394 THE BEE-KEEPBR'S GUIDE; 



it. If honey-dew Is secreted from the general foliage, as so 

 many believe, then surely, as stated above, it serves the plants 

 in some such way. 



SWEET SAP AND JUICES. 



Bees often gather much nectar from the stubble of wheat 

 that is cut early, while the straw is yet green. The sap from 

 the maple and other trees and plants also furnishes them 

 sweets. They gather juices of questionable repute from about 

 cider-mills, some from grapes and other fruit which have been 

 crushed or eaten and torn by wasps and other insects. Bees 

 in gathering from cider-mills annoy the cider-maker, and 

 store a product unfit for winter use. They are also often 

 drowned in great numbers. It is wise, then, to screen them 

 from the room where the juice is being expressed. By use of 

 mosquito-netting this may be quickly and cheaply done. That 

 bees ever tear grapes or other fruit is a question of which I 

 have failed to receive any personal proof, though for years I 

 have been carefully seeking it. I have lived among the vine- 

 yards of California, and have often watched bees about vines 

 in Michigan, but never saw bees tear open the grapes. I have 

 laid crushed grapes in the apiary, when the bees were not 

 gathering, and when they were ravenous for stores, which, 

 when covered with sipping bees, were replaced with sound 

 grape-clusters, which, in no instance, were mutilated. I have 

 even shut bees in empty hives on warm days and closed the 

 entrance with grape-clusters, which even then were not cut. 

 I have thus been led to doubt if bees ever attack sound fruit, 

 though quick to improve the opportunities which the oriole's 

 beak and the stronger jaws of wasps offer them. Mr. Root 

 finds that the Cape May warbler is even more ready than the 

 oriole to pierce the grapes. Such habit is exceptional with 

 the warblers, which are usually wholly insectivorous. _My 

 friend, Prof. Prentiss, suggests that when the weather is very 

 warm and damp, and the grapes very ripe, the juice may ooze 

 through small openings of the grapes and so attract the bees. 

 It is at just such times that attacks are observed.. I feel very 

 certain that bees never attack sound grapes. I judge not only 

 from observation and inquiry, but from the habits of the bee. 



