1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



715 



thing a little you can carry them where you 

 wish, without any flying in the air or being left 

 in the hive. Why only three combs are to be 

 left under any circumstances is that a person 

 can not grasp more than these with the hands; 

 and to separate the clustered bees in any place 

 is to make a bad job in losing bees and have 

 them fly all over you and out into the cold to 

 perish. By removing the hive and stand from 

 the old location no bees are lost by returning, 

 although some will return and hover over the 

 old spot on the first flight for a little time; but 

 you will soon find them with fanning wings at 

 the entrance of their new home, which they 

 accept ever afterward. 



%ci:clM\^m^ 



HOW TO &END MONEY, ETC. 



n page 6.55, in regard to sending goods when 

 money is lost in the mails, I will ask if, when 

 you send money in a letter without an order or 

 other safe way lif you over do), do you ever 

 think the party to whom you send it ought to 

 stand any of the loss? For my part, I do not. 

 I very seldom send money without sending in 

 a safe way; and when 1 do, it should be just 

 the same as any venture— at my own risk; and 

 while it is a kindness oa your part to send the 

 goods and bear part of the loss, is it justice to 

 yourselves or to others who pay for a safe way 

 to send money, as profits must cover all losses? 

 Please do not think I want to criticise, but sim- 

 ply to give the other side of the picture. 

 :_Linn, Kan., Sept. .14. lo. J. T. Van Petten. 



[I thank you for your frank statement of 

 your views as to the money you have lost. 

 Your plan is one I have followed all my life. 

 We send small sums by mail, without any pre- 

 caution, and all my life I have had more or less 

 losses— perhaps one letter in five or ten thou- 

 sand. When such loss occurs I send the money 

 again, as a matter of course. If the person to 

 whom it goes is liberal enough to stand part of 

 it, we accept it with thanks. Some of our cus- 

 tomer.-^ flatly decline to let us share any such 

 losses. Out of courtesy, however, we almost 

 always ott:er to bear our part, even though we 

 are not to blame. Where a man sends five or 

 ten dollars loose in a letter, however, we really 

 can not undertake co help him out— at least not 

 verv much, for he has been foolishly reckless. — 

 A. I. R.] 



BANANA OIL OFFENSIVE TO BEE.S. 



nOn page 570 R. W. Riddle tells of banana oil 

 making bees cross. I have never made banana 

 oil or heard of it before; but about a year ago, 

 on several occasions when I had eaten a banana 

 just before examining my bees, and still had 

 specks of It on my hands, I was always unusu- 

 ally attacked. I also noticed that the smell of 

 a banana, especially if it was getting overripe 



and soft, was almost exactly like the smell of 

 the poison the bee emits on stinging. I there- 

 fore came to the conclusion that the smell in- 

 furiated them. Mr. Editor, try it yourself; dis- 

 card your veil, rub your face and hands well 

 with juicy decaying bananas, and see the result. 

 Kingston, Jamaica, Aug. 26. Mongoose. 



QUEEN-CELLS POINTING UPWARD. 



Mr. Root: — We have six colonies of bees, and 

 they all build their queen-cells on the upper 

 part of the combs. They are a little larger 

 than a worker-cell, and about twice as long, 

 point upward. I do not see an answer to this 

 question in your ABC. It says that they build 

 them on the ower edge, and they point down- 

 ward. Conrad Haas. 



Pine Castle. Fla., Aug. 20. 



[If your combs have never been reversed, and 

 the cells are generally built near the top, point- 

 ing upward, it is very unusual; at all events, I 

 do not know that I have ever heard of a case 

 before — certainly I have never seen one. I 

 have seen cells'built many a time near the top 

 edge, and all over the comb, in fact; but there 

 was nothing unusual in that; but that their 

 points should actually be upward is certainly 

 something out of the ordinary. I should be 

 very glad to know whether any of our other 

 readers have observed any thing similar.— Ed.] 



BIKD3 and bees; BEE -STINGS IN THE LINING 

 OF THE STOMACH. 



1 have just been looking up the A B C of Bee 

 Culture and a score of other works on apicul- 

 ture, but fall to find in any of them any men- 

 tion of the fact that the stings of bees are ever 

 found in the stomachs of the birds accused of 

 eating them. Some assert that the birds con- 

 sume drones only; others, that they extract the 

 slings first, or else swallow the heads only, 

 while in the A B C of Bee Culture you suggest 

 that the birds have a way of crushing their 

 pr<'y with their bills so as to prevent the possi- 

 bility of the bee's using its sting. 



Now, I have watched this matter very close- 

 ly for many years, but it is only within the past 

 week that I have discovered any thing very 

 definite. Two days ago I noticed a bird called 

 the green oriole devouring bees wholesale. 

 Sometimes it would settle on a hive and snatch 

 up a bee; at other times it would dart from 

 some convenient perch and catch a bee on the 

 wing; but most frequently it would settle In 

 the peach-trees, which are now in full bloom, 

 and either catch a bee as it alighted on a blos- 

 som or as it flew from flower to flower. I did 

 not allow this pastime to continue very long, I 

 can assure you, but shot the voracious little 

 fiend; and on opening it I found fifteen stings 

 in the lining of the stomach, sticking into it 

 just like pins in a pin-cushion, some of them 

 very firmly implanted, and imbedded almost up 

 to the head. 1 sent the stomach to 'the Gov- 

 ernment Entomologist, and expect a report 

 from him in a day or two. 



