604 



THE AMEBIC AlSf BEE JOURNAL. 



bee lit on the bloom, it caught it. and i keeper told me yesterday that it 

 in an instant the bee was dead. There 

 seemed to be plenty around that 

 bloom. J. A. Eeeds. 



Hindsboro, 111., Sept. 1884. 



[The insect is Asihis Missouriensis, 

 often called the bee-killer. They are 

 very destructive to bees. — Ed.] 



Excellent Report. 



It has been a great year for honey 

 here. I have one colony which has 



fiven me. on .June 30, a swarm of 

 ees and 60 pounds of white clover 

 honey ; and on Aug. 30 another swarm 

 of bees and 27 pounds of goldenrod 

 honey. About that time the Srst 

 swarm cast a swarm and yielded 25 

 pounds of honey. If one could have 

 all of the colonies do that well, bee- 

 keeping would beat the cattle-ranch 

 business all to pieces. 



R. E. H0L3tES. 



West Winsted.Conn., Sept. 1, 1884. 



was 

 the'prettiest honey that he ever saw- 

 in his life. All this was gathered 

 from tigs. I am in the heart of the 

 city, and forage was light until about 

 July 10. Bees swarmed inordinately. 

 One queen, by natural swarming, "is 

 the parent and grand-parent of 9 colo- 

 nies this year. About July 10 the figs 

 ripened, and the miserable English 



sparrows would make a hole in the , . . , annem fo like it 

 ags. fill their crops and leave the bal- ^ fy'Ulue foi honev ° F I S 

 aiice for the bees, of which they were any \aiue toi_hone\ . i.J.b 

 not slow to avail themselves. Almost 

 every lot has from one to a dozen trees, 

 and the trees are numbered by the 

 thousands over the citv. 



S. C. BOYXSTON. 



Charleston, S. C. Sept. 3, 1884. 



Golden Hive Sharpers, 



Some parties have come to this 

 city who are engaged in the sale of a 

 bee-hive, or rather, are engaged in 

 the hive swindle, and are selling 

 territory on what is called the '• Golden 

 hive." "The reason that I will not 

 breed any more cineens this season is 

 that they have brought hybrid and 

 black bees in the place, and they have 

 drones by the thousands. The parties 

 ■who are selling temtory for the 

 Golden bee-hive are telling the farmer 

 bee-keepers that this is the very best 

 time of the year to transfer, and that 

 now is the time to extract the honey ; 

 when the facts are that the bees are 

 not gathering enough honey to supply 

 their wants, but are drawing on their 

 stores. The hive which they are 

 selling is not what a practicable bee- 

 man wants, for it will not permit the 

 use of sections. They advocate the 

 use of the five-pound surplus frames 

 made in the same way as the Langs- 

 troth brood-frame. My experience is 

 this, that I cannot sell brood-frame 

 honey for 8 cents per pound, when I 

 can readily sell all my honey put up in 

 the one arid two-pound sections. 



L. J. DiEHL. 



Butler, Ind., Aug. 30, 1884. 



Motherwort. 



Of clover honey there was only 

 about half a crop ; but it was of good 

 quality. Bees are in fine condition 

 for the fall harvest, which commenced 

 about Aug. 12, and promises to be 

 good, as we have had considerable 

 rain, and bloom is plenty. I have 6^ 

 colonies, most of them ready for the 

 harvest. Please name the enclosed 



Is it of 

 Sawin. 



Kirkwood, 111. 



[Motherwort, {Leomtrus Cardiaca) ; 

 a good honey plant.— T. J. Bukkixl.} 



Bee-Keeping in the City. 



I started with one colony in March 

 1883, increased it to 4. and got 50 

 pounds of comb honey that season. I 

 began the season of 1884 with 4 colo- 

 nies, bought one in a common bee- 

 gum, and transferred it. but lost the 

 swarm. The balance have increased 

 mostly by natural swarming to 23 col- 

 onies and 2 nuclei ; 20 of the colonies 

 are very strong, and three have only 

 7 frames each filled out ; but the 

 brood-chambers are well filled with 

 brood and honey, and all in good con- 

 dition. I have taken 33 pounds of 

 comb honey, and about 200 pounds of 

 the purest, clearest honey you ever 

 saw in supers. I will be able to take, 

 from about ten hives, three frames 

 each from the brood-chamber, of the 

 same kind of honey. An old bee- 



The Cone Flower. 



I send you a sample of a flower that 

 I wish you would name. It has been 

 in bloom about two weeks, and the 

 bees seem to gather honey from it, 

 from early morn until late at night. 

