168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



envelope were put over the box by the 

 same fingers, the effect would be the 

 same ; and, on being shipped in the 

 mail bags, those spores would be left 

 not only on letters and papers, but if 

 a queen-cage was in the bag with the 

 foul brood, the germs of fold brood 

 would be liable to be attached to the 

 cage, and there wait patiently for 

 some unsuspecting bee-keeper to take 

 the cage in his hands and introduce 

 his new queen to a nice colony, fasten 

 the cage on a comb, and leave the 

 seeds of death to bud and blossom. 

 Then, perhaps, he opens a hive or 

 two more, handles the coml)s, and 

 leaves a germ or two, and the work is 

 done, or soon will be. If no cpieen- 

 cage is in the bag with the foul brood, 

 there are letters that may convey the 

 germs to tlie fingers of the bee-keeper 

 just as easily as would a queen-cage. 



The pasteboard box that Prof. B. 

 received, containing the diseased 

 brood, might have been crushed, and 

 the comb left in small fragments all 

 over the inside of the bag and on all 

 its contents, and if a hive is misafe, 

 after containing foul brood until it 

 has been boiled or burned, how could 

 this mail bag ever be cleansed to safely 

 ship queens ni ? 



Again, this pasteboard box was 

 marked "cobalt." Whoever put up 

 this package, felt conscious tliat it 

 was improper to put such a thing in 

 the mail, and, hence, used deception, 

 and marked it " cobalt." I hold that 

 every person mailing things of like 

 nature, should be required to label 

 the package correctly, and give his 

 name and place of residence. 



I W'Ould ask bee-keepers to give this 

 matter serious consideration, and give 

 their conclusions through all the bee 

 papers. Is there a bee-keeper" who 

 would like to take a queen cage from 

 the mail bag that he knew contained 

 one or more packages of foul brood, 

 and put that cage and queen with his 

 bees if they were in a healthv and 

 prosperous condition y We caniiot af- 

 ford to be careless in regard to this 

 matter. 



Orion, Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Marketing Honey in the South. 



31. T. HEWES. 



Bees are kept in Langstroth, ^"an 

 Deusen, Simplicity and Dixie hives. 

 The Dixie is, I believe, only to be found 

 in Louisiana. It is like the Langstroth 

 hive, but is made of various sizes, so 

 that one often sees hives holding from 

 8 to 14 frames and all called Dixie. 

 The frames are of the Langstroth 

 size, but the top and bottom bars are 

 made an inch thick, which is an ad- 

 vantage as tliey never bend, no matter 

 how heavy a load of honev they are 

 called upon to siistain. They "hang 

 upon wooden rabljets, and are sus- 

 pended by four-penny nails, one in 

 either end of the top-bar, instead of 

 having tlie top-bar lap over as in the 

 Langstroth frames. This is a great 

 disadvantage as the nails are continu- 

 ally coming out. "We pile on stories;! or 

 4higli; I liave frequently seen 48 frames 



in one hive ; 36 of these will be filled 

 every week during the extracting sea- 

 son, the other 12 are left In the brood- 

 chamber. 



We extract our honey as fast as 

 possible through the entire season, 

 which sometimes lasts from ^lay .5 to 

 September ; generally, however, things 

 are not in working order until -June 

 10, and everything closed up for the 

 winter by Aug. 25; The honey is run 

 into Cyprus barrels directly from the 

 extractor. As there is a continual 

 honey flow during the season, it is im- 

 possible to separate the different 

 kinds of honey ; so in one barrel of 45 

 gallons there iuay be a dozen different 

 flavors, and as it" is in different stages 

 of ripeness (or rather greenness), one 

 can easily see that it will not bring 

 very much in the market. Most of 

 thehoney is shipped to St. Louis and 

 Cincinnati by boat : and, in the hands 

 of commission merchants, bring from 

 (}% to 9 cents, according to the season. 

 Some of the merchants know about as 

 much about honey as "the man in the 

 moon;" in point" of fact, one of our 

 largest apiarists was creditaljly in- 

 formed tiy them tliat his honey was 

 half cane juice ; this in the month of 

 .July, when sugar cane is not large 

 enough to yield one barrel of juice per 

 acre. But does not every one know 

 that should cane juice be mixed with 

 honey, the entire contents of the 

 barrel would turn to vinegar long be- 

 fore it reached its destinatton. 



