THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



569 



Preparing for the Fair. — Tliis lias, 

 been a good season for honey with me. 

 The sprinft was very late and wet 

 dnring fruit bloom, and bees got but 

 little honey, but white clover and bass- 

 wood were good, and my bees have 

 given me a good suri)lus. We have 

 had a lull in the honey harvest for a 

 few days, but the fall flowers are just 

 coming ii: to bloom, and if we do not 

 have too dry weather we anticipate a 

 good fall harvest. I find a ready mar- 

 ket for all my honey at home. Honey 

 is bringing IS to 20 cents for comb in 

 sections, and 10 to 12 cents for extrac- 

 ted. The quality of honey never was 

 better; I intend to make an exhibit of 

 bees and honey at our County Fair, 

 also apiarian implements. Will it an- 

 swer to close the entrance of the hive 

 with wire-cloth, or will it be better to 

 make a kind of porch of wire cloth, 

 and attach to the front of the hive, 

 and will it need any ventilation at the 

 top y There has not been much in- 

 terest taken in honey exhibits by the 

 managers of our Fair, but I am in 

 hopes of working up an interest this 

 fall that will induce them to offer 

 liberal premiums in the future. 



A. D. Stocking. 



Ligonier. Ind., Aug. 21, 1882. 



[Better bore holes in the sides and 

 ends, over which tack wire-cloth from 

 the inside ; then cover the tops en- 

 tirely with wire-cloth, over which you 

 can place the cover, so that should the 

 bees become quite warm or excited, 

 you can immediately cause the heat 

 to escape from the top. The entrance 

 should be closed with blocks which 

 can be easily removed, to give the 

 bees a flight, if desirable. — Ed.] 





Method of Dividing. — My queens" 

 wings are clipped. When a swarm 

 issues I watch for the approach of the 

 queen, and catch and put her in a 

 cage, I then open the liive and destroy 

 all the queen cells. Usually, the bees 

 will settle for half an hour or more, 

 then return ; soon as they return I 

 move the old hive and put an empty 

 one in its place ; I then put one-half 

 of the combs and bees in the new 

 hive, tilling up each with frames of 

 foundation, and closing the old hive 

 in good shape, put it where it is to re- 

 main. Now daub the queen with 

 honey, raise the blanket or honey- 

 boxes, give a few puffs of smoke, drop 

 the queen In, and slant a board in 

 front of the entrance ; I then take a 

 laying queen from a nucleus, clip her 

 wing, and introduce her in the new 

 hive on the old stand in the same way 

 as the first. I rear my own queens 

 this season. I have " increased 18 

 strong and 5 nucleus colonies, making 

 in all 85 colonies and ri nuclei, in 

 splendid condition. Some swarming 

 nearly every day. I took 22 capped 

 queen cells from one Syrian colony 

 the other day. I can handle my 

 Italians all the time without gloves ; 

 but I cannot say that of the Syrians. 

 They are very watchful and 'frisky, 

 and will defend their stores, of which 

 they will have a good share if any are 



to be found. My experience is that 

 they will gather eni>ugli more than 

 the" Italians to balance their stinging 

 and biting accounts. The honey sea- 

 son here has been good at times. At 

 this date my bees are gathering honey 

 very fast from white and Alsike clo- 

 vers, corn tassels, catnip, buckwheat 

 and scores of wild tiowers. Hearts- 

 ease, figwort and Spanishneedles are 

 very promising, and I am still in good 

 hopes. I have only taken about 200 

 lbs. of c^nb honey and 100 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted. The golden honey plant and 

 cleome seed I sowed last winter and 

 spring have not grown ; the sweet 

 clover I sowed last fall came up this 

 spring, and some of it is over 3 feet 

 high. I thought it might bloom yet 

 this fall. The days are hot and nights 

 cool. W^hat is the name of inclosed 

 twig and bloom, and what its merits 

 as a honey plant V Bees are on it from 

 early morning till night. 



R. M. OSBORN. 

 Kane, 111., Aug. 19, 1882. 



[The twig and blossoms are a ver- 

 vain, which ranks as a very good 

 honey plant.— Ed.] 



Wiring Frames.— No more piercing 

 for wiring frames ; have some hooks 

 like tills 1, i inch long under the angle, 

 drive them in top and bottom bars, 

 fasten the bottom-bar in a vise, drive 

 tack in center of bottom-bar, wrap 

 wire around and go to upper right 

 hand hook, then back to next upper 

 hook and down to next and so on, 

 finishing at the point of starting. Let 

 no man stand up and say, " I have been 

 using this for a year,'" for if he has and 

 not told the public about it he ought 

 to — to — well, he ought to keep still 

 now, at least. No patent. 