 It grows "in the hollows and fence 

 corners, and reaches 6 or 7 feet in 

 height. I have 110 full colonies and 

 nuclei. I have been in the business 

 for 5 years, and have received about 

 3,-500 pounds of surplus honey this 

 year. The honey season has been a 

 fair one in this State. 



C. T. Biqgers. 



Minei-va, Ky., Sept. 2, 1884. 



[It is called cone flower [Echinacea], 

 and the bees get considerable honey 

 from it.— Ed.1 



That "Adulterated" Honey. 



In the Bee Journal for July 23, 

 page 475, ^Ir. Von Dorn charges Mr. 

 F. H. Hunt of having sold as honey, 

 in Iowa and Nebraska, a stuff unfit 

 to eat. He adds that, after having 

 promptly published a caution under 

 his signature, he had put the matter 

 into the hands of a chemist. In re- 

 ply to this charge. ^Ir. Hunt, on page 

 •563, says that the honey spoken of, 

 had proved, by analysis, to be un- 

 adulterated. Now, I think that all of 

 the readers of the Bee Journal will 

 agree with me if I say : First, that 

 Mr. Von Dorn was too hasty in pub- 

 lishing his caution, under his signa- 

 ture, against Mr. Hunt, before having 

 ascertained the veracity of his charge; 

 second, that he was too hasty also in 

 publishing it in the Bee Joitrnal ; 

 and third, that, as soon as he found 

 that he had made an accusation un- 

 supported by the facts, his duty, his 

 strict duty was to publish, under his 

 signature, that he had made a wrong 

 accusation ; and that his duty also 

 was to immediately publish in the 

 Bee Journal the result of the ex- 

 periment of the chemist; and that 

 these duties were increased by the 

 fact that these accusations were" pub- 

 lished under liis name, as President of 

 the Nebraska State Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation. Such public accusations 

 are always detrimental to the honey 

 business 



Honey Crop a Failure for 3 Years, 



The honey crop in this part of the 

 country has been a failure for the last 

 3 years. Each year we have had a 

 very good flow of honey from poplar 

 sufficient to build up a good working 

 force and yield us on an average, 

 about 20 pounds of surplus honey per 

 colony, the season commencing about 

 April 2-'), and closing about May 2o. 

 Soon after that, the linn puts out an 

 abundant bloom which has been de- 

 stroyed by rain each year. This year 

 the bees "commenced work on it on 

 Friday and worked well until the 

 Monday morning following ; we had 

 five showers of rain that day, and 

 about 21 showers per week for the 

 next six weeks. I have not seen one 

 pound of linfl honey, that was gath- 

 ered here within the" last three years. 

 With the exception of the first year, 

 my bees have nm me in debt each 

 year since 1 have been here, which is 

 four years ; and that year we got 

 about 45 pounds of honev per colony. 

 Nel^^on Perkins. 



Princeton, Ala., Sept. 4, 1884. 



Wild Sensitive-Plant. 



I enclose two specimens of plants 

 which grow very abundantly here, 

 and upon which the bees work. No. 



1 blooms from July 1 to Sept. 1. No. 



2 from Aug. 15 to frost. The pollen 

 gathered from No. 2 is deep red, and, 

 judging from the bees entering the 

 hive, a large per cent, of the honey 

 gathered is from the plant, while 

 goldenrod and buckwheat is abund- 

 ant. Please give the names of the 

 plants in the Bee Journal. 



Elk Point, Dak. H. H. Blair. 



[No. 1 is the wild sensitive-plant 

 Cassia chamcecrista). No. 2. Balea alo- 

 peciiroides, a somewhat near relative 

 of clover. Both are excellent honey 

 plants.— T. J. Burrill.] 



Best Honey-Flow for 26 years. 



The weather for 10 days past has 

 been very hot— 90 in the shade on 

 every day but one, Aug. 28. I did not 

 have a colonv that had over 5 lbs. of 

 honey, but at this date (Sept. 9) every 

 hive has its combs completely filled. 

 .\s fast as the young bees batch out, the 

 ~ I have 



cells are filled with honey, 

 for they perpetuate in the kept bees for 26 years and have never 



minds of customers the false notion 

 that beekeepers adulterate their 

 honey. Chas. Dadant. 



Hamilton. 111., Aug. 6, 1884. 



seen anvthing like it before. There 

 j is no immediate prospect of a change 

 i in the weather. Henry Alley. 

 I Wenham, Mass. Sept. 9, 1884. 



