24 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



after the others had jumped out, before she would 

 try the fence. She went over clear, but the plow 

 hunsT ag-ainst the fence, which was a strong post and 

 railing-. She jerked loose, however, and made for 

 the stables. At this time the sick man's youngest 

 brother, a boy about ten years old. was seen running 

 in the same direction, fighting bees, and squalling at 

 the top of his voif^e. He was called to open the gate 

 for the marc. Instead of opening the stable-lot 

 gate, he opened the yard-gate and the mare dashed 

 in and made for the house. She parsed through the 

 porch and entered the sick man's room. The first 

 damage she did was to dash his bowl of lobelia be- 

 hind the tire. She then i-an her head under the head 

 of his ]>ed, and drew it nearly to the middle of the 

 lloor. She kept up a continual kicking with both 

 hind feet at once. Several of her kicks came 

 very near to a new clock; .'ind to save the clock, 

 the sick man forced her around. She then directed 

 her heels to a large glass-door press, filled with glass 

 and queenswaro. Two or three kicks demolished 

 the doors, and the most of the contents of the press. 

 She was then forced out, and jumpingthe yard fence 

 she ran into a stable where she put her head under 

 the trough and continued to kick for about aquarter 

 of an hour. When the liees had cleared the field, 

 which they did effectually, they returned to their 

 homes, and all was calm except the stings they had 

 intlicted. No lives were lost. The mare was the 

 worst used of all. She was covered with whelks 

 from her nose to her tail; but, after a few days, she 

 took her place before the plow. The old gobbler 

 was very badly used, and looked crest-fallen and 

 shame-faced for some days, when by degrees he as- 

 sumed his wonted self-importance, and, hoisting his 

 feathers, went on gobbling as usual. 



Now, Mr. Editor, if any of your correspondents 

 can beat this, and tell the truth as I have done (ex- 

 cept perhaps in some minor details), let him do it, 

 else let him hereafter hold his peace about bee ram- 

 pages. 



I had almost forgotten to say, that the bee scrape 

 proved a specific against the effects of lobelia. The 

 sick man did not think of his lobelia for more than 

 an hour afterward, and has not taken a dose of that 

 drug from that day to this. He, however, got well, 

 and attained the weight of 200 pounds, and he very 

 often writes for his name,— T. N. L. 



As our friend lias onimitted to append a 

 moral, I will suggest this: — Don't leave 

 horses " nosing " around bee hives while you 

 are getting breakfast. 



BEES AND GKAPES IN CALIFORNIA. 



BY the letters I receive, items from California 

 must be interesting to many of your readers. 

 The question has been repeatedly asked. Why 

 not locate an apiary in the valley, where bees can 

 gather forage the entire year? In the first place, 

 the honey is inferior to mountain honey; and in the 

 second place, bees destroy large quantities of fruit, 

 such as figs, peaches, and grapes. I know one man 

 here who kept his bees in the valley this season un- 

 til the fruit began to ripen, and then moved them 

 into the mountains. His product was about 100 lbs. 

 to the hive in the valley, and 30 lbs. each in the 

 mountain ^9'('50 lbs.), which he sold at from 7 to 8 cts., 

 right at home. He had 70 or 75 stands. But there is 

 considerable trouble and some expense in moving. 



Our grapes here are pi'obably as sweet, and per- 

 haps sweeter, than in any other portion of the globe, 

 and bees make sad havoc among them. It will not 

 do to tell a California raisin-maker that bees will not 

 injure grapes: he knows better, positively. 



WILD BEES IN CALIFORNIA. 



There are wild bees all through the valleys; but 

 where it is thickly settled they are usually found and 

 taken up. Still, new swarms are often found and 

 hived in nail-kegs, old boXes, etc. They build on 

 bushes, bunches of cactus, and in all conceivable 

 places. I found another good swarm on a two-year- 



old peach-tree, and hived them the 3d of October. 

 They were evidently intending to stay, as they had 

 commenced raising brood. I expected to have to 

 feed them, but they have kept right on building 

 comb, storing honey, and raising brood. Bees are 

 found on bushes here that evidently have been there 

 two or three seasons. 



The thermometer ranges in our coldest weather at 

 from 44° to 50° in the morning, to 78° at noon; occa- 

 sionally it gets lower, but not often; and since I 

 have been here (three years) we have averaged about 

 five rainy days in the year. The most of our rains 

 come in the night. One man found a swarm on a 

 willow bush. The comb was about two feet long, 

 horizontally, and one foot perpendicularlj' (0 sheets). 

 You see, they built Langstroth style. It was an old 

 swarm. I found one swarm in an owl's-nest in the 

 ground; two in badger holes; three in squirrel holes 

 (all in the ground), and 1 have not spent two hours 

 hunting. I stumbled right on to them. Now, the 

 above will explain why bees can be picked up all 

 through the valley at from 50 cents to one dollar per 

 stand. E. Gallup. 



Santa Ana, Cal., Nov. 14, 1881. 



COIWPARATIVE HARDINESS AND I.ON- 



OEVITV OF AVORKER BEES FROm 



DIFFERENT QUEENS. 



A NEW FIELD FOll INVESTIGATION. 



flKIEND ROOT : — I, too, have been experiment- 

 ing with my bees. I am an A B C scholar with 

 ■ three years' schooling; have studied Quinby, 

 ABC, Prof. Cook, L. C. Root, Gleanings 3 years, 

 A. B. J. do., and yet I have not seen the first word 

 written in reference to the longer life of one queen's 

 worker bees over another. Every one wants a pro- 

 lific queen — one that will keep the hive full of 

 brood. Doolittle says, " Have the brood so it comes 

 out to the side-bars of the frames; even the cells 

 bordering on the bars at both sides and top should 

 have brood in them, and do not stop short of this. 

 If you have queens that will not keep the hive filled 

 with brood like this, replace them with those that 

 will." That, of course, is just splendid, and what 

 we all try to have. But suppose the life of those 

 bees is from 15 to 35 days; it will take all the honey 

 they can gather to rear the brood, without giving 

 us any surplus. Right here is where my experiment 

 comes in. 



From the tested queens received from you I chose 

 one for queens; another for drone-rearing. Intro- 

 duced them into No. 3 and 10,— two very strong 

 black colonies,— the former for queens, the latter 

 for drones. This spring, 1881, I commenced stimu- 

 lating with flour candy. 



On examination, about the middle of Feb., 1 found 

 them about of equal strength — rather the more 

 black bees in No. 10; brood in two frames of each 

 hive; gave a 1-lb. lump of flour candy on top of the 

 frames, and returned the packing. 



March 8th, again opened the hives; found brood 

 and eggs in 5 frames of No. 10; In No. 3, 4 frames not 

 quite so well filled out with btood and eggs. Ten 

 days later, the 18th, I overhauled them again. No. 

 10 had every available cell in the 6 frames filled with 

 brood and eggs, while No, 3 had only 4 frames fairly 

 filled, and a small patch in the 5th (both colonies 

 were wintered on 6 Quinby standing frames). I be- 

 gan to think that I had made a mistake, and that I 



