Part 5

I next visited Mr. Thompson, of Geneva. He is young in the bee business, but quite enthusiastic. Although he lost all his bees last winter, he was not discouraged, but tried again this season. Like most new beginners, he increased his stock rather too rapidly, especially in so poor a season as this has proved to be in that section generally. Bees, however, did somewhat better at Geneva than at St. Charles, only two miles away. At Batavia, the same distance below, the bees have done moderately well. Let me remark here that the rains, throughout the West, for the most part went in narrow streaks this season, especially in June, sometimes not over half a mile wide. This accounts for the difference in the condition of colonies in apiaries only a few miles apart.

I called on Mr. Way, at Batavia, and took a look at his bees and honey. He has a good supply of surplus white clover honey on hand, having been fortunate enough to be within the range of one of the seasonable rain streaks. The most of his colonies have honey enough to pass the winter safely, if they should not be able to gather any more. I was told that the good people of Batavia tried to get friend Way’s bees expelled from the city limits, as a nuisance, for fear they might possibly sting somebody!

AMONG THE HONEY DEALERS OF CHICAGO.

I do not think that the largest honey dealer in Chicago is doing the fair thing by his patrons--that is, if he wishes to do a permanent business and retain his best customers. He would rather buy honey in large boxes and frames, and then cut it into three or four small strips, put it in glass jars, and fill up the jars with inferior strained or Cuba honey. At the same time he discourages the bee-keepers from taking their honey from the combs with the melextractor, for the simple reason, I suppose, that he can make more money by straining the honey himself, as I was told he had a nice steam apparatus for fixing over strained honey.

As to the commission men, there are not many of them to be trusted, as it is seldom that honey is handled with the care it ought to receive; and when it gets to leaking, they sell it for any price they can get, in order to be rid of it.

There is a great fault, too, in the manner of shipping it, to have it go through in good shape, as the railroad men do not handle things very carefully. To get the best price from honest dealers, the box honey must be put up in neat, small boxes, weighing not over seven pounds gross; and to get a market established for extracted honey, it should be shipped to some reliable man; and the jars must be labelled with the quality of the honey and the name of the producer. Then the agent can recommend it to his customers, and warrant it pure; and all you have should be shipped exclusively to him. When properly put up, I do not think there is much to be feared from adulteration.

X.

_Fulton, Ill._, Sept. 5, 1870.

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A good swarm of bees, put in a diminutive hive, in a good season, may be compared to a powerful team of horses harnessed to a baby wagon, or a noble fall of water wasted in turning a petty water-wheel.--_Langstroth._

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Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Queen Raising.--Experience and Observations.

Too early last spring, I commenced by artificial means to raise queen bees. Using only about a pint of bees, they became chilled during the night, and would cluster in the corner or top of the hive, deserting the larvæ and the unhatched young. This was in March. During the latter part of the month of April, however, I succeeded admirably in hatching them; but two-thirds were lost on their wedding tours.

I had as many as six queen cells which were _to hatch_ on a certain day. I was not at home on that day, but returned late in the evening, and on examining No. 1 (a full colony), I found the queen had just emerged, the cap or end of the cell still clinging by a small particle of wax, and the queen on the same frame within a few inches of the cell. No. 2 had also hatched during the day, appearing to be a few hours older. No. 3 was then visited, which was in a nucleus, and I found only two worker bees in the hive,--the queen cell being still perfect. I had the evening before given this nucleus some strained honey, in a bungling manner, and did not contract the entrance of the hive as I should have done, and they were robbed. My wife, early in the morning, noticed unusual activity at this hive. The little family, I suppose, had helped to remove their limited stores to the hives of the robbers, and taken up their abode there, as usually occurs in such cases. But, to return to our queen cell, I removed it carefully and opened the end of it, when, to my surprise, out crawled the queen on my hand. Some honey was given to her, and in a few minutes she was quite lively. She was then introduced to a queenless colony, and was well received; but was lost on going out on the eighth day. No. 4 was not examined until the next day, when a nice Italian queen was moving amongst the workers; with as much dignity as belongs to one not yet having attained her majority. After an interval of about three days, I examined the hive and saw the queen every day until about the eighth, when late in the evening, after sunset, on examination I found she was gone. On closing the hive the bees came running out and showed all the signs of having recently lost their queen, such as are often seen; and kept up that distressing search by crawling over the hive and on the ground in its immediate vicinity until after dark. The hive was again examined with great scrutiny on the following morning, and she was not there. At eleven o’clock a natural first swarm issued from a hive of native brown bees in the apiary, and after flying around five minutes, clustered on the stem and at the root of a cherry tree. I proceeded to hive them, and when half the swarm had passed into the hive, I saw the black queen march in. Only a few minutes more elapsed before all the bees had gone in, except a little ball or lump the size of a partridge egg near the root of the tree. I stirred them up with a stick, thinking they were not cognizant of the fact that their queen had gone in and the house was prepared and ready for them; but they had no disposition to disengage themselves. Taking the ball of bees in my hand, I examined them and found they were clumped around my lost Italian queen. I dropped them in a pan of water, when every one let go its hold, and the queen was free and apparently unharmed. I returned her from whence she came, and in a few minutes the grieved family were buzzing their joyful wings at her return. In a subsequent examination on that day, she was crushed between two frames. The question arises, how she came to be with this native colony? I have my surmises, but will leave others to judge for themselves.

