18S6 



GLEANINGS IN BEt: CULtUHE. 



863 



and, raisinf? its bead, stood motionless for a 

 moment, seemingly in deep thought. A bee near 

 by, and just ahead, whom she v.-as eyeing, had near- 

 ly obtained a load of the Ava.v, and was turning 

 round and round with head down, pulling at a 

 small particle, nearlj- detached from the mass, 

 when suddenly, and as quick as thought, she seized 

 one of the basket-loads, and, with mandibles and 

 fore legs, tore it from the basket of the industrious 

 worker, and appropriated it to her own use. The 

 thought occurred to me, "Did they belong to the 

 same colony?" If it is the queen that imparts the 

 peculiar scent whereby each worker recognizes 

 the inmates of that family, would it not be remark- 

 able that this scent is retained for hours, on the 

 body of workers in the sun and wind, and continue 

 after contact with, r.nd frequently enveloped in, 

 highl}- scented l)looms? 



BEES SHEDDING. 



Something new I learned lately; and as a new 

 edition -of your A B C is frequently issued, with 

 changes of old and the addition of new matter, I 

 contribute it for the enlightenment of your readers. 

 On a visit this spring to a, man living 10 or l^i miles 

 from me in the hills, and who wished to sell his 

 bees, I learned something new. His bees were in 

 plain board hives, with cross-sticks thi-ough the 

 middle, and placed at convenient points about the 

 yard, under trees and bushes. He knew as little 

 about bees as he did of comets and the other 

 heavenly bodies, and measured the knowledge of 

 others on this and kindred subjects by his own 

 meager supply. He was at my side as I examined 

 the gums as best I could, making remarks as to its 

 condition at each inspection. Turning a hive 

 bottom upward (a colony of hybrids), I said to him, 

 " Some of the bees in this hive are very pretty, and 

 finely marked. They are beautiful." 



" Yes," he said, very seriously and impressively, 

 " you will find that all my bees will be as fine as 

 these when they all shed off in the spring." 



I made no answer to this unpublished informa- 

 tion; but as we traded, it occurred to me that he 

 thought this was the nail that drove the trade and 

 induced me to take the bees, that all the bees 

 would be finer-looking when they " shed otf " in the 

 spring. You have noticed old bees shed off, or 

 that had rubbed off the hairs, or fuzz, of their 

 bodies (thorax) passing between the combs, and in 

 various other ways; but this shedding, as the 

 horse, cow, and other animals, will be an entirely 

 new idea to you. 



BEES PACKING. 



Esquire D. and a neighbor were discussing the 

 productiveness of swarms hived in different ways 

 and at diflerent times, when his neighbor, becom- 

 ing very enthusiastic in praise of a swarm placed 

 the year before in a 4 gallon keg, said, "They went 

 to work— never saw bees do better, and the first 

 time I robbed it I took six gallons of nice strained 

 honey." 



" How's that? " inquired the 'squire? "You hived 

 them in a 4-gallon keg, and took 6 gallons of honey 

 from them? That don't seem possible." 



"Well, the fact is, it don't look possible, and 

 wouldn't be with anything but bees; but you 

 must remember they ai-e the beatingest things 

 on earth to pack. We took 6 gallons of nice honey." 



Murfreesboro, Tenn. W. P. Henderson. 



Friend II., the fact you give lis about bees 

 stealing from each other's legs is something 



quite new. You ask if they belonged to the 

 same colony. Now, perhaps you may think 

 I have got a little wild when I say that re- 

 cent observations convince me more and 

 more that bees do not recognize each other 

 by scent, but by actions and behavior. I 

 have seen a nucleus ma<le up of bees from 

 three or four different colonies, that would, 

 in just a few hours, defend themselves from 

 robbers as perfectly as any old colony ; and it 

 is my belief that they would have repelled rob- 

 bing bees from the same colony they had been 

 taken from but a few hours before. The 

 scent may have something to do with it; 

 but I am satisfied that it is only a small fac- 

 tor, even if it has any thing to do with it at 

 all. If this is true when bees meet each 

 other in the fields, they have no means of tell- 

 ing whether they are from the same colony 

 or not. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



C.\N MELILOT BE USED FOR PASTURAGE? 



TS inelilot, or sweet clover, good for hay or feed 

 ilt ^"^ stock in any shape? If so, do you think it 

 ^i will pay to raise it for that purpose? Will 

 ■^ stock eat it as they would rye or any other 

 grass? A friend of mine has a piece of land 

 which ho would like to seed in some kind of hardy 

 clover for pasture, and I think melilot is about the 

 only variety which will stand our climate, as it is 

 subject to drought. My bees are swarming again. 

 Hives are full of brood, some even in the sections. 

 In some cases I find 16 frames full of brood; no 

 honey in lower frames; just about two inches along 

 top-bars of upper. I am using eight-frame Simp, 

 hives. What shall I do with them? M. Broers. 

 Gonzales, Texas, Sept. 3T, 1886. 



Melilot has been used to some extent for 

 pasturage, but stock will rarely eat it if 

 they can get any thing else. There is a par- 

 ticular stage in its growth, say when it is 

 one foot or eight inches high, that the stalks 

 are tender, and much like ordinary clover. 

 At just this stage, some horses and cattle 

 will eat it with avidity. As a rule, howev- 

 er, it has been abandoned as a forage plant. 



leaves for packing; other matters. 



I have just about finished packing my bees, leav- 

 ing them on their summer stands. I have used for- 

 est-leaves, and believe them decidedly preferable to 

 chaff or straw, inasmuch as they will not entice the 

 mice. Chaff or straw usually has more or less 

 grain mixed through it, and, of course, this Is most 

 inviting to the little fellows. 



As I take a retrospective view of things, a few 

 points come up which I feel like mentioning. I 

 have wondered if others have been through what I 

 have in introducing queens. In one instance, up- 

 on removing the lid at the time a queen was emerg- 

 ing, to my surprise she immediately took wing. I 

 was fortunate enough to catch her, however, at the 

 first grasp. At another time I selected eggs from a 

 fine queen from which to rear a queen for a colony 

 that had repeatedly rejected the queens I had sought 

 to introduce. The time of exit for the queen, from 

 egg, had come, so I went to see her swing open her 



