852 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



can and do injure frrapos or other fruit, the outer 

 'skin of which has been broken in any way. Is it 

 •tibt best for Us to meet this fact squarely and hon- 

 estly? Should we meet damaging' truth, or even 

 mistaken prejudice and misrepresentation, with 

 subterfuge and evasion'? Is it not ourwisc^st and 

 safest course to recognize the fact that bees may 

 and do cause pecuniary loss to fruit-raisers? Let 

 us admit all that is true, and then do all we can to 

 rerriedy the evil. 



Your position in reg'ard to screens for cider-mills 

 is well known. A little trouble and expense will 

 prevent a great deal of trouble, loss, and bad feel- 

 ing. Let us see how far we can apply this principle 

 to the protection of fruit from bees. 



As I ssid before, the chickens eat m.y grapes. To 

 prevent this I have been obliged to protect them in 

 a way I am surprised never to have seen mentioned 

 in the bee-journals. This plan is to place a paper 

 sack over each bunch of grapes. Those to whom 

 the plan is new, may laugh at it; but It is nothing 

 new to grape-raisers. Many, who raise grapes by 

 the ton, sack all of their grapes and find it profita- 

 ble to do so. The advantages are, that the sacks 

 protect the grapes from birds and insects, prevent 

 mildew and rot, produce firmer bunches, which 

 can be picked and handled without breaking off the 

 grapes or destroying the bloom, and also protect the 

 grapes from frost. 



The method of using is to pin a one or two pound 

 paper sack over each bunch, pinning the mouth 

 closely around the stem with a cheap piii or wire 

 nail. I have never seen the last recommended, but 

 I find that a ^i-inch wire nail is just as good as a 

 pin, and cheaper. The sacks used are the ordinary 

 raanilla sacks, and cost about 80 cents per 11)00. Be- 

 fore using, the bottom should be perforated, else 

 the sack will catch and hold water. Sacks arc now 

 manufactured expressly for this purpose, and may 

 prove to be cheaper and better adapted. The best 

 time to put sacks on is when the grapes are small, say 

 the size of No. 6 shot. It can readily be seen, that if 

 grape-raisers would sack their grapes a large part 

 of the trouble connected with" bees vs. grapes" 

 would be avoided. I think that, in a majority of 

 cases, the vineyardist would readily adopt this plan 

 if it were properly brought to his notice, and he 

 could be induced to try it once. In some cases the 

 bee-keeper could better affoi-d to furnish the sacks 

 free than to have bis bees destroy his neighbors' 

 grapes. * 



While we should alwaj^s be read^' to protect our 

 rights when assailed, we should remember that oth- 

 ers have rights too, and " as much as lieth in us, 

 live peaceably with all men." 



Perhaps this is a little out of season; but coming 

 to him who has had trouble with his bees destroy- 

 ing fruit, it will be more apt to prove impressive 

 than at the time for putting it in action. 



Dayton, 111., Oct. 12, 1886. J. A. G^een. 



Friend G., we are very much obliged in- 

 deed for the suggestions you give us. I 

 was aware that many growers of choice 

 grapes have been for some time in tlie habit 

 of bagging them, but it did not occur to me 

 before that it forms a perfect and complete 

 remedy for the trouble between bee-keepers 

 and grape-growers. The only difiiculty is 

 the expense,, and trouble of putting on the 

 bags. The way our grapes grow— tied to a 

 stake, a good many of the bunches are so 



intertwined with the leaves and twigs it 

 will be difficult to get a ba<i over them at all. 

 Perhaps the usual system of training on hor- 

 izontal wires woidd allow a bunch to hang 

 down so as to make it much more feasible. 



I should be vei'y glad indeed to get the ad- 

 dress of the manufacturers of bags for bag- 

 ging grapes. — In regard to wire nails being 

 cheaper than common pins, I think we have 

 a kind of pins on our three-cent counter that 

 is even cheaper than wire nails. There are. 

 on a three-cent paper, 280 pins. I think this 

 is a matter of very great moment indeed, 

 and it behooves us to do all in our power to- 

 ward encouraging grape - growers to use 

 bags. I have found out this season that the 

 baskets of grapes go (]uickerwhen the bunch 

 is entire and tlie bloom on the grape is per- 

 fect ; but I find it pretty difficult to pick 

 grapes rapidly and not break and tear the 

 berries. From what you say, I am quite 

 satisfied we should make money to have our 

 grapes all grown in bags, unless, indeed, we 

 except a few bunches not worth bagging, or 

 some that are twined in the branches so a 

 bag will not easily go over them. 



BALLING QUEENS. 



WHV DO BEES BALT. QUEENS THAT HAVE BEEN 

 SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCED? 



0N page 784, Oct. 1, 1886, Mr. John H. Mullin asks 

 for information on the question of bees ball- 

 ing queens, and says it is not queens that are 

 being introduced. Your answer applies only 

 to queens which the bees have not accepted. 

 You say, "Bees ball queens for the simple reason 

 that they do not wish to accept them, and by that 

 means they propose to sting or smother them to 

 death." This answer fails to meet the question, as 

 I understand it. His question refers to queens that 

 are fully accepted— those that may have been bred 

 in the colony (balling them) and laying for one or 

 twelve months. In the past four years I have lost 

 some of my most valuable breeding queens, just in 

 the same way that he mentions— their own work- 

 ers balling them, and in some instances stinging 

 them to death. They do not always smother 

 queens to death; for when very angry they often 

 sting the queen to death. 1 have seen a bee, among 

 the first to attack a queen, pop his sting into her 

 abdomen under the segment band, and kill her al- 

 most instantly, after which they would ball her for 

 a time. 



Among the number of queens that I have lost in 

 the way that Mr. Mullin states, were queens that 

 had been bred and laying for one year and more; 

 in some instances, in the same colony in which they 

 were balled and killed. I have even had them killed 

 the past season in three L. frame nuclei, after lay- 

 ing for 10 or 12 days, by simply opening the hive 

 when honey was coming in very slowly. It is to 

 this cause I have always attributed the balling of 

 queens by their own bees. They are more apt to 

 do it in early spring or midsummer, when a dearth 

 of honey happens, if disturbed by being opened up 

 and smoked, than they are in the fall. I have nev- 

 er had it occur with me in fall or winter, and I have 

 repeatedly opened my colonies and taken out frames 

 of bees when they were clustered, and could not fly 

 off the combs. You do not do that up north, friend 



