THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



419 





THOMAS Q. ITEWUAN, Editor. 



p\T^^^ 



yoiniiL Jniye,i88], no, 2], 



Tlie Basswood Yield of honey Is very 

 limited, so far as reported. The all-but- 

 unlversal cry is : " the honey crop is a fail- 

 ure." We shall hardly realize this year the 

 poetic fancy of " nectar " expressed in the 

 following lines found on page 107 : 



Sweet Bummer — one poetic dream 



Of nectar and of flow'rs ; 

 Of hazy halo o"er the lawn, 



And sylvan woodland bow'rs ; 

 Arcadian haunts, that poets love — 



The mystic, the sublime, 

 Brought down to earth to rear aloft 



An apiarian shrine. 



Mr. T. W. Cowan, editor of the BriUsh 

 Bee Journal, intends to visit some of the 

 apiarists of prominence in America. He is 

 accompanied by Mrs. Cowan, and will start 

 on a Cunard steamer on the 9th inst., bound 

 for New York. He intends to come as far 

 West as Chicago, and would like to visit 

 some apiarists on the way, either coming or 

 returning. Those desiring a visit from Mr. 

 Cowan should send an invitation by the loth 

 Inst., to this address : " Mr. Thos. W. Cowan, 

 care of the American Exchange, 182 Broad- 

 way, New York." Such will be informed it 

 he can make it convenient to call on them. 



Auolher Blon-, aimed at the industry of 

 bee-keeping, may lie found in Harper's 

 Baiar for June 25, 18S7. It Is exceedingly 

 strange that periodicals like those of the 

 Harper's should descend to thjD degrading 

 habit of publishing such falsehoods about 

 an honorable pursuit. Here is the item : 



One would suppose, by the way that honey 

 in the comb, like the meat of an egg, was 

 something not to bo adulterated ; that is. 

 the egg taken directly from the nest, the 

 honey from the hive ; but a person of our 

 acquaintance hearing of the immense use 

 made of glucose in various adulterations, 

 and especially in sugars and candies, 

 thanked Heaven that at any rate one could 

 fall back on honey which was necessarily 

 pure. 



" Not at all," replied a dealer in the arti- 

 cle, " We put a large lump of glucose down 

 before a hive, and the beea will consume it 

 out of the hand— consume it all— and make 

 their honey out of it, and as long as the 

 lump lasts they will not spread a wing to 

 find the sweetest flower that ever bloomed." 



That '• dealer" was either ignorant of the 

 matter he was talking about, or else he was 

 very dishonest. 



It is well-known that beea will not feed on 

 glucose until driven to It by starvation. 

 They would wear imt every wing in trying to 

 find the flowers rather thantotouob glucose 

 close by their hives I And this 'talkative 

 " dealer " ought to know that such are the 

 facts In the case I 



Again, bees do not " make honey "—they 

 simply gather the nectar from the flowers 

 and deposit it in their hives. It is precisely 

 the same nectar in the combs that was gath- 

 ered from the flowers, only that the heat of 

 the hives evaporates some of the water, and 

 it Is slightly thicker. In rainy seasons the 

 honey gathered sometlmescontalns so much 

 water that It ferments ; this shows that the 

 bees gather just what they flnd, and that 

 they do not " make honey " at all. Will the 

 Bazar please correct these mis-statements as 

 early as possible ? 



The Houey-Blrd of South Africa Is 



in size and plumage about like an English 

 sparrow. It acts as a detective for wild 

 bees, and will lead men to bee-trees. A 

 traveler in Africa thus describes it : 



When this bird sees a man it will lly close 

 to him, hovering around, uttering a twitter- 

 ing sound ; then It will off in the direction 

 of the place (generally a tree) where the 

 hoijey is, flying backward and forward in a 

 zigzag fashion. Then back It will come, 

 twittering in the same manner, as if to say, 

 "Come along, I'll show you where it Is." 

 These actions are repeated until the tree IB 

 reached, when the bird will indicate It very 

 plainly by hovering around It. 



If the distance is great (and sometimes the 

 honey-bird will lead a person, who is willing 

 to follow, a distance of ten miles), It will 

 wait on a tree until the follower comes up, 

 and will then continue its piloting. It is 

 very persistent, and will do its best to draw 

 any one on, but if the party Is not posted 

 about honey-birds, and refuses to follow, or 

 goes in the wrong direction, the bird will 

 leave, probably in search of some person 

 who will appreciate its efforts to provide 

 sweetmeats. 



While the bees are being smoked out, and 

 the honey taken up, the bird will hover in 

 the vicinity until the job is done, when his 

 reward comes in the shape of a feast on the 

 fragments that are left. If It knows of 

 other hives, just as soon as one Is disposed 

 of, it will lead the way to another, and I 

 have, since this time, known as many as 

 four trees taken up by a party in one day. 



