if 
he ^piirriitn. 
“ WHERE BEES GATHER HONEY.” 
* 
In the Rural of May 1st, I noticed an 
article under the above heading, written by 
Mr. Wm. Bonner, of Clyde, N. Y,, in which 
he makes the assertion that “ white clover 
contains no sweet,” and that “ bees collect 
from it brown bread” &c., «tec. Now as the 
Rural is one of the very best mediums by 
which to give and receive instructions in 
matters pertaining to the nature and habits 
of the honey-bee, as well as many other 
subjects, I will here give it as a “rule” that 
they do gather honey from white clover, and 
that too in great abundance,and not “ brown 
bread,” as Mr. Bonnkl states. I have many 
times watched them, in clover season, go 
from flower to (lower and thrust their pro¬ 
boscis or bill to the very bottom of the little 
tubes which so thickly stud a clover-head, 
and cannot come to the conclusion that they 
get pollen or bread,but pure clover honey of 
which I have sold thousands of pounds, 
collected by my own bees; and this too was 
gathered from the clover fields at a time 
When (here were very few other blossoms 
from which to gather honey, on account of 
dry weather. 
♦Surely Mr. Bonnel cannot be, a dose 
observer of bees and flowers, or the way in 
which bees get their living, or he would 
never publish this wild assertion in such a 
widely circulated journal as the Rural, 
where it is likely to be read by hundreds and 
even thousands of bee keepers throughout 
the land. 
Allow me to inform Mr. B. that we have 
in Canada three varieties of while clover 
that are honey producing, and believe he 
has the same kinds in Clyde, N. Y. Mr. B. 
admits of there being plenty of clover in his 
vicinity, and says that “his bees gathered 
very little honey.” Is he not aware that the 
state of the atmosphere has very much to do 
with the secretion of honey in any flower? 
I have known here in Canada several days 
of weather at the season when buckwheat 
Was in full bloom, and to all human appear 
mice good weather for bees; but they took 
very little notice of the acres white with 
blossoms. And why? Biin ply because in¬ 
stinct or experience taught them that the 
weather was not adapted to the secretion of 
honey. 
Now I think it would ho decidedly wrong 
lor me to give publicity to a statement to 
the. effect that there was no sweet in buck¬ 
wheat blossom, because the bees failed to 
gather it at particular times; and 1 think it 
equally wrong for Mr. Bonnkl to make such 
a sweeping statement as he does, and afllrm 
that when bees are at work on clover they 
are gathering brown bread and not honey. 
Will be please inform us what they are 
gathering when they put their bills or suck¬ 
ers to the bottom of the little tubes on a bead 
of clover? They certainly do not gather 
pollen or bee*bread with their suckers under 
any circumstances whatever; it is with that 
that they take up any liquid, sweet or other¬ 
wise, using their fore feet (or hands,) to 
handle pollen or bread, which they knead 
on their legs while on the wing, and conse¬ 
quently have to go through quite a different 
manoeuvre while gathering broad from that 
of gathering honey. 
I wonder what Professors Quimby, Lang- 
si'roth, Miner, and many other well-skilled 
apiarians, whose authority is sought after in 
Canada, as well as the United States, on all 
matters pertaining to the apiary, will say 
when they come to read Mr. Bo.nnkl’s an- 
nouncemcnt “ that while clover contains no 
sweet ” and that they only gather bee-bread 
or pollen from it! 1 hope some of the above 
named Professors will give their views on 
the clover question in the next Rural, as 
people In Canada are every year committing 
a great sin by selling clover honey, when Mr. 
Bonnkl emphatically says there is “ no such 
thing us clover honey,” 
Will Mr. B. admit that there is any red 
clover honey?—and that it is owing to the 
shortness of the bee’s sucker that they do 
not gather honey from the red clover also? 
Undoubtedly lie will, and why not white 
clover honey? 
Mr. Bonnkl makes another assertion 
which he might better guess at, rather than 
answer it so positively, and that is with re¬ 
gard to the separation of water from homey, 
lie says:—“They take water and honey in 
their bodies together.” Of course they do; 
hut that they have any apparatus by which 
to separate the two liquids and throw it olT 
while flying is, in my humble opinion, all 
nonsense, and something that any heft keeper, 
who has studied the matter at all, will not 
be willing to believe. 
