Chapter III: Part 3

Now, if any person really wants to test the correctness of this, let him go to a willow grove and he will find those insects (or willow lice) just before sun-down; and getting the willows between him and the sun, he will see them rising from every part of the tree, in small squads, and collecting till they form a large swarm. Then they will be seen discharging continually a fluid which resembles a fine sprinkle of rain. I have often seen those same insects discharging a fluid on a limb, where they were hatching; and then saw large ants, wasps, and yellow jackets working on it. And I often wondered how it got on the very tops of the trees, where no insects were to be found. I think this observation will settle the matter about the origin of honey-dew.

Bees have done very poorly here until now. The golden rod is in full bloom, and the bees are doing well.

H. FAUL.

_Council Bluffs_, Sept. 6, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Caution.

MR. EDITOR:--Through the columns of your indispensable Journal, allow me to say to my brother bee-keepers, and “all whom it may concern,” have nothing to do with a hive called the “Multilocular Protoplastic Protean Hive,” though it is no doubt superior to any or all you have in use. Let us not step upward only one step at a time to the use of this hitherto excelsior hive; but let us take at least two steps at once, to that hive and those new principles that “beat” _all_. Yes, all the long and toilsome labor of a Huber and a Dzierzon is totally eclipsed; and entirely snuffed out are such lights as Langstroth, Gallup, Quinby, Wagner, and many others, who formerly shone so brightly as “instructors.” Your theories, gentlemen, are forever “cast in endless shade.” The great revolution of nature that moves all things, has thrown before my vision this wonderful apistical domicile. I have scanned it closely, and now let me say to you, Rev. L. L. Langstroth, talk no more of laterally movable frames, since this great hive has “a place for every frame, and every frame in its place.” And you, “far-famed Gallup,” say no more of division boards and economy of heat. ’Tis useless, as these frames are made extra large, and small frames for surplus set in the top of the large ones, which space is left in free communication with the brooding apartment, till again filled with surplus. Speak not, Mr. Wagner, of compactness of form, as this marvellous habitation stands erect, human like. And now the sturdy German (Dzierzon) must yield the palm and transfer it over into Indianapolis, (Ind.) the centre of bee-gravity--the place where one hundred colonies are made from one in a single season! Can we not plainly see the dawning of a day when “the land shall flow with honey,” and each and every individual will supply himself freely with this “sweetest of all sweets,” and the apiarian turn his attention elsewhere for a livelihood?

JAMES HEDDON.

_Dowagiac, Michigan._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Correction Requested.

MR. EDITOR:--My attention has been called to an alleged error of statement in my article on page 72, Vol. VI., of the Bee Journal, wherein I say, “Mr. Langstroth was among the first to introduce to the notice of the bee-keepers of America the invaluable honey extractor.” Now I claim that the statement is strictly true. Mr. Langstroth was _among_ the first to introduce the honey extractor to the notice of the bee-keepers of this country, taking upon himself the responsibility of manufacturing from a bare description, and extensively advertising the machines for sale; thus risking pecuniary loss in case it should prove unpopular, before any other person in this country, except the editor of the American Bee Journal, spent a single dollar upon them.

Still, in order to give every man due credit for any assistance given to bee culture, I will here, with pleasure, state a fact in this connection that had escaped my recollection at time of writing the previous article, namely, that the first _mention_ of the machine of Von Hruschka in the English language was made in the American Bee Gazette,[4] page 85, September No., 1866, edited by Rev. E. Van Slyke, in an article translated from the German, by the editor. And to this article, Mr. Langstroth was most probably indebted for his first idea of the honey extractor, as Mr. Van Slyke writes me as follows--“Mr. Langstroth himself, who visited me at my office the very next month after the publication, spoke in terms of the highest enthusiasm of the article, and said that from my description as published he was about to construct a machine for honey extraction.” &c.

R. BICKFORD.

_Seneca Falls, N. Y._, Oct. 5, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Why are Two Queens Sometimes Found in One Hive?

MR. EDITOR:--Mr. A. Green, in the October number of the Journal, gives an account of finding two queens in one hive. Other correspondents have also given us their knowledge of similar facts; but none have, I think, given us any reasons for such exceptions.

