r>2f) 



glea:nings in bee culture. 



Aug. 



costs only a dollar, will no doubt answer just 

 as well for this purpose as the Whitman, 

 and it will throw the water in such a tine 

 spray it seems to me it must answer the pur- 

 pose excellently. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



CALIFOIINIA NOT SO BAD AFTKIl ALL. 



T THINK that Mr. F. J. Farr's article on Califor- 

 j^H nia, pag-c 489 of G leanings, is a little overdrawn. 

 ^r I will admit, that there are many places in the 

 ■^ southern part of the State where one could 

 travel 23 miles, or even more, without coming 

 teahouse; but he should remember that this is a 

 big' State, and compariitively young-. 



The Harbison section, of which Mr. Farr speaks, is 

 fast going- out of use, and the one-pound section is 

 used instead. There is no lumber in California that 

 is nice for sections, so we are obliged to import 

 them from the East, which makes them cost a little 

 more than they do where nuide. 



A good workman can always find ])lonty to do, 

 and at good wages. I can always find employment 

 at work in orchards at $3.00 a day. W. W. Buss. 



Duarte, Cal., July, 1880. 



DO BEES FROM THE SAME QUEEN CHANGE COLOR? 



Whether the subjoined facts in regard to bees 

 changing their color is any thing of interest to you, 

 or whether it has been observed by others, I do not 

 know, since I have not seen it in print. I have sev- 

 eral hives of Italian bees which I raised artificially. 

 They were, during last summer, of the right color- 

 bright, not a hybrid or black one to be seen among 

 them. Later, in the fall, one day on opening- them 

 1 found several frames full of bees of a different 

 color. I was somewhat disappointed. First, I 

 thought a stray swarm must have found its way to 

 the hives, or the queen might have died, or that the 

 swarms raised a new queen, which met with an im- 

 pure drone. I have had it all winter and spring on 

 my mind, what caused the sudden appearance of 

 (to my eyes) a different bee than what I had raised 

 last summer, not only in one hive, but several. 

 These very same hives don't show now any other 

 bees than Italian, nor do the new swarms show any 

 other strain. But this 1 found out, that the j'oung 

 bees not only look downy, but black; the throe bars 

 are hardly perceptible at first, but enlarge as they 

 grow older, so that this summer, to the eye of a 

 stranger, it looks as if I had hybrids, blacks, and 

 Italians, all mixed up. Later in the summer, es- 

 pecially on some plants, bees as well as other in- 

 sects will change color, oven if only temporarily. I 

 instance the aphides, or lice on fruit-trees, roses, etc. 



Sandusky, O., June 31, 1880. F. J. M. Otto. 



Friend O., I have often remarked that 

 bees which 1 had in the spring and summer 

 been calling my best and finest Italians, dur- 

 ing a dearth of honey in the fall were almost 

 invariably small and dark. 



BLACKS VS. IT.VLIANS AND HYBRIDS; WHAT IS THE 

 BEST BEEi' 



I have been asked this question so many times, 

 and have asked the same question so many times 

 with such diversified opinions, that I have long ago 

 ceased to answer or ask. I am more in love with 



the hybrid (Italians and blacks) than any others; 

 my second choice is pure Italians; third choice, any 

 thing- but clear blacks. One-fourth of a mile from 

 mo is an apiary of 100 colonies. The owners would 

 prefer clear blacks, designating- my bees, which are 

 mostly Italians and hybrids, as nothing better than 

 " horse-flics." Now, if blacks are best I want to 

 keep blacks; and if Italians are best, I want them; 

 but really, from my experience I prefer hybrids. I 

 have handled bees for the past 30 years, but upon 

 improved principles for only the past five years, 

 and I have never as yet had occasion to complain of 

 the vindictiveness of the hybrids. As honey-gath- 

 erers they Excel (with a big E). While my blacks 

 were idle during a recent drought, Italians and hy- 

 brids were continually storing a little honey. 



I report a pooi" hone.y-yield in this section, on ac- 

 count of drought. I have 85 colonies— 50 hybrids 

 and Italians. F. H. Chapin. 



Hinsdale, N. Y., July (j, ISt'O. 



BITTER HONEY. 



I should like to have you tell me what the sample 

 of honey sent is gathered from. Not being accus- 

 tomed to it I can not tell. It is mixed in some 

 four or five hundred sections. Some of it is so bit- 

 ter we can not eat it. Will it improve by ago? 



Wm. L. Warner. 



Charlemonf, Franklin Co., Mass., July 14, 1886. 



I can not give you any conjecture as to 

 the source, for I have never tasted any thing 

 like it before. 8o far as I am concerned, 

 however, I should not object to it for my 

 own eating, for to me tlie bitter taste is 

 rather pleasant than otherwise. I might, 

 however, get tired of it after having too 

 much. I will explain to our readers that 

 the peculiar taste is a little like cinna- 

 mon — say the thick liarky cinnamon tliat is 

 sometimes slightly bitter. Where honey is 

 unsealed, and remaining in the hive, no 

 doubt this taste would disappear to a great 

 extent by letting it get thoroughly ripened. 

 If it is in sections, however, that have been 

 removed from the hive, I should not expect 

 much improvement. 



honey-dew. 

 My peach-tree leaves yield honey every year. 

 At the base of the leaf arc three little tubes on 

 each side. There is where they get the honey. 

 There are persimmon-sprouts all over my place, 

 and there is a kind of louse which wraps it- 

 self in the leaves— that is, folds them together. A 

 great many are in each leaf. They produce honey 

 three or four months. Shake a leaf in your hand, 

 and out roll the little shot-like balls, from the size 

 of a pin-point to the size of a duck-shot. I have 

 just been out and got some leaves— a persimmon 

 and a cottonwood. The bulged-out place on the 

 Cottonwood is where the honej' was. I saw as 

 much as a teaspoonful in one. This spring they 

 lasted but two or three weeks. In 1880 I saw a 

 pine-tree just covered with honey one morning: 

 if you had shaken it you would have received a 

 shower-bath of honey. It was dropping off on the 

 grass, and even the ground was wet with honey. 

 The bugs that produced it were about the size of a 

 pea— oval-oblong, with a crease down the back. I 

 could not make them show any sign of life. They 

 were stationary— no legs, no mouth, 'they were at- 

 tached tP ttie limb witb ft beart-liko contrivance, 



