THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



137 



and inquire if any one had seen them? 

 As I was crossing the bridge a few 

 steps below wliere I struck the river, 

 I met Mr. Patterson. He, seeing my 

 compass, was curious to Itnow my 

 business. I told him I w-as i)ursuiiig 

 some fugitives, and wanted to know 

 if he had seen anything of any parties 

 eloping ? He said he had not. I told 

 him they must have passed close by 

 there, as that was in the direction 

 they were going. After I had worried 

 him awhile, I exitlained the matter to 

 him. He then told me that my bees 

 were up at the house, already hived, 

 and at work, and that Mr. Jackson, 

 the man tliat had hived them, was 

 gone from home. 'I told Mr. Fatter- 

 son that I must have my imported 

 bees, and that I would come back 

 some day after them, which I never 

 have done. 



This satislied me that bees do go on 

 aw air-line when swarming and leav- 

 ing. Another experiment with the 

 compass with the other swarm that 

 left, proved the same fact. I am of 

 the opinion tliat bees do not go over 6 

 or 8 miles generally, when they ab- 

 scond. The notion entertained by 

 some, that they have a home selected 

 before they leave, is certainly incor- 

 rect, as the swarm above referred to 

 settled on a bush on Mr. Jackson's 

 spring path, and his wife found them 

 in the act of settling. 



Franklin, Ga._ 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The New Bees, Queen-Rearing, Etc. 



D. A. PIKE. 



Having had experience with the 

 Syrian bees, I must say that my im- 

 pressions are not favorable to them. 

 They did not gather enough honey to 

 last tliem till cold weather came. 1 

 gave them honey from my other bees 

 twice, before putting them into win- 

 ter quarters. I have only discovered 

 one good trait about them : the queens 

 are prolilic. But what does that 

 amount to, if the bees do not gather 

 enough honey to live on V 1 never 

 saw a Syrian bee come in with a heavy 

 load of honey. If fertile workers are 

 wanted, get the Syrian bees. 



If mine live till next spring, I will 

 keep them till the first of July, and if 

 they do not prove better honey gath- 

 erers in the future than they have in 

 the past, off goes their heads. 



I shall not sell any more Syrian 

 queens till I have tested tliem more 

 myself. Mr. S. Valentine's experience 

 in the last Bke Journal is about the 

 same as mine. We Marylanders claim 

 to have better bees than the Syrians. 



Much has been said about rearing 

 good queens. Some claim that they 

 should be reared from 3 or 4 colonies. 

 I hold that a queen-breeder should 

 have his queens bred up to such a 

 standard of excellency, that he need 

 not be afraid to rear queens or drones 

 from any colony in his apiary. Then 

 he is prepared to send out good queens 

 to his customers, and not till then ! 

 What would be thought of a queen- 

 breeder who says that lie intends to 

 rear all his queens this season from 



one queen, and all his drones from 

 one or two other queens, and then say 

 that he had tifty or one hundred orders 

 in for early tested queens,as is always 

 the case with queen-breeders. Do 

 you think his customers would get 

 queens lit to rear queens and drones 

 from V hardly; or he would not need 

 to be so particular about rearing all 

 his queens and drones from a few 

 colonies. 

 Smithsburg, Md. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Another Partial Reriew. 



T. F. lilNGHAM. 



It seems to me that the resolutions 

 passed at the Northeastern New York 

 Convention are aimed at a man of 

 straw. When they specify smokers 

 in the resolution they design to cen- 

 sure. 



I am sure there was no allusion In 

 my poor short essay to smokers. It 

 did not contain the word, neither did 

 it refer disrespectfully to the late 

 lamented M.Quinbv. Is it disrespect- 

 ful to say "The early writings of the 

 lamented M. Quiilby, called 'The 

 Mysteries of Bee-Keeping,' which 

 were among the most conspicuous of 

 the closing eraV '' 



Will the gentlemen please notice 

 the quiet sarcasm implied in the 

 titles: '-Quinby's New Bee-Keeping," 

 and "New Quiiiby Smoker." Would 

 any one suppose the book or the 

 smoker to be orif/inal, from the titles'? 

