318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



average, instead of 200,0.30, as given by the writers 

 quoted. If I am correct, and I believe I am, from 

 many experiments conducted along this line it will 

 be seen that, if a queen laid only 100,000 eggs a year, 

 she should be good for seven years. Then we see 

 the extreme folly in the recommendation to super- 

 sede all queens during the fall of the second year 

 of their life. 



Again, we find in a noted work on apiculture the 

 author saying that a good queen will lay 3000 eggs 

 daily during the breeding season, which ("s correct 

 where an ordinary brood-chamber is used; but 

 when the same author discourses on the number of 

 bees in a hive, he says there are from 30,000 to 40,000 

 in every good colony, and places their age at three 

 months. Now, if I figure correctly, three months 

 make 90 days, and 3000 times 90 would give 2V0,G0il 

 bees in that colony, barring accidents, instead of 

 from 20,000 to 40,000. Brethren, let us try to be a lit- 

 tle more accurate in our figures and decisions, lest 

 we lead beginners astray, thereby causing them to 

 do unnecessary work, or, perhap?, become disgust- 

 ed with a pursuit which might otherwise prove 

 profitable to them. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Apr. 1". 



Friend D.,may I suggest that your re- 

 marks, to the effect that our prominent writ- 

 ers may take up a certain position from 

 policy, is hardly charitable? If there are 

 writers on bee culture who advocate a cer- 

 tain line with a view of putting money into 

 their own pockets, not because of the great- 

 est good to the greatest number, I have 

 not found them. Such a man would be 

 ruled out of our conventions and journals 

 before he ever got a fair start. Very likely 

 we are sometimes on the wrong track ; but 

 we certainly would not advise our neighbor 

 to do something to his detriment, that we 

 might gain by it. Our experience would 

 hardly justify all your large figures, al- 

 though we agree with you in many of them. 

 I would never discard a queen while she is 

 doing good service, any more than I would 

 discard a horse or a cow that was doing 

 good service ; but with us we find that most 

 queens begin to fail in the third year, as a 

 rule. Now, we would not remove them be- 

 cause they were two years old, or three, but 

 only when the colony does not seem to keep 

 up in numbers. Eor years the average 

 number of bees in a colony has been given 

 as from 20,000 to 40,000, and this great num- 

 ber is reached only just before swarming 

 time. In selling bees by the pound we have 

 opportunity to test the matter pretty fairly. 

 Several years ago, we during one season 

 bought something like 100 natural swarms 

 of bees. They were blacks, hybrids, and 

 Italians, and were brought to us just as the 

 swarms came out. Five pounds was a big 

 average, and very few ran as high as six. 

 As the matter has been prettv well settled 

 that there are not to exceed 5000 bees in a 

 pound, this would give the average number 

 of bees in a first swarm as 25,000. In all our 

 experience, covering a number of years, we 

 have found only one swarm coming up to 

 'J lbs., and this came from a hybrid colony 

 whose queen was wonderfully prolific. 

 Your remarks in regard to the result obtain- 

 ed from that Long-Idea hive might almost 

 revive again the boom on this special style 



of hive. Now, please tell us, friend D., 

 why it is that you do not continue to work 

 with a form of hive that gave you over 560 

 lbs. of honey in a single season. Almost 

 every one of us succeeded in getting won- 

 derful yields of honey from those hives with 

 30 or 40 combs ; and yet, why is it that there 

 is probably not one in use at the present 

 day V I do not know that this has any par- 

 ticular bearing on the subject under discus- 

 sion, but I have many times wondered why 

 everybody had abandoned and broken up 

 these long hives that were made with so 

 much enthusiasm at the time. 



BEES, INSECTS, LICE, AND SNAKES. 



PROB\ COOK TELLS US ABOUT THEM, AND DE- 

 SCRIBES THE GLASS SNAKE FROM ACTUAL 

 "INSPECTION" AND "POSSESSION." 



Mr. W. W. Bliss, Duarte, California, sends me 

 three carpenter bees. They are large fine insects, 

 but are so greasy that, unless I can remove the oil, 

 they are spoiled as specimens. Insects should be 

 killed either by use of a cyanide-bottle or by turn- 

 ing chloroform, ether, or gasoline, on them. In 

 the latter case we may have to turn it on several 

 times, as they may recover from a single bath. In- 

 sects should be put into a strong box, and inclosed 

 in cotton, then a cent will bring them in the mail 

 safely. 



INSECTS FROM TEXAS. 



A subscriber to Gleanings, Mr. Halles, of Lytle, 

 Texas, sends me a beetle and two spiders— all ex- 

 ceedingly beautiful. The beetle is Lymentis Sallei. 

 As I had only two in our collection before, it was 

 very welcome. It is black, lined and spotted with 

 yellow— a regular Dolly Varden robe. I do not 

 know the habits of this handsome beetle; but one 

 closely related, Eiiplwsia inda, which I have pre- 

 viously described and illustrated in Gleanings, 

 eats into luscious fruit like peaches and ripe apples. 

 This beetle, I presume, is not common enough to 

 do much harm. The grub probably lives in the 

 earth, and feeds on grass roots, while the beetle 

 may eat leaves or some other vegetable substance. 



The spiders were very deep red, with a velvety 

 luster. It would be hard to imagine any thing 

 more beautiful. Spiders though they are, they 

 have elicited words of strongest praise for their 

 beauty from every one of the many psrsons that I 

 have shown them to. We hardly know how much 

 of beauty there is in the world. Even spiders and 

 insects may be as beautiful as the most showy bird 

 or flower. I am very glad to get such specimens. 

 ivy scale lice. 



A letter from our good friend Dr. C. C. Miller in- 

 closes some leaves of the common English ivy, 

 which are thickly covered on the upper side with 

 thick viscid nectar. The stems are likewise smear- 

 ed with the same sweet substance. Dr. M. says he 

 could discover no insects except a few scale lice. 

 He thinks it hardly possible that so few lice could 

 secrete so much nectar. He adds, that nearly all 

 the leaves are somewhat varnished with the nectar, 

 while some are thickly covered over their entire 

 surface. Some have drops as if the nectar had 

 dropped from above, while often the drops are 

 minute, as if they had oozed from the leaves. 



This is not new to me. It is the common ivy 

 scale louse, and is very common in greenhouses. 