My experience has been that more Italian queens get lost in their attempts to meet the drones, than native black or brown queens. Of the superiority of the Italian or Ligurian workers, of their disposition, as well as that of the hybrids, I will speak at some other time. Did it ever occur to you, if the yellow-bearded Italians were natives of our country, and we had been used to looking at them all our lives, and the black were now just discovered and introduced, what praises would be heaped upon the _dub_ tails? Campbell uttered a truism when he said--“’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.” But do not set me down as against the yellow-jackets. I have been giving them a fair trial for two years--or, rather, an unfair one, for I have tried their strength and weakness, in dividing and subdividing; and when they are reduced to almost a handful, they work with a heroism really commendable.

And right here I wish to say that I think if the Rev. Mr. Briggs, whose article appeared in a former number of the Journal, alludes to queens sent out by Mr. Alley, of Massachusetts, and deems them not reliable by reason of their low price, he is mistaken. I ordered one from Mr. Alley, and through mistake he sent me two, either one of which, or their workers, will compare favorably with those of anybody. They are not, indeed, as long or as large as your index finger; but I have queens in my yard from various sources, and among them these are the prettiest. Time only will prove the working qualities of the laborers they produce.

WM. P. HENDERSON.

_Murfreesboro, Tenn._, Aug. 31, 1870.

[NOTE: The Italian queens are, from the brightness of their color, a much more “shining mark” when on the wing, than black queens. Hence, when out on their excursions, they are more liable to be “snapped up” by birds, and doubtless many are thus lost every year. Southern bee-keepers probably suffer more from this circumstance than their northern confreres, as insectivorous birds are more abundant with them.

In some portions of Italy the Ligurian bees were cultivated for centuries, side by side with the common or black bees; yet the difference between them, as regards color or quality, seems to have attracted no attention. But it must be borne in mind that bee-culture fell into decay there, after the fall of the Roman Empire, passing into the hands of a rude and ignorant peasantry. Whereas the superiority of the Ligurians and Cecropians was well known and appreciated in the classic period of the nominal republic. Since the revival of the bee business in Italy (to which it has largely contributed) the Ligurian bee has measurably recovered its pristine favor, and is getting to be preferred everywhere.--ED.]

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The yield of honey by various plants and trees depends not only on the character of the season, but on the kind of soil on which they grow.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Queen Nursery.

As the readers of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL are somewhat anxious to hear about the Queen Nursery, invented by Dr. Jewell Davis, of Charleston, Illinois, I will say that it is a perfect success. I have, since the first of June, kept mine running to its full capacity (twelve cages). I have allowed the queens to remain in the cages six or eight days after hatching. I now have his fertilizing attachment, but have not yet tested it. Young, unimpregnated queens can be introduced by Alley’s process, to any queenless colony. I will give a fuller report, and how to use it, this fall or winter. I consider it quite an advantage to save all natural queen cells, and hatch them out in the Nursery; and it is no disadvantage certainly to have a supply of young queens on hand, at so small an expense, to give to a natural or artificial swarm, at swarming time, even if they are not fertilized. When you can draw on your nursery for a queen, at any time at sight, it is quite an advantage; at least I consider it so. It is a positive fact that queens perish in their cells by the thousand, in the natural state, in extremely hot weather. In using the Nursery we can control this matter; for if the weather is extra hot, we place the Nursery in a small colony; and in a large strong one, if the weather is cool. Thus you will see that we have the hatching entirely under our own control, and it is not left to chance. The queen breeder can readily see the advantage of separating all his queen cells as soon as sealed over, and having them perfectly safe. I have kept my Nursery in a medium swarm, where they had a perfect queen breeding at the same time. As I said before, queens can be kept in the Nursery any length of time, with perfect safety. I place a small piece of comb containing honey in the cage, between the tins, then place the cell in the cage in a natural position and fasten it with a pin. A very slight fastening answers, as the bees cannot get at it to gnaw it down.

E. GALLUP.

_Orchard, Iowa_, July 15, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Paper Hives and Z. C. Fairbanks.