Has not Mr. B. noticed that when the sea¬ 
son was wet, or when very frequent warm 
showers occurred, that the honey stored in 
flie supers or caps is very thin and watery, 
compared with that gathered in a dry sea¬ 
son, showing most conclusively that the 
water was not separated from it? 1 contend 
that a partial evaporation takes place during 
the time of storing, instead of being separated 
while the bees are flying, as you state. Now, 
would it not be more rational to suppose that 
the glittering particles you speak of when 
looking towards the morning sun—seen while 
the bees are flying—is nothing more nor loss 
than the expelling of the feces from their 
bodies, consequent, on hard labor and a full 
stomach over night, rather than their sepa¬ 
rating the water from the honey in the way 
you describe ? J. E. Solomon. 
Brighton Village, Ont., May 0,1869. 
-- 
AN UNPATENTED BEE HIVE. 
Apiarians know full well the importance 
of providing the honey-bee with a properly 
constructed and well arranged hive, in which 
these little workers may safely store Ihe 
nectar carefully gathered from the blossom¬ 
ing sweets of earth. 
Many good and valuable liives for this 
purpose have been constructed, and arc the 
subject of letters patent, for the manufac¬ 
ture and use of which a royalty is required 
by the owners thereof. 
The hive shown in connection with this 
article is, in my opinion, the simplest, cheap¬ 
est and best arranged unpatented Live extant . 
The accompanying sketches were taken from 
hives in the possession of .Joseph Guthekje, 
Esq., of this town, who is quite successful in 
the management of the honey-bee, ho using 
liives of this description. 
made in hive and boxes at the time of their 
construction. They afford a sufficient pas¬ 
sage to and from said boxes. 
Figure 3. 
The top of the hive is delineated in Fig. 3. 
One series of holes are shown, while the 
other is covered (in use both should he) by 
securing a thin strip in the proper position 
by screws. They remain thus until the hive 
is thought to be filled, or a sufficient quan¬ 
tity accumulated to successfully winter tlie 
bees. At this juncture, carefully remove the 
screws, slightly raise the strip, place one of 
the surplus boxes at the end of the st rip, and 
gradually, or by a dextrous movement, get 
it in place, as shown in Fig. 3. When both 
are in position, place over them the cover, 
and, unless you are careless, not one bee is 
injured by the operation. 
Should the surplus boxes be provided with 
glass ends, you may at any time during the 
season view the stores therein accumulated 
by raising the cover. 
A tor soon after the appearance of autum 
nal frosts, remove the surplus boxes, cover 
the series of holes as above stated. At the 
approach of winter again remove them; 
thereby all vapor arising from the breathing 
of so great a number of insects passes into 
the empty space above, thus, in a great 
measure, preventing death by the congealing 
of this vapor. Other points of merit could 
be noticed, but will readily suggest them 
selves. L. I). Snook. 
Barrington, Yates Co., N. Y. 
■- +++ - 
WHY DO BEES SWARM? 
’ S p. ' V? 5? 
-•- 51 - l.™ I'VW I ^ 
n 
__ •jK'A 
Figure 1. 
Figure 1 is a perspective view of tlie hive 
as it appeal's upon tho stand. In appear¬ 
ance it has a neat, unpretending look of self- 
recommendation. 
The advantages gained by having a passage 
for the bees at the bottom, and six inches 
upward therefrom, at one side of the hive, are: 
first, during winter snow and ice accumulate) 
in sufficient quantities to entirely till and 
cover the lower series of holes, while the 
upper ones remain open, admitting li-esh air, 
the importance of which all apiarians are 
familiar with. Second, bees alighting at the 
upper series of holes, upon returning from a 
long and fatiguing fight, have hut a short 
distance to traverse to reach the place where 
the accumulated sweets are to be deposited. 
Figure 
The hive proper is 13 by 13 by 15—3,100 
cubic inches, inside measurement. When 
filled with honey it weighs eighty pounds—a 
sufficient quantity to feed a large colony of 
bees during tho season not fruitful of flowers. 
For supporting the comb in the desired 
position, small round sticks are used in the 
same manner ils in the old box hive. The 
cover to Ibis portion has .its upper surface 
beveled near the edges, to receive, a nd retain 
in position, a small or upper hive, seven 
inches high and twelve inches square, inside 
dimensions. It is shown in proper place in 
Fig. band raised in Fig. 3, disclosing the 
surplus honey boxes, which are two in num¬ 
ber, 11*2 by 0 by 5 }fi inches, outside meas¬ 
urement, made from quarter-inch pine 
lumber, with glass ends or sides, either 
plain or ornamental, as the contents may be 
designed for home consumption or exhibition 
at tlie sales room, or to compete for premi¬ 
ums at fail's. 
