404 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



Recent Development?, 



And Suggestions and Queries Particularly Pertaining 

 to the Season. 



EARL,Y SWARMING IN THE NORTHERN STATES. 



f LEASE inform Wm. F. Geig'er, of Beatty, 

 Westmoreland Co., Pa., that I shall have to 

 - take my place away above him for early 

 swarms. I had a very large swarm April 30, 

 and a second swarm from same hive, May 1.5; 

 third from same hive, Maj' 17, all of which are 

 at this date (June 10) working- in section boxes. I 

 wintered 3.5 swarms in chaff hives on summer stands 

 last winter, without any loss. I have had 25 new 

 swarms to date. A. W. Gillis. 



Kinsman, Ohio, June 10, 1884. 



COMB-BUILDING BETWEEN THE STORIES. 



Will you please tell me the simplest and easiest 

 way to keep the bees from joining the surplus 

 frames in the chaff hives to the brood frames? Lots 

 of white clover about here? Philip Weare. 



Yancey's Mills, Va., May 22, 1884. 



Reduce the space to an exact (inarter of an 

 inch, friend W.; then if they make trouble, 

 paint the tops and bottom bars to the frames. 

 Perforated zinc honey-bt)ards are largely 

 used for tlie purpose ; and while some think 

 them admirable, others find a good deal of 

 fault. It is au unsettled problem. Jf you 

 get your frames on l)efoie your bees get fins 

 of cbmb projected al)ovp the tojj-bars. they 

 are not nearly so apt to build the frames to- 

 gether. 



chaff hives. 



Bees in this section have wintered unusually well 

 —seldom hearing of any one losing any. I have 11 

 colonies in good condition— 6 in chaft' and 5 in Sim- 

 plicity hives; have about come to the conclusion 

 that the chaff' hive, even if it is more expensive, is 

 the cheaper in the end. The honey season is now 

 upon us, and we are hoping for a good harvest; this, 

 however, I will report in the future. 



Arkdale, Wis., June 3, 1884. E. C. Morse. 



how TO head off ANTS. 



[ wish to give to the readers of Gleanings my 

 protection of bees and hives from ants. I first put 

 4 legs, or standards, under my hives, then get 4 tin 

 cups, paint them outside and in, so thej' will not 

 rust, then place strips of boards under the hives, 

 set the cups on them, put one leg in each cup, fill 

 with watei', then you have the ants. S. D. Buell. 



Union City, Mich. 



honey from the leaves of the sugar-maple. 



On Sunday last, June 1, the sugar-maples were 

 liberally sprinkled with honey-dew, both here and 

 in Cleveland. The sidewalks were covered with the 

 drops from the leaves. Bees worked furiously, but 

 no aphis to be seen. , J. Singleton. 



Brooklyn, O., June -L, 1884. 



These reports are almost daily now, friend 

 S.; and coming just before the clover-bloom, 

 is something uiuisual. It has been a won- 

 derful help in brood-rearing, however. The 

 color of the honey is about like dark maple 

 molasses, and the flavor, I am sorry to say, is 

 a good deal inferior ; in some cases it is not 

 fit to eat at all. Even to-day, June 18, our 



combs of white-clover honey are spotted up 

 with this dark honey. It is going to make 

 a heap of trouble, I fear, with honey in sec- 

 tions, as well as extracted lioney. "Several 

 observers besides yourself, inclulling among 

 the number Puniest (whoisgettingto be quite 

 an earnest scientist) declared there were no 

 aphides about it. l)ut that the substance is a 

 saccharine exudation from the unusually 

 luxuriant growing maple-leaves. One friend 

 declares it falls from the sky, for it came 

 down from the clouds and fell on his hand 

 and he licked it off. 



Since the above, I have the following from 

 Ernest : 

 more about the honey-dew from the maples. 



Dear Father :— Since leaving home I have been de- 

 voting my spare moments to the honey-dew ques- 

 tion. I confess myself a good deal at sea yet, , and 

 further investigation shows that my first impres- 

 sions were more visionary than real. As the result 

 of a little work upon this matter, I present one or 

 two facts which bring us a little nearer the truth, 

 I think. 



You will remember that I told you I found honey- 

 dew only. on the leaves of maples. Since then, how- 

 ever, a more prolonged and careful examination 

 reveals innumerable drops of the sparkling dew, 

 not only on the leaves, but also on the bark, in the 

 grass, and on the sidewalks adjacent to the trees. 

 This is not the ordinary dew, from the fact that 

 the sidewalks are much stained, and give a sharp 

 boundary line to the edges of the tree; also the dew 

 which I examined on the leaves of a peony beneath 

 the maple was sticky, and, to all appearances, iden- 

 tical with that on the tree. To satisfy my curiosity 

 I climbed the tree, and was not surprised to find 

 great drops of honey-dew just adhering to the tips 

 of many leaves. This, then, would account for the 

 stain on the sidewalks as well as the drops on plants 

 beneath. Availing myself of the opportunity, I 

 tasted of the leaves and the drops adhering. 

 The flavor was unmistakably strong, bitter, and 

 aromatic. While sitting perched in the tree, regal- 

 ing myself in the sweets of nature, my attention 

 was suddenly an-ested by a cluster of little green 

 worms on the under side of one of the leaves. Closer 

 investigation revealed eggs— plenty of them, too. 

 Looking about me I discovered webs and every other 

 woi-m appliance. While this did not in the least 

 serve to sharpen my desire for tasting of more 

 leaves, it set my curiosity to whirling; for it rather 

 upset my pet theory, that honey-dew is a secretion 

 of maple-leaves, and not an exudation of insects. 

 Another fact not in harmony with said theory: 

 Friend Fowls this morning brought me several 

 branches, on the leaves of which was hones'-dew. 

 Among them was a branch of white ash; on its 

 leaves, as on the maples, was, to all appearances, 

 the same honey-dew. Friend Fowls says he has 

 also seen honey-dew on the leaves of basswood. In 

 either case the same worm is present as on the 

 maple. I think we may presume, if these things are 

 triKe, that the worms, whatever they are, are proba- 

 bly the source of this honey-dew. I have several 

 sprigs having the cocoons and web of these worms, 

 and I will send them on to Prof. Cook. It is quite 

 probable that he has the same thing in Michigan. 



Friend Fowls says he has about two barrels of this 

 honey-dew on hand, gathered by bees within the 

 last ten days. At my request he brought me a jar 