MR. EDITOR:--Don’t you think that Mr. Fairbanks seems a little cross as well as sharp. He says I assert in my first article what I contradict in my second on paper hives; and, worst of all, says I am to be numbered with the gentiles, whom Dr. Cox gulled to the tune of heavy sums. I deny the charge, and demand proof; though I will say for the benefit of brother Fairbanks, that I think the Doctor a _little_ too smooth for _profit_. But, to explain, we call the paper hive, of whatever form, Dr. Cox’s hive; and so should we call all movable frame hives, the Farmer’s box with Langstroth frames therein.

CHARLES HASTINGS.

_Dowagiac, Mich._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Looking-glass Again.

MR. EDITOR:--I have used the looking-glass often for arresting swarms, rarely failing; but _I have always used it in conjunction with the shotgun_. Used thus, it seems to induce in the bees the idea of an approaching storm, and that they ought to be securing a place of safety as quick as possible.

Out of a number of examples, I give the following:

A second swarm proved to be bent on emigrating, for on six consecutive days it left as many different hives. Each time it was brought to anchor by the looking-glass, &c. The last time the bees fell as if shot dead, at the flash and report. And for aught I know and saw, they might have kept trying to this day.

In some rare cases, however, I have failed to bring the swarm to settle.

My bees have swarmed heavily this year, and for a rarity seemed to select the tops of the highest trees to settle on, and then would often leave for the woods after hiving. Query, was there any connection between the two facts?

The early season, here, was superior for honey, up to the blooming of the white clover, which was very scarce, and almost devoid of honey. The weather has been hot and dry, and no honey since.

There has been no honey-dew since the war near me; whilst a large piece of woods, three miles off, seemed, two years ago, to be literally flowing with honey-dew, and alive with bees. The tract was three miles wide and five miles long, and alive with bees, throughout its whole extent, every day for several weeks. Did the bees of the country gather there?

Your paper is read with intense interest. Long may it live to contribute to the pleasure and profit of bee-keepers.

J. B. TOWNLEY.

_Red Hill Depot, Albemarle Co., Va._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Drouth, Bee Pasturage, and Queens.

The honey season has not been good, in this section of country, since the middle of June, in consequence of continued hot and dry weather. Two timely showers served to make a fair crop of corn, but did not much increase the secretion of honey--hence the bees have not gathered more in that period of time than to supply their daily consumption, and keep them brooding. These points I have watched closely. The white clover bloomed nearly two weeks earlier this year, than usual here; and, therefore, by the time the colonies had brooded up to the point of swarming, the chief honey harvest was gone. Hence, but few natural swarms came off, and most of these came near starving to death, and will require doubling up for wintering.

I made a number of artificial swarms, by taking a comb of brood, honey, and bees, from six full hives and putting them together into a new hive--using empty frames to fill the vacancy made in the old hives. The swarms thus made have done well, compared with natural ones, and will be in fair condition for winter.

It continues so dry yet that we cannot look for a large yield of honey, either from buckwheat or other flowers; nor, if we could, can we expect much honey to be stored in boxes, where comb has to be built to receive it, as the nights are becoming too cool for comb-building.

I have seen the bees work incessantly for two or three weeks, this season, upon the plant known as Carpenter’s Square, (SCROPHULAREA NODOSA MARILANDICA, _Nodose Scrophularia_, _Figwort_,) and also, as usual, on the Purple Polynesia, which appears to yield honey remarkably in hot and dry weather. In this vicinity, also, both the black and the Italian bees have worked on the red clover, during the last weeks of August. But, more than all this, our bees this season seemed compelled to visit the groceries for sugar and other sweets, to supply the lack of honey in the flowers, and have perished by thousands in their demoralized eagerness to obtain them.

From all this we have learned again the _necessity_ of cultivating more extensively some crops or plants that will yield honey in the usual barren interval between the failing of the white clover and the Alsike and the coming in of the buckwheat and fall flowers. The linden trees supply this in some localities, but not in ours--being too remote from them. Buckwheat sown about the first of June, will often fill this interval, and that sown a month later will make the fall pasturage. Thus, by a proper disposition of crops, we may, with favorable weather, make a continued honey harvest all the summer months; and, in unfavorable weather, secure at least a partial supply for the same period of time--thereby saving millions of bees from the demoralizing effects of visiting groceries, and the consequent loss of their lives.

