4ls 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jink 



honey begins to come in. A little stubborn- 

 ness at such a time may result in a big loss 

 to the owner of the apiary. 



BEE-DRESS. 



w. L. loggshall's bee-dress. 



c "|pTO\V much better it is to have things right, 



*§jm| and how much pleasanter it is to use them, 



1^1 and how much more we can accomplish in a 



day! I know we are creatures of habit. We 



all have a way to do any particular thing, 



and always (so we think) a better way than any one 



else. If any of you who read this will suggest any 



improvement, it will be very thankfully received, 



and you will be recompensed for so doing. 



My idea of a bee-veil 

 is shown in the accom- 

 panying photograph. 

 It is simply a wide- 

 rimmed straw or leg- 

 horn hat, with a stiff 

 rim (I right here went 

 and got my hat to give 

 you measurements). 

 The rim of the hat is 4 

 inches wide; the length 

 of veil, up and down, 

 18 inches, and the ma- 

 terial is bobinetor mil- 

 linet, black. I sew the 

 veil on the under side 

 *jJiL of the rim of the hat, 2 

 inches from the outer 

 edge of the rim, thus 

 giving a 2 inch projec- 

 tion to shade the veil, 

 so that I can see at 

 any time; for if the 

 H sun strikes the veil, I 



can not see eggs in the 



g cell*. I use|a flat shoe- 

 string for a shir, or 

 take-up, "J around the 

 coggs hall's bee-dress, neck, and ..have all of 

 the gathering in the sides and back of the veil. 1 

 sew the veil fast to the string. The shoestring is 

 long enough to tie under the collar, so it is impos- 

 sible for a bee to get to your face. There is not 

 much gathering in front to obstruct the vision. 



When I am not in the bee-yard, or going from one 

 apiary to another, I untie and tuck it in the crown 

 of the hat, and it is out of the way, and all ready at 

 a moment's notice, which we all know is very con- 

 venient sometimes. 



For hand gear or false sleeves I use colored shirt- 

 ing. After they are made, dip them in linseed oil; 

 hang them in the sun till dry, then the bees can not 

 sting through them. I have a rubber elastic in the 

 upper end above the elbow, also the one that is 

 around the hand; have a thumb-hole worked in 

 above the elastic, so that the hand is all covered, 

 except the thumb and fingers dike a mit), only the 

 ringers are all together. With sleeves made in that 

 way, bees do not crawl up my arms and make me 

 uncomfortable, and give me pain. 



W. L. Coogshall. 

 West Groton, N. Y., April 21, 1889. 



Now, friend C, although we are very 

 much obliged indeed for the sketch you give 



us above, we do not like it a bit because you 

 did not say any thing about that broom. If 

 I recollect right, you told me at Utica that 

 you had a variety of soft broom corn, and 

 that you made soft brooms for the sole pur- 

 pose of brushing bees off from the combs ; 

 that yon preferred them to the yucca brush- 

 es, the Davis bee-brush, or any thing else 

 that had ever been brought out. You see 

 our engraver has made the broom quite a 

 prominent object. We also wanted to know 

 something about that thing in your other 

 hand. Is it a smoker, or what is it? Tell 

 us about these two implements, with all the 

 particulars, just as you have about the veil 

 and the sleeves. 



THE BUTCHER BIRD. 



HARD-HEARTED AND BLOODTHIRSTY 

 OF THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



K. J VIA US JOHANNSEN, Port Clinton, Ohio, 

 writes me in effect as follows: 



I send you two black insects (crickets), 

 which, as you will see, are impaled on the 

 short sharp twigs. I took them from my 

 quince-trees. There are many such impris- 

 oned, or, rather, pinned to the tree. Some are 

 dried up, though the two I send you were alive 

 when I found them; and when I severed the twigs 

 from the trees I supposed at first that their im- 

 palement was the result of accident; but as I find 

 so many I conclude that some enemy (of the vic- 

 tims) has done this. I have watched closely to dis- 

 cover this jailer, but so far in vain. I think ho 

 must work at night, as early in the morning I find 

 most of the fresh victims alive. 



To-day I found the large insect (a dragon-fly) 

 hanging to a quince twig. I thought him the one 

 that sticks the others on the spines. As I caught 

 him he dropped a j-ellow mass which I suppose was 

 made up of eggs, as I find it on the impaled insects. 

 Now, " kind friend," this is quite likely a law of na- 

 ture that you are entirely familiar with; but it is a 

 great mystery to me, and is doubtless the same to 

 most readers of Gleanings; so will you explain 

 the matter in that journal? 



Again, are these insects in any way connected 

 with the borers with which my quinces are badly 

 infested? 



Oh yes, friend J., I am well acquainted with this 

 curious freak of nature. There is much humor- 

 many jokes— often cruel ones like this of which 

 you write— in nature. And it is this humor, togeth- 

 er with the many strange methods by which na- 

 ture does her work, that gives this study its rare 

 and irresistible fascination. 



The cruel persecutor in this case is the well- 

 known butcher bird (CoUyrio borealis). This bird is 

 also known as the "great northern shrike." It is 

 about the size of the robin, light blue in cjlor, with 

 black tail and wings, and a short biack line from 

 the bill through the eye to the base of the neck. It 

 is white beneath. It is slim, strong, and, although 

 a song bird, or percher, yet in its strong feet and 

 hooked bill it reminds us of the birds of prey— the 

 hawks and owls. 



In habits this bird is a cruel joker. It catches in- 

 sects, and even mice, frogs, and birds, and hangs 

 them up on sharp twigs and thorns. Now, if this 

 were simply a provident habit, saving up for times 

 of scarcity, we could forgive his birdship— we cer- 

 tainly could if he would kill his victims before he 

 hangs them up in this excruciating style. But in 

 all my observation I have never seen him take and 

 use any of his victims after they were impaled. It 

 would seem a sort of fiendish sport, and we can 

 hardly doubt but that this bird is a most fit subject 



