182 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



until the bees are ready to go to work 

 at it, as the heat ofthe hive will harden 

 it more in one day tlian one month in 

 a close pile, not exposed to the air. Too 

 damp a place will not do : have had it 

 mold and spoil even in a dry cellar. 



To make a fair test of different 

 kinds of foundation, it should not only 

 be of thesanie iige, but made of the 

 same kind of wax. We had some 

 nearly spoiled last year with rosin : 

 not over >4 ounce to the lb. of wax. 

 The bees were sharp enough to detect 

 even that small amount, and why not 

 the same with other foreign sub- 

 stance ? 



I prefer moulded foundation to 

 rolled ; have never used any made on 

 a press. 



Ithaca, Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping in Nebraska. 



J. B. SKINNER. 



Being a merchant and publisher my 

 time is pretty well occupied, but with 

 the peculiar inspiration of scientific 

 apiculture, I am constrained to keep 

 a few bees for pastime and experi- 

 ment, as the sequel has proven a time 

 or two, perhaps " experience " would 

 be the better word. 



This section of country (Southern 

 Central Nebraska) is reasonably well 

 adapted to bees, though the past sea- 

 son was here, as elsewliere, too dry for 

 more than a moderate yield of honey. 

 My bees came through last winter 

 very mucli like those of many other 

 bee-keepers, losing 100 per cent, of 

 the total (24 colonies) attributable, of 

 course, to tlie terribly severe winter — 

 how convenient to have somewhere 

 to place the responsibility ! 



Ill the spring another colony was 

 procured and divided into 6 during the 

 season, which were put into winter 

 quarters in good order, and are yet 

 doing well, as the unusually m'ild 

 weather has given them opportunity 

 to fly every few days, showing a strong 

 and healthy condition. 



As the country here is new, bees are 

 scarce (I have knowledge of but 6 or 8 

 colonies and none nearer than ten 

 miles of my location) hence we have 

 discussions, and otherconvention pro- 

 ceedings, and interchange opinions, 

 and observations, through tlie bee 

 papers only, so the Bee Jouknal, the 

 single bee paper I am taking at pres- 

 ent, has a pretty thorough reading 

 here. 



Heading Mr. T. C. Mace's experi- 

 ence with stings in the Jouknal for 

 Feb. 1, I was reminded of a similar 

 experience myself during the past 

 summer; stings usually hurt me but 

 little, but on this occasion I had been 

 standing in a stooping posture for 

 some moments, causing a flow of blood 

 to the head ; the day was intensely 

 hot, and perspiration flowed freely, 

 when a little " pet," with " malice 

 aforethouglit," injected lier " beauti- 

 ful, polished shaft " into the side of 

 my nose, it was brushed away with- 

 out hesitation, with no thought of 

 more than momentary pain. Within 

 five minutes, however, my face and 



mouth were so swollen that I could 

 scarcely see or speak, a few moments 

 later my hands and feet were swelling, 

 and my heart palpitating so severely 

 that much effort was required to 

 breathe. My " better half " becoming 

 alarmed began a liberal application of 

 Centaur liniment, the first remedy 

 she happened to find, and within 20 

 minutes after the first application, 

 the pain and palpitation were entirely 

 relieved, and the swelling rapidly re- 

 ducing. Next day the sting was re- 

 peated on the same unfortunate organ, 

 but without other than the usual re- 

 sult — momentary pain. 



Inoculation proved of no avail in 

 this first instance, but as to what 

 spirits might have done I could not 

 say ; their value, however, is recog- 

 nized in some instances, as witness 

 the following : 



A neighbor, while hauling rock 

 some years ago, narrowly escaped be- 

 ing bitten by a rattle snake that lay 

 coiled under a stone ; he was very 

 much unnerved, and after returning 

 home, concluded to take an antidote 

 — having purchased some spirits a few 

 days before for making vinegar— like 

 Mr. Mace, lie imagined that it was 

 beneficial, and deeming prevention 

 better than cure, next morning, as 

 he was starting to work, took another 

 portion, and so on each day, and at 

 the close of the season triuinpliantly 

 declared that he had not been bitten 

 once during the year; adding, half 

 apologetically, that no vinegar was 

 made though. 



