L56 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 



could not expect to find among the small 

 liee-keepers. But the most real enjoyment 

 I have found in traveling has been, as a 

 rule, in meeting the friends on small apia- 

 ries and in humble homes. I should enjoy 

 extremely, making you a visit. I remember 

 pretty nearly the locality you describe ; and 

 what you told me makes me still more en- 

 thusiastic in regard to this matter of re- 

 straining our great rivers. We do not want 

 kt prohibition " in this matter, but we do 

 want to know how to " regulate and re- 

 strain." I feel satisiied, from what I could 

 see from the car window, that valuable 

 farms—yes, thousands upon thousands of 

 acres— were going to waste because of our 

 helplessness in this matter. Why, the very 

 essence of fertility of our best farming lands 

 is being continually carried away and spread 

 over these immense Mats, pushed one way 

 and then another by the water, so it is of no 

 value to any one. I should not be surprised 

 if some of that bottom land were so rich in 

 fertility that not even stable manure or 

 chemical fertilizers would make it do any 

 hetter. 



SMALL, BLACK, SHINY BOBBER-BEES. 



ARE THEY HONEY-BEES, OK A WILD BEE. 



H. E. H. CALLINGS, of the Hamilton Co., 

 ludiana. Bee-keepers' \ssociation, writes 

 me that, at their recent meeting, several 

 members reported serious robbing from 

 small, black, shiny, almost hairless bees. 

 He says they come in swarms to the victims of their 

 greed, and seem to meet no resistance. They are 

 doing very serious damage. Our society asks that 

 you give us your opinion of these depredators in 

 Gleanings, that it may be read before our society 

 at its next meeting. Several have tried to hunt 

 these marauders to their holes, in hopes to exter- 

 minate them. " We know that you are very busy, 

 but society always presumes one like you can al- 

 ways ElndaleetZe more rime to do one more kind- 

 ness." 



These are not social but solitary bees, I presume 

 of the genus Amlremi. 1 have often heard like com- 

 plaints, but never before has any such report as 

 t his come to my notice. Usually it is said that they 

 are too few to do any serious damage. Now it is 

 asserted that they come in swarms. 1 think it is 

 easy to explain this. The past warm winter has 

 been very favorable to insect-life, so that such in- 

 sects or bees, instead of dying off by the thousands, 

 as is usually the case, nearly all live through. I 

 have noticed that wild bees are unusually abun- 

 dant on fruit-bloom this spring. 



These bees are solitary, and make their cells 

 either in hollow stems or else in earthen tunnels. 

 Thus to hunt these foragers to their holes would be 

 like seeking needle3 in a straw-stack. Like our 

 common honey-bees, these wild bees rob— at least 

 so I think— only when there is no nectar in the 

 flowers. Thus, I presume in Indiana they are steal- 

 ing just after the prosperous season of the fruit- 

 bloom. Bees are very much like men— they find it 

 hard to brook a famine after prosperity has smiled 

 upon them for a season, and so they often take to 

 larceny. It is very difficult to suggest a cure for 

 this evil. The bees are small, and can not be stop- 

 ped out except as we close the bees in. Again, for 



some strange reason the bees seem to bear their 

 enemies no ill will, but almost welcome these bee- 

 tramps; so we can hardly shut them out by nearly 

 closing the entrance. As these Andrenw pilfer only 

 when the harvest is past, in case they are too seri- 

 ous it may pay to close the hives; and if the weath- 

 er is not too warm, let the hives remain on their 

 stands, else carry them to the cellar. There is a 

 silver lining to this unwelcome cloud; and that is, 

 it soon blows over. So far as I know, these raids 

 are soon past. Either the robbers are smitten with 

 compunctions of conscience, or else, and more like- 

 ly, they find fresh nectar in the flowers, where to 

 rob is to do a kindness. 



I am sorry Mr. Callings did not send me some of 

 the bees, then I could know just what they were. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



SUOAR VS. NATURAL STORES; COMPARATIVE EX- 

 PERIMENTS ON, AND THE KELATIVE COST 

 OF EACH. 



fKlEND ROCT:— I send you the result of an ex- 

 periment which 1 tried, to ascertain the com- 

 parative value of honey and sugar syrup as 

 winter feed for bees. 

 I gave two hives empty frames, and weigh- 

 ed them; then I fed each 27 lbs. of syrup, made in the 

 proportion of 2 of best granulated sugar to one of 

 water. As soon as they had the syrup stored in the 

 combs they were again weighed. On the same day, 

 Oct. 22, two other hives having all natural stores, 

 and, to all appearances, of the same strength as the 

 first two, were weighed. They were all weighed 

 Nov. 16, and again April 27th, when fruit-bloom had 

 just opened, and this is the record: 



We will call the sugar-fed hives A and B, and the 

 hives having natural stores Cand D. Oct. IS, A and 

 B having empty combs, each weighed 40 lbs. ; C and 

 D 58 and 62^ lbs. respectively. Oct. 22, after A and 

 B had their feed stored in the combs, they weighed 

 62 and til lbs. respectively; the former having lost 6 

 and the latter 5 lbs. in storing27. Nov. 16, A weighed 

 56 lbs. and B 56H, while C weighed 55 and D b» l A lbs. 

 Thus, between Oct. 18 and Nov. 16, A lost 11 lbs., B 

 10J4, C3, and D 4. April 27, A weighed 42^ lbs., B 

 40. C 37, and D 42. Thus, for the whole time, A lost 

 24 ?i lbs., B 27, C 21, and D 2OK2. 



Although my experiment was upon too small a 

 scale to f urnish a very reliable rule, so far as it 

 goes it shows that 25 lbs. of syrup, made in the pro- 

 portion of 2 of sugar to one of water, is equal to 20 

 of honey. With sugar at 9 cts., the present price, 

 and houey at 7^2, the value of the 25 lbs. of syrup 

 would be just equal to the 20 lbs. of honey; and un- 

 less bees winter better on syrup than they do on 

 honey, the labor of extracting honey and making 

 and feeding the syrup would be just so much time 

 and labor wasted. J. McNeil. 



Hudson, N. Y., May 6, 1889. 



Friend M., 1 don*t think your experiment is 

 as conclusive as you seem to put it. A col- 

 ony that has a certain number of pounds of 

 stores sealed up in their combs, all ready 

 for winter, is in better condition— that is, 



