540 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



tray Stra\vs 



De. C. C. Millek, Marengo, 111. 



No WONDER, says Dr. Kramer, Schweiz. 

 Bk'tg., 217, that yellow bees flourish better 

 in America than in Switzerland, because 

 America has potash soils. 



Bees desert watering - places when or- 

 anges bloom, p. 435. Isn't it the same 

 thing with any other bloom? I can tell 

 when a flow lets up by seeing the bees be- 

 gin again on the water-tub. 



The Editor of Deutsche Bienenzucht 

 counts it of great importance upon intro- 

 ducing a queen to cage first the old queen 

 ill the hive a few hours, then put the new 

 q-ieen in the same cage, and in the same 

 place in the hive, and let the bees release 

 her. He says the bees do not know their 

 mother at all, only her odor, and that odor 

 is given to the new queen by the cage as 

 covering her own odor, if I understand cor- 

 rectly. [There may be sometliing in this; 

 bul it would be a lot of work to cage and 

 recage queens for introducing. We doubt 

 vbether it would pay. — Ed.] 



Do bees sting drones to death? When 

 you see a worker sting another worker you 

 don't have to watch very long before you 

 see the bee curl up and die. Did any one 

 ever see a drone curl up and die immedi- 

 ately after a worker had stung it or pre- 

 tended to sting it? [We have seen bees 

 make a bluff at stinging drones, but never 

 saw them do the act. It is our belief that, 

 when the honey-flow stops, the drones are 

 simply pushed out of the liives, and that 

 they simply die from starvation. We do 

 not believe that nature has designed that 

 worker bees shall sacrifice themselves as 

 well as the drones, because it is cheaper to 

 starve them than to sting them to death. 

 —Ed.] 



I SUPPOSE beekeepers will smile a quiet 

 smile of indulgence upon reading, p. 384, 

 that bees recognize the different spots of 

 playing-cards. And yet — and yet, is it not 

 just possible that bees are guided bj' form 

 much more than by color? And is it proved 

 beyond a doubt that they can not distin- 

 guish at a glance the difference between an 

 eight-spot and a ten-spot just as well as we 

 can? We are too prone to measure every 

 thing by our oAvn senses. One who knows 

 nothing about the keen scent of dogs would 

 likely be skeptical upon hearing of a hound 

 scenting a trail upon the full run. If a 

 creature with four legs is so much beyond 

 us in the matter of scent, may not one vpith 

 six be just as much beyond us in the matter 

 of recognizing form? 



Harry G. Brant_, p. 417, it must be a 

 Aery exceptional case when bees trouble 

 boxes of berries. For years strawberries, 

 raspberries, and blackberries have been on 

 my jDlace, the first two part of the time by 

 the acre; and although boxes of berries 

 wei'e freely exposed for houi's, I never 

 heard any complaint about the bees. Du- 

 ring all these years there must, too, have 

 been times of dearth, and certainly there 

 we were feeding bees this year during the 

 first of strawberry-picking. By the way, 

 A. I. Root, we have a seedling that would 

 interest you. I think it is a little the best 

 strawberry I ever tasted, and one of the 

 largest. Some object that it is not sour 

 enough. [Years ago, when A. I. Root grew 

 strawberries for market in a large way, we 

 had 500 colonies and nuclei located within 

 a stone's tlu'ow of the berry-patches, and at 

 an equal distance boxes of berries were 

 jjlaced before they were actually sold; but 

 never once did the bees attack the berries 

 so far as we can remember. — Ed.] 



You SAY, Mr. Editor, p. 396, that bees of 

 a foul-broody hive would carry the disease 

 into hives near by. I suppose that means 

 that the bees of the diseased colony return- 

 ed from the field and entered wrong hives, 

 1 hat's worth thinking about, for it knocks 

 out the Baldridge cure of foul brood, ac- 

 cording to which bees that go to the field 

 return without any disease. Some error 

 one side or the Qther. [Perhaps our state- 

 ment, page 396, was a little strong; but 

 nevertheless, when we had foul brood years 

 ago we were in the habit of examining the 

 combs of near-by colonies that faced in the 

 same direction — especially that colony 

 v.hich had an appearance and location al- 

 most exactly the same as the one affected. 

 If the diseased colony in the first place was 

 a bad one, we were almost sure to find a 

 few stray bad cells in the nearest of two or 

 tln'ee hives facing in the same direction. 



We have been a little slow about recom- 

 mending the Baldridge method of treat- 

 ment, for the very reason suggested by you. 

 It has been our preaching and our practice, 

 that, the sooner a diseased comb is gotten 

 out of the hive, the better. The only time 

 -vre have recommended the Baldridge treat- 

 ment is when a gi'eat deal of brood in the 

 apiary is involved, the sacrifice of which 

 for a few bad cells in the comb would be 

 considerable. Where only occasional colo- 

 nies are affected we would treat at once: 

 tliat is, we melt up every comb containing 

 a diseased cell or two, or more. — Ed.] 



