1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



713 



CONunCTED BY 

 DR. J. JP. n. BROWna, AUGUSTA., GA. 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping In the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department.— Ed. 1 



Preparin;; Full Colonies for Shipping 



Dr. W. Le Gette, of North Carolina, asks : " What is con- 

 sidered the best manner in our climate, in December, to pre- 

 pare full colonies of bees for railroad shipment ? The hives I 

 shall ship are quite full of bees and honey." 



Answer. — One of the greatest requisites in shipping bees 

 is plcnly of air. This is a sine qua non. The best packing 

 will fail unless the ventilation is right. If the distance is 

 short, and the frames in the hive are well propolized, all that 

 would be necessary is to remove all supers, and, after laying 

 two sticks of wood about one inch in diameter across the tops 

 of the frames, tack wire-cloth over all. Open the entrance to 

 its full extent, and tack wire-cloth over it. If possible, have 

 the hives put in open cars, with the frames running with the 

 length of the car. 



If the bees are to go 500 or 1,000 miles, I would prepare 

 them differently. First, pick your combs; see that they are 

 well secured to the top and sides of the frame. If they are 

 full of honey, they should be secured to the bottom-bar. 

 Crowd in bits of old worker-comb to till out. Secure each 

 comb in the frame by the use of such small sticks as are used 

 in transferring. I fasten these sticks together by fine an- 

 nealed wire. Use from three to four pair of such wired sticks 

 to each comb. Spread the frames wider apart than what 

 they should occupy in the hive, even if you have to use a 

 frame less. When all are ready, I place them in a one-story 

 hive or shipping-box, with from S to 12 two-inch holes bored 

 in the ends, sides, top and bottom, and cover with wire-cloth. 

 Across the center of bottom I have a notched strip. These 

 notches hold securely the bottom-bars of the frames. Tack 

 bits of wood between the ends of the top-bars of the frames so 

 that they keep their distance apart. Now screw cleats across 

 the ends of the frames to hold them firmly. Nail or screw 

 strips across the outside of both top and bottom, so that the 

 holes for ventilation cannot be closed by contact with other 

 objects. 



I have shipped bees packed in this manner to California, 

 that arrived without a single broken comb, in perfect order. 



Cotlon-Bloom a Hoiiey-YicUler in Texas. 



Dr. Brown : — I notice that J. J. Keith, of Kentucky, on 

 page 516, said that bees do not work on cotton-bloom. How 

 about this, anyway ? Is it possible that bees don't work on the 

 cotton-bloom in Kentucky? Why, the bee-keepers here in 

 Texas think that cotton is one of our very best honey-plants ; 

 I never knew it to fail to furnish some honey, and the honey 

 is of the very finest quality, too. Bees work in the cotton- 

 bloom, and also on the underside of the bloom and squares 

 where the nectar secreting glands are formed. I have often 

 seen drops of nectar form in these glands during the night, 

 half as large as a buckshot, and by going early in the morn- 

 ing, before bees and other insects get to stirring, any one can 

 very easily gather a teaspoonful by hand of this beautiful 

 nectar, which is as clev as spring-water. 



Now, can it be possible that such a honey-yielder as this 

 plant is here in Texas, will not yield up its sweets in Ken- 

 tucky? I would be pleased to hear from other bee-keepers in 

 the cotton-belt of Kentucky on this subject. 



Bees have not done much in this part of the country this 

 year. I have taken a little over 1,000 pounds of extracted 

 hooey from 40 colonies, spring count, and increased to 50. 

 We will get no fall honey here this year, on account of drouth. 



Lometa, Texas. L. B. Smith. 



Tiie International Bee-Kccpcrs' Congress. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Rev. Emerson T. Abbott, St. Josepli, Sfo. 



Carniolans Mated -v^itli Italians.— "A Cami- 

 olan queen mated with an Italian drone produces a very fine 

 and desirable bee. I have a number of such colonies that are 

 very fine workers, and are easy to manipulate." 



I quote the above from a little pamphlet which I pub- 

 lished in 1886. My attention has been directed to this by 

 the account of Mr. McArthur's bees, which appeared in the 

 Bee Journal not long ago. I found these bees to be the most 

 desirable ones I have ever owned, all things taken into con- 

 sideration. They were at work early and late, had their 

 hives full of bees, and ready for business at any time. They 

 were easily handled, as they stuck very closely to their combs. 

 I think a test of these bees by the producers of large crops of 

 comb honey will cause them to grow in favor, and I am not 

 sure but this Is the mission of the Carniolans in this country — 

 to add desirable traits to the Italians. 



This gathering meets at Atlanta, Ga., 

 The Exposition at that time will be at its 

 road rates the lowest. It will be a large 

 keepers. Make your arrangements to go. 



Dec. 4:th and 5th. 

 best, and the rail- 

 convention of bee- 



Getting Queens to Go Up. — "I see there are 

 some doubts and failures about getting queens to go up into 

 the story above. I have very little trouble ; for when a brood- 

 chamber is becoming crowded I remove two frames of sealed 

 hatching brood from below, placing combs in their place be- 

 low, putting these two frames of brood in the center, and fill- 

 ing in combs on each side. I then scarcely ever fail to get the 

 queen up there, and I have had them up in the fourth story 

 the past season." — John Cbatcbaft, in Gleanings. 



This agrees with my experience exactly. I have never 

 found any trouble about their going up, but I have had some 

 trouble to keep them and the bees down in two-story hives, 

 run for extracted honey, without queen-excluding honey- 

 boards. ^When I was running my apiary for extracted honey 

 in this way, I frequently found hives in the fall with all of the 

 honey, bees, and brood in the top story, and nothing in the 

 lower story. They seemed to have moved up, bag and bag- 

 gage, and left the lower part empty. Such colonies, if left 

 alone with plenty of honey, invariably came through the win- 

 ter in good condition. There was a bee-space over the tops of 

 the frames, and the bees never failed to seal the cover down 

 tight. 



Introduction to Botany. — Some of ray readers 

 have no doubt had an experience like the following : They 

 have sat down at the table of a generous host, with a well- 

 developed appetite, but when the plates were passed and they 

 beheld the bounteous supply of rich, delicate, appetizing food 

 with which they had been served, overwhelmed and in sus- 

 pense, not knowing where to begin nor how they could possi- 

 bly do justice to all that was placed before them. I had some- 

 thing of this feeling when I got clearly before me the table of 

 contents, and saw the admirable and scholarly manner in 

 which each subject is treated in a "Guide to the Study of 

 Common Plants," or an " Introduction to Botany," by Voluey 

 M. Spalding, published by D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, Mass. 



This is a revised edition of a little book which was pub- 

 lished a few years ago. It sells for 90 cents, and contains 

 about 300 pages only, but every page is packed with infor- 

 mation. Any student of botany who invests his cash in this 

 book is sure to get the worth of his money. The wonder to 

 me is that so much information could be condensed and 

 packed into so little space, and be sold for so small a sum of 

 money. 



The book is intended for students in schools, who can 

 have acfcess to all the apparatus needed to carry on the study 

 of the subjects perfectly, but anyone who has a love for Na- 

 ture, is interested in the study of plants, and desires to secure 

 accurate information of the same, will be interested in the 

 work, and will find it a perfect mine of suggestion and prac- 

 tical information. Some such a work should furnish the 

 basis for the study of botany in every academy and high 

 school in the land. I have space to indicate the scope of the 

 work very briefly only. 



The first lesson is on " Seeds," and in connection with it 