Last fall I bought an Italian queen from a reliable breeder. She came recommended as A No. 1. I received her on the 8th of September. All the workers sent with her were dead, except two; and she was herself so benumbed by cold that I had quite a time of it bringing her back to vitality. Finally I succeeded in getting her quite lively, and introduced her to a tolerably weak swarm. On the 10th of October finely marked Italians were flying in front of the hive. I spared no pains in wintering. (I winter out-of-doors.) In April she had filled three cards of brood. I then gave her a card of drone-comb. She would not look at it, and I moved it back and put in its place a card of worker-comb, which she filled with eggs almost instanter. I then put the drone-comb in the middle of the cluster, and got about fifty drones. Of course I was stimulating, and kept plenty of honey in the hive. I put in other worker-comb, but she refused to lay any more. I then took out a frame to start a nucleus, and in about a week after, when examining the old stock, I found queen cells started and the old queen on the comb, apparently all right. In due course a young queen was hatched, and after destroying the queen-cells, she remained with the old queen ten days before she was fertilized, and at least a week after she was laying. At the end of three weeks the old queen was gone.

Now, what does this prove? Simply that the queen was chilled in coming by mail, which interfered with her prolificness, rendering her supersedure a necessity for the future welfare of the colony. She was tolerated in the hive by the new queen and bees, having lost that distinct individuality peculiar to the queen bee, and consequently become to them (the workers and young queen) no more than a common bee. I cannot help but conclude that when such exceptions occur, the course relatively is the same.

FREDERICK CRATHORNE.

_Bethlehem, Iowa_, Oct. 9, 1870.

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It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the bee-keeper, that a small colony should be confined to a small space, if we wish the bees to work with the greatest energy, and offer the stoutest resistance to their numerous enemies. Bees do most unquestionably “abhor a vacuum,” if it is one which they can neither fill, warm, nor defend. Let the prudent bee-master keep his stocks strong, and they will do more to defend themselves against all intruders, than he can possibly do for them, even though he spend his whole time in watching and assisting them.--_Langstroth._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Coming Convention.

Mr. EDITOR:--We would like to attend the prospective convention of bee-keepers, which is to assemble the coming fall or winter, and to take by the hand some of the many correspondents we have followed through the columns of your Journal, and hear their opinions by the word of mouth, but we must forego that pleasure at present. We are poor and have not straightened up yet the ravages of war. We are rebuilding as fast as our means will admit, and hope in a few years more to see our once desert looking country “blossom as the rose.” We have lost our substance, the toil of years, and in bee parlance, though driven out and robbed of comb and honey, are allowed to return in a bad season, to recuperate.

When these bee conventions become yearly in our country, (and I hope they will,) we will be sure to attend, if within the range of our flight. We would be delighted to see the different specimens of honey and bees which should be in attendance, and ahead of anything to see except the phiz of Novice, Gallup, Grimm, and their ilk, side by side the different hives in working order. A great majority of the hives with movable frames are patented, many are not, and we would like to see them on exhibition, opened, and the points of excellence each contains, shown. We don’t mean the sub-venders of different patents, who are travelling over the country, and attend at the different fall fairs, who never kept or owned a hive of bees, know nothing of the nature and habit of the insects, and who move up to you and talk as learnedly on the bee as Langstroth or Dzierzon could; but men of experience and veracity, who have tried and used for several seasons the hive on exhibition, through poor as well as rich harvests; and hives of different forms and capacity, which you could criticise, and the good qualities, or the real or imaginary defects of which a man might point out, without danger of being called a mutton-head and ignoramus. There are several different patents in our country, and if they are not thrown over the fence the first season, they are sure to go the way of all trash the second. Some unfortunate purchasers try to get their money back by transforming the hives into troughs to feed the cow in; others convert them into boxes for hen-nests. In many of these cases, however, it is through the ignorance of the keepers that they do not succeed.

