266 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Golden Bee- Hive. —Bees in this 

 neigtiborhood appear to be tioiiig very 

 well at this time. I examined one on 

 the 22(1 of Marcli, wliicli hail plenty of 

 old sealed honey, with fresh honey 

 and brood in all stages. 1. Can [ feed 

 extracted honey at any time to the 

 bees, and have them store it without 

 waste y 2. Will they take up extrac- 

 ted honey ;ind store it in the boxes, 

 when they are at work in the boxes 

 above. I am«atHicted with cataract on 

 both eyes, so it is witli difficulty I can 

 see to read or write, hence I can be 

 but a very poor bee-keeper. I think 

 I will take my 1.5-year old boy with 

 me, and try to use his eyes with my 

 brains, so that between us both my 

 pets may be taken care of the best I 

 can. I keep but few, but I am lotli to 

 give them up, and will not as long as 

 it can be helped. Just at this time 

 this part of Alabama is blessed (or 

 cursed) with a patent right bee-hive 

 vender, selling rights to the people to 

 make what he terms the '• golden bee- 

 hive." I have seen the hive and think 

 it to be a sorry alfair. Do you or any 

 of your readers know anything about 

 it ? James B. Pickerell is the name 

 of the vender. 4. \Vho is he i* 



W. E. FXIEEMAN. 



Olustee Creek, Ala., April 13, 1882. 



[1. Bees will not take up extracted 

 honey and store it without considera- 

 ble diminution. 



2. In time of scarce honey flow, the 

 bees will store extracted honey in the 

 sections, where already at work in 

 them ; but in time of an abundant 

 honey flow, they will look upon ex- 

 tracted honey with indifference. 



3. The " golden bee-hive" was pat- 

 «nted by David Thompson. We ob- 

 tained from the Patent Office in 

 Washington, in 1880, an official copy, 

 from which we extract : 



What I claim as new, and desire to 

 secure by letters patent is : The com- 

 bination, with the hive proper of the 

 supplemental hive or box B, feed-board 

 A, feed-cup C, and key and lever E, all 

 arranged substantially as described 

 and shown. 



The patent does not cover the hive 

 proper (brood chamber), nor the 

 frames or division board. Mr. Thomp- 

 son only claims the " combination " of 

 his surplus arrangement with the hive 

 proper. This arrangement consists of 

 small frames of the same length of 

 the brood frames, but about ^ their 

 depth; these hang by the top-bar, 

 over the brood frames, and both the 

 frames and their manner of hanging, 

 together with their position on the 

 hive, are all old, and have long been 

 common property. The " combina- 

 tion " which Mr. Thompson claims is 

 simply the attaching of his " supple- 

 mental hive, or surplus box, to " the 

 hive proper," and he has no claim 

 «pon any movable frames, or any of 



the desirable features of the ordinary 

 hives, or upon division boards. His 

 " feeder," " key " and " lever," are 

 the main points in his patent, and 

 these are, perhaps, of the least im- 

 portance to bee-keepers. 



4. We do not know Mr. James B. 

 Pickerell.— Ed.] 



Plautiiiff for Honey. — You have 

 raised such a tempest in my brain 

 about planting for honey, that I re- 

 solved at once to set apart 20 acres 

 adjoining my apiary for that purpose, 

 and wrote to the editors of the Kansas 

 Bee-Keeper, asking them to open the 

 question, '" Is planting for honey 

 needed in Kansas ; if so, what, how, 

 and when shall we plant V" I expect 

 a notice in the next issue. I sliall not 

 be able to plant the whole patch this 

 year, but I would like to ask for the 

 proportion of seeding for such a farm, 

 on the supposition that my bees had 

 no other resource— perhaps your 

 pamphlet on planting answers" my 

 question. My land is a very tine, deep, 

 rich, black loam, rectangular in form 

 in the proportion of 4 to 9. Many 

 thanks for the weekly visits of the 

 Bee Journal. I once lieard an 

 elderly gentleman advise a young 

 man izi the following words: "Go, 

 and make yourself indispensable," 

 were you there at the time V 



Exeter, Kans. N. Emmerson. 



[We think you will find your ques- 

 tion answered more satisfactorily in 

 the pamphlet, " Bee Pasturage a 

 Necessity," than we could do in a 

 newspaper article. — Ed.] 



