138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



John H. Hockinpfi in a defense of the 

 wasp, quotes Sir John LUbbock as saying 

 that he counted one Wcisp making- 94 visits 

 to some honey in one day, the honey being 

 given for that purpose. After speaking 

 about the ceaseless warfare wasps wage on 

 our common flies, the writer draws this sat- 

 isfactory deduction in favor of Miss Wasp: 



To a nest, say 2000 workers iii th ir daily visits are 

 carrying some 19S,0i execrated pilferers and torment- 

 ors, or. t) 100 nests, in a ra-nus of two miles, are carry- 

 ing l!',8(l0 000 a day. Think of life without this pro- 

 tt;clion ! This number will allow, if yon please, a lib- 

 eral discount without ruining the plea We have a 

 keen perception, and so has the s arrow, of what the 

 destruction of hawks, owls, weasels, and other adjust- 

 ers of the balance of power in Nature has done. Who 

 can picture the resulis attending the extinction of the 

 wasp family? .Shall they not be welcome to a share 

 of our fruits, and may not an occa ional sting be 

 borne with patience, when we remember our compar- 

 ative freedom from the irritating attacks of other in- 

 sects ? 



I am the more glad to learn this, for I 

 have always had a liking for wasps on gen- 

 eral grounds, they being our first paper- 

 makers. In our old readers is a poem rep- 

 resenting a conversation between a bee and 

 a wasp, wherein the latter asks the bee 

 why she is much more liked by people than 

 she, the wasp, was. The answer was to 

 the efi"ect that wasps are alwaj's stinging, 

 like fault-finders, while bees are always 

 doing something useful. Man is learning 

 that many of his supposed enemies, such as 

 wasps, snakes, owls, woodpeckers, hawks, 

 etc., are his very best friends. I believe 

 Prof. Cook has done much in furtherance 

 of this humane view of the case. 



BEES don't work BY RULE. 



"I am a beginner in bee-keeping, and 

 have been reading all I can get hold of 

 pertaining to bee culture. I find much of 

 your writings in the bee-papers, and much 

 yoti say seems right and good to me. Still 

 the teachings j'ou give do not harmonize 

 with those given by other writers. On the 

 contrary, they seem at times to be almost 

 directly oppo**ite and the.«e other writers 

 do not agree with each other any more than 

 they agree with you. I have looked in vain 

 fur some one person whom I could follow 

 with a certainty of success, and as freely 

 as I would a teacher in arithmetic or other 

 common branches of studj% How am I 

 to know whiit to do? " 



"But a rule in arithmetic and a rule in 

 bee-keeping are two different things. 

 Twice two makes four every time, because 

 it can not be otherwise, no matter by whom 

 multiplied, nor at what season of the year 

 the computation is made, nor in what local- 

 ity it is done; hence we have the rule of 



multiplication as being always the same. 

 The same of addition, subtraction, etc. ; 

 but when we come to apply any rule, simi- 

 lar to the above, to the bees, we find it 

 doesn't work, for the reason that every sea- 

 son brings its changes, and each locality 

 has a different bearing on the subject." 



"But don't j'ou think that many begin- 

 ners are puzzled in these matters, similar 

 to what I have been? " 



"I presume there may be, for I have 

 known of even older persons in our ranks 

 who said they could not tell just what to do 

 from what they read; and so, if j'ou desire, 

 I will try to explain a little to help you 

 out." 



" That is just what I wish you to do." 



" Very well. Let us take the matter of 

 early pollen as the first. Many advise 

 feeding corn, oat or rye meal as a substi- 

 tute for pollen, early in the season, while 

 others saj' such a course is useless and 

 an absolute waste of time, trouble, and 

 material, and that it results in the loss of 

 numerous bees on cold and windy days, by 

 their being enticed out of the hive when 

 they'd better remain at home." 



"Yes; that is one of the very items of 

 disagreement which I noticed. How do you 

 accotint for these different opinions? " 



" The matter of location will account for 

 this matter. The party advising the meal 

 feed lives in a locality where pollen from 

 the flowers is not obtainable till late in the 

 spring, so his bees are slow in building up 

 unless meal of some kind is fed, while the 

 one who opposes such feeding lives in a lo- 

 cation where pollen-bearing flowers bloom 

 nearly if not quite as soon as the bees can 

 fly in the spring, and the feeding of meal 

 in such as this latter locality is, as is said, 

 wasted." 



" Would you feed meal if you lived in the 

 location of the first? " 



" Ten 3'ears ago I would have said j^es, 

 and I would do so now did I not have combs 

 with pollen in them. Of late years I have 

 been in the habit of setting away combs 

 during the summer, which I found heavy 

 with pollen, through some colony being 

 queenless or otherwise, and keeping these 

 to set in any colony (one in each colony^ 

 which I might find not having plenty of 

 pollen on the first opening of the hive in 

 spring. Such a course seems to have a bet- 

 ter eftect on the colony than feeding meal, 

 and is nearly if not qtiite equal to the bees 

 securing early pollen from the fields, and 

 that withotrt the loss of bees, which very 

 often happens where pollen from the fl )wers 

 is sought after in cool, cloudy, and windy 

 days." 



"But how do you keep the moths from 

 ruining these combs? I read that there is 

 nothing which suits the larva of the wax- 

 moth better than combs having pollen in 

 them." 



"These combs containing pollen are 

 placed in an upper story over a weak colo- 

 ny, or a strong nucleus will answer just as 

 well, for it takes but a small colony of Ital- 



