THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



643 



THOMAS Qt. KEWMAN, Editor. 



t>vT^^4 



Mnill. Oct. 12,188], No. 41, 



Another Bee-Book— and this time it 

 has a royal author. L'ApiciMore, the Italian 

 bee-periodieal at Milan, Italy, edited by 

 Visconte Alfonso de Saliclto, announces the 

 lact that George I., King of Greece, "with 

 a view to remind his subjects of the pros- 

 perous condition of bee-keeping in former 

 times," is tiovf writing a volume coocerning 

 the "Bees of Mount Hymettus," famed in 

 ancient literature. It is e.xpected to be 

 published very soon. It will no doubt be 

 very interesting, for the young King is 

 talented as an author and historian. 



Seasoufl of Failure, in every line of 

 business, are quite otten succeeded by years 

 of prosperity and success. Beo-keeplng is 

 710 exception to this general rule. On the 

 other hand, successful seasons are quite 

 otten succeeded by years of failure. In 

 trade, commerce, cropi', and, in fact, every- 

 thing—history repeats itself. An exchange 

 wisely remarks : " A good sea captain is 

 always prepared for rough seas and storms, 

 and trims his sails accordingly." So should 

 the good apiarist likewise exercise prudence, 

 and be prepared for short crops, failures, 

 and even " blasted hopes "—for emergencies 

 come, and times and conditions change, 

 when least expected to do so. 



Cbilled Bees.- Mr. G. M. Doolittle has 

 been experimenting with chilled bees, and 

 gives the following in GUanings as the re- 

 sult : 



Out of some five different experiments to 

 see how lonf.' X could keep half a tea-cupful 

 of bees alive after being chilled, four and 

 onehalf days was the latest point at which 

 any could be brought to life again by 

 warmth with moisture, and three and three- 

 fourths days by dry heat. Moist warm air 

 seems to be more effective in restoring such 

 bees than dry or stove heat. These bees 

 were shaken on the snow, with a tempera- 

 ture a little above the freezing point ; and 

 as soon as they ceased to move I picked 

 them up and carried them to the cellar of 

 the same temperature in which bees winter 

 well. From the cellar, a few were taken 

 every half day, and warmed, with the above 

 result. All of them had empty stomachs, 

 and I still have a desire to try bees gorged 

 with honey, to see if that makes any differ- 

 ence. In two instances, after picking up 

 half a tea-cupful of bees, and leaving them 

 in a cup or pile, they came to life again ; 

 while if scattered about, none did. 



The RaUlii Crop, this year, in Califor- 

 nia, is very large, says the HorticuUurUt. So 

 it seems that the bees not only have »iot 

 damaged the crop, but have in reality made 

 it larger by having fruotlfled the flowers. 

 The Horticullarisl says : 



The raisin crop of California is very large 

 this year.and the estimate of 1,000,000 boxes 

 made some time since, will probably fall far 

 below the entire output. 



Hurrah for the busy little bees 1 They are 

 the fruit growers' very best friends I They 

 increase their crops, and enlarge their bank- 

 account balances. 



This is how the bees have rewarded the 

 makers of the " late war" forced upon them 

 by some ignorant and «elflsh raisin-growers. 



This reminds us of a fact which we noted 

 in the American Bee Journal some time 

 ago. In a certain town in New England, so 

 strong was the belief that bees injured the 

 fruit, that an ordinance was passed obliging 

 the bee-keepers to remove their bees to 

 another locality. After a year or two, the 

 fruitgrowers decided to have the bees 

 brought back. because so little fruit matured 

 upon the trees. 



Had the raisin-growers been successful in 

 California, and had driven the bees away, it 

 would only have been a short time before 

 they would have been just as anxious for 

 the.r return as they then were to drive them 

 out of their borders I It was the work of 

 ignorance and prejudice to demand the re- 

 moval of the bees, but as soon as light and 

 knowledge is allowed a place, better judg- 

 ment prevails. 



Iiooklo^ at the Bright Side.— When 

 looking at the past season of failures in the 

 mirror of success. Mr. J. A. Green, of Day- 

 ton, Ills., in GUnniiigis. shows how it may be 

 beneficial, in a tlnaiicial way, to the lucrative 

 apiarist. In addition to the high price of 

 honey, this season, he sees many reasons for 

 the specialist to be encouraged. He says : 



Many bees will probably starve the coming 

 winter, which, I think, will be a good thing 

 for bee keeping as a whole. In fact, I know 

 of only one thing that would do more to put 

 bee-keeping on a sound and remunerative 

 basis than a wholesale reduction of the 

 number of bees kept, and that is a corres- 

 ponding reduction of the number of care- 

 i(_68 and incompetent bee-keepers. I know 

 this idea is not popular with some, but it is 

 my honest opinion. 



