156 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The most effective antidote which I have found for bee 

 stings, is to place several folds of linen over the puncture, and 

 keep it constantly saturated with vinegar until the swelling and 

 pain subside. Although the bee has such a powerful weapon of 

 defense, it falls an easy prey to its enemies; chief among these 

 are the toad, bee moth and the ant. The toad so beneficial to 

 the garden will calmly station itself on the lighting board, close 

 to the entrance, and deliberately catch the bees as they come in. 

 Previous to bee-keeping we had been pleased to have toads about 

 the premises, but soon they became such voracious bee eaters 

 that we captured all we could find and carried them to the 

 extreme part of the farm, but they soon found their way back; 

 then they were put in paper bags and dropped miles away, near 

 gardens where there were no bees. Even the sunshine • loving 

 dragon fly, that flits so gracefully over the marshy pools, where 

 the beautiful purple iris, and dainty arrowhead grow, must be 

 added to the list of bee enemies. 



It not infrequently happens that a colony becomes queenless, 

 and though other colonies are hard at work, the queenless family 

 is not only idle but despondent. Several years ago we had one 

 in this condition. A neighbor who was cutting out extra queen 

 cells to prevent swarming, put six of them in a glass jar and sent 

 them to us. Four hatched on the way, two of which were 

 immediately killed by the others; evidently a survival of the 

 fittest. We went to the hive and placed one of the queens near 

 the entrance. The workers seized and carried her away in an 

 instant. Then the other queen was carefully placed at the 

 entrance. She was at once surrounded and borne triumphantly 

 into the hive. 



From the first to the middle of April, bees begin to gather 

 pollen, although six years ago we noted that they brought the 

 first the 17th of March, and they continue to gather it all 

 through the season. That from clover is known as "bee bread." 

 In our garden we have a large clump of the beautiful fall aster 

 which remained in bloom until the last of October. Every day 

 as soon as the flowers were open it was covered with bees gath- 

 ering pollen, always on the sunny side. It was delightful to 

 stand and watch them ; not only the honey bee was there, but 

 the bumble-bee, the little wild bee and innumerable butterflies. 



