466 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 23, 



it would be very difficult to secure such proof. I fully believe 

 that a pure queen will always produce pure drones, however 

 she may be mated. 



Do Woeker-Bees Kill Off Drones? — Again, it is 

 claimed in ail our literature that the worker-bees kill off the 

 drones. Is this so ? Do they actually kill them ? Or do they 

 simply drive them forth from the hive into despondency and 

 starvation ? The drones are good feeders, and must soon suc- 

 cumb, if kept from home and food. Are they not for the most 

 part at least destroyed in just this way ? Who has ever seen 

 a worker-bee actually kill a drone '? The letter may be very 

 much enfeebled by being dragged forth from the hive, but are 

 they killed? 



Low Price of Honey. — Mr. Mclntyre, of Ventura 

 county, has about 30 tons of honey stored. He is waiting for 

 30 cents per pound, and he ought to get it. That the law of 

 supply and demand regulates the price of honey is apparently 

 untrue. New honey of first quality produced in the Santa 

 Ana country, even in this year of almost no crop, is reported 

 as selling for 3J^ cents. " My brethren, such things ought not 

 so to be." Claremont, Calif., June 25. 



% 



Honey from Laurel and Ivy — Bees and Fruit. 



BY G. H. ALLEN. 



On page 260, I notice the articles of W. Elmer and Geo. 

 B. Hurley, on poisoning from mountain laurel, but, as in the 

 case of bees working on strawberries, this one case of poison- 

 ing cannot be taken as an infallible rule. I wish to say that 

 bees do not gather poisonous honey from mountain laurel here. 

 How do I know they do not? Well, we have both laurel and 

 ivy growing in reach of the bees, and both are worked freely, 

 and some seasons quite a surplus is stored from this source. 

 This honey, which, in color, resembles buckwheat, and in 

 quality is inferior, has never caused symptoms of poisoning in 

 any form ; and one season — I believe it was 1885 — this was 

 the only surplus secured before the fall flow. This season the 

 honey was much inferior to that of other seasons, being very 

 dark and strong, but no symptoms of poisoning were ever de- 

 veloped by its use, and it being the only honey produced I ate 

 considerable of it myself without any ill effects, further than 

 taste, it being little if any better than common glucose syrup. 

 This was gathered from ivy and mountain laurel, I would pre- 

 sume about half and half. 



Like Mr. H., I do not put much faith in the cases cited as 

 evidence that laurel does secrete poisonous honey. Who can 

 say that this poison was not gathered from sprayed bloom? 

 And I have known sweets to be set out for bees, containing 

 poison, by those who were annoyed with them, real or imagi- 

 nary. 



As to the poison being in the somb, the idea itself seems 

 to me preposterous, and I would almost venture the assertion 

 that that same professor imagined that bees gather wax as 

 they do pollen and honey. Bees may gather poisonous honey 

 from mountain laurel — who knows? — but they didn't do it 

 here. 



Bees Puncturing Fruit. — I want to say to W. S. F. (page 

 291) that bees do not puncture grapes nor cherries here. Why 

 do I know they do not ? Well, when grapes are over-ripe and 

 burst from fermentation, and are torn by wasps, yellow- 

 jackets, etc., my bees attack them like wild dogs would their 

 prey, demolishing whole bunches ; but you will find whole 

 grapes untouched among these demolished ones, and this year 

 our Gov. Wood cherries bursted badly on the trees, and being 

 soft and very sweet they were immediately attacked by the 

 bees. I procured whole and fractured ones, and placed them 

 on the hive entrance, and the fractured ones were immediately 



attacked and completely demolished, while the sound ones re- 

 mained untouched. I went so far as to squeeze the juice of 

 other cherries over them ; this juice was immediately taken 

 up, when, after running around in an excited manner for 

 awhile, they would give up the job and leave the cherry un- 

 touched. But puncture its skin, and it was attacked at once, 

 and demolished post haste. 



This I take as knock-down evidence that bees do not 

 puncture cherries and grapes here, when whole. They may 

 do it in other sections — who knows? Who has seen a bee 

 tearing the rind of a sound grape or cherry ? Not I, although 

 I have tried hard to get them to do so. 



Alderson, W. Va. 



The Preventioa of Swarming — What We Do? 



Second reply to Dr. Miller's t^ttestions, 

 BY C. P. DADAST. 



Our first aim is to give the queen plenty of breeding-room. 

 No matter what method we pursue, if the queen is crowded 

 or dissatisfied, we need not look for the bees to stay. We 

 therefore want plenty of brood-chamber space, and we want 

 it all in one story, so the queen will not have to hunt it up or 

 go out of the cluster in coo! weather. Not only a prolific 

 queen with plenty of breeding-space makes a strong colony 

 that harvests a large crop, but this colony also stands the in- 

 equalities of temperature best. 



In the second place, we want plenty of room, and if possi- 

 ble plenty of empty comb for the bees to lodge their crop, 

 especially at the opening of the honey harvest. Hence, we 

 want a wide ceiling that may enable us to put on a large 

 super. In our own practice, we always have supers full of 

 empty comb, and this makes the giving of room to the bees 

 much more practicable than when empty sections are given, 

 for there needs be no lull in the work, no waiting on the build- 

 ers, no hanging in clusters while the honey is wasting in the 

 fields. The young bees alone, then, do the comb-building, 

 and this is proper. 



We have had swarms for want of room, in such circum- 

 stances as mentioned in my last article, even though the space 

 occupied and not filled might have been sufficient. Bees 

 swarm because the circumstances do not suit them, they are 

 ill at ease and lack elbow-room. If we do not wish them to 

 swarm, we must give them that elbow-room, and the better 

 the seasons open the more elbow-room we should give them at 

 the start. Towards the end of the harvest, when the queen 

 becomes tired of the incessant egg-laying, it is of much less 

 importance to keep them supplied with so much space ; and a 

 little crowding, so we do not make them feel uncomfortable, 

 does them no harm. It is then that they will fill every spare 

 cell of the brood-combs, and make the frames too heavy with 

 honey. 



Drone-rearing is a factor in swarming. In nearly every 

 instance the colonies that swarm are those that have reared 

 quite a large number of drones, other things being equal. The 

 drone is stupid, he is big and noisy, and does not know how to 

 get out of the way. See them on a warm afternoon tumble in 

 and out over the bees, or on some cool morning lie right in the 

 way of the workers by the handful like so many lazy dogs. Do 

 we not see them often crowded in one corner of the super by 

 the bees, and seemingly asleep? But come noon, and they 

 wake up and roar and tumble. Put yourselves in the workers' 

 place. Are not a few thousand of such fellows enough to dis- 

 gust any peaceable laborer ? Take out the drone-comb and 

 replace it with worker-comb. Is that so difficult ? You need 

 not do it now, it would do no good, for the harm is done. Do 

 it in the spring, early, when the honey is out of the combs and 

 there is but little brood yet. We do it, and do not do it enough. 



