THE AMERICAJM BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Apiculturist. 



The Ariel of the Spriug. 



ALBERT F. KJEKCHEVAL. 



Tireless toiler, with thy wing, 

 Winnowing soft the breath of spring, 

 Darkling doubt is over, sing ! — 



Sing of bright and sinnnier hours. 

 Sing of dreamy summer bowers. 

 Sing of fragraiice-liaunting flowers. 



Laden with their nectar sweet. 

 Glad tliat wait tlie lips to greet. 

 As when trembling lovers meet ; 



Sighing, beck'ning everywhere — 

 On the mountain slope afar 

 Lifting high its mighty bar. 



In the valley, on the plain, 

 Nestling 'mid the cereal grain, 

 Kis t by sun and dew and rain. 



Wreathing Nature's smiling face. 

 Bending with their tender grace 

 Over each lone vacant space. 



O, thou arial spirit fleet. 



Flitting swift from sweet to sweet, 



Every flowery queen to greet, 



Sipping nature's fairy wine ; 



O, that tliy sweet life were mine ; 



Even brief and bright as thine ! 



One sweet revel all the hours 

 'Mid the dreamy, tender bowers. 

 Then to die 'mid dying flowers ! 

 Los Angeles, Gal., March 20, 1882. 



Artificial Swarming in 1702.— Mr. 

 J. M. Hicks, in tlie Grunge Bulletin, 

 gives the following historical item : 



Swammerdam, who wrote in the 

 latter part of the seventeenth centui'y , 

 mentions a bee-keeper, who knew the 

 art of producing queen bees at pleas- 

 ure, and of securing thereby four 

 times as many swarms annually as 

 were usually olitaiiied by the old plan 

 of natural swarming. In 1762, Grae- 

 well, in Ins " Approved Bee Culture," 

 gave directions for making artificial 

 swarms and dividing colonies, and 

 Schirach published a special treaties 

 on the subject in 1770, in which he 

 first announced the fact, previously 

 known to but few, that bees are able 

 to raise a queen from worker brood. 

 The practice seems to have been of 

 but little success, as uuiny facts hav- 

 ing an important influence were then 

 unknown, and tlie liives then in use 

 were ill-adapted to tlie business. The 

 elder Iluber and others of his time, 

 made a success of artificial swarming, 

 when they developed the movable- 

 frame system and made their impor- 

 tant discoveries in the physiology of 

 the bee. Their practice, though, was 

 necessarily imperfect, and was seldom 



practiced successfully, except by the 

 most expert and well-informed apia- 

 rists. Since that time rapid advances 

 have been made in this brancli of bee- 

 culture. It would require a volume 

 to describe all of the different modifl- 

 cations of artificial swarming, vs^ith 

 the advantages and disadvantages of 

 eacli. The reader can consult tlie 

 works already published, in most of 

 which this subject luis been exten- 

 sively discussed. 



Watching the Bees. — Mrs. L. Harri- 

 son, in tlie Prairie Farmer, gives the 

 following account of an interview be- 

 tween herself and a neighbor. 



" I couldn't find you in the house, 

 and I suppose if I want to see you I 

 shall liave to come to tlie bee-yard 

 until October." 



"■ Isn't it a nice place, this delight- 

 ful weather V — take this rustic seat 

 and watch the bees, sailing in loaded.'' 



" My grandmother used to keep bees 

 in the old country, and in the fall she 

 would dig a hole in the ground, make 

 a little fire of sticks dipped in brim- 

 stone, and set lier hive over it, and in 

 a few moments all the bees would be 

 dead. Her hives were not like yours, 

 they were straw skips, just like you 

 see in pictures. Oh ! look at the bees 

 with their legs covered with wax. 

 How I would like to see one load his 

 feet." 



'' That isn't wax, Peggie, but pollen, 

 what we call bee-bread— the bees feed 

 their young with it. Those that drop 

 down so heavily, are either gathering 

 honey or currying water." 



" Indade, sometimes I'm afraid of 

 me life, when I go to the well after 

 water, there are bees in the pump 

 spout and in the gravel around it— 

 they are not always particular about 

 what they drink, for sure haven't 1 

 seen them sucking the manure piles 

 after a rain, and when Tim Shay 

 plastered his house, they were in the 

 mortar bed ating it, and the boys 

 killed a dale of 'em, pelting 'em and 

 spatting 'em into the mortar with 

 shingle paddles. I told the wicked 

 craythurs to slop it, but not a bit 

 would they bide my bidding." 



