18S2 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



485 



brood-chamber or on top, and on^y i sections to the 

 case; a hoop-iron frame for suspending same in 

 brood-chamber, and a tap and rod t ) clamp same to- 

 gether on top. C. H. Deane. 

 Mortonsville, Ky., Aug. :.'!, 188:i. 



But, friend Deane, may I suggest that our 

 arrangement, used as you have hgured yours, 

 M'ill be much cheaper than to use the nine 

 wide frames? Take two wide frames, and 

 then for tiie upper story use two of the com- 

 bined shipping and honey crates, and we 

 have, as the total expense for the 72 sec- 

 tions, only two wide frames, 8c, and two 

 empty crates, 47c, or o5c in all, in place of 

 the S1.2(i. If we go in for cheapness, the 

 fewer wide frames for sections the better ; 

 but as they hang right into an upper or low- 

 er story, and hold separators just where 

 wanted, a good many hold to them, in spite 

 of the expense. As the Deane system is 

 now before us, the public will soon decide 

 which they want. Before another season we 

 shall all have ample time to study well these 

 points. Friend Crilly, of whom I have spo- 

 ken in this number, sets his one-pound sec- 

 tions right on the frames, and tiers them up 

 two high, without any kind of a case or fix- 

 tures, and he gets beautiful honey. 



HONEY-DE^V. 



SEND you some pawpaw leaves on which are 

 drops of some sweet substance, I presume usu- 

 ally called honej--dew, the large drops dripping 

 from the tall trees; the small ones — well, I will not 

 say how they came there. The woods are roaring 

 with bees every day. My bees are stoiing honey, 

 and building out fdn. in an unusual way for this 

 lime of year. The honey crop is light. 



H. R. BOARDMAN. 



East Townsend, Huron Co., O., Aug. 28, 1883. 



We have had the heaviest honey-dew in this part 

 of the moral vineyard that the oldest men with 

 whom I have talked ever saw, and it has lasted four 

 weeks, and still continues, but not so heavily. It 

 would have done you good to witness it. I have seen 

 a good many men's theories on the same, and I had 

 mine. I don't think I can tell what produces it. It 

 is a wonderful thing, and has made bees do a good 

 many curious things. I heard of one man being 

 away from home, and left a window open, and a run- 

 away swarm went into his house and found a knot- 

 hole in the ceiling, and went to work between the 

 joists, and some others had swarms go in between 

 weather-boarding and studding, at a knot-hole. Lots 

 of bees in the woods; one of my neighbors has found 

 twelve colonies. A. J. Woolverton. 



Hopkins, Nodaway Co., Mo., August, 1882. 



IT DROPS OFF THE LEAVES IN STRINGS. 



According to your suggestions, I have been in- 

 vestigating the honey-dew question. For at least a 

 month my bees have been gathering stores from the 

 woods, and for some time I supposed there was 

 some buckwheat field on beyond; but upon inquiry 

 I learned that there was none sown this season for at 

 least four or five miles in the dii-ection of their 

 flight. Then I thought of the honey-dew. So, on 

 the 4th of this month I had occasion to cross the 

 woods, to which my bees appeared to go, when my 

 attention was attracted by a loud humming in the 



trees. Upon examination I saw a beech-tree lit- 

 erally alive with bees. The numbers were so great 

 I at first thought there might be a swarm in the 

 tree; but after watching them a little while I dis- 

 covered that they were gathering something from 

 the leaves. I pulled down a limb, and the leaves on 

 their upper sides were dotted and splashed over 

 with a clear sticky fluid, which was very sweet to 

 the taste. This I decided was the veritatle honey- 

 dew, and also that it came from above, because that 

 it was to be found on the upper surface of the 

 leaves, and also that it had fallen, as the blotch had 

 spread, or splashed; but how far from above it had 

 its origin, I could not then determine. 



This morning I renewed my investigations, and 

 found larg3 quantities of honey-dew. I even found 

 it on a limb, on which it had dropped and collected 

 an inch and a half long, and evaporated till it was 

 as stiff as very thick honey. I scraped enough off 

 to make a bunch as big as a medium-sized bean, and 

 the leaves of the trees looked in the sunlight as if 

 they had been varnished. That which I found to- 

 day was not so sweet as on the 4th of September. I 

 found it in the largest quantities on the beech. I 

 could see very little on maple, or any other kind of 

 timber. I invariably found limb or leaf lice close 

 by, and in connection with it. Where the timber 

 was entirely free from these insects, the honey-dew 

 was very scarce. 



A neighbor of mine, Mr. Bishop, tells me he found 

 the oak leaves covered with it, and his bees left all 

 else for it. Another neighbor told me that about 

 the first of this month he found it on the grass in 

 his woods pasture; he said it had the appearance of 

 grease on the grass. Now, I never saw the lice on 

 any kind of timber but beech, and I never found 

 the dew very far away from the lice. I will send 

 you some of the leaves. The leaves with the holes 

 in, I got on the 4th inst., between one and two 

 o'clock in the day; the others, about ten o'clock to- 

 day, Sept. 13. R. McCrory. 



Jerome, Union Co., O., Sept. 13, 1883. 



Two pairs of beech leaves were inclosed in 

 the above letter, so stuck together that, when 

 separated, they drew the honey-dew out in 

 strings, and it was as sweet to the taste as 

 very thick honey right from the hives, for 

 aught I could see. The honey-dew this sea- 

 son has been unprecedented, and several 

 samples have been sent. Mr. J. Pierce, of 

 Granger, Medina Co., O., had some jars of it 

 at the fair, nearly as black as tar, but the 

 flavor was not unpleasant. We have a jar of 

 it now, among our samples of honey. The 

 taste is a sort of rich licorice sweet. It is 

 not always so dark, for I have seen some 

 honey - dew comb honey that was rather 

 lighter in color than the average buckwheat 

 honey. It seems now that the great bulk of 

 the honey-dew at least, is the work of aphi- 

 des. These insects feed upon the leaves of 

 the trees, and convert the starch and woody 

 fiber into sugar (or honey, rather), and the 

 operation is not unlike that which the chem- 

 ist performs when he converts sawdust into 

 starch and then sugar, only they make a 

 short cut in the business by chewing up the 

 leaves and exuding the sweet water, which, 

 striking on the limbs, is in just the right 

 shape to be evaporated by the hot summer 

 sun, until it becomes thick honey ready for 

 the bees. Yesterday I saw a lot of black 



