184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 1. 



think the following might be a better way, and 

 it is not altogether unlike the plan suggested by 

 Dr. M.: Have two holes for the candy, they to 

 be connected by a small opening between the 

 two. Into the one next to the part of the cage 

 Inhabited by the bees as a living-compartment, 

 place a candy of the consistency of that used 

 for ordinary shipments. In the next one, place 

 a rather soft candy. There should not be more 

 candy in the first hole than will be required to 

 take the bees to the place where they will en- 

 ter the hot region. They will then be ready to 

 commence operations on the soft candy, which 

 will be their food until ihey reach their destina- 

 tion. 



Rambler, on page 87 of the same issue, men- 

 tions a case where a breeder in San Bernardino 

 Co., this State, shipped queens to a bee-keeper 

 in Inyo Co. in April, the latter being anxious to 

 get early queens, as he could not raise them in 

 his location. To get to Inyo Co. from any part 

 of California near the coast is about as bad ;i- 

 making a trip from San Francisco to Chicago; 

 in fact, I would sooner go to the latter place 

 than I would to the county " over the hills and 

 far away," though Inyo Co. is no mean place, 

 by any means. The range of hills, or, rather. 

 high mountains, makes it necessary, in order to 

 get to some of the sections thereabouts, to go to 

 San Francisco and other coast points to Reno, 

 Nev., via Sacramento, and thence through Ne- 

 vada to the lower, middle, and eastern part of 

 the State of California, where Mono and Inyo 

 Counties are situated, unless one travels other 

 than by rail. It is a long roundabout way, and 

 is not only a costly but a very disagreeable one. 

 I believe most if not all the land there is very 

 much elevated, consequently it is much colder 

 for a longer portion of the year than most other 

 parts of California, save on some of the eternal- 

 ly snow-capped peaks of this State. 



Yet I think I would undertake to get queens 

 to the gentleman the Rambler refers to during 

 April. In sending qm ens to such a place one 

 must provide a warm cage in the fore part of 

 the year. The trip over the mountains via Sac- 

 ramento and the summit is a cold one, even in 

 early May, as I have found out. The highest 

 point is on the line in the Sierra Nevadas, in 

 California, being 7017 feet, which is up pretty 

 high. By a careful study of the country 

 through which one's queens are to pass, there 

 is little danger of losing a single bee by follow- 

 ing all the little details as to food, ventilation, 

 or. when necessary, the wrapping of the cage 

 and the number of attendants accompanying 

 the queen. 



Mrs. Atchley has pressed me to devise a cage 

 that shall answer all the requirements necessa- 

 ry in a cage foi' long-distance shipping. I do 

 not think I shall be likely to hit upon the cage 

 that will (ill the bill. I am inclined to thiuK 

 that some one of the several cages now in use 

 will come up to all the requirements when we 



learn ivhat is the right food to place in them to 

 keep the bees alive during the journey. As I 

 h;ive said before, there is room for experiments 

 in ali these directions; and let us hope that, be- 

 fore this year is ended, the queen-breeders of 

 this land can exclaim, as they behold the long- 

 wished-for cage and shipping-food, "Eureka!" 

 North Temescal, Cal., Feb. 9. 



THE CALIFORNIA KING -BIRD. 



By Prof. A. J. Cook. 



As is well known, the eastern king-bird, or 

 bee-martin — Tyrnnrius tyrannus, Linn., — is 

 not only an insectivorous bird, but has the ex- 

 ceptional and injurious habit of snapping up 

 and devouring our bees, both workers and 

 drones, as I have surely demonstrated by open- 

 ing the stomach of the bird in question. The 

 bird rests on some perch near the apiary, and, 

 as the bee flies by, swoops down upon it and 

 bears it in its bill back to the perch, then seems 

 to swallow it at its leisure. How about the 

 stings? Has the bird learned some bright way 

 to avoid them ? It would seem hardly possible. 

 Or has the throat of the bird become insensible 

 to the stings of outrageous — not fortune, but 

 bees — and so the bii'd's throat becomes a sort of 

 pin-cushion for bee-stings'? I have found by 

 actual examination that this is true of bee-eat- 

 ing frogs. After seeing a frog lick up three or 

 five bees I killed the batrachian and found 

 that his toadshlp had just that number of stings 

 holding to the walls of its pharynx. 



California has also its king-bird, or the Cali- 

 fornia bee-martin. Tyronnus vociferans. Swains 

 — which, I learn, also preys on bees. This is 

 about the size and form of the eastern species, 

 but is dark gray in color. I have just prepared 

 the skin of one of these for our college cabinet, 

 and found two olives in its stomach. We often 

 notice that another biped often presumes on the 

 capacity of its stomach when eating the deli- 

 cious olives, and it would seem that this king- 

 bird did the same: for it is hard to see how so 

 small a bird could swallow two large olives 

 without damage to its stomach. It is said that 

 people have to learn to like olives. Is it not 

 presumable that the California bee-martin's 

 taste for olives is also acquired, as the olive is 

 intensely bitter? We see, then, that this Cali- 

 fornia king-bird is an enemy in two important 

 senses: It kills bees, or is said to do so, and it 

 certainly eats olives. As I am now right in the 

 very center of this marvelous bee-country I 

 shall soon know whether this bird does eat bees; 

 and if so. how the sting matter is managed. 

 This is only one of the many important prob- 

 lems that await solution in the land of the 

 sunset. 



Claremont, Cal., Feb. 14. 



