1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



397 



them in my orchard and let them take care of themselves. 

 For a good many years I had a neighbor who kept a number 

 of colonies of bees, and I always had a good crop of fruit. 

 About five years ago he moved away, and since then there 

 have been no bees nearer than two miles from me. I 

 have not had a decent crop of fruit since. Last year ray apple 

 orchard of 20 acres did not yield 200 bushels." This gentle- 

 man's orchard stands upon a considerable elevation, underlaid 

 with sandstone — a position generally believed to be peculiarly 

 fitted for fruit-growing. 



These statements go to show the line in which popular 

 opinion is tending in regard to the aid which bees give in the 

 proper fertilization of the fruit-blossoms. Scientific investiga- 

 tions, as well as careful observations, have shown that this 

 opinion is the correct one. While there are seasons when the 

 weather is such that the bees cannot work upon the blossoms, 

 and we get but a small amount of fruit, the quantity any year 

 would be very small indeed if it were not for the bees and 

 their work. Let us give these useful insects full credit for 

 this benefit, as well as for the sweet which they collect for us. 



9Iake tbe Best of Circumstances.— Mrs. A. 



L. Hallenbeck, in the May number of the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper, closes her "Nebraska Notes" with this chunk of 

 wisdom, which should be memorized : 



Circumstances have brought home to my mind lately the 

 fact that in whatever walk in life we may be situated, it is 

 well for us to learn to make the best of circumstances ; to 

 take whatever of good or value we may have at our disposal, 

 and make of it the most we can. It may be far from what we 

 would prefer, and seem scarcely worthy of our notice ; still, 

 while we earnestly try to do our very best, the unwished-for 

 duty may grow to be a holy work of love, and the dusty, 

 tedious sands we tread in our daily toil may hold for us riches 

 far greater than those we had hoped to gain by climbing 

 heights for which we longed, while the coveted treasures for 

 which we thought to travel far, we find lying at our very feet. 



A California Bee-Story. — We find the following 

 in one of our exchanges, which may cause some of tha readers 

 of the Bee Journal, who live near " probably the largest bee- 

 hive in the world," to investigate and report : 



Probably the largest bee-hive in the world is that at Bee 

 Rock, Calif. The rock is, in fact, itself the hive. It is a 

 granite boulder rising abrutly from the bed of a little affluent 

 of the Arroyo Alcade, and it is seamed and scored with fissures 

 of divers sizes, whose depths have never been sounded. They 

 are all inhabited by a vast population of bees, and overflow 

 with honey. It is impossible to estimate the quantity stored 

 in the hidden recesses, and it is needless to say that nobody 

 would be bold enough to explore. It is not without consider- 

 able peril that honey-hunters rifle the bees of that which ap- 

 pears at the edge of and outside the fissures, and that comes 

 to many hundred pounds' weight every year. 



Bleacliins: Beesfvax. — In reply to a question 

 about bleaching beeswax, an exchange says this : 



Beeswax may be bleached by melting it, and for every 

 pound adding two ounces of pulverized nitrate of soda and one 

 ounce of oil of vitriol diluted previously with eight ounces of 

 water. While the latter is gradually poured in, heat is ap- 

 plied, and the mixtures swells greatly, necessitating a large 

 vessel. On cooling, the wax gathers on the surface. 



Those who have the opportunity, might try this on a 

 small scale, and report the outcome. 



Honey a»> Pood and Ifledicuie. — A new and revised 

 edition of this 33-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It eontaius a number of recipes on the use of honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are : Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for *1..50 ; 100 for $2.50. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal ofiSce. 



^rr)or)^ \\)^ Bee-Papers 



Conductetf by " GI^HA.'SER." 



GETTING WORKEK-COMB BUILT. 



An experience of more than 25 years along this line has 

 proven to me that bees cannot be depended upon to build 

 worker-comb jduring the first week after being hived, if there 

 is any completed comb in the hive at the time of the hiving of 

 a prime swarm. With second or third swarms the case is dif- 

 ferent, as bees are more apt to build worker-comb with a 

 queen when she first commences to lay, and only unfertile 

 queens accompany these latter swarms ; and in this case the 

 queen does not commence to lay till the bees are fully accus- 

 tomed to their surroundings. My advice to all is, use only 

 starters in the frames in hiving swarms, or else fill all frames 

 with foundation, or give all frames filled with combs. — Doo- 

 little, in Gleanings. 



FORM OF HIVE. 



S. E. Miller, in Progressive Bee-Keeper, refers to the dif- 

 ferent opinions as to form of hive — shallow, deep, square, etc. 

 — and then turns to see what the bees prefer in their natural 

 state. Generally they select a cylindrical cavity in the forest, 

 and it " may be from four to twelve inches or more in diam- 

 eter, and from two to six feet or more in length, and it seems 

 to matter very little whether it stands perpendicular or lies 

 horizontally. The bees will adapt themselves to the form of 

 their abode, and probably rear as much brood and store as 

 much honey as they would in a modern hive, provided all 

 other conditions were the same. Thus it would seem that the 

 honey-bee was created to adapt itself to surroundings instead 

 of the circumstances having to adapt themselves particularly 

 to the bee !" So he concludes the form of the hive doesn't par- 

 ticularly matter, so far as the bee is concerned. 



ORIGIN OF 5-BANDED BEES. 



I see I failed to make myself understood where I said that 

 " all of the yellow bees of to-day, having Italian origin, came 

 directly or indirectly from either Mr. Hearn or myself." In 

 this I did not claim all of the 5-banded bees, only those of 

 Italian origin. Mr. Swinson, of South Carolina, and others, 

 produced bees showing five bands fully as soon as either Mr. 

 Hearn or myself, but these bees came from a mixture of Cyp- 

 rian, Syrian, and other bees, with no claim that they were 

 aught else. Why I made the claim that I did, as to the origin 

 of the very yellow Italian bees, was from the fact that I 

 have written to nearly all those claiming to have very yellow 

 Italian bees, who had not purchased queens direct of us, and 

 upon their giving the source from whence their yellow bees 

 came, I found that this source was those who had purchased 

 of either Mr. Hearn or myself. Thus I said " directly or in- 

 directly." — G. M. Doolittle, in Progressive. 



TANGING BEES. 



Practical bee-keepers nowadays generally condemn as 

 useless the practice of making a noise of any kind to induce a 

 swarm of bees to settle when inclined to abscond. But now 

 comes no less practical a bee-keeper than S. T. Pettit, defend- 

 ing the practice in Canadian Bee Journal. As apparatus he 

 uses two good cow-bells. He says : 



" For handles I used stiff leather, like harness tugs. 

 With a bell in each hand and an even start we have not once 

 in about 15 years failed to save absconders, and we have had 



many severe tests Always have the bells ready at hand. 



The trained eye can generally detect the intentions of the bees 

 before they start. Now just as soon as you see the course 

 they are after, step right in front of the leaders and open fire. 

 Now, mind you, there must be no cessation or slacking, no, 

 not for a single moment ; the job must be energetically and 

 well done, and victory is sure. During the operation you 

 must keep your eye upon the leaders, and if they veer to go 

 round you, keep in front of them — in fact, you must keep 

 ahead of all the bees. Some few stubborn swarms may drive 

 you 40 rods or more, but such cases are unusual." 



RENEWING QUEEN.S. 



Doolittle says in Gleanings that he has found that three- 

 fourths of the superseding of queens takes place during the 

 three weeks immediately after the basswood, the main honey- 

 flow. So he takes advantage of this to replace objectionable 

 queens or those more than a year old. He says : 



"To this end I start a greater number of queen-cells than 