Bees in a Bell.— The bell of the Rich 

 Avenue M. E. Church, In Chicago, did not 

 call the worshippers as usual last Sunday 

 morning. Upon ascending to the steeple to 

 see what the trouble was. Sexton Peck dis- 

 covered that an immense swarm of bees 

 had taken possession of the belfry, and 

 were preparing to hive in the bell. Mr. 

 Henry W. Reynolds followed the truants all 

 the way from South Evanston, and, with a 

 veil over his face, he spent Sunday morning 

 in that belfry collecting the myriad of bees 

 in a bag. Having succeeded in this, he 

 transported the refugees back to his Evans- 

 Ion apiary. Mr. Reynolds says that this is 

 the fifth "swarm" hehas followed this year. 

 One swarm led him a " wild chase " away up 

 into Winnebago county, and had begun to 

 hive in a hollow cotton-wood. He took them 

 home, however, in triumph. We should 

 think Mr. Reynolds would take measures to 

 prevent his bees making him so much 

 trouble— unless he enjoys the "fun" with 

 the notoriety thrown in I 



Bee-Grape Question.— This is how a 

 San Diego, Calif., bee-keeper settled the 

 conTfroversy about the bees being able to 

 attack and eat up sound grapes. From the 

 San Francisco Chronicle we extract the fol- 

 lowing concerning the trial he made : 



A San Diego bee-keeper has effectually 

 settled for himself the question of the 

 alleged damage done to grapes by his insect 

 pets. He took a perfect bunch of grapes, 

 every berry of which was sound and in good 

 order, and suspended it In the middle of a 

 hive of bees for an indefinite time. It re- 

 mained there several weeks, or perhaps 

 months, and at the expiration of the period 

 was removed in as perfect a condition as 

 when first put in the hive. Thousands of 

 bees had been crawling all over the fruit 

 during that time, only too eager to attack 

 the toothsome juice thereof, but had been 

 unable to satisfy themselves. The experi- 

 menter now has his mind fully made up on 

 this moot question, and all the argument 

 that could be made between now and 

 doomsday would not alter his belief. 



Now let this unreasonable war against the 

 bees cease. The fruit-men have been fight- 

 ing against their very best friends. 



A Reception to Mr. Cowan Is proposed 

 by the Canadian Bee Journal. We cordially 

 support the suggestion. It will be the most 

 appropriate for the Canadians, who were bo 

 lately welcomed by Britons, to get it up, and 

 invite the apiarists of the D. S. to unite with 

 them in a *' Welcome to America." 



HiVes of Be«s, an exchange wisely re- 

 marks, should not be placed In close proxim- 

 ity to dwelling houses, stables, line fences 

 or public highways, as the bees are liable to 

 be disturbed and to become annoying, and 

 often dangerous to people and animals. 



At Fairs a good plan to sell comb honey 

 was noted in the Canadian Bee Journal some 

 time since. As the Fairs are soon to be 

 held, it may be well to give It a trial. It is 

 as follows : 



At the Toronto Exposition It was very 

 easy for a person passing through the 

 honey-house to perceive the simple and 

 easy method of disposing of sections which 

 had been but partially filled out. Thousands 

 of sections may be sold at every Fair by the 

 method there adopted. We think the credit 

 is due Mr. J. B. Hall, of Woodstock, as the 

 first who commenced selling In this way. It 

 is done by cutting the sections from corner 

 to corner, making four triangular pieces, 

 laying them down on the wood, showing off 

 the honey to the best possible advantage. 

 The pieces sell very rapidly at 6 cents each, 

 giving you 20 cents for each section. It 

 would not pay to take sections that eon- 

 tained a full pound or more of honey, and 

 cut them in this way. Every year bee-keep- 

 ers are getting more and more into the habit 

 of using narrower sections ; and we are be- 

 coming convinced that sections more than 

 I'l or I'i inches are too wide to be profit- 

 able. We do not tbtnk many of our cus- 

 tomerswill use sections narrowerthan 15g 

 Inches, perhaps not that wide. Cutting up 

 the sections and soiling the pieces at 5 cents 

 each at the Exhibition, has become so pop- 

 ular that there must have been 2.'),000 or 

 50,000 people fed with honey during the two 

 week's Fair. 



ITIark It.— We have received several local 

 newspapers lately from our subscribers, In 

 which nothing was marked. Please do not 

 forgeh.to mark any paragraph you wish us 

 to read, when sending local papers to this 

 ofiice. We have no time to read .30 or 40 

 columns of matter in order to flnd a few 

 lines that may be of interest to us or the 

 pursuit. Mark it, either blue, black or red, 

 with pencil or ink, as may be most conven- 

 ient—but be sure to mark It. 