This summer my bees have not been disposed to start as many queen cells as I desired; and, hence, after supplying all my colonies with queens, have not had as many as I wished, to experiment with in the various proposed methods of fertilization in confinement. But I have had enough to show me that under our present knowledge of these processes, none of them are as successful as is desirable for the purposes of the intelligent queen-raiser. I have learned, moreover, that by most of the methods employed the queens and drones become so excited, that, without fostering the disposition for mating (the purpose for which they are confined) they worry themselves to death in a very short time. To remedy this, I have made cages on the same plan of my Queen Nursery cages, but larger every way, with the covered way at one end converted into an _ante-chamber_ for the introduction of the drones at the proper season, without disturbing either the workers or the queen in the queen’s _parlor_. In this parlor we put two square inches of comb, filled with mature brood, and, over this, three inches square of comb filled with honey for feed; and in the vacant part of it, we suspend a queen cell sealed over. Then, after closing the door, place the cage in a populous stock of bees, for the queen and workers to hatch. Thus, by the time the queen hatches, she will have nearly a hundred workers in the cage with her, and will not become uneasy or excited to get out of the cage. She will thus remain quiet on the comb, until she is old enough to leave it and go in search of the drones. Near this hour the drones can be introduced by the little tin door at the bottom of the ante-chamber, that door closed again and the tin slide carefully removed. The drones and queen are thus let together, without excitement or disturbance. This cage may be made six inches long, by four inches deep, and one and a half inches wide. Then, by placing the comb in the middle, at the back end of the parlor, with the capped cells facing the wire sides, the bees can emerge from the cells and pass all around the comb.

From various experiments I am led to conclude that the above arrangement will approach nearer to the thing wanted, than any of the plans yet made public. I am, also, further convinced that much attention must be paid to the age of the young queen, and to the state of the weather, in order to secure fertilization in confinement. In fact, we must approach as near as possible to the natural state of the circumstances that govern the mating of queens and drones. I may say, in addition, that it is evident some queens will mate earlier than others, if not hindered by bad weather. The meeting of the queens and drones must not be attended by any circumstances calculated to cause either of them to become alarmed and seek release from confinement; for if thus alarmed or excited, they will worry themselves to death in a few hours, or forget all their natural instinct for mating or fertilization. On the plan above described the queen feels at home where she was hatched, with her hundred associates around her, and under careful management, not liable to become excited. The drones alone are liable to be in any degree alarmed under this method; and I find this is quickly removed by letting them into the presence of a few workers, as in the above case. If done quietly, little excitement need occur.

JEWELL DAVIS.

_Charlestown, Ill._, Sept. 5, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bee-keeping Advancing.

MR. EDITOR:--We are doing a fine thing in the bee business here this season. We (my brother and I) are creating quite an interest in bee-culture around here, by the use of our Hruschka. The way we sling the honey out is a caution. We have obtained six hundred and twenty-five (625) pounds of extracted honey, and six hundred and fifty (650) pounds of box honey from eight colonies of bees, and have increased them to twenty-two; and all the hives are full of honey now--the result of scientific bee-culture.

Old fogy bee-keepers begin to open their eyes, and think that bee-keeping is not all mere _luck_. The light begins to shine, and bee-keeping is advancing.

The Italian bees are more and more approved, and taking the place of the black bees; and I am in hopes we shall in a short time have none but Italians around here.

We have tried friend Alley’s plan of introducing queens with tobacco smoke, and failed several times, simply because we did not smoke the bees enough. We introduce now successfully with tobacco by smoking them till they are nearly stupefied, and then they will receive the queen without fail. We find the Italians will receive a queen quicker or more readily than the black bees, without any smoking. The Italians are better every way than the blacks. They are as much in advance of the latter as the mowing machine is in advance of the scythe.

D. L. COGGSHALL, JR.

_West Groton, N. Y._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

A Visit to Palmer Bros’ Apiary, and What I Saw There.

I lately went to visit the apiary of Palmer Bros., at New Boston, in Mercer county. When I came near the house I saw a lot of beehives nicely arranged in rows, north and south, and east and west. They were some eighty in number, I think. The inmates of the house were two very pleasant, clever young men, keeping bachelor’s hall. My team was put up and cared for, and we had an interesting talk about bees, beehives, and raising queens.

After dinner the honey-slinger was brought out. It is one of their own getting up, and does well the work it is intended for. A hive was opened, some frames removed, and about twenty pounds of very nice honey slung out in ten minutes.

On returning home and having a good night’s sleep, I went into my own apiary next morning with new spirits.

J. BOGART.

_Eliza, Ill._, Aug. 3, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

MR. EDITOR:--You may remember that in the Bee Journal for September, 1869, Mr. George P. Kellogg, of Waukegan, Ill., gave out a very broad challenge to bee-keepers. In the October number, I accepted his challenge; but since that time we have not heard from Mr. Kellogg, through the Journal. Now it is due that he should withdraw his proposition, or meet us at the State Fair, in Michigan, and take an oyster supper, and pay the printer; or cry “_peccavi!_” and I will pay the printer. What say you, brother Kellogg?

We have had an excellent honey season in northern Wisconsin, so far, this summer; with a prospect of its continuing until frost comes. Success to the enterprise, and the Journal.

A. A. HART.

_Appleton, Wis._, Aug. 6, 1870.

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