1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



453 



of the honey crop. This is on a par with 

 losing a colony berause of disappointment 

 in setting a (pieen. Give the bees brood, 

 and let them raise a (jueen of some kind, by 

 all manner of means ; and this should be 

 done with any qneenless stock. Where there 

 is a will tliere is a. way ; and a bee-man 

 wants a will, if anybody does. 



WHITEWASH FOIJ liEE - FEED (?) ETC. 



I told you in the spriiij? I had got one swiirm of 

 bct-s. T now have live that are doing nicely. My lit- 

 tle apiary looks very much like your vineyard, on 

 a small scale. Mj' grapevines are making quite a 

 shade. After I had painted the hives all nice and 

 white, Mr. Bragg made mo some boards to put on 

 the top as sun-shades, and as they were not planed I 

 could not paint them. So I mixed water lime and 

 skimmed railk, and took the whitewash brush and 

 washed them, and they look whiter than the hives, 

 and it will not wash off. While I was doing this, one 

 little bee came and sat on the boards all the while I 

 was at work. When done, it went off and 1 took my 

 brush and put it in a basin to soak, an<l set it at the 

 back door. But the next morning, on stepping out, 

 I could hardly find a place to walk without treading 

 on bees. They had taken possession of the white- 

 wash brush. I told our folks they had taken a fancj' 

 to the outside of their hives, and meant to clean up 

 on the inside. They worked at it all day. A man 

 saw them, and he called to me and said my bees 

 were swarming, and so it did seem all daj'. Was it 

 the milk or lime thcj' were after? 



I love my bees more every day, and I am glad to 

 tell you their sting does not hurt me. I think I can 

 saj% as my girl did, the more they stung her, the bet- 

 ter she liked them. A. M. BuAna. 



Viola, Wis., July ti'.i, U'S.'J. 



I can not think, friend 11. , what the bees 

 should want of either lime or skimmed milk 

 and would suggest that it was perhaps only 

 the water they were after, the brush making 

 a convenient place for them to alight with- 

 out being drowned. I am very glad indeed 

 to hear your bees afford you so much pleas- 

 ure, and J trust it will ere long be profit with 

 the pleasure. 



THE VElIi THAT HAD A "PATCH" ON IT. 



^' Honor hriaht," iho first veil was all right, and I 

 never found it out until the last one came. Just to 

 look at it, it all looked just alike, and all of a color. 

 1 noticed that it was patched on one side, and, being 

 rather aristocratic, 1 always was particular to put 

 the patched side behind, and had it on, I presume, 

 fifty times, and never did find the silk part until the 

 new one came, so I ha\c sold it for 75 cents, which 

 find inclosed. That ekrk was not as bad as I feared 

 he was; besides, I said I knew a Yankee trick wher- 

 ever I see it, and at the same time had one with me 

 for months, and never stood round far enough to 

 see it. If you could only hear my wife go forme! 

 An honest man is said to be the noblest work of God. 

 James L. Waij..vu. 



Benton, Texas, July 13, 1882. 



The above illustrates how differently peo- 

 ple see things before they have been ex- 

 plained to them, or, rather, how differently 

 they don't see them sometimes. We have 

 for years been in the habit of putting a piece 

 of silk Jirussels net in the face of our best 

 veils, and when our friend accused us of 



having played a Yankee trick on him, by 

 charging him for the best veil and sending 

 one without any silk about it, I naturally 

 raised a breeze among the girls who make 

 and put them up. It transpires, as you see, 

 however, that the girls were all right, and 

 our friend was the one who was all wrong. 

 I think your wife must be an excellent wo- 

 man, friend W. Now the moral is, be slow 

 about tinding fault, and especially in decid- 

 ing that anybody has knowingly played a 

 " Yankee trick " on you. Charity "■ think- 

 eth no evil." 



I.EMON-HEADED DRONES. 



I send you by mail some Italian drones, which 

 have a peculiar head. Mr. Keller, a neighbor bee- 

 keeper, found them while looking at my bees, and 

 he says that he has kept bees for 30 years, and never 

 saw any thing like them before. They were raised 

 from a young queen hatched during the early part 

 of the season. Probably you have seen lemon-head- 

 ed drones before. I call them lemon-headed because 

 the head is about the color of a lemon. 



I am a young hand in the bee business. Have 

 three colonies. They are good workers, and are 

 coming laden with honey. B. F. Landes. 



Burlington, Ind., Aug. 3, 1883. 



The phenomenon is of rather frequent oc- 

 currence ; but for all that it is just as wonder- 

 ful that drones, and drones only, should 

 have heads of black, cherry red, lemon yel- 

 low, etc., and that, when this peculiarity is 

 seen, we almost invariably find all the drones 

 of that particular colony rejoicing in heads 

 all alike. The matter has been commented 

 on in our back volumes. 



SECTIONS holding 3J4 LBS. EACIL 



I want 1000 surplus sections. T prefer the dove- 

 tailed, made of such a size that three will exactly 

 fill up a Langstroth frame, which will give a capacity 

 of S;4 lbs. honey, generally. I want them right away, 

 a^< the richest honey harvest I ever saw is now upon 

 us, and I have used up the last section I have. 



I am well aware, friend P., that you get 

 more honey in these very large sections ; but 

 will you not have to sell them at a very much 

 lower ])rice ? And will they not also be 

 quite difficult of safe shipmenit ? 



CLIMATIC INFLUENCKS. 



I have long known that climatic influences work 

 great changes in animated peculiarities, and especi- 

 ally so in the insect tribe. The ant of California and 

 the ant of Texas, of same species, show different de- 

 grees of viciousness; and liees in Vermont, show lo- 

 cal distinctive characteristics from those of Tenn- 

 essee or Texas. Thus, comparing the distinctions 

 of the Italian and the black, as given by Mr. Lang- 

 stroth, does not find a parallel in the differences I 

 have noted between the Italian and the brown bee 

 of Arkansas. I attribute all this to climate and lo- 

 cality, not to errors of that close observer of bee 

 natures. If desirable, I will prei)are for you an ar- 

 ticle on these distinctions of bees in Arkansas. 



Geo. B. Petkus. 



Memphis, Tenn., July 3, 1883. 



I know that bees behave quite differently 

 in different localities, and we should be very 

 glad indeed to have the paper you mention, 

 on the subject. 



