THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



521 



tliat frightens them ; they gorge them- 

 witli honev in their terror and tliey 

 are thus reiulered quiet and coinpara- 

 tivelv liarmless. Ah. there is tlie 

 queeii," he continued, pointing to a 

 bee mucli longer than tlie rest and 

 wit li smaller wings. " See, there are 

 some eggs. It is all right. She is 

 fertilized." At this statement there 

 was considerable excitement among 

 the enthusiasts assembled. 



The apiarist took two frames of 

 comb into the house and showed how 

 the honey was extracted. He first 

 shaved tiie covering from the cells 

 and then placed the combs into a 

 kind of churn, which he turned very 

 rapidlv. The honev was all ejected 

 into the receptacle, and the combs, 

 once more eraptv, were ready to be 

 again Idled bv the industrious little 

 collectors. Mr. Todd then took his 

 visitors to see his three-acre sun-flow- 

 er plantation. 



'•This is an experiment." he said. 

 "I have heard that in Spain and Port- 

 ugal tlie green leaves of the sunflower 

 are used as fodder for the cattle. I 

 have tried it with perfect success. 

 Mv bees will obtain an immense sup- 

 ply of honev from the flowers, and the 

 seed is good feed for the poultry. I 

 shall in that way obtain three crops 

 from my outlay. It is also possible 

 that out of my abundance of blooms I 

 may send some to market for sale, as 

 they are a beautiful flower ; and I 

 may also make the experiment of 

 making bread of the seed-flour. That 

 is done in Spain, where the sunflower 

 receives the title of ' the gift of 

 heaven.' " 



The party thence returned to the 

 bee-village and resumed the inspec- 

 tion of the tenements. They were 

 shown colonies of Italian bees, black 

 bees and bvbrids. The various quali- 

 ties of their honey-storing abilities 

 were descanted upon and the safety 

 of liandling the pure-bred, civilized 

 Italians was extolled ; while the tierce 

 nature of the native black bee was 

 vigorously proclaimed. Mr. Todd 

 exhibited a thorough-bred Italian 

 queen-bee and her young brood. This 

 queen was sent over from Italy in a 

 little wire cage, supplied with saccha- 

 rine provisiim for her long ocean 

 vovage. on two little bits of sponge. 

 She is very healthy and is rearing a 

 prosperous young colony in her new 

 quarters with all the maternal energy 

 and pride of which she is capable. 



Dr. R. II. Townsend. president of 

 the Philadelphia Bee- Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, called a meeting on the hill 

 above the house, under the shade of 

 some flne chestnut trees, and spoke of 

 the increasing interest which is felt 

 iu apiculturer He bemo.iiied the fact 

 that more interest in this useful 

 branch of productive art is not taken 

 in the colleges and schools of learning 

 in this country .saying that he thought 

 that in every college there should be 

 a professor of apiculture. 



For OiB American Bee JouraaL 



Introducing ftueens— My experience. 



AliEL GRESH. 



^" The Southern Indiana Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will meet at 

 Madison, Ind., on Sept. 4. l.sS4. at the 

 Fair Grounds. 1)k. FiiiTil, !Sir. 



Quite recentlv one of my colonies 

 cast a swarm {the smallestout of live), 

 and as usual I moved the old hive to 

 anew stand. Iu due time a young 

 queen was hatched, and she destroyed 

 all the remaining cells. In about a 

 week after the queen hatched, I no- 

 ticed that the new colony was carry- 

 ing out bees, to a large extent, so I 

 began to investigate, when I found 

 that tliose which were carried out, 

 were of a peculiar shape and color. 

 The colony was Italian, having pur- 

 chased the UKither last season, as a 

 tested queen. The workers are very 

 fairly marked, while those carried 

 out are short and chubby looking, 

 having one fair yellow band, and 

 instead of tlie two hindmost bands, 

 thev are black, and some of them 

 very shinv. I should say at least 

 one thousand such bees were car- 

 ried out alive. Some of them came 

 running out. and appeared as if stung. 

 They acted as if crazy, running over 

 the sawdust floor without any aim, 

 until they died. I looked for the 

 young queen, and could not find her ; 

 so I continued to look 3 or 4 days 

 (thinking that possiblv I had over- 

 looked her before), until I was con- 

 vinced that the colony was queenless. 



