18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



433 



the sheet of paper placed underneath. You can 

 now cut out the word and fit it into the hole in your 

 copy, keeping- it in place by pasting a small piece of 

 paper upon the back of your copy. A piece of the 

 border that is around a sheet of postage stamps is a 

 good thing- to stick on the back. 



W. z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogersville, Mich., Aug-. 18, 1880. 



WORKER BEES IN PARTNEKSHIP. 



I keep Italian bees, which are in good condition, 

 but have not icerl lately that, frequently, two bees 

 take wing, and tly off together in much the same 

 way they carry out dead or imperfect bees. I 

 thought they might be taking out disabled bees, so 

 I caught some of them, and found both bees of each 

 pair perfect. They are constantly flying in this man- 

 ner, at intervals of a few moments, from my strong- 

 est hives, and I cannot understand why. Can you 

 explain this singular action? E. Greenaway. 



Howell, Mich., July 16, 1880. 



I can only think of two reasons for the 

 phenomenon mentioned, friend G. The first 

 and most probable is that one of the bees is 

 deficient in some way, even though you 

 could not detect it. I often see bees pick 

 up others even from the combs, and try to 

 drag them out and fly away with them, and, 

 after making them desist, I can usually see 

 something in the motions indicating feeble- 

 ness or injury. The other reason is that the 

 bees are accidentally attached by the well 

 known milkweed pollen, or some other sim- 

 ilar substance obtained ^from the flowers 

 they visit. ^_ 



EARLY AMBER SUGAR CANE; HONEY FROM COTTON, 

 ETC. 



I have just finished making- my amber cane syrup; 

 or, at least, finished my earliest planting- 10 days ago. 

 We find no special differancc, so far, in the syrup 

 made from the amber and that made from other 

 cane. I have not made any sugar. We have been 

 very dry here, having- had only one g-ood rain in 9 

 weeks. My amber made me 50 gallons per acre, on 

 old and worn land. I had 7 colonies of bees to start 

 with, and now have 21, all with 10 combs workedout, 

 and in good condition. They have been doing well 

 this year on cotton. I hope to have a good fall for 

 honey. ■ J. D. Fooshe. 



Greenwood, Abbeville Co., S. C, Aug. 12, 1880. 



If you have made a fair quality of syrup, 

 your sugar will be found in the bottom of the 

 receptacles, without further trouble, friend 

 F., although it will need some refining, per- 

 haps, before you have a nice article. — Many 

 reports have established beyond question the 

 fact, that bees do get honey from cotton. 



PENNYROYAL, AS A BEE PLANT. 



Early in the morning, on the 10th of August, as I 

 was going by our apiary, I cast my eyes in to see 

 what our pets were doing, and I beheld them tumb- 

 ling around on the alighting boards as if they were 

 drunk or crazy. Our alighting boards are 10x18 in., 

 extending from the ground up to the entrance, and 

 yet they came pouring in so heavily laden with 

 honey, that some of them would miss the board, and 

 others would light on it, roll clear off, and crawl up. 

 I think they were fully one-third longer than usual. 

 The blacks looked as if they were trying to be Ital- 

 ians. We wondered from whence it came, for they 

 had not gathered much honey for a month. We 



thought it might be from corn, and so I made a visit 

 to our corn Held, but only saw three bees, and they 

 were gathering pollen. This did not satisfy me, for 

 I was confident the outburst of honey did not pro- 

 ceed from that. So I traveled homeward; and as I 

 was coming along I entered an enormous penny- 

 royal patch, and behold ! it was humming with bees. 

 This satisfied me from whence the honey came. I 

 can't say how long it will last, or whether it yields 

 honey every season or not, but I know it grows here 

 in abundance, and the bees are gathering honey 

 from it now. L. A. & J. F. Runnion. 



Spencer, Roane Co., W. Va., Aug., 1880. 



The idea is not exactly new, friend li., and 

 it has been suggested that the honey has a 

 line aromatic liavor, not unlike the celebra- 

 ted mountain sage of California. If you get 

 enough of it to taste, I should much like to 

 see a sample. 



REPORT FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



In May, 1879, I bought one swarm of Italians. 

 From them, I got 1 swarm and 60 lbs. of surplus hon- 

 ey. May, 1880, I bought one more swarm of Italians. 

 From the two I wintered over and the one I bought 

 this spring, I got 7 more good swarms, and 1 good, 

 strong nucleus. This year I only got 50 lbs. of sur- 

 plus honey, as I worked my bees for increase. 



Frank M. Glidden. 



Panama, N. Y., Aug. 11, 1880. 



SWARMING OUT MANIA. 



I have lost four swarms lately. Can you give in 

 Gleanings the cause? 1st. A swarm came out 

 leaving about a half pint of bees, plenty of eggs and 

 sealed worker brood, no queen cells, and honey 

 plenty in each comb. 2nd. As soon as I had hatch- 

 ed a few queens I gave to the % pint of bees that 

 were left a young Italian mother. After she had 

 laid awhile, she left with the entire lot, leaving 

 eggs, larva 3 , a little honey, but not a worker two 

 days old. 3d. One has just absconded, leaving eggs 

 and larvae, and a very little honey. I had been rais- 

 ing queens in this hive for six weeks, with very lit- 

 tle success. 4th. This was just like No. 1. If I am 

 to continue losing in this way, I do not see what I 

 am to do. I caught No. 4, and put them into a new 

 hive, giving them eggs and larvsc ; about 8 o'clock 

 they came out again, and I let them go. I can find 

 nothing in any bee book T have read, to suit these 

 cases. R. K. Walker. 



T>arien, Ga., July 31, 1880. 



Your case is one rather rare, but still 

 sometimes found. It is a sort of absconding 

 mania that your bees seem to have caught. 

 They will soon get over it, and probably 

 never take it up again. It is mentioned in 

 A B C. It is usually because the stocks are 

 rather weak. 



Friend Root: — How I would like to be in your 

 apiary. Perhaps I could show you that I had han- 

 dled bees before. I like it; it is fun forme, although 

 I am an old man of 68. Not long ago, I had divided a 

 swarm, and, a few days afterwards, I went one 

 cloudy day to see which division had the old queen. 

 Being in a hurry, I put a bee hat on, and, in the 

 operation, the vail got loose, and about a hundred 

 bees got under, llien I had fun. I threw the hat 

 away after that. Robert Taylor. 



Lawrence, Kan., July 20, 1880. 



