858 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Nov. 



course, and set the case of honey on top. The few 

 lurking: bees that will remain in the top case will all 

 be old ones, and will not show fight when you re- 

 move the cover, but will be glad to fly back home. 



In this empty case over the brood-chamber, when 

 no honey is coming in between the spring or early 

 summer flow and the fall flow, you will find the 

 bees will cluster very quietly, and be out of mis- 

 chief. This last plan will not get the bees out quite 

 so clean as the first plan I wrote you about some 

 time ago, but it has the advantage of forcing the 

 bees into the empty case of sections at once, and 

 giving them no empty space to cluster and build 

 comb in the case that would contain the cone. I 

 have been rather persistent in presenting to you 

 and the public this discovery; but I kno v very well 

 its merits, and it is cheap (no patent and no boom- 

 ing). Try them. J. s. Reese. 



Winchester, Ky , July 16, 1889. 



We are greatly obliged to you indeed for 

 your repeated hints and suggestions in this 

 matter of letting bees go in but not come 

 out, or, vice versa, letting them go out but 

 not come back again. Your arrangement 

 fills the same place in bee culture that a 

 valve does in a pump. It lets the water go 

 one way, but not the other. 



ITALIANS BITING THROUGH THE 

 COROLLA-TUBE OP THE TOUCH- 

 ME-NOT. 



MOKE POSITIVE TESTIMONY OF THE CORRECTNESS 

 OF THE STATEMENT IN THE ABC. 



HEN I first perused the A B C book, I was 

 rather skeptical in respect to the truth of 

 the article where the author describes 

 how he witnessed bees biting through the 

 corolla-tubes of the touch-me-not flowers; 

 and when, at a later time, Prof. Cook said it was all 

 a mistake, and that he could teach another profess- 

 or that " honey-bees do not bite through the cor- 

 olla-tubes of flowers " (Gleanings, 1888, p. 926), I 

 was, I am sorry to say, rather pleased to know that 

 A. I. Root was at least once wrong, and not so in- 

 fallible as I had thought him. But now I am not so 

 ready to believe that he was mistaken after all, as 

 he was to admit that he might be. 



This fall I happened to enter a swamp, and 1 was 

 surprised to find a great number of bees at work 

 on the touch-me-not, which was very abundant. 

 There was not one bee alone, but thousands; and 

 you may imagine with what interest I watched 

 them at work, that I might know the truth for my- 

 self. I saw but one bee enter a flower, and I 

 thought he looked a little foolish when he managed 

 to scramble out again, and I did not see him try the 

 same experiment the second time. Almost all the 

 flowers had holes bitten through the corolla-tubes, 

 about ft of an inch from their ends, and the bees 

 flew to them directly. I had a good view of two or 

 three in the act of biting through the tubes of the 

 younger flowers. There were several small bum- 

 ble-bees and a few wild bees at work, but they all 

 entered the flowers in the regular manner. These 

 were all the insects I saw at work on the touch-me- 

 not, but I was much interested by seeing a pair of 

 humming-birds, dressed in the brightest of green 

 and bronze, darting from flower to flower, and, 

 passing with rapidly whirring wings, sip with their 



long tongues the nectar from the deepest depths of 

 the flowers. From what I witnessed, I kuow of at 

 least one person whom it would be hard to con- 

 vince that honey - bees do not sometimes bite 

 through flowers to reach the nectar. 



In this same swamp there were many thistles- 

 great, lusty, tall flowers, as tall as my head— " bull 

 thistles" we call them, and the Italians were work- 

 ing upon them with a vim. I mention this because 

 I see no mention in the A B C of the thistle as a 

 honey-plant. F. N. Hilton. 



Poatiac, Mich., Oct. 12, 1889. 



I am very much obliged indeed for the 

 compliment you pay me. and I hope that 

 you and I are correct in the matter— not be- 

 cause I want to get ahead of our good 

 friend Prof. Cook, but because I should be 

 very sorry to know that any statement I 

 have put in the ABC book is a blunder. 



PECULIAR HONEY. 

 IS it honey-dew, ok what is it? 



K. (i. H. KNICKERBOCKER, Pine Plains, 



N. Y., sends me what he supposes to be 



" honey-dew." He says bis combs are from 



one third to one-half full of such honey. 



He desires ray opinion as to its fitness for 



winter stores in this severe climate. He further 



states, that, were he sure this would be fatal to his 



bees, he would take them to Florida. 



The honey was sent in the comb. It was quite 

 dark, and the taste was so exactly like that of figs, 

 that, bad any one put it in my mouth, without my 

 knowledge of its origin, I should have said unhesi- 

 tatingly that it was figs. Two of my students said 

 the same. One of them said, " It is the most deli- 

 cious honey that I ever tasted." If this is " honey- 

 dew," it is a very different kind from any that I 

 ever saw or tasted before. As I have written our 

 friend Knickerbocker, I should cast about for some 

 jelly-factory, or other source of fruit-juices, as the 

 source of the nectar from which this honey was 

 derived. I have some very fine fruit honey that 

 tastes very much like quince jam; and this honey 

 made me think of my fruit honey at. once. 



As to Mr. Knickerbocker's question, let me say 

 that our friend Manum, of Vermont, and several 

 others, have sent me some very pleasant honey, 

 with a like question as to its fitness for winter. 

 All suppose the honey to be honey-dew. My opin- 

 ion is, that any honey that is agreeable to us, and 

 which we are willing to place on our own tables, 

 is safe for bees. If it is bitter, and unfit for our 

 larder, then it is hazardous to give it to the bees. I 

 have tasen as nice honey as I ever saw, from nec- 

 tar which the bees gathered from the larch plant- 

 louse. Such honey would be ranked No. 1 in any 

 market. I used it very successfully as winter food 

 forourbees. I wish very much to get samples of 

 all such honey. I shall prize greatly some of this 

 from Mr. K. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Oct. 14. 



Priend Cook, I am glad to see you say 

 something favorable in regard to honey- 

 dew. If honey is good, I should eat it with- 

 out asking why or inquiring w here it came 

 from, providing, of course, it produced no 

 deleterious effect ; and I believe the honey- 

 bee has all the apparatus needed to make fit 



