376 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



join by A. N. Draper's article in the 

 Bee Journal, relating to the honey 

 exhibit at the Columbian Fair. At this 

 rate of increase we will soon have quite 

 a membership. I must have made a 

 mistake in dates. The date of our meet- 

 ing at the fair was on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 

 instead of the 9th. 



Jas. A. Stone, Sec. 

 Bradfordton, Ills., Aug. 29, 1891. 



Progressive Ideas. 



Mr. C. J. Robinson has searched the 

 back numbers of the different bee-peri- 

 odicals for the purpose of picking up 

 little contradictory points of no special 

 value, and flinging them at me in a 

 spiteful way. I could, perhaps, find in 

 the old volumes of the bee-periodicals; 

 many statements that conflict with my 

 present way of thinking. Does Mr. 

 Robinson always hold the same ideas ? 



Beverly, Mass. E. L. Pratt. 



Punic Bees. ' 



In the Bee Journal for Aug. 6, page 

 168, you acknowledge receiving samples 

 of Punic bees from E. L. Pratt, Beverly, 

 Mass., which has the look, and may lead 

 people to think he is importing direct 

 from Africa, and as the dilSculties of 

 doing SO" are so great, most people are 

 likely to judge him falsely ; so allow me 

 to explain that I have sent him imported 

 Punic queens, which were repacked 

 with fresh worker-bees here, and sent to 

 him ; so that he has true imported Punic 

 breeding stock. Friend Pratt wrote to 

 me to send him queens as soon as he saw 

 how I praised them, and was most im- 

 patiently awaiting their arrival. Ameri- 

 cans can thus get pure blood Punic 

 queens from him, if they wish. 



A Hallamshire Bee-Keeper. 



Sheffield, Eng. 



Treating Foul-Brood. 



Bees in this locality came through the 

 Winter in fine condition, and we had 

 excellent prospects for a good honey 

 yield. White clover never looked more 

 promising, but about the time it began 

 to yield nectar, the honey-dew appeared, 

 and the consequence was that we had a 

 big lot of poor honey. Bees have com- 

 menced to work on the aster. It gen- 

 erally yields enough honey to help them 

 through the Winter, but no surplus. I 

 have kept bees for over 20 years, and 

 never had a case of foiU-brood among 



them until last year, but they have got 

 it now, and got it bad, too, and I cannot 

 tell where it came from. I am treating 

 them on the starvation plan, selecting 

 the colony that was in the worst condi- 

 tion to commence on, and it is now 

 rearing young, healthy bees, with no 

 sign of foul-brood about them. I fully 

 realize that I have a bad job on my 

 hands, but it is kill or cure, and when I 

 get through with it, or it gets through 

 with me, I will make a report. 



J. G. Creighton. 

 Preston, O., Sept. 7, 1891. 



Bombus. 



Please tell me, through the American 

 Bee Journal, what kind of bee this is. 

 I found it in an old hive, from which I 

 was transferring bees to a new hive. 

 The bee was dead on the bottom-board. 

 I am a novice at bee-keeping. Bees are 

 not doing well in this locality on account 

 of dry weather. Alf. Volk. 



Gillett, Wis., Aug. 13, 1891. 



[The large, black, hairless bee from 

 Mr. Volk, of Gillett, Wis., is a specimen 

 of bumble-bee — borabus — which got into 

 the hive and could not get out. The 

 bees probably killed it, and then tried 

 to drag its great carcass out, which they 

 could not do, but in the effort pulled out 

 all the hair. If the bee had not been 

 removed, they would very likely have 

 covered it with propolis. I presume the 

 bumble-bee got in while the hive was 

 opened, on some previous day. — A. J. 

 Cook.] 



Fine White Comb-Honey. 



Our county fair is now in progress, 

 and Mrs. Reeves entered comb and 

 extracted-honey, and beeswax. She 

 took first premium on comb-honey, first 

 and second premiums on extracted- 

 honey, and first and second premiums 

 on beeswax. My comb-honey, this year, 

 is the finest I ever saw, being so white 

 that it is almost transparent. My bees 

 in small hives stored about four times as 

 much as those in the simplicity hive, 

 consequently I am forced to believe the 

 8-frame liive the best, and the surplus 

 chamber is much more preferable, as it 

 is so easy to remove the sections. The 

 Fall honey-flow has not yet begun here. 

 Ira Reeves, 



Carmi, Ills., Sept. 4, 1891. 



