42 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and waiting for a victim. The trap was a 

 success ; and yet (alas, the world is full of 

 just such discrepancies !) after twelve years 

 I find myself using the common wire mouse- 

 trap instead of my own. As for our fixtures 

 and little "ginger-bread-work" when stored 

 away, the proper way to keep them from 

 mice ("only right way" again) is not by 

 traps of any kind, but by having them stored 

 in a separate little building, and by making 

 sure that not a mouthful ivhich a mouse 

 could possibly eat is anywhere near. Not 

 even a mouse will stop where one has to 

 subsist on naughtiness alone without rations. 



Another of these February inventions was 

 what I called the Tinker's Treasury. This 

 was designed to put in very small compass, 

 easily carried wherever tinkering was to be 

 done, as nearly as possible all the tools and 

 hardware a universal genius would want. It 

 is about fifteen by thirty inches in size, and 

 five inches high — nine inches high where 

 the center wall and hand-holt comes up. At 

 the bottom are two drawers for little tools 

 and things. In the ends are twelve deep 

 pockets for long nails and slender tools. 

 The top of one side has twenty-five movable 

 trays for wire nails, brads, screws and rivets. 

 The other side has twelve larger trays for 

 larger ware. The tinner's shears and big 

 hammer, they ride a-top the center wall. 

 This polyglot utensil is still in use and good 

 repute — and so popular with other tinkers 

 besides myself that the trays are prone to be 

 empty. 



The blooming failure of the lot of inven- 

 tions was a lantern. But as a lantern does 

 not belong especially to apiculture, I'll just 

 plead that I failed by getting out of my pro- 

 fession. 



"Feb. 22nd. Weather moderate. Alder's begin 



< yield pollen. Pollen grains very light yellow. 

 Power of my microscope not sufficient to see the 

 precise form of the grains— somewhere between a 

 sphere and a cube." 



This entry shows the beginning of an idea 

 which I followed in after years until it " i-au 

 up a tree." When I purchased a tolerably 

 good microscope it was largely with the idea 

 of testing every sample of honey I desired 

 to know about, and proving what plant it 

 was gathered from by the scattering pollen 

 grains floating in it. I assumed from what 

 I had read that two different species of 

 plants always had pollen differently formed, 

 or at least with different markings. To ob- 

 servations no more minute than mine this is 

 not exactly the case. The forms are wonder- 

 fully many and varied, to be sure, but there 



are certain pet forms, so to speak, that recur 

 often, and with so little variation that it 

 requires more care than mine, or more lens 

 power, to be sure of the species. One of 

 these oft recurring forms is the nearly sphe- 

 rical form with the sides variously dented in, 

 like raisins just dug from a keg. Another is 

 the wheat-shaped grain — groove down the 

 side and all. And when I came to turn from 

 the examination of pollen which I myself 

 had gathered to the examination of samples 

 of honey from the hives, my scheme broke 

 down altogether. It is nearly impossible to 

 find a grain of pollen in honey ; and if you 

 do find one probably it did not come from 

 the flower that furnished the honey, but got 

 in somehow in the hive. The wonderful 

 apparatus the bee carries for manipulating 

 honey seems designed, among other things, 

 to strain out pollen grains, and all other 

 floating motes. ( )n a little reflection we will 

 perhaps conclude that this may be a rather 

 important item in finishing up honey. 



'• Feb. :i6th. Thermometer (53 Bees very live- 

 ly ; bii" 9-7, which 1 had shaded with a big door 

 because they flew so much, webe almost entire- 

 ly guiET." 



Here is a valuable hint, or one that would 

 be valuable if semi - tropical winters came 

 often enough to make it so. A shade-board 

 big enough to shade both the entrance and 

 the whole hive will keep the bees quiet much 

 of the time when they would otherwise be 

 flying and wasting their strength and days. 



■' Feb. 27th. Thermometer 64° Found the 

 weak colony, 2-6, reduced to queen and some 300 

 bees. Coroner's verdict too many combs— there 

 were five Repacked them on two combs, and 

 carried them up chamber to save the queen. 

 Entrance closed. 



Lost my first colony, 1-4. Coroner's verdict, 

 carelessness last fall and neglect to examine 

 since. John called my attention to the robbing 

 which had began. ( 'overed the hive with a tent 

 and got the robbers out before much honey had 

 been carried oit. There were 200 bees or so left. 

 No siga of brood, and few dead on bottom board. 

 See 1 i in Stand Journal. 



Interesting observation. Saw two strong bees 

 worrying a weak— perhaps young— one, and mak- 

 ing him disgorge honey, which they eagerly lap- 

 ped up." 



This shutting bees in and taking them to a 

 warm room is hardly practical when there is 

 anything like a colony of them ; but it will 

 do when the bees are down to oOO in number 

 — may keep the queen alive until you can 

 find use for her. In this particular case they 

 were very soon all dead. By the way, I 

 counted them at the funeral, and there were 

 only 18t; instead of .tOO, a fair illustration of 

 how beginners, and perhaps some who are 

 not beginners, overestimate numbers. Had 

 they been packed in the fall on three combs, 