Each of said boxes connects with the 
low er hive by four one-inch holes, which are 
At the recent Michigan Bee Keepers’ 
Convention this subject was discussed. 
Mr. Otis is reported as saying,—The 
strongest instinct (lod has given to the 
honey bee, is the love of storing honey. 
This instinct is so strong lhat she will 
remove the young larva from its cells 
and destroy it, that she may make room 
for the gathered honey. But she does 
not thus destroy the brood unless crow ti¬ 
ed for room by an unexpected rich har¬ 
vest of honey. It. is to guard against the 
dcstruct ionof the brood, that queen-cells 
are started preparatory to swarming, which 
takes place as soon as one or more is scaled 
over. 
The Creator has implanted in tho. queen- 
bee such unparalleled hatred toward a rival, 
that but one normal queen is permitted to 
live in a family of bees. This hatred is so 
strongly developed that, she will make divers 
attempts to destroy a rival, while yet in the 
cell. But the worker bees keep the cells 
guarded, w hich so exasperates tho old queen 
by the time one or more is sealed, that she 
rushes from the hive to find a now home, be¬ 
ing accompanied by the majority of the col¬ 
ony. These are, therefore, the reasons why 
bees swarm:—1st. The want of combs to 
hold honey. 3d. To save, the destruction of 
the brood. 3d. The hatred between rival 
queens. 
Dr. Conkxing said his bees did not always 
wait until they had sealed queen-cells. Two 
years ago he had opened a hive of bees as 
soon as the swarm had left and he not only 
found no queen-cel Is, but not even the signs 
of any being started. 
Mr. Balprtdoe said be understood Mr. 
Otis to assume that bees do not swarm till 
the hive is full of comb, and the comb is full 
of brood and stores; and not then, even, un¬ 
less there is one or more cells sealed. His 
(ft’s.) bees swarm sometimes when the cavity 
is not more than two-thirds full. He thinks 
it is natural at the proper season, for bees to 
swarm. As a rule the cavity will be full, the 
combs well supplied with brood and stores, 
one or more queen-cells sealed, and tlie 
flowers secreting honey rapidly, when the 
swarm issues. 
Mr, Moon also asserted that his bees swarm 
when the cavity is only part full. They also 
swarm when they have no queen-cells start¬ 
ed; the cause is excessive heat. Bees will 
swarm at certain seasons of the year when 
there is no apparent cause; in the honey sea¬ 
son it is as natural lor bees to swarm as for 
the sun to rise, or the tide to flow. 
-- 
•'loilis with Bees.—Please tell me what to do 
with my hoes. The boo moth is among- them this 
early. I have been vailing- tlie hives at times for 
two weeks past, or since the middle of April, 
mid finding and killing them, i, c„ the “ worms,” 
of nearly full size. Have they remained in this 
slide all winter? The lines appear in good con¬ 
dition and strong: blit 1 thal dead young bees on 
the stand. How can I beat destroy those pilfer¬ 
ers and prevent their ravages? My hives are 
tho old-fashioned box. I am a greenhorn with 
bees.— Grigsby, Allegan, Mich., Man, I860. 
-- 
Italian Bees.—A correspondent asks us where 
he can obtain a hive of Italian bees. Our ad¬ 
vertising columns ought to answer the question. 
DISEASES AMONG FOWLS. 
I desire to inquire, through, the columns 
of your valuable paper, the nature, causes 
and treatment of the various complaints 
which infect “sick chickens,” or, rather, 
those particular diseases, the symptoms of 
which I propose to give in this communica¬ 
tion. 1 have been peculiarly unfortunate 
this winter with my flock. I commenced in 
the fall with sixteen hens and one rooster. 
I have now (March 1st.,) four liens and one 
rooster remaining. The roup first broke out 
among them, and by the time I thought I 
had reached the proper mode of treating 
that, catarrh, and other nameless diseases, 
took hold of them. 
Now it is of those “ nameless diseases ” 
about which T want information. I will 
explain, as nearly as I can, how they are 
handled from the commencement until the 
end, which is (or has been,) invariably death. 
In my experience it. attacks laying bens. 
To-day one will lay, and to-rnorrow you will 
flud her on the nest, making vain efforts to 
fulfill her maternal obligations, which may 
last hours; hut finally, disgusted with her 
failure, she leaves her nest with rumpled 
feathers, drooping gait, refusing to eat; and 
finally, after all known remedies have been 
exhausted, she pines away and dies. With 
the last one, l gave oil in the morning, with 
light farinaceous food during the day, with 
plenty of pure water; but understand, they 
refuse to cat of their own accord, and con¬ 
sequently must be fed by forcing it down in 
moderate quantities at regular intervals. 
