450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



HOLY'LiANDS AND CYPRIANS. 



Please ask neighbor H. to give us his experience 

 and opinion of Holy-Lands and Cyprians. I bought 

 a queen of each last season of him. My Cyprian 

 queen produces the nicest and gentlest bees I have, 

 but I see no way to distinguish them from Italians 

 in appearance. The Holy- Land bees are small, 

 white, and easily distinguishable by appearance and 

 behavior. I believe they cause me no trouble until 

 I begin to shake or brush them from the combs; 

 but then no amount of smoke tvill make them docile. 



♦ S. W. MOItRISON, 50. 



Oxford, Chester Co., Pa., July 10, 1882. 



I think neighbor 11. has no different opin- 

 ion to express from what he has ah'eady giv- 

 en, and tlie method ot distinguishing the 

 three races are just about what you give, 

 only you have omitted to mention the golden 

 shield found on the Cyprians. Tiie matter 

 of identifying now becomes more dillicult, 

 as we have had no recent importations, and 

 most of our Cyprians and Holy-Lands are 

 more or less crossed with Italian blood. 

 The Holy-Lands are not all so cross, but I 

 believe they generally drop from the combs, 

 without adhering, as the Italians do. 



BEES ON THE OAKS, AGAIN, AND IN THE STATE OF 

 MICHIGAN TUG. 



Bees have been doing well on basswood the last 3 

 or 4 days, and are getting a nice lot of honey — also 

 some honey-dew. I saw the bees at work on an oak- 

 tree near by, and I found that the leaves were cov- 

 ered with honey-dew. They did not make a very 

 great amount of honey to spare. They have in- 

 creased very well. I commenced the season with 23 

 colonies — 10 good ones and rather light. 1 have 

 now 45 good colonies. 1 lost one swarm; they came 

 out, and I hived them all right on some comb, and 

 the queen began to lay, and the next day they came 

 out and went away. N. V. Goounoe. 



North Lansing, Mich., July 3;5, 1882. 



queen LAYING WHEN FOUR DAYS OLD. 



In pinching out queen-cells last week, I took one 

 with a large piece of comb, but tore the cell half 

 open on its side. I saw the (luecn was nearly ready 

 to hatch, and saw her move. I put the cell on top 

 of frames in a small queenless colony ia the fore- 

 noon; at 2 P.M. I saw her hatch. Bees seemed very 

 glad to get the cell, and helped her out as well as 

 they could. She was large and yellow, being the 

 grand-daughter of the queen I got from you two 

 years ago. In four days she was laying in true 

 straight style. D. C. Avars. 



Moawequa, Shelby Co., 111., July 25, 1883. 



The above is a little remarkable. Ours do 

 not usually lay until about ten days old, al- 

 though we occasionally hnd them laying at 

 seven or eight days. 



GREASE OFFENSIVE TO KEES, ETC. 



St)me years ago I purchased two or three stands of 

 bees, and by the end of the swarming season I had 

 seven or eight; but by the next spring I was in a 

 worse condition than your forlorn gentleman pic- 

 tured on page 284 of your ABC Book. I had not 

 one left — all dead or absconded. So I gave up 

 bee-raising till this spring, when I bought 4 stands. 

 I brought them home, about a mile; they went 

 to work, and I now have 13. All seem to be in 

 a prosperous condition. 1 have taken about 100 



lbs. of honey from the first four hives. I have 

 had two swarms abscond. And, by the way, I 

 have heard more of this during the past season than 

 ever before, more or less every day. One of these 

 was a swarm that my brother-in-law found In my 

 orchard near my bee-yard on Sabbath moining (a 

 rover, I supposed), and being scarce of hives we Im- 

 provised a little keg, and he was just hiving them 

 when our preacher rode up, it being his day for 

 preaching at our little church near by. The bees 

 were soon hived, and we repaired to the church 

 where we heard a most excellent sermon. Late in 

 the evening I walked out to see what my bees were 

 doing, when, lo and behold! I found them all in a 

 pile on the ground. I at once concluded they did 

 not like the home given them, so I hunted up an old 

 gum in which many a colony had been raised, and 

 said to myself, "Now you will be content," and I 

 put them in it, and they raised a hum of seeming 

 delight. Here they remained about three days. On 

 the fourth day I went out lo see them again, and 

 they were gone, when and where 1 know not. When 

 I came to examine the gums from which these 

 swarms had left, 1 found that sonic of the planks of 

 which they were made were greasy. So I determin- 

 ed this to be the cause. I then scorched the inside 

 of each with blazing shucks, and afterward put 

 other colonies in these same hives, and they went 

 to work and are now doing well. Think you it 

 was the grease that was the causcof the absconding? 

 Do you think there is any harm in hiving bees on the 

 Sabbath? J. F. Clarke. 



Garth, Ala., July 20, 1882. 



Grease is offensive to bees ; and further, 

 it is dangerous to all insects, for it stops 

 tlieir breathing- pores, :nid causes death, 

 even a very little of it.— Jjy all means hive 

 bees on the Sabbath, just as you would give 

 any kind of stock all needed care that could 

 not be given ou week days. Of course, we 

 should make it a point lb make tiiese Sun- 

 day labors as brief as consistent, and should 

 have all things in readiness with that end in 

 view. 



THAT NIOW HONEY-PLANT, " WAX IVY." 



I suppose this is the wax-plant of this country. It 

 is a honey-plant in England and Scotland — Houa 

 crt)»ii).srt (after a Mr. Hoy, at one time gardener to 

 the Duke of Northumberland, in Surrj', England), 

 caniosifs, Heshy, if I remember aright. You need 

 not be shy of it on account of shy blooms; just try 

 it on the back wall of jour greenhouse; give it a 

 turfy loam, with some well-decomposed leaf mold; 

 leave the flowers, and they will astonish you by 

 blooms from the same stems. Cuttings left to dry 

 two or three days will root readily. But do not 

 make too much ado about it until you have tried 

 half an acre of California privet in rows six feet 

 apart and fovir feet apart in the raw; and if you do 

 not have better bee pasture than linden, you will 

 have one of its most successful rivals. It will last 

 six times as long in bloom, and I think produces 

 more Howrets than the linden, and by careful prun- 

 ing you can have about as many panicles of bloom 

 as you please. Try a specimen or two, and thank 

 somebody for the advice. G. W. Thompson. 



Stelton, N. J., July, 1883. 



AVe are thankful for the advice already, 

 friend T., but would be still more so if you 

 or somebody else would send us some roots 

 of that California privet, and send in his 



