1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



sweet. Yes, right here he speaks of two kinds 

 of broom — the common and the Spanish. Quot- 

 ing from Mr. Bradley, wiiom I mentioned be- 

 fore as a celebrated gardener who lived a centu- 

 ry before Mr. Mills did, " An acre of Spanish 

 broom will afford honey and wax enough for 

 ten good stocks of bees." He speaks of flowers 

 as '• making wax," but perhaps he means in the 

 sense that clover makes butter. 



Concerning the removal of bees to new loca- 

 tions to get the honey, Mr. Mills says, on the 

 authority of Pliny, the celebrated Roman writ- 

 er who lost his life in the pursuit of science, at 

 the time Mount Vesuvius covered the cities of 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii, Aug. '24, a.d. 79: 



As soon as the spring food for bees has failed in 

 tlie valleys near ovir towns, the liives of bees are put 

 into boats, and carried up ajiaiiist the stream of the 

 river, in the iiiglit, in searcli of ln'tter pasture. Tlie 

 bees go out in the miming, ill quest of provisions, 

 and return regularly to their liives in the boats, 

 witli tlie stores they have collected. This method is 

 continued till the sinking of the boats to a certain 

 depth in the water shows tliat the hives are suffi- 

 ciently full; and they are then carried back to their 

 former homes, where the honey is taken out. 



In speaking of Egypt thi^ same thing is re- 

 peated in substance. Those who have Glean- 

 ings for 1889 will find, on page 83. another ac- 

 count which I translated from a German jour- 

 nal; also a good picture. The original of this 

 German account is here found in Mr. Mills' 

 book, so I find that I did considerable of this 

 work ovei' four years ago. He speaks in detail 

 of how bees in France were prepared for mov- 

 ing. Hi^ considers the whole plan as very ad- 

 vantageous under some circumstances. There 

 is no need of telling here how the Greeks and 

 Romans, even before our era. took honey and 

 yet saved the bees; but here is a passage rela- 

 tive to the famous honey of Mount Hymettus, 

 from the travels of a Mr. Wheeler, in Greece: 



Mount Hymettus is celebrated for the best honey 

 in all Greece. We ate of it very freely, finding it to 

 he very good, and were not at all incommoded with 

 any gi'ipings after it. This mountain was not less 

 famous ill times past for bees and admiralile honey, 

 the ancients believing that bees were first bred here, 

 and that all other bees were but colonies from this 

 mountain; which, if so, we assured ourselves that 

 it must be from this part of the mountain that the 

 colonies were sent — botli because the iioney here 

 made is the best, and that here they never destroy 

 tlie bees. It is of a good eonsistence, of a fair gold 

 color, and the quantity sweetens more water than 

 the like quantity of any other doth. The natives 

 wondered at my comrade, in that he preferred the 

 white honey of France, telling him that white honey 

 is raw, and not rightly concocted either by nature 

 OE the bees. 



Mr. Mills says that, where aromatic nowers 

 abound, much honey can be gathered, as sheep 

 will not eat such. He quotes from one writer 

 who refers to the prodigious number of bees in 

 Spain as being entirely attributable to the fact 

 that that country abounds in aromatic flowers, 

 which sheep will not touch. His author says, 

 " I am almost ashamed to give, under my baud, 

 that I knew a parish priest [in Spain] who had 

 ."iOOO hiv(>s." Good I I've long wanted some- 

 thing that would take the starch out of those 

 California folks. But Spain to-day shows no 

 such resources in honey as that would seem to 

 indicate. But it may be well to remark here, 

 that Spain has probably more natural resources 

 than any other portion of the globe of its size, 

 even if it is at present a little run down at the 

 heel. 



This book is. as a whole, very interesting, and 

 shows great progress in England betwefui 1744 

 and 17G6. The author says that the anatomy of 

 a queen shows that she lays many thousand 

 eggs, and that these are impregnated by the 

 drones ; her ovary may contain 500() eggs at 



once, and she may produce 13,000 bees in two 

 months. Dissection shows the sex of the drone, 

 and observations '• have assured us that they 

 couple with the queen." This is one of the few 

 books I wish were longer. W. P. R. 



Medina, Aug. 34. 



GONE BACK TO THE DOOLITTLE CELL-CUP. 



DO DARK BEES KEAK DARK QUEENS? A BRIGHT 

 BREEZY LETTER FROM S. F. TREGO. 



I see. on p. 600, that Mr. VV. J. Ellison believes 

 that dark bees rear dark queens, no matter 

 what kind of brood is used for queen-rearing. 

 Now. I can not believe it. I have been very 

 short of queens this season, consequently my 

 big cell-building colonies had black queens; 

 but over half of my young queens are solid yel- 

 low, and the rest come very near it. T sent you 

 to-day the darkest queen I have had hatch this 

 year. She is a virgin, hatched Aug. 5, and is 

 also rather small. If she is of any use to you, 

 all right: and if not, kill her. 



Since writing about my method of getting 

 cells, I have gone back to the Doolittle method 

 for nearly so). You see, I am a changeable 

 sort of fellow, and do not believe in sticking to 

 my pet hobbies when there is something better. 



In reading the article on p. .538. Mr. .las. S. 

 Klack. a queen-breeder of Urban. Pa., wrote to 

 me and asked me to try again. He gave care- 

 ful directions how to do it just right, but there 

 was none of it new to me. I concluded to try 

 again, so I got a lot of ctips that had been in 

 the hives some time, and were trimmed down 

 just as the bees wanted them. 



I have forgotten how many there were, but I 

 think it was about 70. I fixed them carefully, 

 and put them into a big colony that had been 

 made queenless and broodless a few days be- 

 fore, and they accepted about 7.5 or 80 per cent 

 of them. Next day I distributed them among 

 my cell builders, and they accepted and finish- 

 ed most of them. Since that I have kept those 

 bees at work on the cell cups, and they never 

 destroy over a quarter of thpm. and sometimes 

 accept nearly all. In the last lot, 33 were ac- 

 cepted out of 35. I leave them in this hive only 

 30 to 40 hours, as they can not care for so many 

 properly. I have a batch in their hives now, 

 and shall stop right here and go and see how 

 many are accepted. 



JLaier.— Well, who can beat this? They have 

 accepted (iOoutof 63 ! I think a good deal de- 

 pends on the colony. Some will build lots of 

 cells, and others are no good at all. I intended 

 to buy the queen of that colony back, even if 

 she cost me S5.00 (she was a $1.50 queen) ; but 

 before I got around to it. I got a letter stating 

 she was lost in introducing. 



Mrs. Atchley wrote me about Willie's cell- 

 cups some time ago; but I have not tried it yet. 



By the way, did you ever see rivals in any 

 business who are as friendly as queen-breeders? 

 Last week I got five cards and two letters from 

 as many (lueen-breeders. and all began "■ Fiieud 

 Trego.'' except one, and that began " Dear 

 Friend." 



TREGO'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE "WHEEL." 



I see A. I. has almost gone wild on the 

 "wheel." Well, I know from experience that 

 the •' wheel " is a great promoter of health. 

 A few days ago I "wheeled " about five bar- 

 rels of water and put it on 14 hills of cucum- 

 b<M's. and you would have to look a good while 

 to find any thing healthier than they are now. 

 right in this dry hot weather; but I did not 

 use a "Safety." It was an ordinary railroad 

 wheelbarrow; and the ease with which I could 

 carry 15 gallons of water would surprise you. 