Xew Roads, La. 



Ktir tlie American Bee Journal. 



At "What Age do Bees Gather Honey? 



N. M. CAKPENTEB. 



Oil page 308 of "\'ol. 19 of the Bee 

 Joi'KNAL, is an article under the 

 above heading from G. M. Doolittle. 

 It will be remembered that according 

 to his experiments a young bee does 

 not gather honey until it is 16 days 

 old. I was surprised at the results of 

 his experiments, as I had come to the 

 conclusion, many years ago, that in 

 about 30 days from tlie laying of the 

 egg, a young bee would be" gathering 

 honey, if there was a good yield. 



As I received some very fine yellow 

 Italian queens from a breeder inMaiy- 

 land a few days after reading Mr. 

 Doolittle's article, I thouglit I would 

 make some similar experiments, to 

 see what the results would be with 

 me. Consequently I introduced a fine 

 yellow queen into a colony of native 

 bees. In about 48 hours afterwards, 

 the queen began to lay vigorously, 

 and in 21 days thereafter, fhe little 

 "yellow boys" were hatching out of 

 the cells in great numbers. In 5 days 

 moi'e some of these young yellow bees 

 brought little pellets of pollen ; and 

 when 7 days old, I found by crushing 

 them as they dropped upon the alight- 

 ing hoard, that (piite a proportion of 

 them had their sacs filled with honey. 

 When y days old they were gathering 

 honey as freely as any in the hive, and 

 came' as well-laden as the older bees. 



Th^re was no possibility of a mis- 

 take in the matter, for before the 

 hatching of brood from the new Ital- 



ian queen, not a yellow bee could be 

 found in the hive. In fact, most of 

 my bees are of the common kind, and 

 tlie colony experimented with was es- 

 pecially free from any yellow-banded 

 or hybrid bees. 



This experiment was made during 

 an abundant honey yield from bass- 

 wood. In such a " case undoubtedly 

 bees would work much younger than 

 when the honey flow was less. In our 

 spring management this question be- 

 comes of some importance, as we 

 would like to know about when the 

 young bees, which we have taken so 

 much pains to increase by spreading 

 brood, etc., will be ready to go to 

 W(5rk for us. 



Ellington, N. Y. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



How to Make Bee Gloves, etc. 



3IISS H. F. IIULLER. 



I promised some time ago to tell the 

 readers of the Bee .Journal the way 

 I preserve mine without going to th'e 

 expense of having them bound. After 

 arranging each month in the proper 

 ordei , I take a strong piece of brown 

 paper for a cover and a strip of stout 

 cotton about 2 inches wide which I 

 fold over the back to prevent the 

 stitches tearing out ; then with a fine 

 awl pierce half a dozen holes through 

 all, and sew them firmly together. I 

 then write the month and date on the 

 cover, so that I need lose no time in 

 hunting up the numbers I wish to re- 

 fer to. 



For the benefit of my sister bee- 

 keepers, who, like myself, are so con- 

 stituted that they cannot work 

 amongst bees with "bare hands, I will 

 tell how I make my gloves. I take a 

 piece of strong unbleached linen jean, 

 which wears well, for the outside, and 

 for lining, use canton flannel with the 

 fluff next to the hand. Cut them after 

 the pattern of the gloves used in Can- 

 ada for binding grain with thistles in 

 it. Dipping the gloves in cold water 

 keeps the hands cool, and the bees 

 will not readily sting through tlie wet 

 gloves. I find that by havin^ the 

 finger and thumb fit snugly, I can 

 work in tliem very well. 



Campbellford, Out. 



For ttie American Bee Journal. 



The Outlook lor 1884. 



REV. L. JOHNSON. 



Although the past winter has been 

 one of the severest ever experienced 

 in Kentucky, yet our loss of bees, so 

 far, has been quite small. I attribute 

 this to our excellent and abundant 

 crop of honey last year. The fall was 

 quite dry, and consequently but little 

 pollen was gathered in late. The 

 spring pollen, mostly at the bottom of 

 cells, was covered Avith honey, and no 

 molding and rotting of pollen took 

 place to cause dysentery. I hold that 

 if pollen is pure and sound, even if 

 eaten by the bees in their long con- 

 finement, it will do them no harm. 

 But on the other hand, if either honey 



