186 



Tmm mmmmnDMM mmM jo^wmmi^. 



The windows are double and glassed. 

 The chimney is midway along the 

 foundation wall, with 4 bricks left out 

 near the bottom for a ventilator. In 

 this cellar I have wintei'ed 270 colo- 

 nies of bees, and lost but three during 

 the winter of 1886-87. My cemented 

 cellar is but 25 feet away. I can leave 

 matches lay in the house-cellar for 4 

 or 5 dajs, and then light a candle 

 with them. The walls are never 

 damp. 

 Is Honey- Dew tlie Same as Manna? 



Are those who reply to queries in 

 the Bee Journal, in ac^iord with the 

 following from the Agriculiural Report 

 for 1885, page 85 ? 



"The nectar thus produced has a 

 sweet and pleasant taste, and unques- 

 tionably forms at times no inconsider- 

 able portion of our best honey ; for 

 bees are very eager in gathering it. 

 The honey it yields is light-colored, has 

 a pleasing taste, and is perfectly safe 

 as a winter food for bees. The com- 

 position of honey-dew, as given by 

 Bossingault and Zoller, is 48 to 55 per 

 cent, cane-sugar, 28 to 24 per cent, of 

 inverted sugar, and 22 to 19 per cent, 

 dextrine. A little of the substance 

 ' manite ' has also been detected in it. 

 This composition is exactly the same 

 as that of the 'manna' collected by 

 the monks at Mount Sinai." 



Eureka ! It is good to eat, good to 

 feed, and has a sci'iptural name ! Why 

 not include all grades of extracted 

 honey ? What say you, brother bee- 

 keepers ? Call it manna. 



Muscatine, Iowa. 



THE " UNION." 



The Apathy Among Bee-IMeii 



Regarding their " Union " 



for Defense. 



Written lor Ihc American Bee Journal 

 BY B. F. LITTLE. 



Last summer I was talking witli Mr. 



, a short-hand court-reporter 



living in county, Iowa, who, in 



reply to a question of mine, as to how 

 he was succeeding in keeping bees, 

 cursed the bees, and said that they 

 were a nuisance ; that he had got rid 

 of them, and that his neighbors' bees 

 had ruined his wife's flower garden by 

 sucking all the sap out of the plants ! 



Last fall one of my neighbors 

 claimed that my bees were taking all 

 bis grapes, saying the bees were thick 

 on them. I have partially convinced 

 him that it was the birds or ovei'-ripe 

 grapes that first did the damage. I 

 am inside of the corporation, and no 

 community is free from "cranks." If 

 bee-men will let the golden opportu- 

 nities slip, they will have themselves 

 to blame. 



Brush Creek, Iowa. 



When the Bee-Keepers' Unicm was 

 organized, thinking it a good thing, I 

 became a memljer, and have paid per- 

 haps for two years, but on account of 

 the apathy of the bee-keeping frater- 

 nity, I dropped it. In California, where 

 the most trouble was likely to arise, 

 but a small number enlisted, so I 

 thought the whole matter, so far as I 

 was concerned, might go by default. 

 But the way the matter looks now, no 

 community has any guarantee of 

 security. 



Last year the Council of the little 

 town of Clermont, Faj'ette Co., Iowa, 

 deemed that no bees should be kept 

 inside the corporate limits. Two bee- 

 men had the choice of going out of the 

 business, or move. One moved, and 

 the other ceased keeping bees. 



TEXAS. 



my Experience in Keeping Bees 

 in Texas. 



TT'rttten for the American Bee Journal 

 BY A. C. ATEN. 



The seasons of 1886 and 1887 were 

 very poor here, most of those with 

 box-hives and black bees securing no 

 honej' at all ; but those witli Italian 

 bees and movable-frame hives gener- 

 ally got some surplus. 



I began the season of 1887 with 85 

 colonies, increased them to 125, and 

 obtained about 3,000 pounds of honej', 

 all being extracted but 250 pounds. 



My bees are in two apiaries, and 

 have wintered well. They have been 

 gathering pollen, and perhaps some 

 honey, for over two weeks. There is 

 no difficult}' in wintei'ing bees here, if 

 we do not let them starve to death. 

 The worst time we have in this part of 

 Texas, is between the middle and last 

 of March, ilirectly after fruit-bloom. 

 The bees use up all their honey in 

 rearing brood, then comes a time 

 when no honey can be found, and 

 bees starve almost before we are 

 aware of it. Let me say to Texans, be- 

 ware of that time ! You cannot be too 

 watchful. 



When they have exhausted their 

 honey stores, they eat pollen, and it 

 bloats them and causes the diarrhea, 

 just as the bees have in the North, and 

 that, too, when they can fly every da}'. 

 I have seen this very often. But feed 

 them honej' or sugar syrup, and in a 

 short time they will be all right. 



The honej' we got last year was of 

 excellent quality. One of my apiaries 

 is situated 13 miles, and the other 16 

 miles, north of the city of Austin ; one 

 being in a narrow strip of timber, and 



the other a half mile from anj' timber. 

 The land is as rich as any upland in 

 Texas. The bees gather hone}' from 

 numerous kinds of trees and plants, 

 consijicuous among which are horse- 

 mint, bore-hound, wild marigold, 

 morning-glory, asters, cotton and rich- 

 weed, besides many other plants of 

 lesser note. Then we have peach, 

 pear, wild and tame plum, haw, elm, 

 India-gum, wild and tame China, the 

 wild China being the best. For the 

 last two years horse-mint has been a 

 failure here, but I have never failed to 

 get a surplus. 



There are but few persons giving 

 much attention to bees in this locality. 

 One of my neighbors has nearly 40 col- 

 onies of black bees in box-hives, and 

 did not get a pound of surplus last 

 year. He has an excellent situation. 

 There must be some reason for this. 



Round Rock, Tex., Feb. 18, 1888. 



BEES IN A ROOF. 



How to Transfer Bees from a 

 Roof to a Frame Hive. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY JAJIES HEDDON. 



I am requested to reply to the fol- 

 lowing from Mr. E. L. Plumb, Wind- 

 sor, Conn. He asks : 



Please inform me through the American 

 Bee Jouunal, how and when to transfer 

 bees from under the loof of a bay-wiudow 

 to the Heddon hive. The size ol the roof is 

 6 by 8 feet. They have been there for three 

 years, and are ,'.. mile from my place. The 

 owner of the house gives me the bees, 

 honey and comb, if I will remove them. 



If Mr. Plumb had my book, and 

 would turn to page 32, under the head 

 of " Modern Transferring," he would 

 perhaps get an idea of how I would 

 transfer the colony of bees that he_de- 

 soribes above. 



I do not know just how they are 

 situated, but believing that they are'so 

 housed that I could drive out of their 

 home, about two-thirds of the bees, I 

 should get the " New Hive" all ready 

 with frames filled with comb founda- 

 tion, and then drive out the bees as 

 above, and with their (jueen put them 

 into the new hive, and carry them four 

 miles away ; tlien in 21 days open the 

 old hive, or bay-window, and cut out 

 the broodless combs, put the bees and 

 their new (jueen into another fully 

 equipped "New Hive," and carry 

 them away as before. I would ex- 

 tract the honey from the old combs, 

 and melt them up for wax. 



There is no objection to transferring 

 any of this empty comb iiito brood- 

 frames, provided it is straight and all 

 worker. I would not advise piecing 

 when transferring combs ; neither do I 



