1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



445 



explanation to the old lady, as to why some 

 people are born deaf and dumb. 



"My dear madam," said the Doctor, "it is 

 owing to the fact that they are born destitute 

 of a perfect development of the organs of 

 hearing and speaking." 



"La, me !" said she, "what a thing it is to 

 have a physic edication. I have asked my 

 old man that ere question more than 40 times, 

 and all the answer I can ever get out of him 

 is, 'Caze they is.' " 



I do not think it is because they love them, 

 friend K., but rather because they consider 

 them an enemy, much as they gather about 

 a robber bee ; also, because a strange queen 

 always arouses a queer kind of excitement 

 in a hive of bees. 



THE HONEY SEASON IN GEORGIA, AND THAT COMB 

 A "FOOT THICK." 



The latter part of the season has been quite favor- 

 able. Rain began to fall about the 20th of July, 

 giving- life and vigor to the floral world, which caus- 

 ed it to bud and blossom, and the flowers seemed to 

 contain their usual amount of nectar. About the 

 first of Sept., bees began to swarm and continued 

 for about ten days. To these swarms, we gave 

 frames of brood and honey, which, with what they 

 gathered, placed them in tine condition for winter 

 quarters. Bees are still gathering considerable, and 

 the most of them are in prime condition for winter. 



The little piece of honey, mentioned by us, of the 

 size of a cubic foot, is now nearly completed. It, 

 with the casket in which it is completed, will weigh 

 over one hundred pounds. Should our life and 

 health continue, we will, at no distant day, compel 

 them to make comb from eighteen to twenty-four 

 inches thick. This, for me, would be more easily 

 done than to raise queens that duplicate themselves 

 every time. A. F. Moon. 



Rome, G a., Sept., 1879. 



DO BEES DESTROY GRAPES? 



Friend Root: —You and perhaps all the readers of 

 Gleanings have had the blessed bee denounced as 

 a nuisance for the mischief it does to fruit, especial- 

 ly ripe grapes. I have heard them vehemently de- 

 nounced for biting open and sucking out the juice 

 of the grape. Well, I have one favorite grape vine 

 that I have let run up to the top of a large cherry 

 tree. I went to it one week ago, and found the bees 

 roaring in it, as if it was in full bloom. What could 

 they be getting? Some were sucking the juice out 

 of the grapes, and some were running over the 

 bunches of grapes, evidently hunting something. 

 On examination, I found some grapes punctured 

 with a small round hole, as if with a pin. 1 selected 

 a nice, handsome, ripe bunch, went to a hive, open- 

 ed it, laid the cushion back, and placed the grapes 

 right on the bees. They examined it closely; that 

 was all. I left it on 21 hours; then opened the hive, 

 and found the grapes all perfect. I then took a 

 sharp nail, punctured one-half of the grapes, put 

 the bunch back as before, and they commenced 

 sucking the juice before I got the hive closed. I 

 left it 21 hours, then opened the hive again, and 

 found those grapes which had been punctured com- 

 pletely used up; but the others were untouched. I 

 have left them in a hive 3 days, and found them as 

 nice and plump as ever. Now, if there are any 

 doubting Thomases, let them go and do likewise. 

 Seeing is believing. J. Elliott. 



Easton, Wayne Co., O., Oct. 3, 1870. 



But even seeing sometimes deceives us, 

 friend E. You saw that the bees would not 

 tear open whole grapes when placed in or 

 near their hives, but I think, if you had 

 looked a little farther, you would have found 

 that some of them, at least, had learned the 

 knack of tearing open sound grapes while 

 on the tree, or vines. Bees can, with their 

 strong mandibles, tear through a substance 

 much stronger than the skin of a grape, 

 when they set about it. I have often cut 

 branches of basswood blossoms, and placed 



them before the hives ; but, although the 

 trees were alive with them, they would pay 

 no attention to those blossoms before the 

 hives. The remedy for bees destroying 

 grapes is to pick them, for the bees never 

 tear them, until dead ripe; even then, they 

 never molest them, unless there is a great 

 dearth of pasturage. Give me sweet grapes, 

 dead ripe, during a severe drouth, and I can 

 teach almost any hive of hybrids or Italians 

 to eat them. 



MAKING THE BEES REAR DRONES OUT OF SEASON, 

 AND DRONE BROOD BY MAIL. 



I have been some time trying to get my Italian 

 queen to lay in drone comb, and cannot succeed. 1 

 put the drone comb in the centre of the brood nest, 

 and she would lay a few eggs and then stop, and the 

 comb would get filled up with honey. 1 extracted 

 it, but it did not do any good. Please inform me 

 how I could get her to lay in the drone comb. If 

 you can not, what would you charge me for a pound 

 of drones? I would like to get some Italian queens 

 fertilized by Italian drones. M. H. Mendelson. 



Accord, N. Y., Aug. 19, 1879. 



This is a very difficult matter, friend M., 



and I never, but once, succeeded to my full 

 satisfaction in making bees rear drones, 

 after the season was over. Then I fed a 

 single colony a barrel of sugar, in Sept. and 

 Oct. The combs, when filled and sealed, 

 were given to other stocks, and the queen 

 finally produced an abundance of drones, 

 but it was rather an expensive experiment. 

 Eood must come in for some time, and in 

 great plenty, to secure drone brood. The 

 man who will succeed in having drone brood 

 for sale, during the fall months, can get al- 

 most his own price for it. I think it might 

 be sent by mail, from localities where Fall 

 pasturage 'is plenty. 



WHY DON'T THEY SWARM? AND HONEY FROM SMART 

 WEED. 



I have four very strong swarms of bees. Three of 

 them are common bees, and one is an Italian swarm. 

 They have hung out all summer and have not 

 swarmed yet. 1 have Simplicity tops on my hives 

 and have taken 74 one-pound section boxes of honey 

 from them. Please tell me the cause of their not 

 swarming. They are working lively on smart weed, 

 this morning. Is there any honey in smart weed? 



Chillicothe, la., Aug. 18, '79. Joseph Ball. 



You have done fairly, friend B., according 

 to the season, and your bees, in all probabil- 

 ity, did not swarm because there has been 

 so little honey for them to gather. You 

 could easily have secured increase while 

 they were hanging out. by artificial swarm- 

 ing, but you would, probably, have lost your 

 honey crop by so doing, and perhaps would 

 have been obliged to teed besides. Smart- 

 weed does furnish a good deal of honey 

 where there is plenty of it, more especially, 

 the large kind called, in our seed catalogues, 

 black heart. 



FROM THE A II (' SCHOLAR THAT "GREW SO PAST" 

 LAST YEAR. 



I have 28 swarms at present, all reared from 8 

 wintered. 1 have taken only 3009). surplus comb 

 honey this year. My hives are in good condition for 

 winter— 115 Italian swarms, and 15 blacks. I have 

 sold all my comb honey at home, readily, for 20c. 

 per tr>. I have transferred 62 swarms this season, at 

 ¥1.<K» each, and have become quite an expert at 

 transferring. I would like to say to beginners, that 

 it is very important to till the frames full of comb, 

 even if they have to use small pieces, as I find that 

 mi ist bees will not fill the space left in the old comb; 

 if they do, they are apt to lap new comb by the old, 

 instead of joining, thus making a double comb. I 