One year ago, Esq. Boring, a Justice of the Peace from one of our rural districts, thought to outstrip his neighbors in honey and bee-keeping, and ordered a hive with which you could control swarming, catch the drones, keep out moths, and the Lord only knows what its owner didn’t claim for it. Draw out the chamber, take out honey enough for supper, and replace the drawer, and all is right, nice, and snug! I believe they call it the Buck-eye, patented by Mitchell. Esq. Boring was eager to have bees in, and couldn’t wait for a natural swarm, but drove in a fine stock. He was so well pleased with it and its workings, that he Buck-eyed his whole apiary; and upon inquiry a few days since, he informed me that he would lose nearly all his bees. The first time he drew out the chamber everything worked fine. The second time it was rather tight and glued up. A month after that he thought it would take a small yoke of steers to pull out the chamber of frames, and during the summer nearly the whole fell a prey to the moth-miller. However, he should not condemn the hive after this slight trial. It has been an unusually poor season, and none but the strongest stocks stored any surplus.

W. P. HENDERSON.

_Murfreesboro, Penna._, Oct. 6, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Queen Nursery.

Under the above heading, Mr. Gallup, in the Journal for October, gives his experience with the queen nursery, which, with him, appears to be a perfect success. I wish to give my experience, and ask Mr. Gallup and others why it is so different from his.

I made fifty cages 1½ × 1¾ × 1¾ inches, four sides of very thin wood, and one side covered with wire gauze, and the other with a piece of glass slipped in grooves in the two wooden sides, so as to be moved up or down for a door. In each of these cages I placed a piece of honey in comb (unsealed), with the cells in natural position; and then placed the cages in frames, on slots inserted across them, so as to hold three tiers of six each, or eighteen to a frame. I then took out two centre frames from good, strong hives, and put one of these frames containing cages in their place. Some very strong colonies, some were medium. To some I gave upward ventilation, by leaving off the honey boxes and raising the cap. On others I left the honey boxes. I then awaited the result. Some queens hatched in fourteen days from starting the cell; some in sixteen days; two or three in twenty-four days; and some _never_ hatched.

Many of the young queens died in the cages in from twelve to twenty-four hours after hatching; very few lived to be five days old--the time given by many writers for them to mate with the drones; only six or seven out of about one hundred lived two weeks. The queens, when first hatched, were put in fertilizing cages such as described by N. C. Mitchell, but _never_ were fertilized.

Now Mr. Editor, will Mr. Gallup or some one else tell me why my experience differs so widely from that of Mr. G.?

Sister cells, cut from the same comb as some of those that were put in the cages, hatched in from fourteen to sixteen days, were duly fertilized, and are now alive and well. Hence it could not be any defect in the stocks they were raised from. In some of the cages, I put two or three workers, to feed the young queens; but still the latter would die, and leave the workers to eat the honey left in the cages.

If queens require any other food than honey, why did not the bees give it to them through the wire gauze on which they clustered in great numbers? Some of the cages were put in colonies that had fertile queens at liberty, but most of them were put in queenless hives.

The cells were mostly put in on the ninth day from starting the cell.

I shall be pleased to see replies to this in the next number of AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.

H. NESBIT.

_Cynthiana, Ky._

[For The American Bee Journal.]

Do the Right!

Friend Bickford, I wish to shake your honest fist!

Your matter is _sound_, your argument JUST!!

To render substantial aid to our “venerable Tutor” is an imperative duty. Let us see to it then, _at once_, and

DO THE RIGHT!

I don’t feel at liberty to enlarge on the subject, being “only an Englishman.”

WALTER HEWSON.

_Wickham-breaux, Kent, England_, Sept. 28, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The African Honey Tree.--Inquiry.

In the “_Poultry Bulletin_,” J. M. Wade, of Philadelphia, writes--“A man, I can hardly say _gentleman_, came into the store yesterday, with seventy-one humming birds, which he had shot the day before in his own yard. He said some years ago he brought a honey tree from Africa, and thousands of humming birds would come to it in one day. Where did so many come from?”

As it may be in the interest of bee culture to know what can be learned about the honey tree of Africa, will some one who is informed give the readers of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL his knowledge of it? stating its growth, whether bees visit it, its uses, whether it is hardy, length of time in flower, in what month and at what age it blooms, and how it is propagated?

