GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUltE. 



•J ULY 



Mi:i/riN(i oiii) (HtMits. 



I lately saw somewhere what I thiak is a g-ood 

 idea. In melting- old combs, some of the wax is ab- 

 sorbed by the cocoons. To avoid this, soak the 

 combs in water for some time before melting. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



Friend M., I presume you are right in 

 saying we should use the pronoun her when 

 applied to the worker-bee ; l)ut 1 think we 

 might also, with almost it not equal proprie- 

 ty, use the pi'ououn it, on the ground that 

 the insect is of neither sex ; and hnally I do 

 not know how we shall go about it to make 

 a change, even if we tried ever so hard. 

 When people once get started on certain 

 words or phrases, it is next to impossible to 

 get them to change over, or, if done at all, 

 it must be done by slow degrees. — Your 

 thin dummy is, so far as 1 can see, exactly 

 what we advertise in our price list as a 

 plain division-board.— In regard to removing 

 combs, I do not know tliat I have ever seen 

 any so old thnt it made the workers diminu- 

 tive ; but I have seen combs so old and 

 heavy that I pr(^ferred to melt them up into 

 wax, to be replaced by frames with our re- 

 versible coiners, tilled with wired foun- 

 dation. I have handled the reversible- 

 cornered frames, somewhat, this spring, 

 and I like the wired ends so much bet- 

 ter than the metal corners made of sheet 

 tin that I certainly should prefer to pay the 

 difference for my own use. When I. say I, 

 I mean A. I. Root — not we or us, although 

 all the boys who work in the apiary agree 

 with me in this matter. 



J. H. LARRABEE'S PROPOSED SHOP, 

 BEE-HOUSE, ETC. 



BEFORE BUILDING IT OF STONES AND TIMBER, 

 HOWEVER, HE STARTS IT ON PAPER. 



fUTEND ROOT;— I am thinking of building a 

 honey-house and work-shop this fall, and 1 

 should like to ask you and the readers of 

 Gleanings what you think of the following- 

 plan? I am to use it in the care of an apiary 

 of from 100 to 150 colonies of bees. The whole 

 building is 30x30, with 13-ft. posts. 



The shop will contain my foot-power saw, a bench 

 and tools, and a stove. It will iirobatily be littered 

 with shavings, and in this room 1 will try to keep 

 the most of the dirt. The work-room will be used 

 for putting together sections, gluing- in fdn., mak- 

 ing fdn., scraping propolis from sections, crating 

 honey, etc., and will have a handy place for the 

 smoker, queen-cages, and all the nick-nacks. It 

 will be connected with the shop by a wide door, so 

 that I can warm it all or use the doorway in sawing 

 long boards. 



As the honey is freed from bees it will be stored 



away in the honey-room, which will be ceiled extra 

 tight, until prepared for market. The ofiice will 

 contain my desk, hooks tor coats, and all those 

 things which would look out of place in the work- 

 room, or get dirty in the shop. The upper story 

 will be used for storage of hives, and all tools when 

 not in use. The honey-room, when filled as full as 

 practicable, will hold 10,000 or 13,000 lbs. of comb 

 honey. 



I should like you to find fault with the plan, as a 

 little care in the selection of a jdan now may save 

 me much vexation by and by. 



The season is very backward, especially fruit- 

 bloom. We must, I am afraid, be contented this 

 year with a small crop of honey in this State. 



J. H. L.\RIIABEE. 



Larrabee's Point, Vt., May 21, 1HS8. 



Your idea is certainly a good one— espe- 

 cially that part of it where you want to sub- 

 mit it to the bee-men, to criticise and find 

 fault with. 



IS IT HONEY OR POLLEN? 



MRS. CHADDOCK IS WATCHING THE BEES ON THE 

 Bf.ACK HAW AND BARBERRY. 



§1NCE the apple-bloom faded, the bees have 

 been roaring around a black haw that stands 

 in our dooryard, and on the two barlierry- 

 biishes in the apiary. I think they get noth- 

 ing bvit pollen from the black haw. They 

 flirt around from one blossom to another, just as 

 they did on the hard maple, then go off and twist 

 their legs awhile and back to fumbling the stamens 

 about. After watching them work fen- awhile on 

 the haw, I went and stood l>y one of the barberry- 

 bushes. Here I saw very different actions. The 

 bee would run its tongue down into the flower, 

 which never opens out fully, and sweep it slowly 

 aroiuid the immense pistil, staying at one blossom 

 about long enough for me to count seven, then to 

 another and another. This morning was cool— cool 

 enough for the men to wear their overcoats at work 

 in the fields, and the black haw was deserted— not a 

 single bee about it anywhere. But when 1 went to 

 the barberry-bushes I found a few bees gathering 

 the nectar. 1 watched one bee that sucked out over 

 a hundred blossoms, stopping- to twist her legs only 

 once in the meantime. She had some very small 

 pellets of i)ollen on her legs. 1 noticed that, when 

 she retni-ned to a blossom that she had already 

 emptied, sh(^ made short work of it, sometimes not 

 even running hci- tongue in, but merely giving the 

 liower a rul)l>ing bump with her nose, and passing 

 on to the next. Had she left a scent there that she 

 recognized as soon as she came close enough? Now, 

 is the barberry a flower that secretes honey on cool 

 days, or was that nectar secreted last night when it 

 was not (luite so cool? Under the magnifier the 

 black haw shows plenty of pollen, but no honey- 

 not the tiniest drop, while the Uower of barberry 

 has not nuich pollen, and such queer little ear- flap ar- 

 rangements these anthers are! At the base of each 

 slamen there are two kidney-shaped, orange-colored 

 bodies (the blossoms arc yellow), and around and 

 among these bodies I find most of the nectar. It is 

 not visible to the naked eye, but glistens under the 

 magnifier, and (this seems strange, does it not?) a 

 drop of nectar, too small to be seen by the naked 

 eye, can be tasted. 1 have tasted many of these, and 

 the sweet is very noticeal)le. 