Grateful.— I am a bee-keeper in a 

 small way, compared with some of 

 our American apiarists, and depend a 

 great deal on the Bee Jouknal and 

 its correspondents. I desire to return 

 my thanks to Rev. A. Salisbury and 

 Mr. G. M. Doolittleformany valuable 

 suggestions. The latter just strikes 

 me exactly. I like to read articles 

 that come right out and tell me what 

 to do— that is business. The Syrian 

 bees are beauties, what I have seen of 

 them, and I think ought not to be 

 classed as ferocious. There are abont 

 five apiaries in om- vicinity or the 

 north half of our county (Douglas), 

 all run for comb honey, except Mr. 

 Salisbury's, wiiich is partly run for 

 honey and partly for queens. The 

 five apiaries contain about 440 colon- 

 ies, 70 of which are my own. These 

 were wintered in a cave without loss. 

 My yield in 1881 was about 50 lbs. of 

 comb honey per colony, in prize sec- 

 tions, and thirty per cent, increase. 

 They filled the brood chambers in the 

 fall to the extent of crowding out the 

 queens, and consequently they are 

 weak this spring. I am going to 

 adopt Mr. Doolittle's plan with them, 

 and think I will have about 55 colonies 

 when united for clover honey gather- 

 ing. Next fall they will have better 

 attention, as I have resolved to de- 

 vote my whole time to the production 

 of honey. Bartlett Z. Smith. 



Tuscola, 111. 



Honey Store-Rooiii. — 1 have a two- 

 story building 18x24 feet, and desire 

 to use the upper story for a store- 

 room, and the ground floor for work- 

 shop and room to keep comb honey in. 

 The honey room is at the west end 

 and is ceiled up on the inside, and 

 has racks to place the honey on. The 

 room has but one window, and blinds 

 will be placed on the outside with 

 wire screen and curtain on the in- 

 side. Which would be the best for 

 the good keeping of the honey, a dry 

 ground floor or a plank floor V There 

 will be a board chimney 10x12 inches 

 from the honey room, with a slide to 

 open or close the same, so that when 

 the sulphur fumes have been on the 

 honey long enough they may be car- 

 ried off as soon as possible, so as not 

 to settle down on the honey and color 

 the comb. The chimney may also be 

 used as a ventilator. Please state in 

 the Bee Journal what you think of 

 the above arrangement for keeping 

 comb honey. D. M. Ketcham. 



Arcadia, N. Y. 



[If perfectly dry, we think we would 

 prefer the ground floor, then with the 

 chimney near the bottom for the 

 escape of the sulphur fumes, your 

 room will probably give satisfaction. 

 -Ed.] 



Unirersally Cold.— I see by the Bee 



Journal tliat most of our fraternity 

 are having an early spring, and that 

 bees are gathering pollen finely. Not 

 so with me, however, for the spring 

 has been universally cold. Vegetation 

 has not started in the least as yet, and 

 the past week has been one of cold 

 and snow, the mercury going as low 

 as 14*^'. It has been so cold I have 

 been unable to dig plants except for 

 about a week, making me late in fill- 

 ing orders, at which some of my South- 

 ern patrons feel disposed to growl a 

 little. No pollen yet, and but very 

 little brood in the hives. However, 

 my colonies were never stronger in 

 bees at this time of the year than now. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., April 17, 1882. 



Pollen. — It is supposed that bees 

 feed their young ones on neither pol- 

 len or honey in the raw state, nor 

 soften it, like pigeons do, for instance 

 in the crop, and then feed; but that 

 both pollen and honey are converted 

 by them in chyle or milk, so to say, 

 and then fed. Anyone who has tasted 

 the stuff left in the queen cells will 

 come to this conclusion. If, there- 

 fore, bees raise young ones in the 

 spring without pollen, they do so at 

 the cost of their own vitality, the 

 same as animals live, which hibernate, 

 but could never do it very long. 



Terre Haute, Ind. T. Hulman. 



Bees Swarming. — Bees are in fine 

 condition, and are swarming occasion- 

 ally notwithstanding the cold wave 

 which passed over our latitude during 

 the past few days. The poplar, one 

 of our chief honey-producing trees, is 

 just coming into bloom. 



S. D. McLean. 



Columbia, Tenn., April 17, 1882. 



