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THE AMERICAN BEE JOJRNAL. 



Gaura as a Honey Producer. 



I enclose a sprig of a flower that 

 grows wild along the roadside. I 

 wisli you would give, in the Bee 

 Journal, a scientific description of 

 it, and what honey qualities it pos- 

 sesses. 



John Gochenour. 



i'reeport, 111., Sept. 1, 1883. 



[This is a rather common plant, 

 known to the botanist as Gaura bien- 

 nis. The only common name is that 

 of the genus, or first word in italics. It 

 is biennial. The first year the long 

 leaves spread out from a center after 

 the fashion of a turnip ; the second 

 year a branched stem 4 feet high ap- 

 pears, bearing small flowers and close 

 rows of seed vessels. The pollen is 

 stuck together loosely by cob-webby 

 hairs or threads. Bees are sometimes 

 bothered to free themselves from these 

 masses, though there is not nearly the 

 dough that there is in the milk- weeds 

 in this respect. The plant produces 

 some honey.— T. J. B.] 



An Amateur's Tribulations. 



In July I sent to Mr. James Hed- 

 don for an Italian queen, which I 

 received Aug. 2. I placed her in an 

 improved Langstroth hive with 4 

 frames of empty comb, and 6 frames 

 of foundation. I then reversed a box 

 hive and drove the bees (not very suc- 

 cessfully I fear) into thenive with the 

 new queen, and placed it on the 

 stand from which I had taken the box 

 hive. I placed the old hive to one 

 side, and awaited events. The next 

 day 1 found but few bees in the 

 Langstroth hive, and a few or none 

 in the old hive, but a box hive next to 

 the Langstroth was and is overflowing 

 with bees. I then removed the new 

 hive to another part of the yard, bored 

 some holes in the bee board, and put 

 a hive with a late swarm on the top 

 and stopped the entrance, thus forc- 

 ing the bees to pass down and 

 through the Langstroth hive, and 

 commenced feeding. The next day 

 my wife took the old box hive to the 

 lower end of the yard, turned it on its 

 side, and broke out some of the combs 

 which were very black and old. I 

 concluded to extract the wax from 

 the comb in this hive, as it appeared 

 to be strong and heavy, and went to 

 work breaking out the combs, a piece 

 at a time, Hnding a few bees among 

 the combs. As I "ot nearer the top, 

 I found more and more bees, when, 

 as I got to one of the upper corners, I 

 found a score or more of bees, and 

 away flew ray Italian queen ; she 

 sailed off majestically, but gottaugted 

 in some spider web on a neighboring 

 fence. I then procured a glass tumb- 

 ler, but on returning my queen had 

 freed herself and disappeared ; she 

 came back, however, in a few min- 

 utes, to the hive, and I secured her ; 

 fortunately I had Mr. lleddon's queen 

 cage, and put her in, and set the cage 

 in the portico of the before-mentioned 

 Langstroth hive. The cage was soon 



covered with bees ; in the evening, 

 just at dark, I opened the cage and 

 drove her into the hive ; this (inal act 

 of the drama, occurred some ten days 

 ago. Last Sunday, on returning from 

 a professional call, at or near noon, 

 my attention was called to the hum- 

 ming of bees in a maple tree in the 

 yard, near the bee hives. I looked up 

 and found a cluster of a pint or a little 

 more about 18 feet from the ground. 

 After trying with pail and basket in 

 vain, I broke off the branch ; they 

 clustered close by on another limb. I 

 broke that off, and they circled 

 around for a short time, then followed 

 the bush, which was laying close by 

 the hive, and clustered on it. I shook 

 them off, and they settled on the top 

 of the hive. I tried to drive them in 

 with a Bingham smoker, when they 

 again took wing ; this time they went 

 about 60 yards, and settled in the top 

 of a box elder. I got a ladder, went 

 up, sawed off the top and threw it 

 down, but they held fast. I then cut 

 off the twig with the cluster, laid it 

 on the frames, put on the bee board, 

 and there they are. Two things in- 

 terested me : They never offered to 

 sting, and they are Italians. I never 

 worked with bees so good-natured, 

 not an angry hum from one of them. 