E. PARMLY.

_New York._

* * * * *

Early in October, I examine carefully all my hives, to see that they are in suitable condition for wintering. If any need feeding, they are fed at this time. If any have too much vacant room, I partition off that part of the hive which they do not need. I always expect to find some brood in every healthy hive at this time, and if in any I find none, and ascertain that it is queenless, I either at once break it up, or if it is strong in numbers, supply it with a queen, by adding to it some feebler stock. If bees, however, are properly attended to, at the season when their young queens are impregnated, a queenless colony will seldom be found in the fall.

LANGSTROTH.

THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.

Washington, Nov., 1870.

👉 The residence of the Rev. Mr. Semlitsch is not at Gratz, in Styria, as, in consequence of a slight omission, was erroneously stated in our last issue; but at Strasgang _near_ Gratz.

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The attention of those who are unfortunately suffering from the prevalence of foul-brood in their apiaries, will doubtless be arrested by the communication, in this number of the Journal, from Dr. ABBE, of New Bedford (Mass.), announcing that he has succeeded in curing that disease, as it existed in several of his colonies; and that an efficient and easily applicable remedy has at length been devised for the dreaded and devastating evil. Dr. ABBE deserves the cordial thanks of bee-keepers, both in this country and abroad, for so generously and promptly making known his remedy and the mode of administering it.

* * * * *

Last fall we suggested to those who found it necessary to supply their bees with winter food to add a portion of glycerine to sugar syrup or dissolved candy, to prevent crystillization; and we learn that it was advantageously used. We have since learned that gum tragacanth is now employed for the same purpose, by some of the German bee-keepers. This gum, dissolved in water, forms a thick mucilage, which may not mingle so readily with the food as glycerine does; and the latter is hence a more manageable and probably cheaper article, especially as it forms besides an excellent spring stimulant, though still too high-priced to be freely used.

* * * * *

A bee-keeping friend has procured for us a quantity of seed of the Partridge Pea (_Cassia chamæcrysta_) mentioned by one of our western correspondents, (Mr. Ingels, of Oskaloosa, Iowa,) as an excellent honey plant. It was in bloom here from the middle of July to the middle of October, and frequented by that bees, in crowds, all the time.

This plant is usually classed among weeds, and where it occurs, is regarded by some as one of the _pests_ of the farm; but as it is an annual, it ought not to be difficult to get rid of it by proper management, when its presence is undesirable. Blooming during the interval between spring and fall pasturage, it constitutes an important resource for bees, here and in other districts, at a period when the native vegetation fails to furnish supplies.

In the third volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Dr. Greenfield of Virginia speaks of the Partridge Pea as furnishing means to recruit worn-out lands, by its decomposition in the soil when plowed under. It was, we understand, originally introduced for that purpose, in the District of Columbia, by the Hon. Benjamin Stoddert, while Secretary of the Navy; and it would probably answer well as a substitute for red clover, where from poverty of soil, the latter could not yet be grown.

We hope to be able to make satisfactory arrangements for the distribution of the seed among bee-keepers desiring to make trial of the plant, and if successful, will state particulars in our next.

* * * * *

We learn from Mr. Adam Grimm, of Jefferson (Wis.,) that his crop of surplus honey, this year, is over 15,000 lbs., and that he “could take at least 10,000 lbs. more from his hives, and still leave the stocks heavy enough to winter well.” Such a result as this must be calculated to unsettle the notions of those who “have kept bees many years, and _know_ there is nothing to be made by it!”

* * * * *

We intended to give a brief history of the opposition to the meeting of the National Convention of Bee-keepers at Indianapolis, showing when and where it originated, and what were the obvious motives and objects of those most active in the business. But as it appears to be a “fixed fact” now that the Convention will be held at the time and placed designated, we shall save ourselves the trouble of hunting up musty records in the limbs of things forgotten.

* * * * *

👉 Since the above was put in type we have learned incidentally that it was resolved at Utica by the N. E. Bee-keepers Association to hold another Convention elsewhere, though particulars have not reached us. We sincerely regret this proceeding on various accounts.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BEE JOURNAL.

