60 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jak. 



business to suit themselves once in a while, we 

 don't blame them if they mix the honey sometimes. 



HONEY FROM ANDROMEDA AND OTHER SOURCES. 



Alter the orange yield, which extended into 

 April, we extracted some andromeda honey, to be 

 laid away for feeding back, in case it is not sold. 

 Tn May the gallberry and saw-palmetto yielded a 

 surplus of very fair honey for extracting, which 

 closed the season for the pine region. We did not 

 extract any alter about June 1st, till we concluded 

 to take our bees to the coast for mangrove honey, 

 which we finally did about July 1st, and thereby 

 hangs another tale that had better be postponed for 

 another letter, provided jou care to hear it. We 

 realized in all only about ;{5 or 40 lbs. of honey per 

 colony from our bees up to the time that we con- 

 cluded to move them to the coast; and had we stay- 

 ed at home we should have taken no more. Here 

 in the pine woods, 30 to 30 lbs. of honey per colony 

 should be left in the hives in June for summer and 

 fall use. The bees are very strong, of course, when 

 we quit extracting. They keep up breeding during 

 summer, getting just enough honey to keep them 

 going; but by October the honey is pretty well 

 used up, and they quit breeding. Cooler weather 

 comes on; but warm dajs tempt them out, and I 

 think they do actually gather pollen, and perhaps a 

 little honey during every month in the year; but 

 cool weather chills many a bee till it never gets 

 home again. They wear themselves out, and I have 

 seen colonies with plenty of honey in December 

 and January that did not have a pint of bees in the 

 hive. Some colonies will be strong, while others, 

 with plenty of honey, run down. Without honey, 

 no colony can keep up its numbers. 



Lake Helen, Fla., Dec. 2:!. G. W. Webster. 



A LAWYER'S 



EXPERIENCE WITH 

 BEES. 



A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE SENSATION OF A 



BEE-STING; A REMEDY FOR THE ITCHING PAIN, 



THAT DOES NOT COME OUT OF A BOTTLE. 



Mr. Root:— I want to siy something to your 

 readers about bee-stings. Possibly it may be new, 

 possibly not; but any thing that will relieve the 

 terrible Itching pain ought to be known. In May 

 last I got an untested queen and nucleus from Oli- 

 ver Foster, of Mount Vernon, Iowa. She proved to 

 be a hybrid queen, and her progeny as vicious as 

 wild-cats. At first I did not get stung very often, 

 and it made no impression, and I boasted that a 

 bee-sting did not amount to any thing, and laughed 

 to scorn the foolish fears of my neighbors who 

 crept tremblingly up to see the busy colony. Well, 

 "pride goeth before a f all " in the bee-business, 

 just as well as in any thing else. One evening 1 

 walked in front of my hive, when a bee shot from 

 the opening and hit me near the corner of my left 

 eye with such force that I thought the man who 

 struck Billy Patterson was 8omewher<» around, and 

 I left. My eye swelled to immense proportions, and 

 the Itching drove me nearly frantic. I was in the 

 very depths of degradation, when the swelling ex- 

 tended to the other eje, and I looked like Sullivan, 

 and as if I had been having a "set to," and had 

 been knocked out. 1 spent the most miserable 

 night that I can remember; but T was much more 

 miserable the next day when I went down to my 

 office and had to run the gauntlet of jeers and sar- 



castic remarks thrown at me from all sides. I 

 think they would have shown more mercy if I had 

 not talked every mother's son of them almost to 

 death about bees. From that time on, the slightest 

 sting (and they grew quite frequent, for I had my 

 nose in that hive morning, noon, and night, when I 

 had a moment to spare) would putf up like a poison- 

 ed pup, and itch! Oh my! how they would itch! 

 One night, in desperation, 1 held my hand right 

 over the lamp chimney until it singed my wrist 

 bare. To my astonishment, I got relief. It began 

 to hurt again in about half an hour, when I gave it 

 another scorching. Well, that just about cured it, 

 for one or two more burnings left me free from 

 pain. From that time on, when I got stung I had 

 only to heat the part just as hot as I could bear it 

 to get temporary relief; and by repeating the oper- 

 ation it always cured the sting. 



I got a select tested queen of you last September, 

 and got lots of bees from her. She is a beauty, and 

 was laying inside of '24 hours after she was out of 

 the cage. 1 proceeded to decapitate the hybrid 

 queen, though 1 did hate to do so, as she was so 

 prolific, and her workers were so industrious; but 

 they were so terribly, awfully vicious that I could 

 not put up with them. I divided, and now have 

 three nice swarms in the cellar, each with three 

 times the quantity of honey they can possibly con- 

 sume; but I was too anxious to winter well. My 

 cellar is dark and dry, and the temperature is about 

 36° or 38° most of the time. My bees are the won- 

 der of the community, for you know we are within 

 a few miles of the summit of the Sierra Madre, the 

 main range of the Rockies. Not only will they do 

 well, but I am going to have some comb honey 

 next season — if I don't get slung blind before the 

 season is over. J. F. Crawford. 



Saratoga, Wyoming, Dec. 23. 



Very good, friend C Now will every one 

 of our readers who gets stung try this sim- 

 ple matter of heating, as mentioned above ? 

 May be it will turn out like some other 

 things that work with some people and do 

 not with others. I know that hot water 

 will often relieve the pain of a sprain or 

 bruise, almost as if by magic. The water 

 must be so hot that it will almost make you 

 cry out. I do not understand it ; but 1 do 

 know that, when the pain from the hot wa- 

 ter begins to abate, the pain of the sprain 

 goes with it. 



ADULTERATED (?) HONEY. 



SAID TO COME FROM CHAS. F. MUTH & SON; HOW 

 THE GENTLEMEN HANDLE THE MATTER. 



Friend Root:— Dec. 12 I sent to Mr. Meek, who 

 is a very good man, a keg of as fine clover honey as 

 there is. Now, Mr. Meek sends me the money— yes, 

 but he shakes his head, and seems to say that that 

 home-made stuff is too flue for honey. Mr. Meek's 

 good opinion is of interest to us, and it would be a 

 pity to permit him to make erroneous statements 

 in his publications. His letter and my reply, with 

 your own remarks in Gleanings, will do, perhaps, 

 a lot of good. I will inclose both. Chas. F. Muth. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 23. 



Chas. F. Mulh A Son:— The keg came to hand yes- 

 terday. If this is honey, I must confess I had never 

 seen the article before, though I have several 

 stands, and have been acquainted with bees for 