 Where did they come from V There 

 are no Italians in our neighborhood. 

 The Heddon queen is the flrst. Can 

 they be from her ? This does not 

 seem possible, nor do I think there are 

 Italians near enough to have fur- 

 nished this swarm. 



Thos. Martin. 

 Coal Valley, 111., August, 1883. 



[To be sure of answering your tribu- 

 lations correctly, one would need to 

 be at the scene of action. I will ven- 

 ture to suggest, however, that your 

 flrst mistake was in not blanketing 

 the box hive to be forced, a few days 

 before driving it, when the blanket 

 could be changed to your Langstroth 

 hive, making that and the driven box 

 look alike, which in your case they did 

 not, which made them go to the other 

 box near by, that looked like their 

 former home. 



In introducing a valuable queen, do 

 not accompany the job with other un- 

 certain manipulations. Are we to 

 understand that the late swarm you 

 put on the Langstroth hive containing 

 our queen, had a queen of their own V 

 Whether they did or not, the proceed- 

 ing was all wrong and risky to the 

 newly - introduced queen. A little 

 farther on, it seems your new queen 

 is in the old box hive ; this 1 do not 

 understand. How you came by the 

 Italian bees is another mystery. Un- 

 doubtedly a small swarm came to you 

 that you found in the tree. Swarms 

 sometimes travel scores of miles. 

 No, it is not possible that those bees 

 came from the queen I sent you. — 

 James Heddon.] 



Honey Crop in Nebraska. 



The honey production of this season 

 has been very light, our best colonies 

 not gathering to exceed 50 to 7-5 lbs. of 

 surplus. Trices are somewhat above 

 the average. Comb honey is selling 

 for 25 cts. per lb., and extracted for 16 

 cts. F. E. Benedict. 



Eeynolds, Neb., Sept 11, 1883. 



^^Iiat and paw. 



ANSWERS BY 



James Heddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Bees in a Garret. 



My uncle has a house with a ver- 

 andah some 7 feet wide, attached to a 

 two-story house lathed and plastered 

 underside, thus forming the ceiling. 

 The rafters, which project up at a 

 suitable angle against the house, form 

 a roof covered with tin. Of course a 

 little garret is formed between the 

 rafters and the ceiling. A swarm of 

 bees has been discovered which 

 found an entrance by a crack in the 

 cornice, a piece of the moulding hav- 

 ing become loosened. The presump- 

 tion is, that the bees have the whole 

 space of the garret which they can 

 occupy as they choose. The question 

 now is, by what means, if any, these 

 intelligent little insects can be per- 

 suaded to abandon their present 

 domicile and enter a hive,so that their 

 labor may be utilized. At present we 

 we can see no way of collecting rent 

 from the occupants of the dwelling. 

 Please be kind enough to answer in 

 the Weekly Bee Journal. 



Helen L. Johnson. 



Middle Haddam, Ct., Sept. 7, 1883. 



Answer. — As it would require a 

 skillful operator to take the bees, 

 combs, etc., from the garret, and cost 

 in repairing the same and all, more 

 than to buy a colony, why not just 

 let them remain where they are? 

 They may swarm, and then hive them 

 and keep the garret colony for a stock 

 hive. This is how I should manage 

 them, and the novelty and oppor- 

 tunity for "the folks" to exercise 

 their marvelousness regarding the 

 immense stores that " may be in the 

 garret," is worth something, is it not ? 

 If they must come out, tear open the 

 verandah and smoke the bees, cutting 

 out their combs one by one, brush the 

 bees into a hive, transfer any of the 

 combs to the frames of the hive that 

 are large and straight enough, stop 

 up the verandah and place the hive 

 on the ground just below, to be moved 

 after the bees are all quiet. All the 

 the minutia of the work depends 

 upou the condition of the place where 

 it is to be done, and cannot be directed 

 here. 



