482 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



drones were hatched in one of my colonies, the 

 progeny of an extra fine queen which I purchased 

 from E. M. Hayhurst. The colony was fed daily, 

 and the drones were permitted to go in and out as in 

 the hight of the swarming season. In less than 

 thirty days from the time they took wing, not one 

 drone could be seen, although the weather was 

 beautiful and warm. If their home became intoler- 

 able to them, by reason of persecution, they might 

 have taken shelter in at least two other colonies, 

 which retained a succession of drones, but not one 

 of these finely marked drones were to be seen any 

 where. If drones live as long as the authors of bee 

 literature would have us believe, what became of 

 my finely marked pets? 



Now I claim to have made something of a discov- 

 ery. I think I may assume this much, as I have 

 never seen anything in print, concerning what I am 

 going to suggest. It is now well understood, that if 

 the abdomen of a drone is pressed between the 

 thumb and finger, he will explode with a convulsive 

 jerk and die instantly. No one can try the experi- 

 ment without being impressed with the suddenness 

 of the death which follows. I have for a long time 

 been of the opinion that this curious feature in the 

 organism of the drone is no mere accident, but the 

 handiwork of an all wise Creator, for a wise pur- 

 pose, though we may not fully understand it at the 

 present. 



Can it be that a beneficent Creator has provided 

 the drone with the means of his own "sudden des- 

 truction," as some compensation for his hard lot? 

 Whether or not the poor drone, when driven from 

 his home, outlawed and persecuted, ''having no 

 where to lay his head," can "burst," quiver, and die, 

 at his own option, I am not prepared to say. (Per- 

 haps he "sort o' " remembers how his "daddy" did 

 it, Brother Root.) But one thing I do know, and that 

 is that drones do, at certain times and under certain 

 circumstances, burst like the ripe pods of the 

 "touch-me-not," while on the wing, and fall lifeless 

 to the ground without any apparent cause, except 

 that it is their nature to do so. This, I think, ac- 

 counts for the sudden disappearance of drones 

 when no succession is kept up. 



G. W. Demahee. 



Christiansburg, Shelby Co., Ky., Nov. 1, '79. 

 <i i |i » 



A NEW SAW FOR TAKING DOWN 



SWARMS. 



FEW days ago, a friend of mine who is a 

 market gardener brought me a pruning 

 saw which he said he brought from 

 Germany, and asked if any of our boys could 

 make him some like it. 'The peculiarity of 

 this saw was, that the back of the blade was 

 thin, like the edge of a knife, while the edge 

 where the teeth were was quite thick. This 

 enables it to go through any kind of green 

 timber without pinching in the least. We 

 finally made him one hundred of them, as 

 shown in the cut below. 



This is not only a splendid saw for cutting 

 off limbs, but it is a very handy saw any- 

 where, and will cut off a limb or a board in 

 an incredibly short time. The blades are 

 made of the celebrated saw steel, that is 

 tempered without hammering. The blade 

 is about 12 inches long by half an inch broad. 

 As it will turn at any angle, this saw is very 

 convenient for getting around among the 

 limbs of trees, or for sawing in any direction. 

 If you want one of them, we can send it for 

 75 cts.; 90, if sent by mail. 



BEES EATING GRAPES. 



HAMMER'S PRUNING SAW. 



¥OUR criticism on the experiment of Mr. J. 

 Elliott, in ragard to bees destroying grapes, 

 J which appeared in the Nov. No. of Glean- 

 ings, must excite astonishment. Your position 

 among bee keepers adds weight to a bad influence 

 already at work to injure our industry. In all new 

 localities, when honey producing begins to take on 

 the character of an industry, we have this question 

 to combat; I am, therefore, compelled, in the inter- 

 est of self preservation, to challenge your conclu- 

 sions. 



I have duplicated the experience of Mr. Elliott 

 this past season, with this addition; I dipped the 

 bunch of grapes in a can of honey and laid it on the 

 alighting board. I think the past season was 

 drouthy enough in Kansas to give a fair test. Th9 

 bees immediately, of course, gathered up all the 

 honey. The gi-apes, they polished until they looked 

 like black beads, and although these grapes lay 

 there over two weeks, until they were shriveled up, 

 they never broke the skin of one of them. I placed 

 another bunch by the side of this one, and scratched 

 open about half the berries. These were soon de- 

 voured except the skin. Those not scratched open 

 were not punctured. These two bunches were se- 

 lected by an experienced grape grower as the ripest 

 in a vineyard of five acres, and when the grapes 

 were dead ripe. 



You say, "With their strong mandibles, bees can 

 tear open substances much stronger than the skin 

 of a grape." To get through the skin of a grape, it 

 must be cut, not torn. Prof. Riley, whom you seem 

 to follow, says the jaws of the bee and wasp are sim- 

 ilar. Then their methods of cutting the skin of a 

 grape must be similar. We can see a wasp alight 

 upon a grape, and see his method of gnawing, and 

 can tell the moment he gets through the skin and 

 begins to suck the juice of the grape. If the bee 

 does the same thing, he must do it in a similar man- 

 ner, and it must take about as long. Now, I ask 

 you or any one else to cite a single instance where 

 the bee had been brushed off before he had punc- 

 tured the skin and had left the imprint of his man- 

 dibles upon the skin of the grape? If you have nev- 

 er been quick enough to do this, you have no evi- 

 dence that the bee is responsible for the punctures. 

 If you reason only from analogy, saying the simi- 

 larity of the jaws of bees and wasps, as we are told, 

 makes it conclusive that the bees bite through the 

 skins of grapes, we ask why not carry the analogy 

 further and say the bees catch spiders, and build 

 their cells of mud? There is no doubt that they 

 have the pmver, but it is equally as certain that they 

 have not the uiU. 



You say, "Seeing sometimes deceives," which 

 leaves the impression upon our mind, that you 

 have many cases to cite, where bees have been seen 