After trying this treatment with no success, 
and finding her crop filled with corn which 
she had eaten three days previously, I 
opened her crop and cleaned it, finding the 
contents sour and offensive. She died under 
the operation, being very weak when I 
commenced. 1 then made an examination 
of her inwards, and found the gizzard and 
liver in a perfectly healthy condition, but 
the heart was shrunken to one-third its or¬ 
dinary size; the egg sack was very much 
inflamed and distended. Numerous eggs in 
embryo, and those half formed, had the ap¬ 
pearance and feeling of having been boiled 
hard. Can you enlighten me as to the cause 
and name of the malady? Her diet lias 
been corn, wheat and refuse from the kitchen 
table, with pure water, and warm and dry 
apartments. 1 have consulted various au¬ 
thorities, but cannot find anything like it; I 
1 lie re fore appeal to some one among the 
many chicken fanciers who contribute to 
your columns for the desired information. 
Newark, N. J. J. v. s. 
(Tlie above lias been overlooked or would 
have been inserted before. We have never 
seen or heard of the disease above de¬ 
scribed ; perhaps some of our poultry friends 
can enlighten our correspondent. 
-♦♦♦- 
EGG RECORD. 
I commenced keeping count February 15, 
1869, with ten liens, named respectively, 
Folly-mater, Robin, Pet, Little Gaps, 
Spreekle, Harmony, The Widow, Wild 
Topple, Pickle, and Crow Dougherty. The 
first live are a pure white breed resembling 
White Leghorn—the two following, part 
Brahma, the next two common; the last, 
part Spanish. At the above dale Little 
Gaps was sitting. The Widow commenced 
to sit. February 31th, and Fickle and ('row 
Dougherty, late pullets, just presented to us, 
did not begin to lay until in March; so that 
during the mouth of February we averaged 
six and three-fourths laying hens, which laid 
in the last fourteen days of the month filly- 
four eggs,or eight eggs each—nearly four eggs 
per day,—four-sevenths of an egg each per 
day- 
In March, about the 1st, Pickle com¬ 
menced laying and Crow on the 9th— 
averaging seven and two-thirds laying hens, 
which laid In the thirty-one days one hundred 
and sixty-one eggs—twenty-one eggs each, 
or five and one-fifth a day—or about two- 
thirds of one egg each per day. 
In April I bought four hens at different 
times—Penelope and Calypso of the white 
breed; Mab, part Brahma, and Xautippe, 
common five toed. Set Polly - mater, 
Spreekle, Wild Toppie, Xantippeuml Pickle, 
and killed Crow Dougherty who began to 
show signs of roup. This left us an average 
of seven and seven-eighths laying hens during 
the month, and they laid in the thirty days 
one hundred and seventy-four eggs—being 
twenty-two and one-tenths to each lien, or 
five and four-fifths eggs per day, or eleven- 
fifteenths of an egg cadi per day. 
In the seventy-five days they averaged 
seven laj ing hens, laying three hundred and 
eighty -nine eggs—fitly-five and one-half 
each, or five and one-tilth every day, being 
eleven-fifteenths of an egg per day tor each 
hen, for seventy-five days. 
Penelope has laid every day since we got 
her — and Harmony nearly every day during 
the winter. The hens have had free access 
to corn, and have been fed every day with 
table scraps, chiefly consisting of buckwheat 
cakes and a piece of fresh or cooked beef, 
one piece to each hen, impartially distrib¬ 
uted, and without fail. They have had fresh 
water every day. Tho egg shells from eggs 
used were pounded (sometimes parched) ami 
fed with other scraps; these were ravenously 
eaten. Have kept, two c»cks. We have stop¬ 
ped the meat ration since garden making. 
1 have taken tho above record from nty 
journal in response lo the challenge of Mr. 
John P. Buzzell, in Rural May 1st. I 
believe it beats him. Ed. Lyon. 
Butler, Pa., May, 1869. 
-- 
POULTRY IN LARGE NUMBERS. 
TnE London Field lately had an article on 
tlie failures that seem to have universally 
occurred in attempts to keep fowls in large 
numbers. In conclusion it says: 
There are two reasons for this inevitable 
result ; one is, that when a large number of 
fowls are crowded together or kept in one 
place, the ground becomes tainted with ma¬ 
nure, and disease invariably breaks out. 
This is more particularly true of chickens, 
for in every attempt to rear a large number 
in a confined space, t he mortality is excessive. 