" People tliink they must have some 

 badly lasting stuff called medicine, 

 or bitters like tansy and whisky in 

 the spring, to regulate theirdigestion, 

 and tlie bees are only following their 

 exainiile. I've known doctors to pre- 

 scribe lime water for a little baby, 

 and bees love salt Hiid ammonia, and 

 who knows but that they may need 

 lime, if they haven't any bones." 



" What have you that sack tied to 

 the limb of that tree for, with a stick 

 in its mcnith to keep it open V" 



" Sugar was brought home in it, 



and as it was pretty damp ; it stuck to 



it so riiuoh tliat it could not be used 



for anytliing else, and 1 hung it there 



for tlie bees to clean it up. It is as 



clean and free from stickiness now as 



a new one. I put out some closet 



sliclves. that had honey on them, that 



t had oozed out of some broken boxes 



during the winter, for the bees to 



1 clean up, and had a lively time in 



I conseqiicuce of it. Honey excites 



them more than sugar, and when it 

 was gone they hunted for more. I 

 liad left a window open upstairs, and 

 there were boxesof honey in the room. 

 Hearing a buzz and a roar, we found 

 that apparently a million bees were 

 flying in and out of that window. I 

 drove out what I could with a smoker, 

 but had to put the window down, as 

 so many came back, and it was two 

 days before I got them all out. All 

 this trouble on account of careless- 

 ness." 



" Is that barrel of sugar, that the 

 grocervman is roiling in, for the 

 bees ?" 



"• Yes, I'm feeding every colony I 

 have. As I've not enough feeders to 

 go around, I'm using all sorts of things 

 — here is an old sugar bowl with one 

 ear broken off, peach cans, Mason's 

 jars, etc. I make little sacks of thin 

 muslin, and tie them over the can, so 

 that as fast as the syrup is eaten, the 

 sack sinks with it. and uot a bee will 

 get drowned. I fill this large pitcher 

 with sugar, pour in boiling water, 

 and stir it well, and feed it warm ; or 

 course, not hot enough to burn them." 



"Indade, ma'am, you've a dale of 

 trouble with your baes." 



" Yes, we can't have anything with- 

 out work. I suppose St. Patrick had 

 hard work to rid Ireland of frogs and 

 snakes, but he succeeded." 



" Won't you plaze give me a little 

 honey for Paddy, he has a bad cough. 

 God bless you ma'am." 



' Grafting Wax. — The Avierican 

 Agriculturist for ilay, gives the follow- 

 ing receipe : 



Rosin, beeswax, and tallow, are the 

 essentials. Some use equal parts by 

 weight ot these ; others prefer, as 

 warm weather approaches, more 

 rosin and less tallow. A good recipe 

 is rosin 2 lbs., beeswax II4' lbs., tal- 

 low 12 ounces. These should be melted 

 well together over a gentle fire, and 

 stirred as the mixture cools. It is 

 most conveniently used upon strips 

 of cloth. Any old calico or muslin 

 that will tear readily, may be torn 

 into strips 2 inches wide, made into 

 balls and soaked in the melted wax, 

 until thoroughly saturated. We pre- 

 fer to roll the cloth upon a short stick, 

 to a(f(n-d a handle. If paper is to be 

 used, the warm wax is spread with a 

 brush upon one side of this Manilla 

 paper. Some grafters prefer a wax 

 made with raw linseed oil, using a 

 pint of oil instead of a pound of tal- 

 low. _ • 



i^The Eastern New York Bee- 

 Keepers' Union will hold their 10th 

 Semi-Aunual Convention on Tuesday 

 and Wednesday, May 2d and 8d, 1882, 

 at tlie parlors of the Hotel Augustan, 

 Cobleskill, Schoharie County, N. Y., 

 at 10 o'clock a. m. All interested in 

 the bee business are invited to attend. 

 W. L. Tennant, Prest. 



C. QuACKgNBUSH, See. 



tt^The Champlain Vallev Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association will hold their semi- 

 annual meeting at Middlebury, Vt., 

 May 11 1882. T. Bkookins, Sec. 



