8H(J 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



No\'. 



odor, I beg to take issue with you ; and fur- 

 ther trial with tlie agent con'tirms my first 

 statement. 1 have no doubt but that you 

 can handle 2UU colonies successfully with the 

 fumigator, and I believe I could do it here 

 with only gentle bees ; but with smoke I 

 think I could examine the same number not 

 only with more safety, but a lialf quicker. 1 

 speak whereof I know, for I have handled 

 fifty colonies with your fumigator. 



Eknest. 



-•— ^ 



THE TOAD, AND BEE-STINGS. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT KING-BIRDS CAPTURING 

 BEES. 



'HO has not heard many things against the 

 toad? When a mere lad I was told that, 

 should we touch but the skin of this old 

 honest-loolcing- acrobat, warts would cover 

 the place that touched the cold clammy cu- 

 ticle of his toadship. Strange it is. how such opin- 

 ions gain currency. It is said, that misery loves 

 company. I never quite believed it; but if it is ev- 

 er true, we might think that our warty amphibian 

 might like to sow a full crop of warts on whatever 

 he saw or touched; but 1 early learned that, had he 

 the wish, he has no power to bequeath his excres- 

 ences to aught except his own kith and kin. I al- 

 ways loved honesty, and there is a frankness and 

 honesty in the look of the toad that captivated 

 even my childhood's eye. So, per force, I had to 

 shake hands, gain the acquaintance of, and make 

 friends with, this honest, warty old toad. As a re- 

 sult, I received, not a wart, but a very companiona- 

 ble friend. Thus it was that I learned his many 

 good traits. 



Few of the animal kind arc better insect-hunters 

 than the toad. He delights to roll them, not as a 

 sweet morsel under his tongue, but as a savory 

 mouthful captured /(jy his tongue. It is just fun to 

 see a toad gobble down a tiy, ant, or beetle. This is 

 how he does it: The tiy stands off some distance, 

 winking in fancied securitj', when, all at once, the 

 great jaws of his toadship open wide, and the fly 

 darts into the cavernous mouth as though it wei-e 

 home, and he were sent for. Closer scrutiny shows 

 that the long stickj' tongue of the toad just runs 

 out with a rush and "runs in" the unsuspecting 

 tiy. The fly isn't even asked if he wishes to go. 



It were well if toads were oontent to feed only 

 upon such insects as annoy or injure us; but not 

 so. How often have bee-keepers seen this demure 

 old batrachian quietly sitting at the entrance of 

 the bee-hives, enjoying the cool evening breeze, and 

 lapping up the belated worker-bees as they come ] 

 heavily laden from the field I We can wish he ', 

 wouldn't do it; but then, when we remember that ! 

 he has been honestly employed all day, and remem- 

 ber, also, how good honey is, we can hardly visit 

 him with our wrath for this one overt act. Candid- : 

 ly, the toad does so much good that I would not i 

 ])ronounce sentence of death, even if he does gulp ' 

 down a few worker-bees. On the whole, he is a val- ' 

 uable friend. Nor would I raise my hives two or 

 more feet from the earth to avoid him. I would 

 the rather fence out the toads by a low close board 

 fence, should he gain too great a fondness for my 

 pets of the hive. 



But, how about the stings? Is the toad so quick 

 that he receives no sting? Nay, verily; po bee- 



keeper will believe, as I once heard a person just 

 stung by a bee say, "Lightning can not strike a 

 bee so quickly as not to be stung." If, then, the ce- 

 lerity of the act does not preclude the sting, how is 

 it that the toad does not run fairly yelping at the 

 first capture? J think he either has very little feel- 

 ing in his throat, or else, finding the bee so to his 

 taste, he has become callous to the sting. From 

 observations that I have made I think the former 

 must he the cas'j. The past summer I have exam- 

 ined two tluoa's of toads killed, the one just after 

 and the other soon after it had been feeding upon 

 bees. In both cases, just as many stings A\ere 

 foiind fastened in the toad's throat as the toad bad 

 been noticed to capture. Thus we know that the 

 bee docs sting its enemy. I did not find inflamma- 

 tion. Thus we must believe that the throat is proof 

 against tlie venom of the bee. 



During the last of May, while visiting at my 

 brother's, we saw many bees captured by king- 

 birds. The bird would tiy from some perch, cap- 

 ture a bee, and then fly back to the perch and swal- 

 low the prize. Bertie, my little boy, shot one of the 

 birds, and found several worker-bees, not drones, 

 in the bird's stomach. Who shall determine, in this 

 case, whether or not the bird is stung? We shall 

 try to the coming summer. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College. Mich., Oct. 19, 1886. 



We are very much obliged indeed, friend 

 C, for the facts you give us in the above. 1 

 do believe it is a Christian duty to teach our 

 children not to fear toads ; and, can't I add, 

 even snakes? I find it almost impossible to 

 keep our boys from killing almost every 

 striped snake they find on our grounds ; and 

 since I have begun to get somewhat ac- 

 quainted with them, I confess 1 rather like 

 to see them gliding about so noiselessly. 

 Should we not till learn to go slow in judging 

 hastily these neighbors around us— tlie dumb 

 neighbors as well as those tliat can Uilk 

 and reason? 



SHIPPING EARLY QUEENS FROM THE 

 SOUTH. 



DO BEES HEAR ? 



K. BRUBAKEK, on page 48t, writes very dis- 

 paragingly of getting queens early in the 

 season. He says he has never been able to 

 do it earlier than he could do it himself. 

 Well, I think the reason is this: He orders 

 (and so does almost every one else) of the "exten- 

 sive breeders" of the South. Those who are well 

 advertised have a large number of customers, and 

 have had for several years [past, and are most 

 prominently known as Southern breeders, and con- 

 sequently they receive all, or nearly all, orders 

 made to the South, for queens— more than they can 

 fill bj' June 1st, probably, in most instances, while 

 the beginner gets but few orders, and has many 

 more queens than he gets orders for— just as good 

 queens, too, as those sent out by the " extensive 

 breeders "of the South. I think if parties want- 

 ing queens early will act on this suggestion, they 

 will be much more likely^ to. get them. As to 

 sending queens from the South to the North, 

 early and late in the season, I can say this: In 

 1885, March 10, I mailed H. H. Peters, Leighton, 

 Pa., a queen that was safely delivered'; on the 6th 

 day (jfter mailing, It snowed and sleeted heavily 



