696 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



NEBRASKA AS A HONEY STATE. 



Will you please ask Dr. Gandy and oth- 

 ers to save you a lot of catnip seed? I have 

 tried for years to find it, and failed. This 

 wet season will develop the seed finely. 

 My early sweet clover is coming up thick 

 from seed dropped this month; so we shall 

 have it in bloom next season again. Mr. 

 T. R. DeLong, of Angus, Neb., had an 

 average of 250 lbs. per colonj', one season, 

 from fall flow — heartsease. When we can 

 have catnip and sweet ctover in abundance, 

 what country can beat Nebraska and Iowa 

 in yield of honey? Bees were never doing 

 better at this time of year than now; but 

 there are only a few left in the country. 



Hebron, Neb., July 23. F. Kingsley. 



GETTING BEES OUT OF THE SIDE OF A 

 BUILDING. 



The enclosed clipping may be of some in- 

 terest to you. I will make a few corrections 

 in the paper's report, which you can use 

 as you see fit. 



1. There was a large number of bees, I 

 should say in all a bushel. The swarm 

 which I took from the outside filled the body 

 of a Dovetailed hive without any frames. 



2. I obtained, in all, bees enough to make 

 three large colonies, besides a large amount 

 of brood. M. W. Royal. 



Gardiner, Maine, July 17. 

 [The clipping referred to reads as fol- 

 lows:] 



HONEYBEES AT THE HIGH SCHOOL. 



Thursday forenoon Principal Powers, of the high 

 school, noticed a swarm of bees busily working in the 

 cone of one of the lutherian windows in the roof of 

 the building, and, obtaining the assistance of Maurice 

 Royal, who is considered to be quite an apiarist, pro- 

 ceeded to capture the s>varin. I'hey succeeded in ob- 

 taining those on'the outside, and, discoveTing that oth- 

 ers were in the building, took off the plastering and 

 cut through the boarding, where they discovered what 

 at the time seemed to be millions il), and which, with 

 those on the outside, would make three large colonies. 

 A colony would more than fill a peck measure. When 

 they removed the boarding they evidently disturbed 

 thehive, for a stream of honej- began running through 

 the cracks, and dropped to the window-si jI in the 

 schoolroom. Pails were quicklj- obtained in which 

 the valuable sweetness was gathered, amounting, with 

 that which was taken from between the walls, to 

 moi e than what would fill two good-sized wash-tubs. 



These bees are known to have first made their abode 

 in this building about six years ago, and Principal 

 Powers has watched them each year in their move- 

 ments, but had no idea they were of such large num- 

 bers. Two colonies have been secured and taken to 

 Mr. Powers' house, where he will give them his atten- 

 tion. (2) Another colony is still in the building, which 

 Mr. Royal is trying to obtain, and wh ch he probably 

 will during the day. The entire prize collection would 

 amount to a monej' value of about $l5. Swarms are 

 not valued so highly at this season of the year as they 

 would be in May or June. 



Principal Powers was so much interested in the 

 work of "securing the bees, and then to investigating 

 their mode of living and working, that he received a 

 number of gentle reminders from the bees to let them 

 alone. 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 

 BADGE. 



Allow me to suggest that, instead of a 

 button with a queen-bee, and the initials of 

 the Association, as has been suggested, the 

 badge have the portrait of father Lang- 

 stroth, with the words over it: Si monumen- 



tiDn qticcris, circunispice (if you seek his 

 monument, look around), and below the por- 

 trait the initials of the Association. Have 

 the badge made so it can be buttoned into 

 the lapel of the coat. As the badge is not 

 apt to be worn at any other time than at 

 Association meetings, it should be cheap. 

 The photographers now furnish photo-but- 

 tons very cheap, and they are both neat and 

 serviceable. E. H. Schaeffle. 



Murphys, Cal. 



[Your idea is a good one; but the average 

 person is not able to read Latin. Why not 

 put it in plain English? While I have 

 spent six years in studying Latin, in school 

 and college, my own experience teaches me 

 that any good sentiment ought to be put in 

 English or the common vernacular of the 

 people. The Board of Directors will prob- 

 ably consider several forms of badges in the 

 shape of btittons. and yours may be includ- 

 ed in the list. — Ed.] 



how the old bees "had TO WALK THE 



floor." 



I read the ABC and Gleanings; but 

 there is one thing that you have not put in 

 that ought to be there. Put it in at once or 

 you will have lots of enemies in the cucum- 

 ber district. My bees are very gentle. I 

 go out ever3' morning and pull the roof off 

 their house, and watch them poke the hon- 

 ey into the comb. But this morning I went 

 out as usual, and about a dozen fell on my 

 hand point first, and stuck. I was trou- 

 bled, but at last my wife explained it to 

 me. The bees had, the day before, carried 

 a lot of pollen from the cucumbers, and fed 

 it to the baby bees. Of course, this gave 

 them the colic, and the old bees had to walk 

 the bottom-board all night. No wonder 

 they were cross. Moral. — Alwaj's raise 

 catnip with cucumbers. Jay Smith. 



Vincennes, Ind., June 20. 



[Dr. Gandy has already spoken of the 

 value of catnip as a honey -plant, in last is- 

 sue; but I do not suppose it occurred to 

 him, even if he is a physician, that it might 

 relieve them of the colic. — Ed.] 



bee-poison; its peculiar effect on an- 

 other INDIVIDUAL. 

 I notice on page 614 of Gleanings that 

 mention is made of bee-poisoning by Mr. 

 J. H. Gray. I have been affected in a very 

 similar manner myself a great man^' times. 

 Almost alwaj's after working with the bees 

 I have what one would think to be a bad 

 cold in the head, but with no other sj'mp- 

 toms except a dull headache, or, rather, a 

 dull feeling in the head amounting almost 

 to a headache at times. I think it also af- 

 fects m}' eyes, but can not say whether it 

 is the poison alone or that and the smoke 

 from the smoker. I think it is the poison 

 principally, as smoke alone on other occa- 

 sions does not so affect my eyes. I have 

 for several years observed this, and think 

 it is surely caused by bee-poisoning and 



