1166 



THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



sation that bees destroy grapes. After great pains to learn the 

 truth of this matter, I fully believe that bees never attack and 

 destroy sound grapes. Let bird, wasp, or nature first perforate 



the grape, 

 then the bees 

 are quick to 

 find the ooz- 

 ing juice and 

 suck it up. 

 The great 

 raids usually 

 are made 

 on tender- 

 s.k i n n e d 

 grapes like 

 the D e 1 a- 



wares, when they are very 

 and at the time of a 

 very warm, damp atmosphere. 

 At such times the bees all at 

 once, as if moved by a com- 

 mon impulse, swarm on the 

 grapes, and soon rob them of 

 their juice. Now no one who 

 knows the habits of bees 

 would or could believe that 

 they fell all at once to eat- 

 ing the grapes ; but let na- 

 ture once puncture the fruit so that the juice exudes, and then 

 it would be exactly like bees to essay to pre- 

 vent the waste. I have never seen it, but I 

 believe in all such cases close observation would 

 detect the punctures and the oozing drops. 



WINTERING. The knowledge to winter bees 

 safely would be worth a great sum to bee-keep- 

 ers. As often as once in two .or three win- 

 ters there is such a mortality among bees that serious loss and 



FIG. 38. 



FIG. 39. 



