786 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



wheat honey freshly gathered is very disa- 

 greeable to most people. In fact, it some- 

 times has an odor bordering on that from 

 cnrrion. Other fall flowers give other pe- 

 cu]i;ir^)(Iors — some of them quite^^auipleas- 

 ant. This odor, however, soon disappears, 

 for the bees have a knack of evaporating 

 away every thing that is offensive, and it 

 does them no harm, so far as we know. 



THE SCRUBBING MOTION OF BEES AT THE EN- 

 TRANCE— AVHAT IS IT ? 



There is something about some of my bees I 

 do not fully understand. Last year the bees of two 

 of my colonies stayed outside the hive for two 

 months, apparently ready to swarm, but did not. 

 They sit at the entrance of the hive all day. Like a 

 regiment of well-drilled soldiers, they move up and 

 down all together in a see-saw motion, apparently 

 to make believe they were cleaning off the front of 

 the hive. They seem to open their mouths, shut 

 it as though a mouthful were gathered every time 

 they move up and down; but close watching devel- 

 ops the amusing fact that they do nothing. At 

 first I thought they were cleaning the hive; but 

 there are no signs of it. They come out early and 

 go in late at night. The hives that those bees are 

 in are strong colonies, but they last year did noth- 

 ing, and no doubt it will be the same this year. Now, 

 can any of the bee-keepers tell me something on 

 this point? I have smoked them in five or si.Y times 

 a day. In the day lime they will scarcely go in, but 

 scatter in all directions, fly off, come back empty, 

 and go to work the same way. J. H. Hanson. 



Barron, Wis , June 17,1887. 



Friend n., this matter has been mentioned, 

 and has been d iscnssed somewhat in our jour- 

 nals ; bnt so far as I can recollect, no ex- 

 planation has been given ; and I have some- 

 times thought we should have to decide that 

 it was a sort of idiosyncrasy that the bees 

 had fallen into. 1 had supposed, however, 

 that the operation resulted in scraping off 

 the soft rotten wood ; or on painted hives, the 

 soiled surface of the paint. If you are sure 

 they don't remove any thing whatever, it 

 makes the matter still 'more mysterious. I 

 don't know that I ever saw bees do it dur- 

 ing a good flow of lioney. If it is so in your 

 case, I think I would remove the queen and 

 get one that reared bees that were not lazy. 



MATING AND BREEDING QUEENS ON AN ISLAND. 



We are eight miles from shore on an almost deso- 

 late island (only fishermen here in fishing season), 

 out of sight and hearing of hive-bees, none ever 

 having been seen here save the forty nuclei I have 

 brought with me containing three strains of virgin 

 Italian queens. I also brought a choice batch of 

 drones from my best queen. So you see I have it— 

 an absolute control of their mating. If these 

 queens turn out well 1 shall experiment largely 

 next season. Providence permitting. 



I wish to secure, next May, some queens lor hon- 

 ey-producing qualities, of several races, for further 

 experiment in fertilizing upon this island, hoping 

 thereby to secure something a little ahead tor busi- 

 ness in my own apiary. I. S. Huckins. 



Charity Island, Lake Huron, Aug. 3!l, 1887. 



Friend II.. we wish you all manner of suc- 

 cess on Charity Islantl ; but this thing has 

 been started so many times in days past. 



and never resulted veiy well, we perhaps 

 have become a little "incredulous. Very 

 likely, liovvever, those who started the pro- 

 jects had too much else^oii their hands, and 

 the experiment failed, not from any fault of 

 the island project, but because of neglect. 

 The fact is, there is not any strain of bees 

 that I know of that have been bred to any 

 extent^particulaily for their honey-produc- 

 ing qualities. So far as my knowledge ex- 

 tends. I do not know wliei'e you can find any 

 better bees tluin Italians ; and I am not sat- 

 isfied that there are good strains and 

 bad strains. There are certainly good work- 

 ing colonies and poor working colonies ; but 

 if anybody has succeeded in making these 

 colonies transmit their su))eriority I have 

 not heard very much about it. One reason 

 is, no doubt, that it absolutely requires an 

 island to manage it. 



0a R QaE^TiON-Bex 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be brielly 

 stated, iind I'ree from any possible ambiguity. The fiuestion 

 or questions should be written upon a separate i-lip of paper, 

 and marked, ' For Our Question-Box." 



Qucstidii No. i».— If an emiiloye discovers a swarm 

 of bees during working hours, <lo the bees belong 

 to the employe or employer? It is commonly 

 considered thttt a swarm is the propeity of the 

 person first discoveiing them, no mutter upon 

 whose land they may be. 



If from the apiury of the eniploj'er, then no; 

 otherwise, yes. A. J. Cook. 



I should say it belonged to the employe, unless it 

 was found on the land of the employer. 



Dr. a. B. Mason. 



I should guess they belong to the finder, if he 

 loses his time in securing them. 1 should let him 

 have them in any event. G. M. Doolittle. 



1 should suppose Ihey would belong to the em- 

 I)loye, and it would make no diflerence as to whose 

 land they were found ujion. W. z. Hutchinson. 



This is a legal question for lawyers to answer, 

 but it seems to me right that they should belong to 

 the employer, if found on his premises, and to the 

 employe if found on other premises. 



O. O. PoppI/ETON. 



This is a question of law; but in a case of this 

 kind which happened to us, we decided in favor of 

 the employe. If he did not choose to tell you that 

 he saw the swarm, you would lose it anyhow. 



Dadant & Son. 



Although not an impoitaut matter to the frater- 

 nity in general, this (jiicstion is inteiesting. After 

 discussing it somewhat in the l'amil>-, I must say I 

 don't know, and am anxious to see the answers of 

 others. 1 would rather, liowever, have the ans- 

 wers of three good lawj ers than of 100 bee-keepers. . 



C. C. Mtr,bEi(. 



Ask the lawyers. 1 think the man who'fouiid the 

 bees is the owner, but he should pay Ids employer 

 for the time he loses to secure them. Then,jagain, 

 it would depend upon where he discovered them. 

 If he found thein in my apiary, very likely they 



