538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 15. 



be all of an hour before taking food. When 

 the water has passed from the stomach then 

 the food can be properly digested — Ed.] 



"Never approach bees when sweaty, 

 because it makes them ill-natured," is a bit of 

 advice given in Le Progres Apicole. May be 

 good advice for amateurs, but those who must 

 work all day long and every day at their bees 

 can hardly heed it. [I know this advice is 

 often given, but I could never see that bees 

 were more inclined to sting when the apiarist 

 was sweaty. It may be easier for the bees to 

 run their little javelin through the epidermis 

 when it is wet or moist than when dry. I 

 have seen it stated, also, that bees will sting 

 black hats more readily than hats of other 

 colors. While I believe they have a regard 

 for color, yet I think it has nothing to do in 

 stirring up their fighting qualities. — Ed.] 



" But ventilation through the top would 

 be too much of a good thing, would it not? " 

 asks the editor, p. 501. I'm not at all sure of 

 that. If I were running for extracted honey I 

 think I'd have top ventilation, or at least some 

 ventilation above the lower entrance. In ai y 

 case I want an entrance to the upper story in 

 hot weather when there's more than one story. 

 The bad thing about ventilation at top is that 

 sections near it are sealed too slowly. [It 

 may be you are right; but is th.re not danger 

 that beginners will overdo the matter in ar- 

 ranging for top ventilation ? Spreading the 

 brood in the spring is one of the fine arts, and 

 beginners had better leave it alone. Is not 

 the same thing true to a great extent regard- 

 ing top ventilation ? — Ed.] 



"Are you really sure, doctor, that some 

 Italians have longer tongues than others ? 

 Trot out your evidence," says footnote, p. 502. 

 I have no evidence of my own — have no gloss- 

 ometer. But I've read much evidence to that 

 effect (and I hardly see how it could have 

 escaped your notice ) . In France they told 

 just how many millimeters' difference there 

 was in different tongues. At Agricultural 

 College, Mich., they say they have increased 

 the tongue a definite amount. And how about 

 the red-clover strains which get honey from 

 red clover when others do not? [I am not 

 prepared to say you are wrong, doctor. When 

 you have time, give us the measurements of 

 the various bee-tongues ; then let our agricul- 

 tural colleges investigate the matter — Ed ] 



Mr. Editor, you say, p. 519, "It may be 

 possible for i'<9// to have as much brood in one 

 eight-frame brood-nest as two. I believe I 

 could do it myself by reversing, and by wast- 

 ing a great deal of time." I can't possibly 

 understand that. Please tell us what kind of 

 reversing you'd use to get into eight frames 

 as much brood as will be found in 12 frames 

 three-fourths full of brood. [That would be 

 impossible, sure enoiigh, doctor, because there 

 would be more superficial surface in 12 frames 

 three-fourths full than in 8 frames quite full. 

 I did not have in mind any particular number 

 of brood-frames nor any particular amount of 

 brood in each frame; but I find this to be true: 

 The queen does not like to lay in the two out- 

 side combs, especially on the outside surfaces 



of said combs. She will sometimes do so 

 when she is pushed for room ; but as a rule 

 the bees will have the outside combs filled 

 with honey before the queen gets to them. I 

 can get, as I said, more brood in two stories, 

 but that brood will be confined to the inside 

 combs of each story. The way it often works 

 with us is this: There will be six combs in the 

 lower brood-nest from a half to two-thirds full 

 of brood, and in the second story there will 

 be four or five about equally well filled pro- 

 viding the queen is prolific or is not too old. 

 Now, if I can get one hatching of bees from 

 all these combs in a week or so before the 

 honey -harvest, I find very little trouble about 

 bees going into sections. We have heard a 

 great deal about the difficulty of forcing bees 

 to go into boxes; but I think the main trouble, 

 outside of a poor honey season, is that the 

 colonies are too weak. The hives should be 

 fairly boiling over with bees so that they will 

 be compelled to go into supers to get room, if 

 for no other reason. — Ed.] 



Experiments made by Prof. Plateau, in 

 which he removed the colored parts of flowers, 

 go to show that bees are attracted neither 

 by the form nor the color of flowers. The 

 showy parts of the single dahlia and other 

 composite flowers have nothing to do with 

 attracting bees, as formerly supposed. He 

 thinks they are probably attracted by smell. 

 — jMiiench. Bztg, But have not other experi- 

 ments shown that bees are largely guided by 

 sight? [Yes, indeed; Mr. F. A. Salisbury has 

 made experiments along this line, that to me 

 prove conclusively that bees are somewhat 

 guided by color. It will be remembered that 

 he uses house-apiaries. The one I saw is long, 

 and the portico entrances are alike along the 

 whole side of the building, except that each 

 entrance-front is painted a different color from 

 the one adjoining. He says he has repeatedly 

 observed that the bees at one entrance having 

 a particular color — say red, for instance — if 

 they become confused at all as to their loca- 

 tion will seek an entrance having the same 

 color ten feet away. In other instances, I 

 think, he placed some obstructions in front of 

 the hives, and the incoming bees would 

 straightway find an entrance of the same 

 color, and not, as one might suppose, an en- 

 trance close at hand, of a color different from 

 its own. Other instances of a similar char- 

 acter have been reported, and I regarded them 

 as thoroughly conclusive. Some one has said 

 (Darwin, I think) that the reason why flowers 

 are of various colors is for the purpose of 

 attracting bees. Some one else, Cheshire per- 

 haps, states that the honey-bearing flora has 

 but little color as a rule, and in other respects 

 is quite inconspicuous. But they have the nec- 

 tar, which is sufficient to make up for the loss 

 of color; moreover, that the highly colored 

 flowers are, as a rule, non-nectar-bearing. But 

 nature designs that insects attracted by the 

 color shall seek out these flowers, and mingle 

 the pollen. Z.^/'tV'.-— Have just talked vvdth A. 

 I R. He says he proved years ago that color 

 had as much influence as size or shape ; that 

 an old red hive he had he could move any- 

 where and the bees would follow it. — Ed.] 



