itmm SMERic^tpc BE® jQwmnmi^, 



133 



iTIurk»« of Purity.— Hugh L. Lynn, 

 Glenville, Ky., on Feb. 10, 1888, asks the 

 following questions : 



1. Is there any certain way of knowing 

 Italians from hybrids ? 2. Is not disposi- 

 tion a better proof of purity than marks ? 

 3. When 1 first got an Italian queen she 

 was a curiosity in our neighborhood, there 

 bfing no other near it. Her daughter, 

 reared that fall, mated with a blaclj drone, 

 there being no others near. Her workers 

 were as large and as finely marked as any 

 one could ask for. I think any man seeing 

 them dead would have pronounced them 

 Italians. But if he had handled them he 

 would have called tliem hybrids. 



1. Yes ; 3 yellow bands in all the prog- 

 eny of any Italian queen. If she has been 

 impurely mated, then the yellow bands of 

 the workers will vary in number. 



2. No ; "disposition" is often the result 

 of gentle handling and management— but is 

 not a sure indication of purity of blood. 



3. While some of such hybrids may be 

 ■well marked and fine looking, others would 

 be inferior both in bands, manners, and 

 appearance. 



S'wariu!!' M itii Two Quoeiis, etc. 



— Mr. Locke Ferree, of Milroy, Ind., makes 

 an inquiry concerning the swarms which 

 issue having dual queens. He says : 



The last season was hard on bees here. 

 My bees had a flight two days ago, being 

 the first for nearly four weeks. One of the 

 colonies I think has the diarrhea. What 

 shall I do for them ? When two or more 

 queens come out with a swarm, what will 

 the bees do with the surplus queens ? 



If the bees have the diarrhea, a flight will 

 help them very much. If more than one 

 queen issues with a swarm, it is an indica- 

 tion that it is a second or third swarm. 

 When an old queen has been lost, some ten 

 or more days before, several queens will 

 sometimes issue with the first swarm. 

 Leave it to tlie bees to settle, as to which 

 queen shall be approved. 



IVe1>raska. Convention.— Mr. J. N. 



Heater, of Columbus, Neb., on Feb. 19, 1888, 

 writes : 



We have lately had a few days of very 

 warm weather, and the bees have had a 

 number of flights. Mrs. Heater's 100 colo- 

 nies are wintering well, and are in fine con- 

 dition. 



I sent the report of the Nebraska Conven- 

 tion as published by the Nebraska State 

 Journal, and expected it to be credited to 

 that paper. With ray name signed as Sec- 

 retary it looks to those who do not under- 

 stand it, that i had complimented myself. 



When we receive a report of a conven- 

 tion from the Secretary, no matter whether 

 it is printed in whole or in part, we consider 

 it as an official report, and credit it to the 

 Secretary. We failed to notice the remarks 

 referred to about the Secretary, or we 

 should have made an exception in this case. 

 The above will straighten it out. 



IValional Bee-Keepers' Union. — 



Mr. R. L. Meade, of Nassagaweya, Ont., on 

 Feb. 17, 1888, writes thus concerning the 

 Union : 



I am surprised at the bee-keepers of the 

 continent, who have a National Union for 

 the defense of tJieir own business, aud yet 

 it seems to be so very poorly sustained by 

 such an intelligent class of men as bee- 

 keepers generally are. Bee-keepers, send 

 in your dollar. Strengthen tlie " hands " of 

 the Union, and place it in a position to 

 assist those of our calling when there is 

 any necessity. We want lO.OOO names on 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Union list for 

 this year. Here is my dollar. 



Yes ; that is right. The only wonder is 

 tliat there were not ten thousand members 

 to the Union within a few months after its 

 organization. There ought to have been a 

 general rush to the defense of the pursuit. 

 But too many are selfish, and think that so 

 long as they are not molested, they will not 

 join. But we notice that as soon as they 

 are even threatened, they are rushing for 

 some help, and want us to tell them what to 

 do, etc. But the Advisory Board has de- 

 cided that the Union ought to defend only 

 those who have become members before 

 they were in trouble. The present general 

 apathy is very reprehensible. 



Since writing the above, Mr. Z. A. Clark, 

 of Arkadelphia, Ark., whose case the Union 

 has now in hand, as before noted in these 

 columns, has written to us stating that he 

 lias again been arrested for not moving his 

 apiary outside of the city limits. He was 

 fined, but appealed to the Circuit Court 

 which meets next July. He was then in- 

 formed that he would be arrested and fined 

 every day in the interim, and if he does not 

 pay the daily fine, he will be sent to prison I 



The Manager of the Union has advised 

 hira just what to do, relying upon the 

 fraternity to support in the defense of 

 this and other cases now on hand. Will 

 they do it ? 



