■606 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



Aug. 



watching I noticed a big tly come up and 

 peelc in at the entrance. He had no sooner 

 done so than one of the little fellows jumped 

 out like an arrow, and Mr. Fly absented 

 himself, and that right speedily. I took up 

 an Italian, disabled him, and put him in at 

 the entrance. The little stingless fellows 

 seemed to recognize that he was crippled, 

 and so they simply pushed him out, as they 

 did others that I put in in a similar condi- 

 tion, for I could not get a bee not crippled 

 to even smell at the entrance. One day, 

 while I was chancing to go by, 1 saw an 

 Italian down in front of the hive. One of 

 the stingless bees was cm its back, and with 

 its powerful mandibles was nipping away at 

 the little cord which connects the abdomen 

 with the thorax. I did not see him bite it 

 in two, but he gave it such severe pinches 

 that the bee irom Italy finally gave up 

 struggling, and very shortly afterward died. 

 Whether this is a trick of the stingless bees 

 or not, I am not able to say. If so, it is ex- 

 ceedingly cute ; and it is something that I 

 wish our Southern subscribers, or those 

 who are favorably situated, would report 

 upon. Be that as it may, we have not been 

 at all afraid that any thing would rob them. 

 They seem fully able to hold their own. 



WHY NOT rUT TIIEM OX MO \' ABLE C03IBS ? 



Later in the day, after they were received. 

 I told Neighbor IL that we had just come in 

 possession of some stingless bees. He asked 

 me a number of questions, but I could not 

 give him any thing very definite then, 



" Why don't you transfer them," he said, 

 " and put them on movable frames V " 



" Come with me and 1 will show you why 

 we don't." 



" Why," said he, " they build their nests 

 about like bumble-bees." 



" Yes, only more so," I replied. 



Their honey-cells are about the size of 

 walnuts, and very much the same shape. 

 They seemed to be in a jumbled-up mass in 

 the center of the hive. Clear down in the 

 center, through a slight opening, I noticed 

 that they had brood-cells about the size of 

 peas, very much in the same mixed-up con- 

 dition. Their honey-cells will hold perhaps 

 a couple of ounces of honey. 



ARK TIIEY OF ANY PRACTICAL UTILITY ? 



Although I have been watching to see 

 whether they bring in honey, I have not yet 

 been able to discover that they do. On the 

 contrary, scarcely a bee emerges from the 

 entrance. There can not be more than four 

 or five dozen bees in the whole colony. It is 

 true, we have not been having honey com- 

 ing in to any extent ; but on the day they 

 came, and two or three days after, the Ital- 

 ians were gathering quite a little honey. It 

 would seem that they have gathered all that 

 they think they will need in their southern 

 home, Cuba ; and as their numbers are 

 comparatively small, there is no immediate 

 danger of their starving. I am sorry that all 

 our readers can not see them, because they 

 are really interesting if not really serviceable 

 to man. 



THE DIBBERN BEB-ESt'ArE, 



Our later experiments with the star-shap- 

 €d horizontal escape were not very satisfac- 



tory. There were too many openings, and 

 the consequence was that the bees would 

 find it and get back through. Still another 

 trouble, the openings were too small, and 

 drones and workers would clog the thing up 

 and shut off the openings altogether. Mr. 

 D. and myself have been having some corre- 

 spondence back and forth. The result was, 

 he sent me an escape that had only one 

 opening. It is like what we originally illus- 

 trated on page 5, 1590, being pear-shaped. 

 The openings in this were much larger, and 

 I am pleased to say that so far it seems to be 

 a success in every way. It will rid an ex- 

 tracting super of bees in short order. It 

 does not clog up, and so far promises to be a 

 success. The first time I put it on the hive 

 I made a mistake and put it on upside down 

 The result was, that almost all the bees 

 abandoned the bruod below and went up 

 into the extracting super above. A few 

 hours afterward we turned it the other side 

 up ; and when we came to examine after- 

 ward, we found scarcely a bee in the super. 

 I hope that Bro. Doolittle will try one of 

 these later ones. 



NOTES OP TRAVEL AMONG YORK 

 STATE BEE-KEEPERS. 



FROM MEDINA TO BORODINO. 



I start to-day, Aug. 6, on my trip among 

 the bee-keepers of the Eastern States, I 

 take the train to-night, and go as far as 

 Syracuse, when I expect to get off and make 

 the rest of my trip through York State on the 

 Victor wheel, I may be very sick of wheel- 

 ing or bad roads. If so, I shall seek the aid 

 of the locomotive ; but it is a fair average 

 for bicyclers to make about .30 miles a day, 

 with reasonable stops, on fair roads. Day 

 before yesterday morning, before breakfast, 

 I took a run of twenty miles in two hours 

 and ten minutes. I enjoyed my ride exceed- 

 ingly ; and after taking a refreshing drink 

 of new milk, and after eating a little cracked 

 wheat, I felt ready to take another run. 

 This distance was made over somewhat 

 hilly country. I say this, that those of our 

 readers who are unfamiliar with what may 

 be done with the high-grade bicycles will 

 not ccmclude that I am rather foolish in un- 

 dertaking what may seem to iJiem a wild 

 and impracticable scheme. One of our em- 

 ployes. Mr. Jacob Borger, traveled last sum- 

 mer 4(10 miles ; and after finishing the last 

 mile he seemed to be as hale and hearty as 

 when he started out. So much for the 

 improvements that have been made in 

 cycling within the last seven ox eight years. 

 I hope it won't rain. If it does, there are 

 some bee-keepers I may not be able to call 

 upon. 



Wednesday, 67/i.— Here I am waiting for 

 the train at Medina, rigged out in a bicycle 

 suit; i. e., a blouse, black shirt and tie, 

 with short knee-breeches, black stockings, 

 and low cloth shoes. I wonder if it is un- 

 dignified to visit bee-keepers in such a hab- 

 it. No, I am sure it is not. For cycling I 

 need a light and cool suit, and trousers with- 

 out any flopping edges to catch in the spokes 

 of the wheel or pedals. Besides, I have 