 Either the new gets a compliment or 

 the old gets a slur. 



I trust there will never be so little 

 of my smoker left that it will have to 

 be advertised as the "New Bingham 

 Smoker." 



I am sorry to mention matters which 

 should be in an advertisement, but 

 the Convention report, already pub- 

 lished, has made it necessary. Presi- 

 dent Clark evinced a wonderful 

 faculty for overlooking the facts when 

 he said that he "would not use a 

 Bingham smoker under any considera- 

 tion; that because Quinby did not get 

 a patent and Bingham did, we are 

 obliged to pay for it." The facts are 

 that Bingham sells for 6-5 cents, post- 

 age paid, a i^ larger and much better 

 smoker than Mr. Quinby did for SI. .50, 

 which was his (Quinby's) regular 

 price for the old and noio obsolete 

 Quinby smoker. 



When Mr. A J. King first began to 

 make mv smokers, he advertised them 

 as the '''New Bee-Smokers;" after- 

 ward he offered to pay me a cash 

 royalty for a license to make them. 

 At the Chicago National Convention 

 he told me he gave me the credit of 

 the invention, but thought he had a 

 right to make them as he was then 

 making. 



Abronia, Mich., Feb. 8, 1882. 



^° The Union Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will meet at Eminence, Ky., 

 on the liTth day of April, 1882. A full 

 attendance is very much desired, as 

 important business will be transacted. 

 G. W. Demaree, Sec. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



sSJ-S^^MM^ 



Sweet CloTer. — The thermometer 

 stands 66'^ above to-day; bees flying 

 lively and carrying in pollen for the 

 first this year, the earliest I ever 

 knew. My 31 colonies, all in good 

 condition, had flights about every 

 week this winter. The lowest fall 

 this winter was 18° below, ranging 

 from 35° to 55° above, but weather 

 was very wet. My bees are mostly 

 blacks aiid hybrids, packed in wheat 

 straw on summer stands. We have 

 no sweet clover in this country. I 

 sowed some last fall in my garden, 

 but if it has ever come up I cannot 

 see it. What does the plant look like. 

 It seems from the reading of the Bee 

 Journal, that it grows spontaneous 

 around Chicago. We do not have 

 much here for bees, only white clover^ 

 and that lasts until about the 10th of 

 July, and after that our honey season 

 is over for surplus. I like the Bee 

 Journal, but would like it better if 

 it was a daily or tri-weekly. 



L. T. MOBBERLY. 



Long Grove, Ky., Feb. 19, 1882. 



[Your sweet clover planted last 

 season will undoubtedly come out all 

 right. Its germination is of very 

 slow development, hence it is better 

 to sow it in the fall, or very early in 

 spring, while it will yet get several 

 sharp, severe frosts, to assist in burst- 

 ing the hulls. 



Sweet clover was sown in the 

 western part of this city some 12 or 

 15 years ago, and now prevails ta 

 quite a liberal extent in the suburbs, 

 and along the railways and roadways 

 running into the city. Many farmers 

 and bee-keepers have assisted to 

 spread and perpetuate it, for their 

 bees and grazing animals. It is found 

 very good to plant along newly made 

 roads, as the deep and matting roots 

 have a tendency to retard wash-outs 

 and gullies. The young plant has 

 much the appearance of white clover, 

 excepting that they grow more erect 

 from the seeds.— Ed.] 



Successful Wintering.— I packed 

 twenty-four colonies of bees last fall, 

 in theimproved Quinby hive, on the 

 summer stands. All are now doing 

 well, I never have lost a colony yet. 

 I pack in chaff, in Quinby hives, just 

 as described by Mr. Popp'leton, at the 

 Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Conven- 

 tion, at Battle Creek. I do not think 

 any bee-keeper ought to " kick '' on 

 Mr. Jones for selling queens this sidfr 

 of the line. My bees came into the 

 shop yesterday after honey in some 

 comos" I had sitting out. Success tO' 

 the AVeekly; I should be lost without 

 it. S. S. Bristol. 



Galesburg, Mich., Feb. 21, 1882. 



