346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



bugs; are they enemies to bees? 



Professor Cook .'—Enclosed you will find a bug-, that 

 I frequently see around my bee hives. Please tell 

 me if he injures the bees. Last summer I found 

 one holding on to a dead bee; whether he killed it 

 or not I do not know. W. H. 



Ironton, Mo., July 15, 1879. 



This is a bug or Hcmipteran, and so related to 

 Phymata erosa described and illustrated on page 

 293, 4th edition of my "Manual". This is Largus 

 succinctus, and belongs to the vegetable eating 

 bugs; such as, the squash bug and chick bug. It is 

 9-16 of an inch long. The color is black, bordered 

 with orange yellow. The posterior border of the 

 thorax, and the margin of the Scutellum— the little 

 triangle back of the thorax— are similarly bordered. 

 There are many species of these trim, gaily colored 

 bugs, and they are often seen on flowers. They are 

 not enemies in any sense, unless they devour useful 

 plants. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich., July 17, 1879. 



LIPPIA NODIFLORA. 



By next mail, I will send you a section of a plant 

 that grows here, from which our bees get more than 

 half of all their honey, and it is an excellent quality 

 of honey. It generally commences to bloom in May 

 and blooms till frost comes in Nov. or Dec. As you 

 can see by the plant, the first blossoms that come 

 last for months. As the stalk extends, the flowers 

 increase in number, new ones coming all the time. 

 It runs on the ground, and each thrifty plant will 

 cover a yard or two square, by fall, with a perfect 

 mat of flowers, as you can see by the specimen. It 

 grows wild here. I have never seen it anywhere 

 except in this, a small section of Cal. We have no 

 name for it, and never have seen any one here that 

 knew what to call it. The honey is fully equal to 

 any white clover or sage honey. O. E. Coon. 



The plant spoken of above is Lippia nodiflora. It 

 belongs to the verbena family. W. J. Beal. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Michigan. 



RICE CORN. 



I also send you a few grains of what they call 

 rice-corn here. It is a very profitable crop to raise 

 for feed and good to eat when cooked. It is some- 

 thing like rice, and better than hominy, we think. 

 It is also a good honey producer. Bees work on it 

 very busily from morning till night, while it is in 

 blossom, which is f rx>m 4 to 6 weeks. I don't know 

 whether rice-corn is a proper name for it or not. 



Lemoore, Cal., July 8, 1879. O. E. Coon. 



We sent the seed to the American Agri- 

 culturist, and the editor replies as follows : 



Several varieties of Sorghum vulgarc or Durra 

 corn are cultivated in California, differing in the 

 size and shape of the panicle, and size and whiteness 

 of the grain. So far as can be told from the grain 

 alone, this appears to be what one of our seedsmen, 

 W. H. Carson, 125 Chambers St., received from Cal. 

 as "China Corn." So far as honey producing quali- 

 ties go, I doubt if there is much difference between 

 the varieties, though to use as food, the whitest is 

 no doubt the best. Whether that offered by Mr. 

 Carson as "China Corn" is known generally by that 

 name, I cannot say; but you can procure from him, 

 under that name, what appears to be identical with 

 your sample. George Thurber. 



New York, July 16, 1879. 



REMOVING A FRAME FROM THE CEN- 

 TRE OF THE HIVE FOR WINTERING. 



ALSO A MATCH BOX ATTACHED TO A SMOKER. 



fWAS thinking while working with my bees to- 

 day, that it would be a good plan to take out 

 the centre frame in the fall, so as to give them 

 more room there, and, if they would occupy it, it 

 would make the cluster larger and they would not 

 be so apt to chill. 



Bees wintered very poorly here last winter. I had 

 three colonies left out of 16. I now have 9, but won't 

 get much honey. It was so cold and dry all the 

 spring, until about the middle of June, that they 

 only gathered about enough for brood. My hopes 

 were about blasted, but I believe in "Try, Try, 



again." I have transferred quite a number of box 

 hives during the last two summers, and have two 

 copies of Gleanings coming here, and one about 6 

 miles from here, in Wayne Co. Two years ago they 

 did not know what a movable frame hive was. 



I have also got two of your Simplicity smokers 

 going around here, and one of them has got the 

 small piece of sandpaper on it. I showed the owner 

 the little tin match box I have on mine, and he 

 thought that beat the sand paper. I have one of 

 your extractors (bought it of Nellis), and extracted 

 140 lb . of honey from one hive last year and took 

 three swarms from it besides. They had also over 

 20 lb. when they froze to death last winter. 



I used about 201b. of fdn. last summer, and the 

 people all like it, but I don't need any this summer, 

 as I have lots of frames of nice combs. 



Moscow, Pa., July 23, 1879. S. J. Hinds. 



The idea of removing one of the central 

 comhs is a very old one. It succeeds, I be- 

 lieve, but probably is no especial advantage, 

 or it would have been retained by those who 

 advocated it. In a hive whose combs are 

 tilled solid with honey, it might be a benefit; 

 but where the honey is rather thinly scatter- 

 ed through the combs, it would do a positive 

 harm. I have several times lost colonies by 

 having a comb in the centre only partly 

 built out when they went into winter quar- 

 ters. In fact, my first queen, for which I 

 paid Mr. Langstroth $20., was lost the second 

 winter in that way. You see this would not 

 be quite as bad as leaving out a comb entire- 

 ly. The trouble was that the bees consumed 

 all the honey on one side, and were unable 

 to pass over this space to the other side 

 during a zero temperature. 



I have studied considerably on a match 

 box to be attached to the smoker, but have 

 as yet been unable to get anything durable, 

 and sufficiently out of the way to suit me. 



HONEY t)K \V, MEL.LILOT CLOVER, ETC. 



fjiHlS has been the dryest year, up to the present 

 time, that I ever witnessed in my life; but it 

 has been very good for bees, up to the first 

 of July. Since then they have not done so well. 

 Through the month of June, there was the most 

 honey dew I ever saw, and bees have made the most 

 candied honey. Almost all the old bee raisers 

 prophesy that the bees will all die off next winter 

 on account of candied honey. They say they don't 

 think the bees can eat it. I would like to hear from 

 you in Gleanings concerning it, and also as to the 

 cause of their making so much candied honey. 



I have received a circular advertising seed of a 

 bee plant that is called Mellilot clover. They say it 

 stands drouth and frost, and grows on any soil, wet 

 or dry, in any climate, north, south, east, or west. 

 One acre will support 20 hives of bees and yield 500 

 to 1000 lbs. of surplus honey, I want to hear what 

 you have to say about it. John G. W. Sewell. 



Iron Rock, Ga., July 19, 1879. 



Your candied honey, whether it is ob- 

 tained from honey dew or other sources, is 

 virtually grape sugar, and is no better or 

 worse than grape sugar for wintering. The 

 principal, and, in fact, the only, difficulty 

 with either is the propensity to candy ; but 

 this will do no harm in warm weather, or at 

 a time when the bees can fly out to get wa- 

 ter to mix with it. No matter how hard it 

 may seem in the combs, it is all used up in 

 warm weather. 



