1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



743 



hoops, and a board about 14 inches square. Place 

 the keg upside down on the board on the ground 

 near the cluster. Shake the bees on the ground [ 

 close to the keg, and they will almost alwaj's go in 

 readily. When they are all clustered in and onthe i 

 keg, carry it to the hive the bees came out of, and 

 shake them out in front, and they will go in lively. 

 It sometimes happens that I can readily find the 

 queen in the cluster; if so, I use the Klimitz queen- 

 eage to put her in, and hang the cage in the hive 

 after cutting out the cells, and if they had no other 

 queen in the cluster they will come back and save 

 the bother with the keg. When they begin to come 

 back I let the queen out of the cage, and let her 

 run down the brood-comb. 



When cutting out queen-cells, while the second 

 swarm is out it is an easy matter to save some vir- 

 gin queens, as they will often hatch while cutting 

 out the cells. I keep several on hand; and altera 

 hive has sent out a. first swarm, and the excitement 

 is over with, I run a virgin queen into the hive at 

 the entrance. An experienced bee-man told me it 

 would prevent after-swarming, but it has not with 

 me. I have thought it might save a few days' wait- 

 ing for a queen to hatch. What do you think about 

 it? 



I find by managing my bees this way, 1 get about 

 as much surplus honey from the old colonies as 

 from the new ones. It keeps them better equalized, 

 in better shape for wintering, and saves lifting 

 hives heavy with honey, from one stand to another. 

 By letting the second swarm come out, and then 

 cut the cells, I am not so liable to kill or injure the 

 queen, and I think it better than cutting oufVill the 

 (jueen-cells but one as soon as the flrst swarm 

 issues; for I And it difficult to know which cell will 

 hatch first. 



My bees are doing flrst rate. Spring count, 56; 

 increased to 98, and put back at least 30 swarms 

 since July 10th. The honey - How has been very 

 good from allsourcessofar— dandelion, fruit-bloom, 

 white clover, and now we are in the midst of bass- 

 wood, and the goldenrod is coming on in good 

 shape. C. A. Sayre, 56—98. 



Sargent, / Iowa. 



Friend tS., your plan of preventing after- 

 swarms is like many others— sometimes it 

 answers and sometimes it does not ; but I 

 should think it would do in the majority of 

 eases ; that is. if the bees accept a newly 

 hatched queen, they will probably permit her 

 to tear down all (pieen-cells under way. 



THE MECHANISM AND STRUCTURE OP 

 THE BEE'S HIND-LEG JOINT. 



§OME of the readers will perhaps remember, 

 that a few years ago 1 made a cross-section 

 of the bee - sting. This was the work of a 

 whole week of hard, ve.vatious labor. No 

 one but one who has handled the microscope, 

 and made such dissections, can understand the 

 difficulties that attend it. The sting is made of 

 a hard horny substance— so hard, indeed, that it 

 will break nicks in the best razor steel when cutting 

 transverse sections. It is much finer than the finest 

 cambric needle; and when a cross-section is ob- 

 tained, an idea can be formed of the minuteness of 



the work. But with the leg of a bee we do not have 

 such difficulties to encounter; and, strange so say. 

 as far as I can learn no one has /aZIjy investigated 

 the structure and true relation of the different, 

 parts of the bee's legs to each other. As I have 

 been at school for the last four yeai-s, I have not 

 giveo it much study myself. 



To me this is a most fascinating study; and now 

 that a light foi-m of the old microscopic fever has 

 returned, I give you the results of a part of my in- 

 vestigation, as brought forth by a IJausii & Lonih 

 microseopi'. 



V 







HIXU-LKO .lOI.NT OK .\ HKK. 



The first thing, then, that we take up is the hind- 

 leg joint, and its purpose, a cut of whieii appears 

 above. It is drawn as it ajtpearc^d in my instru- 

 ment, and is magnified 10 diameters; in other words, 

 it appears 40 times as long and 4 I tin)es as wide a.s 

 it really is. At X you will observe that the lower 

 jaw, so to speak, is serrated by rows of what appear 

 to be teeth. The opposite side of X, not shown, is 

 serrated in the same manner. On the upper jaw is 

 a row of sharp spurs, Z, somewhat coarser than 

 those seen below. Just above the jaAvs, at the base 

 of what is called the tibia, is something that looks 

 somewhat like a pig's head witli his mouth open; 

 but this in reality is a series of very powerful 

 little muscles wliich give motion to the joint. The 

 question now naturally arises. What is the office of 

 tiiesc teeth and spurs, as seen in the jaws? I con- 

 fess I am not quite able to iletermine, without more 

 study than I have been able to give it, so far. 

 Possibly they may serve to masticate or pulverize 

 the pollen so that it may be more easily patted 

 down in the pollen-basket higher up, as at Y. 



HOW THE BEES LOCK THEMSELVES TOGETHEH IN 

 CLUSTERING. 



However, I feel pretty tolerabli' certain that 1 

 have discovered one purpose of this peculiar joint. 