TRENTON, ILLS., Sept. 12, 1870.--The forepart of this season I think was the poorest I ever saw in this neighborhood. Last winter was a very warm and open one, and the bees dwindled down very much, so that nearly all stocks were quite weak before spring. Then we had a severe snow storm on the 17th of April, with two or three freezing nights, that killed nearly all the peach blossoms; and this was followed by a period of cold high winds through May. The first two weeks of June there was cloudy, drizzling, chilly weather, so that bees could not fly more than about half the time. The consequence of all this was, late swarms and very few of them. Not more than one-sixth of the stocks swarmed, and many of the latest of them starved. It was very dry from the middle of June to the 13th of August. Then, for a week, it rained nearly every day; at the end of which some of my hives had not more than a pound of honey remaining. Since that time they have been doing very well. Most of my hives were filled up, so that they commenced working in the surplus boxes about the middle of last week, and some of them have now as much as fifteen pounds in the boxes.

I would like NOVICE to tell us how he gets his board and frame into the top of his hive, if his hives are all of one size. I have a few of the two-story hives made by the National Bee-hive Company at St. Charles, Illinois, and I cannot get a frame into the top story in any other way than perpendicular, as the top bar of the frame is longer than the inside of the hive. I have tried one to see how it would work.--C. T. SMITH.

DOWAGIAC, MICH., Sept. 12--We have had just half a surplus honey harvest, here, this season. Since I have been in the bee business, I have learned that the surplus harvest depends entirely upon the clover and basswood blossoms, in this vicinity; which is probably the case all over the State. When we have a wet season clover fails, but basswood produces well; and when a dry season, _vice versa_. Reverses from abundance to starvation take place within a few miles of each other. I am located now in the midst of clover and basswood, together with the best spring and fall pasturage I have ever seen. After losing seven-eighths of my bees last winter, you can easily guess the condition of the remaining six colonies. Four of them were merely skeletons, and the other two very inferior stocks. Yet, with the aid of a three cent feeder of my own invention, (which works to perfection,) and one and a fourth dollar’s worth of sugar, I have succeeded in marketing five hundred and twenty-three (523) pounds of box honey; and with the aid of old combs have increased my stock to twenty-two (22) colonies, all strong and heavy--too heavy I fear, for their own good; and I have as yet no emptying machine. This, I think, is doing very well (see Langstroth’s “HIVE AND HONEY BEE,” page 177) for a bee-keeper of only two years’ experience.--I came near forgetting to mention that I have Italianized all my new stocks. I use top-bar hives mostly. Am using four or five frame hives on the sly!--J. HEDDON.

WINCHESTER, IOWA, Sept. 13.--The season of 1870 has not been any of the best here, nor of the poorest either, as swarming and honey gathering has been moderately good. The American Bee Journal well deserves the support of bee-keepers.--I. N. WALTER.

ROCHELLE, ILLS., Sept. 17.--This has been the poorest season that we have had here for some years. I got only five new swarms from forty stands, and merely one hundred pounds of honey. Since the buckwheat came into blossom the bees have done well. They will average about fifty pounds to the stand; and that is doing very well, in such a year as this has been. Alsike clover is now in blossom, and the bees are working very busily on it.--R. MILLER.

BREESPORT, N. Y., Sept. 20.--My bees have done well in gathering honey, this season; but gave me no swarms during swarming time.--J. H. HADSELL.

OSKALOOSA, IOWA, Sept. 28.--I have one hundred and ninety colonies of bees that have done well this year, and are in fine condition for winter. I stored away one hundred and twenty-nine colonies in my cellar last fall, and the same number came out in good order in the spring. I sold them off to about one hundred, from which I came on to winter with the above number (190), principally Italians.

Enclosed please find specimen of a bee plant. What is it? It blooms from first of July to last of August profusely and is visited by bees thrice as much as buckwheat. I have tried borage, melilot, alsike, mustard, and find nothing to equal it. I calculate to cultivate it, in order to give it a fair and full trial. I have secured about a peck of seed. The great advantage is that it blooms at a time when most needed in this country. I grew it this year alongside of buckwheat that bloomed at the same time.--S. INGELS.

