878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



ag-ain inserting their suction-pipes, which are now 

 much hirgei- than at time of hatching-. As the 

 spring' sets the sap in rapid circulation, the lice 

 commence a more rapid pumping, as instanced hj- 

 their rapid growth. Soon they begin to secrete and 

 let fall a kind of nectar, which, if the flowers fail to 

 secrete a more wholesome rectar, the bees fall to 

 and collect. This serves the lice by attracting the 

 wasps and bees, which, in turn, keep the insec- 

 tivorous birds, such as the sparrows and orioles, 

 from feeding on the lice. This is no fancy sketch. 

 I have actually seen the birds driven away re- 

 peatedly by the bees and wasps. I have seen a 

 song sparrow and oriole commence on a twig in 

 early spring, and clean it entirely of the enervating 

 lice. This was in fruit-bloom, when the bees could 

 do better than collect this insect secretion. Soon 

 the bees could not get flower nectar, and repaired to 

 the lice secretion, when the birds ceased to visit the 

 trees. Soon other flowers attracted the bees, and 

 the birds returned. Thei-e is something intensely 

 interesting in this balance of nature and the con- 

 flicts to preserve it. Nature has arranged so that 

 all life must struggle to e.xist, and has provided 

 that all shall have a chance. 



This subject interests the bee-keeper in another 

 way. The honey from this bark-louse secretion is 

 not fit for market nor for the bees in our long hard 

 winters. For manufacturing purposes it gives sat- 

 isfaction. There is danger, too, unless great cau- 

 tion is preserved, that this will be mixed with the 

 fine honey, and ruin all. 



In July the eggs are deposited under the scale, 

 and the parent louse dies; yet the scale, now large, 

 brown, and plump isee tlgure) remains to cover and 

 protect the lice. Thus we understand the full life 

 history of the insect. 



That these insects would soon kill the trees if left 

 undisturbed, there is no question. Some fine tulips 

 on our college campus did die from this cause; yet 

 this rarely occurs. The very abundance of the lice 

 makes the path of their enemies, birds and insects, 

 a very smooth one, and so very soon the lice are 

 conquei'ed and our beautiful trees saved. Twice in 

 twenty years our trees here have been attacked se- 

 riously; but in both cases our insect-friends and 

 the birds have come to the rescue in time to save 

 nearly all the trees. Four years ago these lice were 

 very abundant, and our trees seemed certainly 

 doomed. This year it was hard to find specimens of 

 the scales to show my class. Thus Mr. Anderson 

 may hope and expect to see the lice e.xtermlnated 

 befoie the tiee^ aie destioyed A ft w trees maybe 

 killed, but I thuik vcij few 



FIG. 2. SCALE T.ICE ON THE MAPLE. 



In case a shade-tree in our grounds, much prized, 

 is the scene of attack, and its vigor or life threaten- 

 ed, there is yet hope. I have found that the mix- 

 ture of kerosene and soap— one quart soft soap or 

 In lb. hai-d soap, one pint kerosene, and two gallons 

 of water— is a sure specific against the lice. The 

 best time to apply this remedy is in early spring, 

 before the leaves put out. 



The maple cottony scale (Fig. 3) works much like 



the tulip scale, except that the eggs are placed in a 

 large mass of cotton-like substance which often 

 raises the scales quite away from the tree, as seen 

 in Figure 2, taken from " Maple Sugar and the Su- 

 gar-Bush." A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich. 



Friend Cook, yoti do not tell us exactly 

 why the birds left when tiie bees came. Do 

 the bees ever try to sting the birds V I know 

 that some kinds of birds are fond of bees, 

 but I did not know that bees ever drove birds 

 from any thing. 



HONEY-STO±tlNQ OVER DUMMIES. 



FRIEND GREEN GIVES US SOME VERY VALUABLE 



FACTS FROM EXPERIENCE IN REGARD 



TO THE MATTER. 



N the matter of bees working in sections that 

 are over dummies at the side of the hive, the 

 present season (during which but little honey 

 was gathered until the cool weather of au- 

 tumn) has given me considerable experience. 

 My chaff hives were contracted to six frames, and 

 had the usual wide frames in the upper story. 

 This arrangement left the four central sections of 

 each frame over the brood-nest, while the two at 

 each end had only the dummies below tliem. Ex- 

 cept by a few strong colonies, the end sections 

 were almost neglected until the heavy flow from 

 heart's-ease in the fall. If nearly finished sections 

 were put at the ends of the wide frames they 

 would be finished, though often a new section 

 placed in the,middle at the same time wc>uld come 

 out ahead. 



This state of affairs continued in many colonies, 

 even while honey was coming in freely in the fall. 

 I remember one colony which built out all the mid- 

 dle sections in both tiers of a set of wide frames, 

 and finished all but eight or ten before a particle of 

 work was done on the end sections. I am talking 

 of chaff hives now, remember, so that Dr. Miller's 

 explanation will hardly fit this case unless we ad- 

 mit that even a chatt' hive was not protection 

 enough during the past summer. This could hard- 

 ly be the case, though, as single-walled hives better 

 arranged gave better results. 



Some might say that the case mentioned is an ar- 

 gument in favor of open-side sections. Curiously 

 enough, several adjoining wide frames in this hive 

 were filled with open-side sections — more than 

 there were in all the rest of the apiary. 



SEPARATORS. 



In various ways the bees showed that, when 

 honey is coming in slowly, they do not like to un- 

 dertake too large a job at once. Some small colo- 

 nies built out and finished the two central com- 

 partments of the old-style Heddon case, without 

 doing any thing in the ends. In some supers of this 

 style I used wood separators one-eighth inch thick, 

 putting enough to crowd the sections close to- 

 gether. Generally two separators were used in 

 each compartment, one on each side of the central 

 section, leaving three sections on each side of this 

 without separators. According to the opponents 

 of separators, and most of the champions of 

 side-opening sections, the bees should have been a 

 little shy about beginning work in this one separa- 

 tored section, when they could take their choice. 

 Were they? Oh, no I they went right into it, and 



