THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



85 



and surplus case is, perhaps, as simple 

 as any form now in use. It requires 

 more thought to reduce complication 

 to simplicity, than tnce versa. Several 

 farmers about here luive taken sam- 

 ples of my hive and himberto the 

 shop where I hire my lumber cut, and 

 by the samples hired theirs gotten out 

 in the flat, then taken home and 

 made up. By and by, I was solicited 

 to go and make a bid on their bees, as 

 they were positively " going out of 

 the business." (They were never in 

 it much.) I was glad to buy bees " in 

 hives just like mine." I did buy them, 

 and I, in every case, threw away the 

 hives. In one case, the frames also 

 had to go. I could not use anything 

 about the bolched-up concern. One 

 man came 30 or 40 miles and left a 

 sample and an order for 40 hives, all 

 to he made up by the linn who does 

 my cutting. Happening in, one day, 

 and seeing them all up and painted, I 

 removed the cover, and found that 

 the owner had left orders so to do, and 

 they had made all of them 2 inches 

 deeper than tlie frames. That bee- 

 keeper had a bottom air chamber 

 theory, while the real practical air 

 chamber was " on top," just under his 

 hat. Well, the stock boards used 

 were hardly wide enough, so, to make 

 sure and have this new " air cham- 

 ber " fully large enough, (so that the 

 bees could build waste comb in it) 

 the mill men stole % inch (only %, 

 that is not much) from the space 

 above the frames. This reduced that 

 space to less than bee height, and a 

 yoke of oxen would be needed to pull 

 off a cover, by and by. The owner 

 was reported afterwards, when using 

 these hives, to call on a name " more 

 frequent than some would advise." 



Please excuse me from the futile at- 

 tempt to give a description of my 

 feedei s sutticiently clear to enable one 

 to make them accurately by it. The 

 Patent Office experts deftiand compre- 

 hensive drawings or models. In the 

 first place, he wlio makes only a dozen 

 or two, makes them at a greater cost 

 than to buy them. He who wishes to 

 make many, for sale or otherwise, 

 should, and can well afford to pay five 

 prices for a sample, and then make 

 them just like thatsample. My fetter 

 does, and I think all feeders should, 

 embrace the following principles : It 

 never leaks. It never daubs a bee. 

 No rubbing is caused by its use. No 

 heat is lost. No coming in contact 

 with the bees when relllling, or ascer- 

 taining the progress of the bees, or 

 emptying it. It can be used equally 

 well at the entrance, but with a 

 feeder properly made and adjusted, 

 ''top feeding" is much to be pre- 

 ferred. It holds about '2 pounds, and 

 works very well for feeding full stores 

 for wintering. When so doing I used 

 4 of them (which just covered my 8 

 frames, Langstroth hives), and 2 fill- 

 ings (16 lbs.) I find ample to last 

 from Oct. 1st to May 1st. I feed this 

 amount in from 24 to 48 hours. The 

 bottom of the feeder is a solid block, 

 23^x0x12,14, with saw cuts I4 inch, cut 

 into it, to hold the feed. The bees 

 come up through one that is cut clear 

 through, round over a lower partition, 

 and till up and retire below. These 



cuts are divided by thin partitions 

 (that prevent daubing of trie bees), 

 and they are all connected by 3 holes 

 crosswise at the bottom, so that as 

 fast as you fill one space, all must fill. 

 The whole is covered with a wire 

 cloth, frame and board cover over all ; 

 and is well painted on the outside. 

 Basswood is the best to make them 

 of. As a bee-feeder for general use, 

 they are good. As a supply, they are 

 hardly worth bothering with. If feed- 

 ing ever becomes a wholesale prac- 

 tice, something on the same princi- 

 ple of four times the size, will be used, 

 I think. There is no patent on them. 



All tears of damage to brood by fine 

 tinned wire running through the base 

 of the foundation, are now at an end. 

 The use of such wire holds the full 

 sheets in perfect position, while being 

 drawn to perfect combs. The Given 

 is our choice of all comb foundation. 

 To make full sheets right, in previously 

 wired fmmes, the press is a gem. A 

 thing $500 would not tempt me to be 

 without. An excellent article of 

 brood foundation can be made with 

 No. 36 tinned wire incorporated in it, 

 vertically, every 2 inches, with the ends 

 sticking out so that they can be put 

 through holes, in, or on hooks previ- 

 ously attached to the frame, and all 

 in apple pie order. But I Ltiink the 

 better way is for each bee-kFeper who 

 has too few bees to own a press, to 

 bore and wire his frames with No. 30 

 (coarser) tinned wire, and fasten the 

 sheets of any unwired foundation to 

 these wires, by the button hook pro- 

 cess, which I may hereafter more fully 

 describe. We have found the Given to 

 be the best style of foundation for 

 this hand pressing onto wires; also 

 the best utilized by the bees. 



