356 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



tiality— I gratefully report that their stings, in 

 my case, are followed by neither excessive pain 

 nor swelling, being little more than the average 

 effort of a healthy Jersey skeeter. But the 

 singular and (to me) delightful experience is 

 that their hypodermic injections afford a sense 

 of rejuvenation — a sort of physical "brace" 

 ensues, which lasts for several days, as from 

 the result of some powerful tonic. The dose 

 being inadvertently repeated at comparatively 

 short intervals — about as often as I attempt to 

 investigate their social relation — keeps me in 

 comparatively high-stepping condition. I long 

 for the waim spring sunshine that will encour- 

 age the colonies to bask in full force, hoping 

 that a few well-directed, deeply placed, b'arb- 

 pointed, heavy-laden propulsions from Apis 

 meWfica may restore me to that degree of nor- 

 mal vitality which 1 feel nothing else can so 

 well accomplish. Em Dee. 



[When you get stung as many times as some 

 of us, you will long no more for that "normal 

 vitality." It is possible that they do, in mod- 

 erate doses, at not too frequent intervals, act 

 as a sort of tonic, aside from the muscular 

 activity that usually takes place immediately 

 after the sting. — Ed".] 



cIplurality of laying worker cells. 



Dr. Miller seems anxious to be disputed with 

 regard to a plurality of laying worker-cells.nl 

 can ^accommodate him. as I've repeatedly seen 

 that phenomenon among black bees which I at- 

 tended for a neighbor in Iowa some years ago. 

 I have had but very little trouble with the 

 "varmints" in my own apiary, which has been 

 strongly Italian. 



sugar HONEY'. 



C In the Orange Jucld Farmer of Feb. 15, under 

 the title of " Source of Fats in Butter," by 

 Henry Stewart, who is surely good authority, I 

 find the following: "When cows were fed on 

 cotton-seed meal, ihe influence of the cotton-oil 

 in the butter was so pronounced that chemical 

 analysis showed distinctly no difference except 

 in degree between butter so made and theoleo." 

 The above may contain a suggestion to those 

 who have defended the pi actice of feeding sugar 

 syrup of any kind to bees with the expectation 

 that it will be " digested " into honey. 



SOURED HONEY". 



By the^way, a former neighbor of mine had a 

 quantity of thin, half-ripened extracted honey, 

 one year, which soured. He kept it over until 

 the next season, and fed it back, saying that 

 " the bees would fix it over someway." The 

 result, as might be expected, was the spoiling 

 of his next season's crop, and the ruin, to a 

 great extent, of the market for extracted honey 

 in that section of country. 



BURDETTE HASSETT. 



Reliance, Va., March 19. 



prevent honey from candying. That does not 

 trouble the bee-keepers of this district, as the 

 tupelo honey we get I have never yet known to 

 candy, and is for that reason largely used 

 among dealers in the North to mix with Califor- 

 nia white-sage noney. 



BISULPHIDE OF CARBON; HOW TO PRESERVE 

 COMBS WITH IT. 



To those who have empty combs to save 

 from the moth, a very easy way is to put them 

 in empty Dovetail hives, piled one above the 

 other, and made airtight by pasting strips of 

 paper around the places where they touch, put- 

 ting an empty hive on the top, then pasting pa- 

 per over the top of that, having first put inside 

 on top of the frames a vessel containing about 

 a gill of bisulphide of carbon — or, if you have 

 an air-tight room, the same end may be attain- 

 ed by placing more of the bisulphide of carbon 

 near the roof, care being taken, of course, not 

 to go near with a light. 



HOW TO LOCATE THE HIVE FROM WHICH A 

 SWARM COMES. 



It sometimes happens that a swarm comes 

 out and you are not able to locate the hive from 

 which it came. This may be easily done by 

 taking a handful of bees from the swarm and 

 dusting them with flour, removing them some 

 little distance from the place where the swarm 

 clustered before letting them fly. A few min- 

 utes' watching of the alighting-boards will give 

 the desired information by the incoming of the 

 whitened bees. E. B. Mann. 



Wewahitchka, Fla., April 11. 



LOVED AND BEE LOVED. 



By Ellcry Krum. 



A HONEY THAT WILL NOT CANDY.' 



Mr. C. F. Hocnsiein wants to know how to 



Barlow Skraggs had fifteen stands 

 Ov fine bees what had five bands 

 Round thair bodies; and they rolled 

 In the hunny till he sold 

 Several thousand pounds. The gold 

 He invested in a lot 

 Clost to town, and on the spot 

 Built the nicest, neatest cot 

 Ever seen 'bout there. He got 

 Sort o' lonesome like till a 

 Fair Eugenia crost liis way — 

 Courted her by telefone. 

 'Fore long she bekum his own 

 Dear wife; meanwhile yeller bees 

 Sung love tunes to every breeze 

 Passin' by, and chucked each gum 

 Full ov hunny ; then built sum 

 On the outside, clean around. 

 One piece purt nigh touched the ground 

 Underneath the bottom-board; 

 Never sich a krop wuz stored 

 Up by bees. Skragge thoughtit queer 

 They should do so well that year — 

 Guessed he would investigate 

 Whare thay worked so long and late, 

 When behold! that telefone, 

 Over which he won his own 

 Sweet Eugenia, proved to be 

 Jist a paradise!— You see 

 Them bees built their combs up higher 

 Frum the taffy on the wire! 

 Alexandria, Ind. 