The employment of an incubator in this 
climate will always he found a failure, for 
this simple reason that it is impossible to rear 
the chickens when they have been hatched. 
The hatching process is sufficiently easy 
but chickens are of no value whatever with¬ 
out you have hens to brood them. The only 
manner in which an incubator can be use 
fully employed is by hatching an extra num¬ 
ber of eggs so as to give each lien a full brood 
of chickens. Used in this way we have 
known small incubators very serviceable; 
but when employed to hatch chickens that 
are to be, reared by artificial mothers, we 
have never seen them used with advantage. 
--♦♦♦- 
A Coop Tor Few Fowls.— T. C. PETERS, Now 
York city, asks, “ How can I keep n lew fowl 
without the expense of putting up a poultry 
house, nail with only a small yard for them to 
run in?’’ I have used for three seasons past a 
coop t hat will answer his purpose exactly. 
The above figure illustrates it. On the l ight is 
the house, with door. The house is four feet 
long, throe and a half feet wide, twenty Inches 
high at t lie sides, and thirty Inches at, tin- peak 
Inside are a roost and a couple of nests. In tin- 
rear of the yard a coop is attached to Ihe house, 
as shown in the drawing, in lailiee work. It is 
live feet long, and the same width, height, mul 
shape us tho house. Tho house opens into the 
yard by a hole a few inches from the ground ; it 
is ventilated by a few auger boles bored in oarli 
end in the peak. A pane or two of glass may lie 
put in, if desirable. This coop cun be moved 
daily, so that the fowls will he on fresh ground. 
It will accommodate acock and six hens. For 
breeding purposes, where it is desirous to coop 
up a particular trio or more, it Is invaluable.—it. 
--- 
Lame Ducks. I have got a trio of ducks, and 
I want to find out what alls them. They have 
been fed, with the rest of tile fowls, ail Ihe good 
corn, wheat and buckwheat that they would cat, 
and have hud a trough of water to play in all 
I hey wlfjhod to. They were Just as fat and sleek 
as if they had been oiled every day; but OU" 
morning, when I went to let them out of th 
horse barn, (for t shut, them In nights to got 
their eggs.) 1 found one of them that could not 
walk — seemed to have lost the use of its legs; it. 
could stand up, but if it attempted lo step its 
legs would crump. Jerk about and fly back as if 
they wanted to tho other way from which dr 
duck was trying to go. The other was taken in 
the same way in a few days after. The drake 
was not sick. They had laid a few eggs, hut 
none since taken. They did not cat much, but 
drank some water. Can you, or some of tlie 
readers of the Kurai,, tell what ails tin; (lucks' 
— G. B. Crandall, Ellsworth, St. Lawrence Co., 
N. r., 1809. 
- +++ -- 
A llyilropntliic Hen.— I was an observer of the 
following curious incident—a hen practicing 
J hydropathy. A few days ago, as I was taking a 
stroll about the place, 1 noticed a bon under a 
pile of boards standing in a small puddle of cold 
water. I surmised at once that she was trying 
the wit tor cure on some ailment, and I kept 
watch of her. It was more tiiau an hour after I 
first saw her before she left tlie place. When 
she started off I pursued and easily caught her. 
Upou examination I found that her feet W 
badly frostbitten. Her instinct hud undoubtedly 
lod her to try this method of treatment, and with 
good results; for she Is rapidly recovering. I 
never hoard of an instance ol' a similar character, 
and submit this as a peculiar incident. H. S- 
Tompkins, La Salk, Y. y., April 34. 
—---— 
I*ri\ ate Note.—A jolly good fellow, “wei 
bet,” sends ns a private note, which he stipulatcs 
shall not bo published, (and wo will not puLlie 
it,) in which he writes us that in 1867 ho kept an 
account with his chickens. It is: 
Chickens Cr.—Sold for cash. 
Chickens Dr.—For corn bought. 
Grand total balance. U 
Biddies Dr. to all the corn ami barley I rui* i- 
Cr. luts of eggs; also roast turkeys. Ho say- 
“I have had tlio chicken fever several years 
say forty, surd—but It is going off a little.'' 
---- 
Chicken Cholera Preventive and Cure. I v 
give hot li ft prev entire and a cure. It is :-Muk« 
poru meal into dough with asafetidu and " atn - 
and give to the chickens as often as they vrt'i 
eat it. To prevent the disease, put asal'etuia 
in the water they drink.— Scott Thompson, I 
Cmwfordvilh, Miss. 