[The plant enclosed is the _Cassia chamæcrista_ or Partridge Pea. It is an annual, growing in most sandy soil, and is common in the south. It grows here on the eastern branch of the Potomac (the Anacostia), and bees derive plentiful supplies of forage from it during eight or ten weeks in summer, and it is then almost their only resource. They gather pollen from the blossoms, but the honey is secreted by a small cupshaped gland situated below the lowest pair of leaflets, and is supplied abundantly for a long period.--Some of the farmer’s here-abouts affect to consider it a pernicious and ineradicable weed; but as it is an annual and known to be an excellent fertilizer when plowed under, it would seem to indicate slovenly management not to be able to subdue it readily where not wanted.--ED.]

VERVILLA, TENN., Sept. 24.--I consider the Journal cheap at any price for the bee-keeper, and wish it could be published oftener.--DR. J. M. BELL.

WARSAW, MINN., Oct. 3.--This has been a poor season for bees here, except in basswood time.--L. B. ALDRICH.

CEDARVILLE, ILLS., Oct. 5.--My bees have done well this season.--ROBERT JONES.

MEREDITH, PA., Oct. 4.--Bees did very well on white clover in this section this season, but very poorly on buckwheat. My sixty stocks did not give me sixty pounds of buckwheat honey surplus, all told; although they are all in good condition for wintering.

I do not think that alsike clover has been over-estimated for bee pasturage. I had three-quarters of an acre of it this season, and I never saw a piece of land so covered with bees as that was while it was in bloom, and they gathered honey from it very fast.--M. WILSON.

ORCHARD, IOWA, Oct. 6.--It is raining heavily to-day, yet the weather is warm and we have not had a particle of frost yet. Bees have done storing surplus honey for the season.--I shall give the result of the season’s operations as soon as I can get the time. At present I am up 4 A. M., and do not get home till 8 and sometimes 9 o’clock P. M. I must have a little relaxation from such excessive hard labor, before I can confine or control my thoughts sufficiently to write for publication. From the past season’s operations with the honey extractor, I can endorse all that Novice claims over and above the old mode of getting surplus in the comb--E. GALLUP.

NEW BEDFORD, MASS., Oct. 6.--The season for bees has been remarkable. Commencing well, the dry weather soon made forage very scarce during the blooming of clover and basswood, so that by the first of September there was little or no surplus stored, and all the colonies were very light. But during that month, mostly after the fifteenth, the bees gathered honey as fast or faster than they ever do in this locality in June. It was obtained from the wild aster; and the stocks are now heavy and in fine condition for winter. Even now there seems to be no cessation of their labors. This is true of all the neighboring towns; nearly every hive in them having been examined by me during my professional drives.--E. P. ABBE.

[For The American Bee Journal.]

How May Progress be Taught?

MR. EDITOR:--As the columns of the Bee Journal are made the medium of disseminating apicultural knowledge, by asking and answering questions, I have this question to ask in reference to the class of bee-keepers who use box and gum exclusively. How shall we reach these, and dispense the necessary knowledge among them? Let us endeavor to devise some effective means. Your Journal is doing the work as far as they can be induced to take and study it; but the number is comparatively limited. Many of these people, when they see an improved bee-hive, unconsciously exclaim to the owner, who happens to be a practical bee-keeper:

“Mr. B.--What do you call that?”

B. “That, sir, is a bee-hive.”

Q. “What do you have so many sticks in it for?”

B. “Those are what we call _frames_ for the bees to build their combs on; each frame separately giving them the means by which the combs may be removed from the hive, for the purpose of making artificial swarms, furnishing honey from the rich to the poor colonies and strengthening weak ones.”

Here the querist exclaims in perfect amazement: “What will the bees be doing while you are lifting their combs out?”

B. “If you treat the bees right they will not harm you; besides we can have a protection, made of wire cloth, or what is more handy, a piece of bobbinet to place over the face; and by keeping the hands wet, the bees will not sting, unless they are badly treated.”

Q. “What a fool I have been. I have kept bees all my life, and never before knew what I needed. I suppose if you can lift out the combs, as you say you can, you could find the king’s house and perhaps the king himself?”

B. “There is no such bee in the hive.”

Q. “What! no king bee! Why I always understood that a colony of bees without a king and ruler, whose mandates are strictly obeyed, will not be worth anything.”

B. “The bee you allude to is the mother of the colony and is called the queen; but she has no house or particular spot in the hive in which she dwells. The worker-bees, however, construct what are called queen-cells, in which queens are reared; but they never remain in them, except only while in embryo.”