C. H. Deane. 



Mortonsville, Ky., Aug. 21, 1882. 



Shipping Cages.— Mr. E. A. Thomas 

 wishes to know who has had " better 

 success with shipping cages than he 

 has?" Had Mr. Thomas stated the 

 number of queens he has mailed, as 

 well as the number he has lost, it 

 would then be an easy matter to de- 

 cide who has had better success. I 

 have mailed over 500 queens, and only 

 one reported dead, and 2 others in- 

 jured. Have sent queens into every 

 State (California the farthest, also to 

 Canada). The report comes back, 

 bright, lively and in line condition. 

 I heretofore made my cages too small, 

 and the loss has been heavy. I now 

 make them twice as large as I did last 

 year. I found it very discouraging 

 business last year, but now all is 

 changed, and no queens are reported 

 dead or not received. I put 4 parts 

 honey and one part water to fill the 

 sponges with. Thus the bees are sup- 

 plied with water as well as honey. I 

 do not think water necessary to keep 

 the bees alive, but use it, as all honey 

 soon dries on the outside the sjionge 

 and the honey will not come to the 

 surface, as it will when water is mixed 

 witli it. My cages are only a block of 

 wood saweil out of i)lank IJg inches 

 thick; they are sawed ■)4 inch thick; 

 after the holes are made I nail a cover 



}^ an inch thick on one side, after the 

 sponge is put in ; I then nail a piece 

 of wire-cloth over the other side, and 

 when only one queen is to be shipped, 

 the wire-cloth side is covered with a 

 piece of wood exactly like the one 

 nailed on the bottom side, excepting 

 it has a '^^ inch hole made in it for 

 ventilation. Anyone having bad luck 

 in shipping ([ueens had better try my 

 cage. Will mail one free to any one 

 applying for them. 



Henry Alley. 

 Wenliam, Mass. 



Speed of Bee's Flight.— Please name 



the accompanying flowers. They grow 

 on a bush from 2 to 7 or 8 feet high ; 

 are very plenty in this vicinity in 

 moist and swampy lands. In 1880 

 bees stored more honey from tliis 

 than from everything else combined. 

 Bee hunters call it white blowens and 

 also pepper bush. I saw in a piece 

 written by Mr. Heddon for the Bee 

 Journal, " We are told bees fly from 

 1 to 4 miles in a minute." I would 

 ask, who tells it, and how do they 

 prove it V I never knew any to fly at 

 any such rate, and I have timed 

 thousands. C. E. Chace. 



East Freetown, Mass. 



[The sprig of blossoms sent are what 

 in the Western and Central States are 

 called yellow-weed or yellow-bush. 

 The time of a bee's flight, we think, 

 is pretty much a matter of gues.s- 

 work; some have accredited them, 

 too, with visiting honey pastures as 

 far as seven miles away from the 

 hives.— Ed.] 



Honey-Dew in Iowa.— That honey 

 wave I spoke of July 17, still hangs 

 over us in Iowa. I never saw any- 

 thing to excel it, every weed seeming 

 to secrete honey. Smartweed takes 

 the lead, then honey-dew beats any- 

 thing I ever heard of. For the last 

 20 days I have seen the leaves on the 

 oak, hickory, elm, coltonwood, ash, 

 walnut, sumac, and in fact, most every 

 kind of timber in this section, drip- 

 ping with honey-dew. A bush three 

 inches thick, vvith a common sized 

 top, has the appearance of Having had 

 a gallon of honey spread over the 

 leaves. I have spent a part of 8 days 

 trying to find from whence it comes. 

 From the best of my experience, I 

 must think that it is produced by in- 

 sects. On close examination, I lind a 

 small, light-green insect under all the 

 leaves that I have examined— the 

 smallest hardly visible, while the 

 largest is hirger than a large gnat, 

 with silver-colored wings. I will not 

 attempt to give the amount, but will 

 only say that I have taken a barrel 

 full of honey-dew honey, and wish it 

 would be tlie last, especially if we 

 have other honey flowers. This honey 

 is very dark and strong. I sold some 

 before I knew what it was, for buck- 

 wheat honey, and am afraid it will 

 injure my honey sales. I am intro- 

 ducing extracted honey in our market, 

 and find some trouble, not much. 

 Some say that people have recipes for 

 making honey. I had more trouble 



