858 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. I. 



attempt to liaudlc it while it is cold. I do lujt 

 know of any thing that vexes me much more 

 than to see people who have had experience 

 enongh to know better, undertake to move a lot 

 of foundation when it it is almost icy cold. Of 

 course, it Hies to pieces like thin glass; and then 

 after they have done a lot of mischief they 

 sometimes undertake to repair it, and in so do- 

 ing they break a lot more of it. Never touch 

 foundation, nor even hardly look at it, when it 

 is in a cold room. Air and light have the effect 

 <jf bleaching and hardening thin foundation: 

 and as this maizes it a little more difficult for 

 the bees to work, it is generally considered bet- 

 ter to have your foundation slmt up in a box, 

 in'otected from air and light as much as possible 

 during the winter time. 



tation. Who will inform us in the matter ? It 

 is woi'tliy of remark, that the wonderf\illy 

 beautiful "night-blooming cereus" is also a 

 cactus. Its blossom is large, white, and exceed- 

 ingly beautiful. A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College. JNIich.. Nov. 1.5. 



BOTTOM VENTILATION, AND THE TOP SEALED 

 TIGHT. 



Some live years ago I commenced to exi)eiM- 

 nieiit along this line. The family carriage hav- 

 ing received a new to|). I utilized the old Icatlier 

 by using it instead of burlap to cover the bi'ood- 

 nest, cutting it to fit on all sides neatly, using 

 this on four colonies, two sti'ong and two weak, 

 using burlap on all others. The leather was 

 laid flat on the frames. Th(>y all came through 

 without loss; but those with leather for cover- 

 ing built up much earlier in the spring, and 

 were ready for sections in advance of those cov- 

 ered with jjorous mat(>rial. These results being 

 nearly uniform for four seasons, I am this fall 

 using eithe)' leather, rubber cloth, or oil cloth 

 double, first laying three half-inch strips reach- 

 ing across four frames, then this covering press- 

 ed down neatly; over this, six to eight sheets 

 of newspaper, then the chaff cusliions. This is 

 my plan, with the entire apiary of 25 stands. I 

 leave the entii'e entrance o])en (Simplicity en- 

 trance), and shall expect good results. 



Guys, Md., Nov. 13. AVm. S. Adams. 



Friend A., your leather is. to a certain extent, 

 porous. I know by experience that it is not to 

 be compared with rubber. My feet rebel at 

 once against any kind of rubber casing; but I 

 can wear dry leather boots very well, unless tlie 

 weather is quite hot. In hot weather they (my 

 feet) insist on cloth shoes, and will not be quiet- 

 ed with any thing else. I slionld think that 

 leather would be a splendid cover for bees, if it 

 can be had at T'easonable prices. 



ONE OF THE CACTI. 



I send you a flower by mail. It .seems to be a 

 honey-plant as well as a beautiful one. The 

 honey was innning out of it when I got it. 

 They tell me that every flower had drops of 

 nectar. Will you pl(>ase name it. and tell whei'e 

 its native place isV J. M. Kinzie. 



Rochester, Mich., Nov. 10. 



Prof. Cook replies as follows: 



The flower above is one of the cacti. It is a 

 large, brilliantly colored, bright scarlet blossom, 

 and foi'ms a strange contrast with the leafless 

 stem that bears it. These plants come from 

 the arid, sandy I'cgions of Arizona, Southern 

 California, and Mexico. I am glad that they 

 are honey - plants. It is rejiorted that our 

 •'jaclv-pine plains" of Northern Michigan are 

 localitits wheie bees do exceedingly well. It is 

 moie than possible that the strange cactus re- 

 gions of Aiizona may be woithy a similar repn- 



KEIiOSENE TO KEEP BEES AWAY FBOM 

 WATEKING-TKOUGHS. 



I use a kerosene-bari'el for watering stock, 

 and am not troubled with bees. I i^rovide a 

 suitable place for the bees to drink, and pump 

 fresh water in their trough every morning. The 

 secret of it is. bees dislike kei'osene oil nearly as 

 bad as our editor dislikes tobacco. 



Eau Claire. Wis., Oct. 2."). C. B. Jackson. 



Thank you, fricmd J., for the compliment. If 

 you have a kerosene-barrel, of course you have 

 the smell of kerosene always around your water- 

 ing-trough. The idea is a good one. It now 

 occurs to me that we used half a kerosene- 

 barrel for many years for watering our cow. and 

 I have never seen a Ijeii near it. 



WHEN TO MOVE BEES A SHORT DISTANCE ; LICE 

 ON IMPORTED BEES. 



I have 1() chaff hives in the garden, around the 

 fence. I should like to move them about 135 

 feet, where the rest of the apiary is. Can it be 

 done without any loss of bees? If so, when and 

 how? 



My friend C. received from Italy a short time 

 ago a queen and attending bees that had red 

 lice on th(>m. or something that looked like a 

 wood-tick. Tlie lice were sticking on their 

 shoulders and under their wings. Tlie abdomen 

 of the tick was short and round, and a brownish 

 red coloi'. What ai-e they, and are they injuri- 

 ous to the bees? Jesse McNeely. 



Putan. Pa., Nov. 8. 



When the weather turns cold, move the bees 

 where you want them. After bees have been 

 confined a few weeks they will readily return to 

 their new location. The lice you speak of are 

 often found on imported Italians, particularly on 

 tlie queens. In fact, we rarely have an importa- 

 tion without seeing some of them. They are 

 called the Italian bee-louse. They do no real 

 harm, although we always remove them from 

 the queens. 



LONG FLIGHT OF BEES; IS IT TRUE? 



This strip of paper states that bees fly 14 miles. 

 Do you think it is so? F. Tompkins. 



Lawsville Center, Pa., Nov. 10. 

 The following is tlie clipping referred to: 



INSTINCT Oir BEES AND ANTS. 



How insects, especially bees and aiils, find their 

 way back home is one of the marvels of natural his- 

 tory, says a farmer in the St. Louis Gluhr-Dimocnit. 

 My wife keei'S bees, and my little boy luis a taste for 

 I'litoniolofiy, and is always making' experiments of 

 (iiic kind or another with them or other insects. He 

 lias been trying to find out how far away a bee can 

 be taken and not g'et lost, but has not yet succeeded. 

 I live in the countiy, fourteen miles from the court- 

 house, and during the summer that boy has been in 

 town with me a dozen times, and on each occasion he 

 brought some bees along in a little tin box. He col- 

 ored their wings with violet ink, so that he would 

 know the insects asiaiii, and let them go in the heart 

 of the city. The first time he did it \\v released six 

 bees at the Biddle Street market, and 1 believe they 

 got home befoie we did, because they were all on 

 hand aiiending to business the next mording, just as 

 though tliey took a fourteen-mile journey every day. 

 Occasionally a bee fails to come back, but in nearly 

 eveiy instance they return In a few hours. Once 