Q. “Why, Mr. B., you seem to know as much about bees as the man I heard a neighbor speak of. He said there was a man living in Iowa that reared king bees (perhaps you would call them queen bees) of a superior and different kind from the common bee, and brought from some other country.”

B. “Yes, we rear our own queens, or in other words we cause the bees to do so, by our artificial process. This we do for the purpose of furnishing fertilized queens to old stocks, when their queens are taken away, as is the case in producing artificial swarms.”

Q. “Then you can make bees swarm, and rear queens at your will?”

B. “Yes.”

Q. “But do you never find a hive that is not in the notion of swarming? I always thought that bees knew when they wanted to swarm, better than man did.”

B. “Bees have only instinct, and were not intended in the beginning to produce their own swarms. They were created for the benefit of man, and if that had been the way swarms were intended to be made, they would be made in conformity with natural laws that govern them, and swarming would always be successfully performed in perfection. Man was given knowledge, by means of which it was intended he should manage his bees in his own way, independent of any will they may have. The penalty for man’s neglect in this respect is the loss of his bees in various ways--such as swarming and departing to parts unknown, loss of queen, extermination by robbing, &c. Man, therefore, endowed with knowledge and judgment, knows more of the management, for his benefit, of the internal parts of the hive, than the bees, with mere instinct, can possibly know.”

Q. “I perceive, sir, that these are the days of our ignorance spoken of in Holy Writ, though I was never able to see it till now. Some of my neighbors, a few years ago, purchased bees which were in common boxes and gums. They brought them home and set them down in a remote corner of the yard or garden, to live or die, as they might or could, with no attention whatever, except when the time came to secure some of their delicious stores, which, with shame I confess, is the practice in all the neighborhood now.”

B. “Your statement is only too true, if indeed the facts are not worse.”

This is a fair specimen of the questions asked by common bee-keepers.

While the inventive genius of the age has given power to water in the form of steam, causing the face of the earth to be alive with machinery and wheels that are almost daily circumscribing its surface at lightning speed--yea, the lightning itself has, as it were, been snatched from the heavens and made to do the bidding of man--yet the bee-hive, till within the last fifteen years, has in a measure remained as it may have been in the garden of Eden. The invention of the frames was the dawn of a new era in bee-keeping, by means of which we have advanced step by step up the hill of science to the present advanced stage, while progression still looms up and fades away in the distance. The mysteries of the hive that remained hidden from the beginning till now, are, many of them, solved and being solved, and all the various causes of the destruction of colonies plainly disclosed. The practical man, properly informing himself, need not lose a hive; while, in the old way, twenty-five per cent, of all the bees kept in the country are lost every year. While we have reached these advances, there are many things yet in embryo, that will be reached by and by--such as the control of fertilization, which enables the bee-keeper to select both queens and drones, and secure the purity of the race we prefer to cultivate. We also expect a forcing-box, hiver, and swarmer, all combined; and means which will enable the bee-keeper to compel a plurality of queens in every colony, without division, in the same apartment.

But I am wandering from my purpose, which was simply to start the inquiry--how shall we reach, and dispense the necessary knowledge among those who still keep their bees in unimproved hives? The State governments should foster bee culture as they foster other agricultural pursuits. Why not have a separate department for bee culture in every State, under the charge of a man qualified to superintend it and diffuse its advantages in the community? In some of the German States the number of hives will average hundreds to the square mile, and that too in soil comparatively sterile. How was this brought about? Simply by encouraging and fostering the business. And cannot the American States produce the same results? Millions of barrels of honey go to waste annually in this country, merely from the want of bees to gather the nectar of flowers. What, say you, bee-keepers of Iowa, shall we not make a united effort to secure the means by which those who have bees in our beautiful State shall be furnished with power (knowledge) to effect the gratifying change? The bees of every hive now in the State, producing ordinarily ten, twenty, or thirty pounds, may be made to produce annually from one hundred to two hundred pounds.

Mr. Gallup will please accept our thanks for his practical and instructive communications in the Journal. Will he not favor us with an article on this subject. Let Iowa be the first to take a stand in favor of promoting bee culture.