Mr. Mace might succeed equally 

 well with it as a preventive, and 

 thus save, not only the pain of the 

 stings to himself, but the possible 

 risk of death to Mr. Clarke to whom 

 he refers, should the latter gentleman 

 attempt to prove the question of in- 

 oculation. 



Hardy, Neb. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey from Corn. 



M. MAHIN. 



The correspondent of Gleanings, 

 quoted in tlie Bee Jouknal of March 

 8tli is mistaken when he says that bees 

 gather honey from corn. If he will 

 watch the bees at work on corn tassels, 

 as I have done perhaps hundreds of 

 times, he will observe that they never 

 pause on the flowers and apply their 

 tongues to them as they do to flowers 

 that yield honey. That the said corre- 

 spondent is not a close observer is 

 evident from the fact that he says the 

 bees gather honey from corn at the 

 time that they gather the dark green 

 pollen. It is certainly not true that 

 bees gather dark green pollen from 

 corn. The pollen from that source is 

 not dark green but light yellow, as 

 anyone may observe when the corn is 

 in bloom. Bees work on many flowers 

 from which they never get a particle 

 of honey, and among them are corn 

 tassels. 



Corn affords an abundance of pollen, 

 and at a time when there are few 

 other pollen bearing plants in bloom 

 it is of considerable value, no doubt, 



as the bees work freely on it. A care- 

 ful observer can always tell whether 

 bees are gathering honey or pollen 

 only. If they keep in constant motion, 

 as they do on the corn flowers, they 

 are getting no honey. I have never 

 been able to detect bees gathering 

 honey from soft maples, and I doubt 

 whether they ever get any from it. If 

 they get any it is very little. 

 Huntington, Ind. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Practical Use of Comb Foundatiou. 



G. W. STANLEY. 



Much has been said and written on 

 the subject of comb foundation, and 

 yet there is room for more remarks. 

 When Mr. C. R. Isham, of Peoria, N. 

 Y., took that decided stand in favor 

 of comb foundation at the North- 

 eastern Convention some years ago, I 

 was using foundation niade on the 

 first mill that A. I. Root ever sold. 

 From that time to this I have pro- 

 duced about 20,000 lbs. of comb honey, 

 and my bees have never been left to 

 fill a box without a full-sized starter 

 of comb foundation. The foundation 

 made on the above mill was very im- 

 perfect, in comparison with work 

 done on machines now in use, as 

 there was but very little wall, and the 

 foundation then used for sections did 

 not run more than 7 square feet to the 

 pound, and, of course, there was some 

 "fish-bone" in the honey ; but I can 

 say that my honey has always brought 

 high prices, which statement will be 

 indorsed by any of the leading bee- 

 keepers through this section, and I 

 have never had a crate of honey come 

 back on account of "fish-bone" or 

 any other cause. When J. Van 

 Deusen advertised the flat-bottomed 

 foundation for sale, I sto^iped using 

 the Root foundation in sections on ac- 

 count of not enough surface, and for 

 the season of 1H80 I used the Van 

 Deusen flat-bottom, running from 8K 

 to 10 feet per lb. This kind worked 

 fairly while new and fresh, if tlie bees 

 were getting just enough honey for 

 comb building, as they would then 

 have time to change the base of the 

 cell, and as the wall was light the wax 

 was all used up ; but when honey 

 came with a rush, as it does in our 

 basswood flow, the bees would add 

 wax to the base to make it the natural 

 shape, and thus make the base much 

 thicker than it was when it came from 

 tlie mill. Now, on the other hand, 

 when honey was coming in very 

 slowly, or perhaps not at all, as is the 

 case here when no basswood, if the 

 foundation was a little dry and old, 

 the bees would take it out at the 

 entrance to the hive, while a piece of 

 natural comb in the next box would 

 be left untouched until fall honey 

 commenced to come in, and the 

 natural shaped foundation would be 

 drawn out and filled with honey. 

 When these truths had made them- 

 selvesnianifest, I began to look around 

 for a mill that would make foundation 

 10 square feet per lb., with natural 

 shaped base, and found what I wanted 

 in the Vandervort mill for making 



