1S84 



gLeai^Ings i:t^ beE cjuMuiiE. 



745 



eggs, for some reason, and put in larvae sev- 

 eral days old in place of them. Yes, I should 

 sooner think they stole it from other hives, 

 and brought it in, than that it was a possi- 

 bility that a perfect l)ee conld be matured 

 froni the egg in 12 days. Thousands of us 

 have counted the period, and the agreement 

 is so general that we do not see how we can 

 be mistaken. 



HONEY FROM THE VINE MAPLE. 



I aend you a sample of vine-maple honey by mail; 

 and if you receive it all right, please let us know 

 through Gleanings what you think of it. The 

 vine maple is most common in low grounds and 

 along- the streams, and is, I believe, peculiar to this 

 coast; it sometimes runs along on the ground, but 

 more commonly grows nearly erect with crooked 

 body and crooked, drooping limbs. It grows to the 

 height of 10 or 1.5 ft., and is rarely over 6 inches 

 through at the stump. I inclose a leaf of vine maple. 



This has been a very poor season for bees in this 

 part of Oregon; there has been no honey-dew, and 

 elk-weed yielded but little honey. Many bees have 

 starved already; mine did as well as any that I 

 know of, and I got but a small surplus, part of 

 which was from vine maple, which blossoms about 

 the middle of April, and continues in blossom three 

 weeks. M. E. Warren. 



Eagle Creek, Oregon, Oct. 8, 1884. 

 Many thanks, friend W. The honey is 

 dark in color, but of a beautiful amber, and 

 is to me most delicious. A pitcher of ice- 

 cold milk on a cool morning, with half a loaf 

 of bread, and butter from a Jersey cow, with 

 vine-maple honey, a good lot of it, would be 

 my idea of a breakfast. After breakfast I 

 should be all ready to drain oft' swami>s, or any 

 other kind of hard work. 



throughout our nation. If such boys are 

 hunted up, and invited to come, they will 

 very often expend their surplus energy in 

 doing good somewhere, and enjoy it ever so 

 much better than robbing bee-hives. 



JUVENILE HONEY-THIEVES. 



Inclosed find a cutting from the Oil-City Derrick, 

 an account of depredations of boys about 10 or 12 

 years old. T. F. Shephard. 



Franklin, Pa., Sept. 29, 1884. 



The story of the juvenile burglars which was told 

 In the papers a few days ago is eclipsed by the dar- 

 ing of the little rascals who stole the honey, and 

 wrought ruin among the bees of Mr. Shephard in the 

 Third Ward. They had only the cops to contend 

 ' with, while the Third-Ward boys had to keep an eye 

 open for the officers, and tight a battle at the same 

 time with the em-aged bees whose home they were 

 despoiling. Notwithstanding all the difficulties they 

 were obliged to contend with, they succeeded in 

 getting all the honey they wanted, destroying: total- 

 Ij; one colony of bees, and setting the others to rob- 

 bing one another, and the result is likely to be a 

 total loss of all the bees Mr. Shephard owns, which 

 have cost him much time, labor, and money. The 

 boys operated with a long pole, sharpened to a 

 point at one end. With this they knocked over the 

 hive, and then fished away the well-fllled combs of 

 honey with the sharpened end. Mr. Shepard has 

 procured the names of the little desperados, and of 

 course their parents will have to make good the 

 damage; but it will no doubt cause a closer looking 

 after the children on the part of their parents, and 

 an effort to know their whereabouts at least once 

 every twenty-four hours. 



Friend S., the trouble with these boys is 

 ignorance. Let us strive by every means in 

 our power to give them to understand how 

 much damage they do by thoughtless acts 

 like these, and let us also back it up by in- 

 sisting that tlie parents make good the en- 

 tire value of colonies so damaged. Such in- 

 struction as our Sunday-schools furnish 

 from God's word is the great remedy needed 



water for bees in winter; why doolittle 



LOST so many. 



So far I have not noticed that anj' correspondent 

 has given an opinion in regard to what caused 

 the great loss of bees, an account of which Mr. Doo- 

 little gives on page 371, current volume. I will give 

 it as my opinion that they died of thirst, and that 

 those clouds of vapor rolling away carried off the 

 moisture that, without artificial heat, would have 

 remained in the room, and have saved them from 

 perishing of drought. I believe It is a well-known 

 fact, that the lower the temperature of the atmos- 

 phere, the less vapor it carries, and I think in this 

 case the heat from the stove increased the draft 

 and desiccated the already very di-y aii- to such a 

 degree as to cause their destruction. It is my opin- 

 ion that, had they been supplied with water, the 

 bees would not have perished. 



Some twenty years or more ago, a case somewhat 

 similar came under my observation. A friend of 

 mine, Mr. T. F. Landis, living near Scottdale, West- 

 moreland Co., Pa., undertook to winter a lot of bees 

 (kept in the old Quinby box hive) in a cellar behind, 

 but on the same tloor of a basement kitchen, by 

 which, I believe, the temperature and hygrometry 

 of the said cellar were affected; but to what extent 

 I am not able to say, as no measurements were tak- 

 en. Some time during the winter the bees became 

 restless, and commenced leaving the hives in such 

 numbers that he became alarmed about it, and, not 

 knowing what to do, he wrote to Mr. Quinby for ad- 

 vice, who suggested that they might be suffering 

 from thirst, and advised him to try gi%'ing them 

 water, which he did by sprinkling, and introducing 

 little troughs between the combs of the inverted 

 hive. They then became quiet, and gave him no 

 more trouble. Milton Hewitt. 



Perryopolis, Fayette Co., Pa., Oct. 4, 1884. 



No doubt, friend II., bees sometimes die 

 for want of moisture, and I should think it 

 much more likely to happen where artiticial 

 heat is employed, for the reason you suggest. 

 Under ordinary circumstances. I believe it 

 has been pretty well decided that it is 

 not well to offer bees water in winter. 

 Those that Prof. Cook furnished with water 

 by way of a test did not winter nearly as 

 well as those left to themselves. 



sowing seed for spider plant in the fall. 



I see some of your customei's don't succeed in 

 getting many plants from the spider-plant seed. 

 Advise them to sow their seed in the fall or early 

 winter, and I think they will meet with better suc- 

 cess. From half a pint sown last fall I could have 

 transplanted a.'jOO or 3000 plants, but planted only 

 1000, for the want of land, while from a pint sown 

 this spring I did not get a single plant. 



honey from the cow pea. 



My bees are storing honey at present from the 

 cow pea. There is over one hundred acres within 

 a mile of my apiary. E. W. Stayton. 



Martin, Tenn., Sept. 2, 1884. 



Thanks for the suggestion, friend S. I can 

 accept it all the more readily, from the fact 

 that the spider plants come ilp every season 