J. W. SEAY.

_Monroe, Iowa._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Argo’s Puzzle.

R. M. Argo has found a job for Gallup.

That bees will sometimes build worker-comb when there is no queen present is a positive fact, but the rule is almost invariably drone comb. The fact that they built one-third drone comb is no proof that they did not have an old queen. If they are gathering honey abundantly, they are very apt to build too much drone comb; and sometimes they do so in such cases, even with a young prolific queen. But with such a queen, when they are gathering just sufficient to build comb and store but little honey, the rule is almost invariably worker comb exclusively.

That bees will frequently make preparations for swarming immediately after being hived is another positive fact, especially when the season is good and the newly hived swarm is large. The first case of the kind that came under my observation, occurred a number of years ago in Canada. I hived an extra large swarm for a neighbor, sometime in the forenoon. About four o’clock in the afternoon the shout came across the mill stream, “my bees are going off!” I left all, and followed them to a large pine stub. I cut down the stub, split it open, took out the bees, put them in the same hive. That night they were sold as an _unlucky_ swarm, removed 3½ miles, and in just eight days from the time they were replaced in the hive, they sent out a large swarm, which left for the woods. The bees then belonged to my cousin. They left on Saturday. On Sunday I went to church close by my cousin’s, and he informed me that his bees had filled their hive and swarmed, and the swarm left for parts unknown. I was rather incredulous, but after church went and made an examination. Sure enough, the hive was completely filled and several sealed queen cells were in sight, with several more unsealed near the bottom of the comb. The hive was a box twelve inches square by fourteen inches high, and when the swarm was hived I had to put on a large box before the bees could all be got in the hive. That box was nearly filled with comb, but the bees that went off took the honey with them. On the fifteenth day they sent out a second swarm. So much for purchasing an _unlucky_ swarm!--Since then I have had several cases of the same kind come under my observation; one in the summer of 1868, and another this summer. The one in 1868 was not a large swarm, and they did not fill their hive before sending out a swarm. The case this season was a large artificial swarm made by putting together bees from several hives, with a queen.--I should be strongly inclined to think that, in your case, they started queen cells for the purpose of superseding the old queen. When a queen has begun to fail at about swarming time, and forage is abundant, they cast a swarm. In my case, in 1868, it was no doubt caused by the bees superseding the old queen. I had a case this season, where the first swarm came out with a young queen, leaving the old queen in the hive, with plenty of sealed queen cells. In another case, when making an artificial swarm, I found the old queen and a young one both, fertile, with several sealed queen cells.

E. GALLUP.

_Orchard, Iowa._

* * * * *

The amputation of _one_ of the antenna of a queen bee appears not to affect her perceptibly, but cutting off both these organs produces a very striking derangement of her proceedings. She seems in a species of delirium, and deprived of all her instincts; everything is done at random; yet the respect and homage of her workers, towards her, though they are received by her with indifference, continue undiminished. If another in the same condition be put in the hive, the bees do not appear to discover the difference, and treat them both alike; but if a perfect one be introduced, even though fertile, they seize her, and keep her in confinement, and treat her very unhandsomely. “_One may conjecture from this circumstance, that it is by those wonderful organs, the attennæ, that the bees know their own queen._”

* * * * *

That which is profitable only to the speculating business, though it be theoretically plausible, deserves not to be recommended or accepted, if it be not calculated to produce beneficial results to the practical bee-keeper.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] My method and the use of Dr. Davis’ QUEEN NURSERY.

[2] Oranges, bananas, pineapples, and other tropical fruits are forced in hot-houses; but they never reach the size, flavor, or perfection of nature.

[3] In a subsequent communication in Vol. V., No. 10, Mr. B. says that in place of old woollen garments, he covered the frames last winter “with a sort of cotton batting comforters made precisely like a comforter for a bed; and that he likes these much better than old carpeting or old clothes.” He had one made for each hive, costing about twenty cents a piece. “By lifting one corner of these comforters, the condition of the hive can be seen at a glance. The bees are always found clustered up against these warm comforters, and communicate over the tops of the frames, instead of through the winter passages.”

[4] Shortly thereafter merged in the American Bee Journal.

[Transcriber’s Note:

Obvious printer errors corrected silently.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]