Bees," or 

 some other tictitious production, has 

 become suddenly wise in his own 

 conceit, he is usiially left to find out 

 by a sad experience that a "little 



knowledge is a dangerous thing," as 

 well in bee-keeping as theology. 

 New York. 





m-Q'X' 



The Hive for Beginners. — Would 



you advise beginners to use brood 

 frames with close-end top bars instead 

 of open top bars. G. II. D. 



[No ; we offer no such advice. But 

 few persons approve of such, and 

 many object to them. We advise 

 the use of one of the popidar hives, 

 with frames of ordinary size and regu- 

 lar shape. Nearly every beginner, 

 during the first year, fancies he could 

 invent a hive that would " beat the 

 world," but, after more experience, 

 finds one of the standard type of 

 hives to be good enough for him. 

 Beginners should be content to learn 

 from experience of others — to follow 

 and not expect to lead.— Ed.] 



H(iw to niaks Paste or (iliie with 



Flour.— Make a dough with water and 

 Hour, then dilute the dough with more 

 water. U.se about one tablespoonful 

 of fiour for one half glass of water, or 

 a little more. Put on the oven in a 

 tin stew pan, stirring constantly to 

 prevent burning : as soon as it boils it 

 is done. If the labels come off with 

 this glue, they are made with paper 

 too thick. If you want a glue which 

 lasts without rotting, mix in the flour 

 before wetting it, some powdered 

 alum. Chas. Dadant. 



IIamilton,Ill., Jan. 31,1882. 



Woldeii Honey Plant.— I have S colo- 

 nies, some Italians, but mostly blacks; 

 they had two flights in January, and 

 seem to be in good condition. Snow 

 fell last night about 7 inches deep, yet 

 the weather seems warm ; about .30 de- 

 grees. Some time since I sent Dr. G. 

 L. Tinker, New rhiladelphia,0., some 

 seeds of the golden honey plant. Tlie 

 seed he sent back to me were larger 

 than those I sent him, but are the snme 

 kind. I find for 2 miles uj) and down 

 our creek a few stalks of the golden 

 honey plant growing. I observed 

 closely the working of the bees on dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants, but the golden 

 honey plant seems to have more bees 

 at work than any other. We have 

 some 5 or 6 varieties of golden rod 

 here, but no basswood. 



E. M. Coombs. 



Memphis, Ind., Jan. 31, 1882. 



Bees Doing >Vp1I.— In this locality, 

 bees had a good flight on Jan. 27, and 

 Feb. 6. I have 23 colonies ; 1.5 packed 

 on the summer stands ; 6 being i)acked 

 in boxes with chaff and 2 in chaff 

 hives. NoRJiAN V. Goodn'ok. 



North hansing. Mich., Feb. 7, 1882. 



Superseding Queens.— Permit me to 



ask: 1. Are there any bee-keepers 

 who make a practice of replacing old 

 queens with voung ones, for fear the 

 old ones will hot live through winterV 



2. If so. what disposition do they 

 make of the old ones? 



3. Would two years old be the right 

 time to make the change V 



4. Would not perforated zinc parti- 

 tions for confining the queen to a lim- 

 ited portion of the hive, be good for 

 controlling the bees till you wished to 

 divide them V I am thinking of those 

 bee-keepers who have only a few colo- 

 nies and want to increase, and have 

 not time to wait for natural swarms 



Walter Harmer. 

 Manistee, Mich., Feb. 3, 1882. 



[1. Yes; all successful bee-keepers 

 make a practice of superseding old 

 queens in the fall, or during summer 

 when they have good young queens on 

 hand. 



2. The old queens are, or should be, 

 destroyed. 



3. As a rule, two years is the right 

 age to supersede them, though some 

 are good and prolific the third season. 



4. We are not partial to the use of 

 perforated zinc. If the bee-keeper 

 cannot spare time to give his bees 

 close attention, he should divide the 

 colonies when they begin making 

 preparations for swarming. If the 

 frames are uniform, the division can 

 be made about as quickly as the per- 

 forated zinc can be applied.— Ed.] 



Adiiesive Paste.— The American Cul- 

 tivutor gives this recipe for such paste 

 as is used on the backs of postage 

 stamps : Dextrine, 2 ounces ; acetic 

 acid, 4 drachms ; water, 2^i ounces. 

 Mix the dextrine, acetic acid and 

 water, stirring until thoroughly mixed, 

 and add alcohol. For attaching labels 

 to tin, rub the surface with a mixture 

 of muriatic acid and alcohol ; apply 

 the label with a thin coating of the 

 paste. J. W. Winder. 



Thibodeanx, La. 



Bees are in Satisfactory Condition. — 



The indications this morning were 

 good for a pleasant day, so I thought 

 I would ride down to my apiary for 

 the first time since October. I was 

 taken sick in October, but I am now 

 about as well as ever. I examined 

 every colonv, and can say that I have 

 been keeinng bees for 14 years and 

 never had them to winter as well and 

 on so little honey as they have this 

 winter. J. T. Wilson. 



Mortonsville, Ky., Feb. 6, 1882. 



A Query.— Will the Journal please 

 ask Dr. \V. R- Howard to tell your 

 thousands of appreciative readers, 

 whether lie thinks the Dzierzon the- 

 ory necessarily follows from the es- 

 tablishment of the much-cherished 

 idea of parthenogenesis V 



W. H. Andrews. 



McKinney. Tex., Feb. 2, 1882. 