Having extra queens in nuclei, I 

 determined to introduce one, and 

 luckily (as I thought) along came the 

 Bee Journal of July 16, 1884; and 

 on page V)ii appeared an article from 

 the pen of S. Simmins, on an easy 

 way of introducing queens direct to a 

 colony. I studied the method to suit 

 my circumstances (from a nucleus to 

 a colony), and the next morning I 

 determined to try the new plan. 



Luckily mv old tutor in the business 

 happened to'call on me, and together 

 we took a final search for a queen in 

 the hive. We found none, but we did 

 find plenty of newly-laid eggs, and on 

 closer examination pronounced them 

 the work of fertile workers. We 

 closed the hive and returned to Sim- 

 mins' article, and found that we still 

 were riglit, and that the new method 

 was quite applicable to my case. So 

 we took the frame with the queen and 

 adhering bees, to the colony, removed 

 a comb, put the one from the nucleus 

 iu its place, closed the hive with con- 

 fidence, and looked after some other 

 colony. In 1-5 minutes we noticed the 

 bees busy carrying out dead bees, and 

 the next morn'ing I found my beauti- 

 ful young queen lying iu front of the 

 hive, dead. 



I do not think one of the introduced 

 bees were spared. I was then in a 

 frame of mind to commune a little 

 with S. Simmins, and also to teach 

 my fertile-worker crew a lesson. 



I read Prof. Cook's way of getting 

 rid of the latter (as he is generally 

 sound). I then carried the liive 2 or 

 3 rods away, thoroughly smoked the 

 bees, took out all the frames and set 

 them around, brushed the remaining 

 bees out of the hive, tlien carried it 

 to its old stand. I then took two 



combs out of a nucleus, with the 

 queen and bees adhering to it, and 

 put it in the middle of the hive. I 

 then brushed every bee from the 

 combs to the ground, and placed each 

 one by the side of the nucleus combs, 

 until "the hive was full, when I closed 

 it, and let the bees get back as best 

 they could. The result is satisfactory; 

 no bees killed, and the colony is work- 

 ing actively. 



Can some one tell what causes the 

 small, shiny, imperfect bee that was 

 being carried out V May not the 

 presence of fertile workers have some 

 connection with them, or vice versa f 



In regard to Mr. Simmins' article. I 

 would caution readers of the Bee 

 Journal not to place too much cim- 

 fidence in it, as it is one of the rules 

 mentioned by Mr. Uoolittle, which do 

 not apply as do the rules of arithme- 

 tic. I am inclined to believe that the 

 old queen is at fault, and unless I am 

 convinced of the contrary, I shall not 

 spare her. Bees are doing fairly well 

 here this season. 



Weedville, Pa., July 29, 1884. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Profitable Use of Comb Foundation. 



W. M. WOODWARD. 



That comb foundation is oue of the 

 most valuable inventions of modern 

 bee-keeping, I supposed was uni- 

 versally admitted ; but I see that even 

 so judicious a beekeeper as Mr. Doo- 

 little not only doubts, but decidedly 

 opposes its use. How he could per- 

 form any decisive experiments upon 

 less than 10 ]iounds of it, I fail to see. 

 I used three times 10 pounds to satisfy 

 my own mind, and found that proper 

 management made it pay me ; not 

 oulv to use it, but to buy a machine 

 and make my own. (I am Mr. D.'s 

 poor man, to a dot.) 



My experiments proved to me that, 

 with the ordinary management, from 

 50 to 7o pounds of honey can be rea- 

 lized from every prime swarm, above 

 what they will naturally produce 

 without its use. 



The point where I conceive Mr. D. 

 in error, is in his estimate of the 

 necessary wax secreted by bees while 

 gathering honey. I want to ask him 

 to examine his colonies which are run 

 for extracted honey, where, if I mis- 

 take not, he will learn that they are 

 able to make good use of all the wax 

 secreted. If so, this proves that the 

 secretion of wax is not necessary, but 

 occurs for want of room to deposit 

 the honev immediately on returning 

 to the hive, and before it becomes 

 digested. Comb , foundation is cer- 

 tainly the remedy when rightly used. 



Its profitalile use then turns upon 

 these points: 1. That there should 

 be an abundance of it to give all the 

 surface the bees will cover. 2. That 

 it should be as light in grade as will 

 admit of being drawn to storing and 

 brooding depth, thus compelling the 

 bees to store in a large extent of sur- 

 face at the start. 3. That all space, 

 save just enough to hold the brood as 

 fast as it can be produced, must be 

 lilleil with sections. This last point I 