It will take nearly two thousand dollars 

 to successfully defend the eases now on 

 hand, and the Union must have two thou- 

 sand more members, or it will be obliged 

 to let the cases go by defaultr-and fhe pur- 

 suit will suffer an ignominious defeat ! 

 Reader, are you satisfied to accept the latter 

 as the result of your apathy ? If not, sit 

 down at once and -send a dollar to this 

 office as a membership fee to the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union. You will get a re- 

 ceipt by return mail, and may then sleep 

 soundly with the assurance that you have 

 done your duty in this case ! It is noiv or 

 never ! Inaction will insure defeat— ac- 

 tivity is life— energy— power ! 



UNION IS STRENGTH ! 



AlM'ays mention your Post-Office, 

 County and State when writing to this 

 office. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually writing- 

 never mention anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the new address. 



How to do it M. M. Baldridge, of 



St. Charles, Ills., makes the following good 

 points in confirmation of the views ex- 

 pressed in his address before the Chicago 

 Convention last fall : 



Honey, the commission men say, is slow 

 of sale and lower than some time ago. The 

 reason is obvious to me, and it should be to 

 others. The main reason is, that the grocers 

 are unwilling, as a class, to invest in cash 

 20 to 23 cents per pound at wholesale, for 

 honey, and take their chances of selling the 

 same at 25 cents, which they nnist do to 

 secure any profit at all. The result is the 

 honey ren'iains in the commission houses. 



Now what does this teach ? Simply what 

 my Chicago essay advocated, namely, the 

 necessity of placing honey, in small lots, in 

 grocers' hands, to be paid for when sold. 



The fact is, there are at this time thou- 

 sands of groceries, in this State, without a 

 pound of honey in them for sale at any price. 

 All the honey in the United States might 

 have been sold by this date at 2.5 cents per 

 pound for choice white comb, had it been 

 kept where consumers could see and buy it. 



The time will soon be here when the crop 

 of 1888 will have to be placed on the market, 

 and all should consider well the remarks of 

 Mr. Baldridge, who has had more experi- 

 ence than almost any other man, in placing 

 the honey on home-markets. We heartily 

 commend the plan presented, and hope it 

 will be practiced during the coming season. 



Piienol for Fowl Brood.— Wm. 

 Beall, Ligonier, Ind., asks the following : 



In Cheshire's pamphlet on foul brond, on 

 pages 16 and 17, he mentions "Calvert's No. 

 1 phenol." What is that ? Our druggist 

 knows nothing of it. How many drops are 

 necessary to a quart of syrup for feeding • 

 bees, to cure foul brood ? 



It is difficult to obtain pure phenol except 

 of the large wholesale dealers. Calvert's 

 No. 1 can be obtained at this office. One 

 drop to 500 drops of the syrup is the formula 

 recommended by Mr. Cheshire, as will be 

 seen by the following from his pamphlet : 



"Ifouud that 1-300 (that is one part of 

 pure phenol to 300 parts of syrup) was re- 

 fused by the bees altogether ; that 1-400 

 iniirht be given constantly to a sound colony 

 without appearing to limit the queen in 

 breeding, or touch her health ; that 1-.500 

 dispatched foul brood quickly, even while 

 honey was coming in ; and that M.iO ap- 

 peared enough when it was not. 1 have es- 

 tablished these quantities as the correct 

 ones." Moderate quantities are, therefore, 

 not injurious. 



A Conipendiiini of useful know e 

 about bees. Tliis is what the Germantown, 

 Pa., Telegraph of the 1st inst, calls our 

 bee-book. Here is its notice in full : 



Bees and Honey. By Thos. G. Newman, 

 editor of the American Bee Jouhnal, 

 Chicago, Ills. Price, SI.— Gives in a con- 

 cise manner the history of bees, tells how 

 to establish and manage an apiary,describes 

 hives and surplus receptacles, how to pro- 

 duce and care for honey, treats of beepas- 

 turage, improvement of bees, honey and 

 bee shows, comb foundation and its use, 

 honey extractor and its use, and closes an 

 instructive and useful volume with general 

 advice to beginners. It is a convenient 

 compendium of useful knowledge on bees. 



