35U 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and continue their predaceous habits 

 in the air. Probably they do no very 

 serious damage to the bee colonies, 

 yet in special cases the loss might be 

 considerable. I do not know any 

 elTective preventive. 



The shrub is known to botanists as 

 Myginda latifolia, a native of our 

 Southern States. I am not acquainted 

 with any common name, neither do I 

 know anything of its nectar-produc- 

 ing value — probably not great. — T. J. 

 BtTRKiLL, Champaign, 111.] 



White Clover Thicker than Ever. 



I had 7 colonies of bees in the 

 spring 1 mc^t of them in common 

 hives ; but reading the Bee Journal 

 induced me to transfer 5 of them to 

 frame hives. I liave been successful, 

 and have now 15 colonies. The white 

 clover is thicker than ever known 

 here. Henry Erbrodt. 



La Harpe, 111., June 29, 1883. 



Sot Snow, but Clover. 



The whole earth hereabouts is white 

 with bloom, and our bees are fairly 

 bursting with their loads of honey, as 

 they return from the helds ; and such 

 honey, so thick, it almost stands 

 alone, and the combs are as " white 

 as the driven snow." I saw Prof. 

 Hibbard at his South Bend apiary, 

 the other day, with honey fairly drip- 

 ping from ills garments, and a glow 

 of gladness all over his face. Tell 

 Mr. fleddon to roll up his sleeves, 

 and Mr. Doolittle to take off his over- 

 coat. Tell all the boys to get out their 

 honey pots, for this is the great honey 

 year of the century. Let the horse- 

 mint State, and the Pacific Slope take 

 back seats, and the Buckeye State 

 will come to the front, for it is " our 

 turn to be sweet."' This sounds, I 

 know, a good deal like buncombe, but 

 it is nevertheless solid gold, for we are 

 just reveling in it. 



J. W. Bayard. 



Athens, O., June 28 18&S. 



Magnificent Clover Bloom. 



It has been a very showery season, 

 80 far. We have a magnificent bloom 

 of clover, but bees scarcely gathering 

 a living, to date. At present it is 

 clear, with northwest winds, which 

 looks favorable for honey fiow. 



II S See 



Geneva, Pa., June 30. 1883. 



My Visit to Arkansas. 



I returned from Arkansas one week 

 ago, and found my bees working 

 nicely on white clover and the last of 

 red raspberries. My wife had man- 

 aged them very nicely ; to avoid 

 swarming she had tiered them up, and 

 to-day the upper stories are full, and 

 for the first time in my life, I have 

 raised the second story and placed 

 another under it. I have plenty of 

 dry combs for the purpose. The honey 

 in the upper stories is too thin to ex- 

 tract. While in Arkansas I met Dr. 

 W. W. Hijjolite, of De V^all's Bluff 

 (the first wide-awake bee man I met 



in the State). He is very genial, but 

 for tihe last year or two has had too 

 much to do to give his personal at- 

 tention to the Lees; he has a son, 

 Walter H., who is looking after the 

 bees. I am quite taken up with tlie 

 country round about De Vails Bluff, 

 so much, so, that I think of going 

 there to live, if all goes well. Wnen 

 I left them, on June 17, their bees had 

 all done swarming, and they liad com- 

 menced taking oU capped honey. 

 They have no fears of winter ; their 

 greatest difficulty is to keep swarming 

 down to what tliey can handle. I have 

 had my first swarm to-day ; others 

 will issue to-morrow, if the weather 

 will permit. Mr. Ross has had 2.5 or 

 30 new colonies. Tiering up has pre- 

 vented ours. O. R. GooDNO. 

 Carson City, Mich., July 1, 1883. 



Honey Very Thick. 



The honey season is very satisfac- 

 tory here. The quality of the honey 

 is the finest that one could imagine- 

 so thick that it " piles " when running 

 from the extractors. The comb honey 

 in sections is exquisite in every re- 

 spect. G. W. Demareb. 



Christiansburg, Ky., June 29, 1883. 



Recovered from Spring Dwindling. 



My bees have been affected with 

 spring dwindling, and have recovered 

 very slowly ; they are just beginning 

 to swarm, while some are storing 

 little honey. White clover is very 

 abundant now. The spring has been 

 too cold. T. X. Marquis. 



Woodland, 111., June 30, 1883. 



Honey from Dog Fennel. 



