1887 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CULTURE. 



H68 



tion the next day it would all be drawn out so near- 

 ly equal that I could see no ditto rence therein, and 

 could tell which had the fiat bottom only by the 

 mark which I made iijion the sections. Ajiain, il' 

 very thin Hat-bottomed foundation be put in the 

 supers at a time when no honey Is bcinf,"- stored, and 

 this state of things continue for any consideralile 

 time, the bees will ."sometimes appear to nibble it 

 off or cut it awaj'. I think that they use the wax 

 for capping other combs, while at the same time 

 they will leave heavier foundatoin untouched. My 

 limited experience inclines me to the conclusion 

 that, when there is a good flow of lionej', the thin 

 fiat-bottomed foundation will be accepted and aji- 

 propriated by the bees without any hesitation; and 

 ifjsuch are the facts, then thei-e would be quite a 

 saving- for the apiarist to use the thin foundation; 

 and, what is better still, the honey would contain 

 more natural comb, and less of manufactured wa.\, 

 which is so often compared to fishbone in honey. 

 Seymour, Wis. Joshua Bull. 



Thanks for tlie results of your experi- 

 nients. We are glad to lit^ar something in 

 favor of tlat-bottomed fonndation. even if it 

 is not of a very positive natnre. We are in- 

 clined to think that, (hiring a good flow of 

 honey, the bees would show little difference 

 in favor of either the flat-bottom or the nat- 

 nral-base fonndation. We should be glad to 

 hear from others who may have compared 

 these two kinds of foundation. 



REPOKT FIIOM INDIANA. 



The honey crop in this section of the State will be 

 very lig-ht. There will be but little surplus. The 

 whole season has been very poor. The spring- 

 opened with prospects fine, but it has been very 

 dry nearly the whole season. White clover, though 

 blooming well at first, seemed to produce but little 

 honey. The hot sun seemed to check secretion. 

 Basswood produced but little. Goldenrod is coming- 

 info bloom, but not a bee is to be seen on it. It is 

 three weeks earlier than 1 ever saw it before. We 

 have had over four weeks of steady and extremely 

 .varm weather, and the last two weeks hot. The 

 thermometer has avoraged above 86° the past week. 

 It has reached every day 90 and above; several days 

 100 and above, up to 104. We have had two fine 

 rains since the 4th of July, but the sun has come 

 out so hot that it seemed to do vegetation Ijut little 

 good. Corn and potatoes arc badly injured, and 

 the ground is so dry that farmers can not plow 

 for wheat. Bees have generally gathered enough 

 to winter on. I don't think the honey market will 

 be overstocked this season, and prices will be good. 



A. D. Stocking. 



Cedar Beach, Tnd., Aug. :J, 1S87. 



Bee Bmnw, 



ORj HONEY - PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



VITIS BIPINNATA. 



ip S I have found one of the greatest honey-vines 

 [^ in the South, and can not find any one who 

 K can give me the name, I inclose you a small 

 *^ twig of the vine. It blooms from earlj' 

 spring until fall. Bees are booming on it 

 now, and have been for over a month since 1 first 

 discovered it. Please give the name. It is plenti- 



ful in this country. It has ripe fruit and blossoms 

 on it now. F. M. Davidson. 



Collinsville, Ala., July 19, 1887. 



[The plant you send us is Vitin Jnpiimata, T. and 

 G. The botanies say nothing of its qualities as a 

 honey-plant. 1 Experimental Station. 



Columbus, O., Aug. 2, 1887. Per Craig. 



THE ROCKV-MOUNTAIN BEE-PLANT. 



I am trying to find a name for the plant of which 

 I inclose a specimen. Is it what is called the Rocky- 

 Mountain bee-plant? As you see, it has a purple 

 bloom; it grows about 18 linches high, sending out 

 branches in every direction. C. E. Caukoli,. 



Parma, Col., July 26, 1887. 



The specimen of plant yon s.-nd is the 

 Rocky-Mountain bee-plant," as you suggest. 

 Yow will tind a full description" of it in the 

 A B C of Bee Cultur-. 



DEFE.\TEU, BUT NOT DISCOURAGED. 



]^\ EES have done quite poorly this i-eason. I had 

 ISi only one stand out of .30 that went into the 

 f^ supers. It made about 12 lbs. of marketable 

 "**' honey. I have one stand of h3'brids which 

 secured about 59 lbs. while many of the 

 blacks did almost nothing, and are now in a starv- 

 ing condition. White clover commenced yielding 

 honey on two occasions, but each time it was stop- 

 ped by heavy rains. Basswood gave honey about 

 two days. There is j'et some prospect of a crop of 

 fall honey, which will be most gratefully received. 

 If my bees had all been Italians or hybrids, like the 

 one mentioned above, I should have done quite 

 well. I have heard of bees fighting and stinging 

 the operator when a hive was opened (when rob- 

 bers were troublesome). I have handled blacks for 

 4 years, and have now 3.5 stands, yet I have never 

 had the experience mentioned. Are not blacks in- 

 ferior to Italians in poor seasons, and equal in good 

 ones? N. J. Flint. 



Georgeville, Mo. 



Friend F., do you mean to say that rob- 

 bing in your apiary does not iiici'ease the 

 danger of stings when you open a hive V 

 The point is this : When there is a dearth of 

 honey, and the bees tind nothing in the 

 fields, they liang about the hives or in the 

 honey-house. If every thing is kept out of 

 their" reach, however, little harm is done; 

 but let them get a notion that honey may be 

 stolen from neighboring hives a Iniudred 

 times faster than they can get it fiom the 

 fields, and bees, like human beings, begin to 

 develop bad and vicious tempers ; and after 

 this thing lias got well started, we have 

 more trouble with stings than we ever had 

 before. In fact, it not only troubles the pro- 

 prietor, but his neighbors, and the teams in 

 the street, if he d<>es not lake prompt mea- 

 sures to stop it. My impression is, that the 

 troul)le witli bees in or near towns or cities 

 has pretty much all come about by this sort 

 of carelessness. I liave not h;i(l much expe- 

 rience with black bees in this line, of late 

 years ; but 1 never noticed that they were 

 very miicli different from Italians. I do 

 kiuiw, iiowever, that hybrids are ever so 

 much worse than either race pure, when 



