1S80 



GLEANINGS IN JiEE CULTUHE. 



59? 



my glass, saw the little worm pop out of the hole, as 

 if frightened by the bees crawling over it, and en- 

 sconce itself between the next two grapes, and at 

 once commenced fortifying Itself. In less than an 

 hour it was completely hidden by a web of its own 

 weaving:. I then left it until morning, when I found 

 the skin of the punctured grape, but no bees about; 

 and, on separating the two grapes, T found them 

 both punctured. 1 examined them, but the worm 

 had very mysteriously disappeared. I then from 

 time to time would mash a grape and put the juice 

 over the others, which would soon be visited and 

 licked off by the bees, and the sound ones always 

 left untouched, and they are still lying- on the hive, 

 dried like raisins, nice and sweet. By my experi- 

 ments, 1 am forced to the conclusion, that, instead 

 of the honey-bee destroying- sound grapes, she only 

 g-athers the juice of those punctured by the worm, 

 or otherwise injured, and thus deprives us of the 

 pleasure of swallowing- many a firry morsel of delic- 

 ious fresh meat along with our grapes. She has the 

 capacity to cut open any grape, but not the instinct 

 to do so; which, if she had, the bees would in a very 

 few days destroy every grape in the land. 



BEE-STINGS AND RHEUMATISM. 



I am 58 years old, and have from time to time 

 been troubled with rheumatism in my neck, and on 

 several occasions have been stung exactly on the af- 

 fected part, and it always aggravates the complaint 

 for a day or two, without eventually appearing to do 

 any good nor harm. 



GRAPE SUGAR FOR WINTER EEEDINC 



I fed about a dozen hives this fall, with syrups of 

 grape and cane sugar, mixed, as follows: To 4 lbs. 

 white coffee sugar, 1 quart water; and to 4 lbs. 

 grape sugar, 1 pint water; heat both to a syrup, 

 then mix, using 2 parts grape and 1 part cane syrup, 

 /by measurement. It makes a very nice syrup, and, 

 so far, I can not distinguish it from pure cane syrup, 

 in the cells, and the bees appear to like it equally as 

 well. I will report results in the spring. 



Oxford, Ohio. D. A. McCORD. 



SPIDER PLANT GROWING WILD, ETC. 



I commenced with 20 colonies; reduced to 18 by 

 uniting, and now have them in fine condition to go 

 through the coming winter. All in L. hives. I am 

 perfectly delighted with the business, and the 

 strangest thing to me is, that I reached the age of 47 

 before I knew I had any such taste. I find that the 

 hybrids in my stock have succeeded better in honey- 

 gathering than the full Italians, colonies about of 

 equal strength; notwithstanding, I hope to get rid 

 of all my hybrids next spring or summer, from the 

 fact that they are worse to rob and sting, I think, 

 than pure Italians. I am inclined to think we have 

 the Spider plant, known here as the "polecat plant." 

 From the representation in your A B C, it is doubt- 

 less the same thing. M. S. Waters, M. D. 



Bethel, Tenn., Oct. 28, 1880. 



You are probably right about the Spider 



plant. I have been told it grows wild in the 

 South; and, if lam correct, it lias before 

 been recognized as a plant known by the 

 name yon mention. 



LOSING (?)TEN DOLLAIiS. 



I must tell you how you did not get ten dollars 

 that you were about to get. This summer we had a 

 drought for nearly two months; bees had almost 

 quit brood-rearing. I was just upon the eve of 



sending you the above amount for grape sugar, 

 when I noticed that calm, satisfied hum in my apia- 

 ry, which you have described as the sure sign that 

 honey is being brought in. I opened a hive, and, 

 sure enough, there was the fresh unsealed honey. 

 This was about the middle of September, and the 

 yield continued until frost, Oct. 17th. Many hives 

 that would have required feeding, now have plenty 

 for wintering; so, this is 1 he way you lost the ten 

 dollars, and I know you are glad of it. My bees are 

 about half hybrids and full Italians; I raised my 

 queens from one bought of Dr. J. P. H. Brown, Au- 

 gusta, Ga. Give me hybrids for honey, swarming, 

 stings, and robbing. J. A. Clements. 



Villanow, Ga., Nov. 4, 1880. 



Thank yon, friend < '. I think a great deal 

 more of earning such good opinions of my 

 friends than 1 do of the money they send 

 me ; although, during these fall months, 

 S10.00 hills seem to do a wonderful sight of 

 good, it does me more good to hear of yields 

 of honey coming unexpectedly. 



DORS THE POSITION OF THE CELL AFFECT THE QUEEN? 



You no doubt have observed, that all apiaries 

 have some certain few hives that do better than 

 the others, and yet no visible cause,— the queens be- 

 ing prolific, and the workers more vigorous, produc- 

 ing double and sometimes treble the amount of 

 honey. I have never heard a satisfactory reason giv- 

 en in any bee journal. I am quite sure that I have 

 discovered the cause; viz., the queens are reared 

 in horizontal cells, same as workers, only longer; a 

 little rim on end of cell 1-16 of an inch long present- 

 ing the appearance of a drone-cell, except rim. In 

 conversing with queen-raisers, all say that queens 

 appear, of which they can not account, at times. I 

 have investigated the matter to my entire satisfac- 

 tion, in three different cases, such queens produc- 

 ing the above-named result. I have one such 

 queen whose hive produced 240 lbs. of honey, and 

 gave more than double of help than any other hive 

 in making new swarms. I saw her hatch out of 

 such a cell last 3'ear. In raising cells, I find, where 

 great numbers are produced by a hive, I can almost 

 always find 2 or 3 such cells, and sometimes more; 

 but I never noticed, until this year, that they were 

 the best queens. If I am right, one more step for- 

 ward in our industry. Please give the matter some 

 personal thought. A. L. Klar. 



Pana, 111., Nov. 4, 1880. 



Although the position of the cell may 

 make some difference, friend lv.. I am 

 strongly inclined to think you will lay less 

 stress on this particular point after a "more 

 extended series of observations. Is it not 

 rather the quantity of royal food that the 

 bees have placed with the queen before she 

 is sealed upV 



I exhibited those things at our fair, but, as there 

 was no other apiarian display, nor any competition, 

 I of course got no premium or anything. It seems 

 to be the general opinion, that this is not a good 

 country for bees. We have neither clover nor bass- 

 wood, and bees don't work much on buckwheat, and 

 I never seen them on goldcnrod and asters; and yet 

 my bees have paid me very well. I never lost any 

 yet. I think we can afford to raise honey-plants 

 here, for we can get land for $3.00 per acre. Labor 

 on a farm is only about $ 12.00 per month. 



Nashville, Barton Co., Mo. John Umhols. 



