1893 



GLEANINGS IN KEE CULTURE. 



709 



both ends, that the honey may flow the more 

 freely out of them. The combs should be laid 

 in this state on sieves, or some otlier contriv- 

 ance which will afford the honey a free passage 

 through. It will run ([uite clear; and the hon- 

 ey thus obtained should be kept by itself, as 

 being the purest and best." 



That's good, but too slow for Cuba at least. 

 What a revelation to the writer of the above to 

 see the large extractors of to-day I 



All have heard about the poisonous honey 

 which Xenophon's soldiers ate during his fa- 

 mous retreat. Mr. Wildraan gives the words of 

 the famous writer and soldier as follows, from 

 the Greek, written about 400 years B. C. : 



" The soldiers sucked some honey-combs in a 

 place near Trebizond [in Asia Minor, on the 

 Black Sea. latitude 41° north], where there was 

 a great number of bee-hives. All who sucked 

 them became intoxicated; vomited and purged; 

 not out! was able to stand upon his legs. Those 

 wlio had taken but little were like men drunk: 

 but, ihosH who had taken a good deal were like 

 mad men, and some lay like men dead. The 

 next day. about the same hour, they recovered 

 their senses; but it was three or four days be- 

 fore they were entirely restored, as if they had 

 taken a poison." 



It is believed that this honey came from the 

 chamiErhododendros ; and if we were certain 

 that those soldiers pronounced that word many 

 times it would account for much of '" that tired 

 fei'ling" that so(mu'< to have overcount th(im. 



In the previous Issu" I spoke about the advan- 

 tages of Spanish broom as a honey-plant. Mr. 

 VVildman speaks wen more highly of it than 

 Mr. Mills did; but it must not. I am now sure, 

 be confounded with common broom, which is a 

 sorghum. Spanish broom isdescribed as having 

 many long flexible rushlike twigs, and yielding 

 a largi^ crop of honey to those who formerly had 

 but little. I believe this plant is what the 

 French call (jenet or pUtnte de ijenet. which was 

 the insignia of the Plantagenet dynasty in Eng- 

 land, commencing with Henry II.. in 1154, and 

 ending with llichard III. in 1485. 



The island of Corsica, just west of Italy, is 

 spoken of as a remarkable place for bees. When 

 it was "subject to the Romans a tribute was 

 imposed upon it of no less than 200,000 pounds 

 of wax yearly. Indeed, the laurel, the almond- 

 tree, and the myrtle, in t he flowers of which the 

 bees find so much swet^tness, are very common 

 there; and the hills are all covered with wild 

 thyme and other fragrant herbs." 



in the A B C of Bee Culture is related the ex- 

 perience of some mathematicians in finding the 

 angles of a figure which would contain the 

 most, or have "he largest area. Koenig, by a 

 most elaborate sstem of figuring, put it down 

 as 109° ;26' for the larger angle, and 70° 34' for 

 the smaller one. or 180° together. Owing to an 

 error in the book used, this was corrected to 

 109° 28' and 70° 32'. That is, a six-sided cell or 

 cup will hold more than any other cup of the 

 same diameter and depth. It seems hard to 

 believe that any blind force worked out this 

 problem, for the great Maker of all things has 

 no problems to work otit nor experiments to 

 make along this or any other " line." 



It seems that the great enemy of bees in Eng- 

 land when this book was written was the wasp. 

 Many pages are devoted to this insect — how to 

 destroy it, etc. In our day. however, this crea- 

 ture is better undi^rstood. and is seldom if ever 

 mentioned as a disturbing clement in the apia- 

 ry. But locality may make a ditt'erence, for in 

 a late number of the Jlrilixfi Bee Jonrnal the 

 matter of their destruction by means of cyan- 

 ide of potassium was discussed. They are spo- 

 ken of as a " plague." 



Mr. Wildman inserts a good deal of Latin po- 



etry in the fore part of his book, which might 

 be of interest to those who have a taste for the 

 classics. W. P. R. 



Medina, Sept. 8. 



RESTRAINING RUNAWAY SWARMS. 



THE FUN (?) OF NOT HAYING CLIPPED QUEENS. 



If I were to take my choice of running my 

 apiary with undipped queens or going out of 

 the business. I think I would step down and 

 out. I do not see how any intelligent bee-keep- 

 er can run an apiary of 50 or more colonies, and 

 take any pleasure or comfort with undipped 

 queens. Let me draw you a real picture. 



I chanced to call on a noted bee-keeper one 

 day in the height of the swarming season. I 

 found him with an assistant looking over two 

 or three bushels of bees in as numy empty 

 boxes and baskets, looking out the queen. At 

 another part of the yard were seven large first 

 swarms that had been clustered for over an 

 hour in the hot sun. just getting up steam to 

 take French leave. Such a time I In less than 

 a minute the whole lot was high in the air. 

 I called to the owner, saying that there was a 

 cloud of bees leaving the yard. He looked up 

 and over in the direction where the bees were, 

 and. calling to his help, shouted, "There, them 

 cussed bees have all left the pear-tree, and ar 

 going for the woods. Hurry up I bring that 

 pail of water I fetch me the looking-glass I get 

 the shotgun I V/here is the force-pump? I 

 thought I left it by the wood-shed— run 1 there, 

 Henry, pelt them with dirt — throw stones 

 among them;" and before the pump could be 

 got in motion or a focus could be got on them 

 by my friend, who was running backward and 

 whirling a large looking-glass over and about 

 his head, or the shotgun loaded, the bees were 

 moving outside of his place and going across a 

 neighbor's rye-field, with a half-dozen wild and 

 excited men hot in pursuit. As they passed the 

 house of the man who owned the rye I heard 

 some angry and crooked language, and I'll "bet 

 a quarter" that, if that man had had all of my 

 friend's bees inside a pile of straw, there would 

 have been a fire, and my friend would have had 

 fewer bees. If those queens had had their 

 wings clipped, would such a state of affairs 

 have happened? No. 



Still another, and a pictui'e that is later. 

 Only this past summer one of our neighbors, 

 who is a farmer, and keeps about 30 colonies, 

 lost over 20 nice first swarms of Italian bees 

 that nearly all went in one direction for the 

 hills. Only one of the 20 was found that we 

 know of. The rest, I suppose, found lodging- 

 places, and perhaps will never be heard from. 



Does this pay? I guess not; and when he 

 comes to tak<' off his boxes I think he will see 

 the result of these 20 swarms that were lost. 

 Would this have happened if the queens' wings 

 had been clipped? No. 



I could call to mind lots of just such pictures 

 as this. Yes, friend Root, I want all my queens 

 dipped as soon as they are laying, and, what is 

 more. I will have them clipped. I always carry 

 a pair of scissors; and every queen I come to 

 that is ready, off goes one of her wings. For 

 the last 17 years I have controlled from one to 

 two hnndi'ed colonies, and I have; never had a 

 case come under my observation where a queen 

 was superseded on account of her wing being 

 off. I have not lost one first swarm in 17 years 

 by going off; and this season one day I had 

 over a dozen swarms, and I did not sweat or 

 worry one bit. Every one cami' back to its own 

 starting-point. Yes. I would go out of the 