Although many of those who meet with 

 losses will become discouraged and give up 

 the business, there will be enough who will 

 go at it again to make the trade In bees and 

 queens good. 



Look at it which way we will, I think there 

 is much of encouragement to the carelui 

 and energetic apiarist. The present loss 

 may be hard to bear ; but when all things 

 are considered, it may give greater rf suits 

 than a more apparent success. 



Si) failure wins ; the consequence 

 Of loss becDiuea its recompense. 



At any rate, good management will go far 

 to retrieve our losses and prevent them 

 from becoming defeats. Stick to the bees, 

 then, and give them tlje best of care. 



Dishonesty, deception and duplicity are 

 business mistalces. 



Snpply Dealers who have a reputation 

 for integrity and honest business habits, 

 have in that alone a good stock in trade. An 

 untarnished reputation is of more real value 

 than a large capital. The latter soon goes 

 if the former is lacking. 



KxperiiiicniH tvlth Bees, which have a 

 tendency to increase the general fund of 

 information for the devotees of this fasci- 

 nating pursuit, are always praiseworthy. In 

 the At>lcuUuTi»t for October, we notice the 

 following which will be read with interest 

 by every apiarist : 



For a long time we have been thinking 

 to test the matter regarding the length of 

 time a bee would live after its sting was ex- 

 tracted. If the fact has been stated in any 

 book or other publication, it has never come 

 to our notice, so we concluded to test the 

 matter ourselves. Ancordingiy. the sting 

 was removed from seven bees with no ap- 

 parent injury at the time. All the bees were 

 bright and livtlv trom noon till we had re- 

 tired at night. The next morning two of the 

 number were dt ad, but the five remaining 

 alive were active and seemed all right. On 

 the second morning all had died but one 

 bee ; and although that one seemed as smart 

 as ever, it soon died. 



These little experiments, although of no 

 account, add to the general fund of infor- 

 mation and facts, concerning the honey- 

 bee. We intend to try tome further experi- 

 ments in this same direction. One is to 

 remove the sting from a number of bees, 

 and then give them a strange queen. Should 

 think it would be kind of funny to witness 

 some stingless bees trying to sting a queen- 

 bee. 



When the bees find they cannot sting a 

 queen they will try to bite her. We have 

 often heen stung, and have often noticed 

 that when the bee found it could punish its 

 victims no more by stinging, then it would 

 tr.v to bite. 



Of course the length of time intervening 

 between the loss of the sting and deatn Is 

 determined by the amount of internal in- 

 jury inflicted upon the bee In extricating 

 the sting. While two were dead the next 

 morning, one lived until the third day. The 

 latter was apparently injured less than the 

 others in the act of tearing out the sting. 



Money Comestibles.— The annual show 

 of bees, hives, honey and comestibles of the 

 North of Scotland Apiarian Society was held 

 at Shiprow, Aberdeen, on Aug. DO and 31, 

 1887. A correspondent has this to say con- 

 cerning it : 



The show was a most interesting one, and 

 b'ds fair to outstrip some others, so far as it 

 aims directly to better the bee-keeper by 

 encouraging the manufacture of comesti- 

 bles and liqueurs from honey of a quality 

 and flavor that sugar could not produce, as 

 well ae promoting the whole art of bee 

 husbandry, also in establishing some direct 

 means whereby honey may be disposed of 

 by the members of the society. 



There were 2.3 classes, with about 150 en- 

 tries. Most of the exhibits were of a supe- 

 rior order, particularly those in the comes- 

 tible ami liqueur classes. Of all the comes- 

 tibles I have witnessed at other shows none 

 approached to those at Aberdeen. The 

 crystallized fruits, confections, cakes, pud- 

 dings, creams, jellies, biscuits, scones, 

 liqueurs, etc., were excellent in flavor and 

 appearanct— suitable, in fact, for the table 

 of the Queen, and we were proud to hear 

 that a flrst prize Stewarlon super purchased 

 at this show was to be placed on the Royal 

 table. If the competitors in the classes for 

 comestibles — particularly the winners — 

 would publish the recipes for the various 

 articles exhibited, they would be benefac- 

 tors to all. 



Reports of the past season's operations 

 will bo very good reading, now that the sea- 

 son for honey-prodnction Is over. Will our 

 readers please state how many colonies they 

 had in the spring ; how many now ; how 

 much honey produced, of both comb and 

 extracted, stating the amount of each. Also 

 please say whether the bees winter in a 

 cellar or on the summer stands. 



