1SS0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



165 



< KOSS bees 



FOR HONEY, 

 HIVES, A.C. 



PATENT 



SOME OF F1UEND GOOD'S EXPERIENCE. 



4jjpN the Feb. No., page 75, you say you have often 

 Jj| thought that the Grossest bees get the most 

 — J honey, and ask if anybody else has noticed the 

 same thing. I, for one, have noticed it. I have a 

 colony of pure Italians that are very cross, so much 

 so that I prefer leaving them alone as much as pos- 

 sible. 



Last summer, after white clover and basswood 

 bloom, I took all their surplus honey away from 

 them and left them about :>1 empty sections. As 

 the season was very poor for honey, after that, I 

 did not look at them again until I prepared them 

 for winter; when, to my surprise, they had filled ev- 

 ery section, and had enough honey in their brood 

 nest to winter two colonies, while other colonies just 

 as strong as they did not have honey enough to last 

 them till the middle of winter. My brother-in-law 

 has also a colony of black bees, which, I believe, are 

 the Grossest bees I ever saw, and they are the best 

 honey-gatherers he has. 



PATENT HIVES. 



My first experience in bee-keeping was purchasing 

 a county right for a patent bee-hive, for which I paid 

 Jv205.00. It was not fit to put bees into, neither was 

 it suitable for a " hen's nest." A man by the name 

 of Howsour, of Carlisle Hill, Ind., is the man who 

 swindled me out of the money — I being but a boy at 

 the time. I tell you, friend Root, it does go against 

 the grain to forgive such persons. My bees are all 

 in good condition so far. I am feeding grape-sugar 

 candy, and some of them are breeding nicely. Now 

 a question, and I will close. You may think it is a 

 very foolish one. 



DO HEALTHY BEES VOID THElIt F.ECES? 



Do bees ever void their fieces when they are 

 healthy and in good condition? I. R. Good. 



South West, Ind., Feb. 1*, 1880. 



The question in regard to the excrement 

 of bees is one but little understood, although, 

 from time to time, many facts bearing on 

 the case have been given. In the summer 

 time. I have been led to think bees voided 

 only a transparent liquid, and that, usually, 

 if not always, on the wing. See A B C, 

 water for HEES. This accounts for their 

 spotting the hives after having been confined 

 to their hives several stormy days. Quinby 

 held that during good health iii the winter 

 they voided their excrement in the shape of 

 a dry. or neatly dry. powder, which is found 

 mixed with dust oh the bottom board of the 

 hives. I would like to accept this latter the- 

 ory, for it seems very likely and reasonable, 

 but, from careful experiments with themi- 

 croseope, I am compelled to conclude it a 

 mistake, and that the bees in good health 

 can remain until they have a chance to Hy 

 out, without voiding anything at all. unless 

 it be water that evaporates like that from 

 their breathing pores, and is absorbed by 

 the sides of their hives, or carried away with 

 the current of air that is always circulating 

 through the liive slowly, during healthy 

 wintering. If I understood Prof. Cook 

 aright in a conversation on the subject, his 

 search for excrement, in the dust of the 

 hives agreed substantially with mine. 



CALIFORNIA 111 I >KI I l'l\(„ 



NO. 1. 



|fsj RIEND ROOT: —As it seems that your (or our; 

 ?P ~ Gleanings is composed considerably of the 

 experiences of the ABC class, 1 think I shall 

 have to give my experience also. If you think it 

 worth publishing, I will write again; and if you 

 think not, all right. So, here it is. 



I am one of those peculiar scholars who have had 

 some success at times, and then, again, things would 

 be adverse. I have been a Southern Iowa bee-keep- 

 er (on a limited scale) for three years; but becoming 

 dissatisfied with the changeable climate, and the 

 drawbacks in wintering bees in Iowa, along with the 

 poor pasturage in the neighborhood where I lived, 

 I concluded to emigrate to the semi-tropical climate 

 of Southern-central California. So, after bidding 

 farewell to father, mother, and brother, and old 

 chums of my boyhood years, on the 29th day of Jan., 

 I set out to cross the continent, — first across the 

 plains of Nebraska, the Rocky Mountains, and alkali 

 desert, and lastly across the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains, that are covered with snow from .} to 35 feet 

 deep, to the green valley of the Sacramento, where 

 we see all kinds of garden vegetables fresh from the 

 soil, taken to market by the wagon-load. 1 ut still 

 our journey is not done; and now we are out for a 

 two-days' ride up the San Joaquin Valley, where the 

 land is covered with flowers that grow from one to 

 three inches high, as with a carpet of the richest 

 hues, which is enough to make a bee-keeper's eyes 

 sparkle. At last we arrive at the nice little village 

 of Lemoore, Tulare Co. As it is natural for one bee- 

 keeper to seek the company of another, we soon 

 made inquiries for the residence of Mr. O. E. Coon, 

 the man who wrote about the Lipoid nodifloraasa 

 great honey-plant in dry weather, and soon found 

 that he lives one mile west of town, and made haste 

 to get personally acquainted with him. I found a 

 clever, middle-aged man, who considers the study of 

 bee-culture worthy of the most of his attention and 

 time. His apiary is very fine, and contains 180 

 swarms of black bees, which he is going to Italianize 

 as soon as he can raise the queens. The bee-keepers 

 of this section have never used the extractor, comb 

 foundation, or section-boxes, so far as I can learn. 

 This section of country is irrigated, and is always 

 sure of some honey crop. Mr. Coon's bees have so 

 much honey that some should be extracted to give 

 the queen room to breed, and the bees have been 

 carrying pollen for some days, and have carried in 

 considerable wheat shorts; but flowers arc too plen- 

 ty, and they rather like the natural food in prefer- 

 ence to middlings, flour, or any other artificial stuff. 

 Some of the bee-keepers here have robbed their bees 

 so closely that they are starving to death for want 

 of a few ounces of the delicious nectar they gather- 

 ed last summer. Excuse my long chapter this time, 

 and 1 will do better next month. 

 Nine Clover Apiary, 

 Lemoore, Tulare Co., Cal., Feb. Pi, 1880. 



We are very glad indeed, friend , of 



your report, and as you are, without ques- 

 tion, real, veritable ilesh and blood, will you 

 not be so kind as to give your name in next 

 No.? I passed the letter over to the proof- 

 reader, and she gave it to the compositors, 

 before we discovered that Vine Clover Api- 

 ary was not the name of somebody. Tot>e 

 sure, we shall want to know how you flour- 

 ish in your new home. 