Mr. Xewman, is the honey from 

 dog fennel poisonous V I am aware 

 that the seed will kill ducks; and it 

 is reported to kill chickens. The 

 honey from it is very bitter, disgust- 

 ingly so, and if you like fun at otliers' 

 expense, just coax them to taste some 

 of the honey. One dose is sufficient. 

 Two years ago, by using two extrac- 

 tors, I got two 5-gallon cans of the 

 bitter honey, thinking to feed it to 

 bees, if necessary, but had no occasion 

 to, as they did not need it. The fol- 

 lowing season, in ftuit time, in looking 

 over honey for putting up fruit with, 

 and tasting the honey, there was not 

 the slightest taste of bitterness, and 

 honey oeing scarce, one of my custo- 

 mers insisted on taking a can of it, 

 though at a reduced price. He after- 

 wards spoke of it as being all used up, 

 and found nothing unpleasant about 

 it. We used the balance in preserv- 

 ing our fruit. It was dark, but that 

 really was no objection for home use. 

 The fruit turned out well ; some kept 

 over a year, and was as good as any. 

 No one could tell that it came from 

 dog fennel. Of course there must 

 have been other honey with it. Since 

 then I have cut the dog fennel. The 

 buckeye is in bloom, and has been 

 now for some time. Why I wish to 

 know about the flower being poison- 

 ous, is this : I find, during tlie last 

 few days, young bees coming out of 

 the hives to die ; they do not appear 

 to be cleaned off, and are just 



hatched. On opening the hives I find 

 unsealed honey, so they do not seem 

 to be short of stores (there is plenty 

 sealed). The queen seems all right, 

 and laying. The Tione, or bear bush, 

 is just coming in bloom, and it may 

 be that the honey from this does not 

 agree with the young bees. The bees 

 work very lively on it. The honey 

 from it has a tart taste. I only 

 noticed a few of the hives in that 

 condition ; the rest ot them are in a 

 normal condition. I iiave no disease 

 among my bees. All the colonies are 

 strong. I have increased from 23 in 

 the spring to 70. All have honey 

 enough to go through the season with. 

 Comb honey will amount to but little 

 with me. AH I get is extracted from 

 the brood apartment, to give the 

 queen room, and keep down swarm- 

 ing. I depended on natural swarming 

 this season, but see no advantage 

 over dividing at the proper time ; no 

 swarms got away. Some young 

 queens swarmed out, with full colo- 

 nies. The honey crop is short, owing 

 to continued cold rains and long 

 spells of northerly winds, which driea 

 up the late bloom or stopped the secre- 

 tion of honey. J. D. Enas. 

 Napa, Cal., June 2.5, 1883. 



[We have never seen any honey 

 from dog fennel, that we are aware 

 of, and, therefore, do not know 

 whether it is poisonous or not. If 

 any have had honey from it, they wiU 

 please report.— Ed.] 



A King Bird's Meal. 



I send you a box by mail contain- 

 ing the contents taken from a king 

 bird's crop, which I shot to-day. 

 Please give it a microscopic examina- 

 tion, and see if you find worker bees 

 or drones. I shot two, to-day, and by 

 examining their crops, I have about 

 concluded that they catch nothing but 

 drones. Bees in this locality are in 

 fine condition, and are storing surplus 

 honey quite rapidly. 



W. W. Sherwik. 



Warsaw, N. Y., July 4, 1883. 



[We have examined the poor bird's 

 meal, and find nothing but drones in 



it.— Ed.] 



Presistent Swarming. 



Bees are on a big boom here. I 

 have taken something over 5,000 

 pounds of honey, up to date, from 97 

 colonies to start with. For 12 days, 

 when swarming was the rage, I had 

 not a single brood frame or comb not 

 in use, and Mr. Muth could not sup- 

 ply me. I was having from 6 to 12 

 swarms a day, and my bees in two 

 apiaries, 1 'I miles apart; had all the 

 old queens' wings clipped. I had a 

 black woman at the largest apiary 

 who would catch and cage the queens 

 when ttie swarms came out, and lay 

 the cage in the portico, or in front of 

 the hive, as many of my hives are 

 somewhat like Mr. Heddon's, without 

 porticos. I added sections, supers, 

 cut out queen cells, distributed the 

 bees around (a quart to one hive, a 

 wash pan full to another) until I got 



