isso 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



2*1 



work on it, and I never have any trouble with it. It 

 keeps the bees busy and out of mischief." 



"Well," said I, "here goes for sugar and water 

 then." 



So I went to the house and got a quart fruit can, 

 and put into it about '; lb. of sugar, and tilled it up 

 with water; took a piece of board about 8 inches 

 square, and cut creases in it a l<i Root, with my 

 knife (I have no buzz saw), inverted the can on the 

 board, and carried it out and set it on a box. The 

 bees soon found it, and took to it just as naturally 

 as ducks do to water. The way the bees carried it 

 off was astonishing to me. It was just anxious fun 

 to stand there and watch them. They kept coming 

 thicker and faster and more of them, and soon the 

 can was hid by them. 



All at once, something seemed to say to me, 

 "Come, old boy, what are you standing there 'gawp- 

 ing' in that way for? Don't you know that you 

 have got that too sweet, and when that is gone there 

 will be a shower of lightning around here, and it will 

 be too hot for you and all the rest of the folks?" 

 That started my big boots, and the way I flew around 

 might have been a caution to young folks, if there 

 had been any of them around. I happened to have 

 some more bits of boards handy, and, my knife be- 

 ing sharp (it always is), the creases went into those 

 boards "quicker." Then I rushed into the house 

 after more cans, tumbled on a basket of clothes and 

 fell on my nose, got up on my toes, seized the cans 

 and out of the door "I goes," and soon had 3 more 

 cans ready for business. I put two table-spoonfuls 

 of sugar in each can. 



AVhile arranging the cans on the stand, I felt some- 

 thing wet strike my hand. Going to rain, I thought ; 

 but, looking up, I saw not a cloud; it was just as 

 clear as could be. Soon, I felt it again. What does 

 this mean? said I; and, looking again, I saw some 

 fine spray falling. Soon I discovered that it came 

 from the bees. There, you greedy fellows, I said, 

 you are loading up too heavily. You take more 

 than you can carry, and are throwing it away. After 

 watching them awhile, I saw some of this spray fall 

 on a board, and it made tiny wet spots, but soon 

 evaporated. Theh I began to have a kind of hanker- 

 ing to know what it was that the bees were throw- 

 ing away. So I went and got an oil-cloth table- 

 spread, and spread it on the ground under the bees, 

 and soon had enough of that spray to get a taste of 

 it. (Now don't laugh; you know that Prof. Conk 

 tasted of the liquid from the tree louse. He was in 

 search of light, and so was I.) How do you suppose 

 it tasted? Some would say, "Sweet; of course." 

 Not a bit of sweet about it; it was pure water, and 

 nothing else, according to my taste. There, said I, 

 that is the way the bees evaporate their honey, in 

 part at least. Now, if Mr. Oren will take a stand 

 BOme 15 or 20 feet from his feed troughs, and have 

 the troughs between him and the sun, and look 

 under the bees as they fly for home, I think that he 

 will see pleuty of spray falling. 



Friend Root, I wish that you or some one who has 

 the tools to doit with, would analyze the honey sack, 

 and try to find out how the bees separate the water 

 from the sweet, or the sweet from the water. It 

 seems to me that the sack is a sort of laboratory or 

 filter. 



One point more as to the way the bees act when 

 fed very thin feed in the hive: They fill themselves 

 as they do when they take it from the feeder out- 



side, go out, take wing, expel the water, and return 

 and store in combs. I wish you would try it, and 

 see if your bees do as mine do. " 



Now if you think this (or any part of it) will be of 

 any use to the readers of GLEANINGS, use it; if not, 

 "chuck it into the waste basket." C. Thomson. 



Brighton, Mich., April 8, 188 I, 



PAINTING HIVES INSIDE. 



A PKETTY STRONG I'LEA IN FAVOK OF SO DOING. 



IN reply to Bro. G.J. Flansburgh, in Vol. viii., p. 

 175, 1 would say that my bees wintered as well 

 as I could wish, for I did not lose one, and you 

 know that a year ago last winter %, of the bees died, 

 or at least they did in our part of the State. I could 

 not say in regard to the inside painting, as I only 

 had part of mine painted inside, and they were chaff 

 hives, and were left on summer stands, while those 

 in single hives were put in the cellar. I have not 

 used any division board, or anything on top of my 

 hives. I leave the honey board in, with some empty 

 boxes on, and have not lost one in the last two win- 

 ters. 



I had one swarm that would not stay in their 

 hive, though they had it almost full of honey and 

 brood. They came out for three successive days, 

 and settled, and each time I put them back. Final- 

 ly I took one of my newly painted hives (it was 

 hardly dry inside) and set the combs in it, and tried 

 them in that. That was the last of their swarming. 



I like the hive painted inside for two or three 

 reasons; first, they are so much easier to clean, and 

 the bees keep them neater inside; in cold weather, 

 if frost collects and melts as it does here, it will run 

 out and hardly leave a damp spot; and, last but not 

 least, the bees do not daub them so much with prop- 

 olis. James Parshai.l. 



Union Valley, Mo., Apr. 13, 1880. 



FINDING QUEENS IN STOCKS SUPPOSED 

 TO BE HOPELESSLY QUEENLESS. 



AL.SO A HINT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF QUEEN 

 CAGES. 



fHE last time I wrote to you, I said I had sorn- 

 thing strange to tell you. Perhaps you re- 

 ' member that you sent me a tested queen 

 which came in very bad order and died. You sent 

 me another which arrived in tine condition, and 

 after keeping her caged in the hive 3 days, I turned 

 her loose and Ihe bees balled her. I shut her up 

 again, and when I next opened it, she was dead. I 

 am sorry I did not try to remember every minutia, 

 but I did not think it necessary then. 1 will state, 

 however, what I do distinctly remember. It was 

 about the 1Mb of December when I received her. 

 My bees had been queenless for more than 2 months. 

 They were the most docile bees I ever handled, and 

 did not need a smoker. I had looked through the 

 hive often in Oct. and Nov., and know there was no 

 queen, for my little son had killed her. I released 

 the second queen I got from you, after she had been 

 in the hive, caged, 3 days, the weather being cold. 

 I had left the cage in the hive, and, while I was try- 

 ing to catch the queen again, many of the caged 

 Italians crawled out of the cage, and many of my 

 black bees went into the cage; so I could not sepa- 

 rate them but put the queen in again, and put the 

 cage back into the hive. I opened the hive again in 

 a few days, and opened the cage, but could not find 