Our bees flew some yesterday, and 

 just a wee bit to-day, and the pros- 

 pects now are good for this time of 

 the year ; for the sun, the glory of 

 earth, is now " returning on his silver 

 wheels." He is coming to us again, 

 with the old certainty ; and whose 

 eyes will he gladden more than those 

 of the bee-keeper. VVe know he will 

 raise the mist, cause the rain, grow 

 and paint the nectar-laden flowers. 

 His genial rays will not only warm 

 our bodies but our minds. In the lan- 

 guage of Southey, 



I marvel not, O Sun ! that unto thee 



In atloratlon, man should bow the knee. 



And pour the prayer of minKled awe and love ; 



For like a Nod thon art, and on thy way 



Of t:lory, sheddest with benignant ray, 



Beauty, and life, and joyance from above. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 29, 1883. . 



For the American Bee JoutdeiL 



Kentucky State Convention. 



Owing to the poor health of ex-Sfec- 

 retary Williamson, which prevented 

 him from attending the last annual 

 meeting of the Kentucky State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, but a very mea- 

 ger report of the meeting was pub- 

 lished in the Farmers'' Home Journal 

 (and I have never seen that), and was 

 not present at the meeting myself, but 

 I understand that G. W. Demaree, of 

 Chrisliansburg, was elected President 

 and E. Drane, of Eminence, Secreta- 

 ry ; W. Cook, Vice President ; J. B. 



Nail, Treasurer ; N. H. Lettell, Mr. 

 Hofstatter and A. Snider, Executive 

 Committee. The meeting stands ad- 

 journed to meet in Louisville at a- 

 time to be fixed by the executive com- 

 mittee, and not knowing the post of- 

 fice address of the committee, I take 

 this plan to call their attention to the 

 matter, hoping this may meet their 

 eye and that they will take steps im- 

 mediately to fix the time so that notice 

 may be given in the papers. It is to- 

 be hoped that the bee-keepers in Ken- 

 tucky and those in adjoining States 

 will see to it that we have a rousing 

 meeting. Let all bee-keepers attend, 

 for it is to their interest to do so, and 

 let their light shine ; let all novices- 

 and beginners attend, that they may 

 learn to make bee-keeping a success. 

 E. Drane, Sec. 

 Eminence, Ky., Jan. 29, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Do Bees Wound the Blossoms? 



KBV. M. MAHIN, D. D. 



In the American Bee Journal 

 of Jan. 24, 1883, I find an article by W. 

 H. Stewart containing some things 

 that should not be allowed to pass 

 without some criticism and inquiry. 



He holds " that bees wound the 

 bloom of clover, buckwheat, linden, 

 and in fact all other plants, before 

 they are able to extract from them the 

 desired sweet." But he does not offer 

 any proof of his faith in this new doc- 

 trine. He does not tell us how the 

 bee wounds the clover blossom. I 

 have watched bees by the half hour, at 

 least, gathering honey from clover, 

 and I never yet saw one insert any- 

 thing in the flower except its tongue ; 

 and any one who has ever seen a bee's 

 tongue knows that it cannot wound 

 anything. The idea that bees wound 

 the flowers to get the honey is con- 

 trary to all observations of the struc- 

 tures of the flowers, and of the bees, 

 and of the process of gathering the 

 honey. 



Mr. Stewart furthersays : " Mr. H. 

 M. Morris, of Rantoul, 111., lives where 

 there is more corn than any other 

 honey-yielding plants, and his bees 

 store large quantities of corn honey 

 each year. He finds that bees work 

 very lively at the base of every leaf, 

 and at every joint from top to root of 

 the stalk. The truth is, that the rind 

 of tlie stalk is the most tender at that 

 point, and the bees mutilate the rind, 

 making the stalk bleed, and then 

 gather the sweet fluid." 



I not unfrequently see something in 

 the bee papers and elsewhere about 

 " corn honey." But corn honey is a 

 myth, except so much of it as is made 

 at the glucose factories. People see 

 bees working on corn tassels, and take 

 it for granted that they are gathering 

 honey ; but they are not. There is no 

 honey there to gather. I have some- 

 times watched bees working on all the 

 varieties of corn grown in this coun- 

 try and I never saw a bee apply its 

 tongue to the flower. The corn tassel 

 has no organs for the secretion of 

 nectar, and it is impossible for it to 

 yield honey. Such at least is my firm 



