168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



PICKINGS 



FROM OUR NEIGHBORS* FIELDS. 



BY "STENOG." 



" March forth ! " says Queen to all her bees; 



" Provide 'gainst hunger — thirst." 

 " Not so." says Drone; " let's sleep awhile; 



To-day isbut the first." 



BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



J. E. Crane writes in favor of selling section 

 honey by the piece instead of by weight. He 

 says it seems to him a little absurd that the 

 bee-keeper who produces thousands of sec- 

 tions of nice comb honey, all of an exact size, 

 and nearly the same weight, should sell by 

 weight, while the one who buys of him sells 

 by count. He reasons from analogy that sec- 

 tions of honey varying almost nothing at all 

 in weight might as well be sold by the piece 

 as eggs that vary in weight as much as two to 

 one. His points are well taken. If a dozen 

 sections, for instance, are placed on the coun- 

 ter, and marked, "Your choice for 16 cents," 

 each person buying can have what he consid- 

 ers to be the best ; and if his neighbor has just 

 bought a better section than he, what loss has 

 he sustained so long as he gets just what he is 

 willing to take, and knows the price? 

 v*/ 



One of the most experienced bee-keepers in 

 the country in regard to the matter of winter- 

 ing bees in cellar is Mr. C. Davenport, of Min- 

 nesota. Referring to the matter of the best 

 time for setting bees out on their summer 

 stands he takes a position that will go far 

 toward bringing together those who advocate 

 very early removal and very late. He says if 

 the bees have wintered well, he finds it best 

 to let them stay in the cellar till settled warm 

 weather. If, on the other hand, the condi- 

 tions have been such that early spring finds 

 them very restless and uneasy, and many of 

 them are leaving their hives and dying, the 

 sooner they are set out the better. Mr. D. 

 recognizes a middle ground, however, and says 

 that, one year with another, it makes but lit- 

 tle difference whether they are set out in 

 March or April in his locality. He puts each 

 colony on its old stand, as a rule. 



Rambler calls in question the supposition 

 that bees dislike black more than white. He 

 wears a suit of blue jean overalls while at 

 work in the apiary, and alternates this suit 

 with a clean one every other day, leaving one 

 suit in the soak while the other is in use. This 

 gives him a clean suit every day. He says bees 

 seldom make an attack upon clean clothes of 

 any color. He finsd if a bee-keeper will dres 

 in a complete suit of black, and keep it clean, 

 the bees will not be disposed to attack it. But 

 he notes where there is a fuzzy protuberance on 

 clothes or on a hat, the bees will persistently 

 attack that point. He says a hole in a black 

 hat is just what bees like to pounce on. The 

 more fuzz there is on clothing, the more the 

 bees will attack it; and when two or three 

 bees discharge their poison on the same spot 



the odor brings many more. He clinches his 

 argument by asking how many bee-keepers 

 have known bees to prefer to sting black pants 

 rather than a white leg while they are crawl- 

 ing up inside of the pants. He adds, "That 

 sting is a conclusive argument." 

 \\i 



F. A. Snell, Milledgeville, 111., drives a nail 

 in the right place in a plea he makes for plant- 

 ing certain trees for honey, and especially the 

 hard maple. This is certainly one of the best 

 trees nature has given us. It grows fast, 

 "yields a liberal amount of honey while in 

 bloom, and blooms late enough so the weather 

 is generally good for the bees to work." Mr. 

 Snell is not so enthusiastic over the soft maple, 

 as, on account of its extreme earliness, it is 

 liable to be frozen so that it will yield neither 

 honey nor pollen. It is a fine tree here, and 

 is literally a " hummer " when the bees first 

 strike it in early spring. It is a fast grower, and 

 is one of the best shade-trees we have. Mr. 

 Snell says the white (or gray) willow yields 

 later than the maple, and furnishes honey and 

 pollen well. 



\\i 



It seems that the question as to the origin 

 of honey-dew, like the dew itself, will not 

 " down." Mr. J. A. Nash, of Iowa, says that, 

 a few years ago, there was a great yield of 

 that stuff in Iowa, and before spring it had 

 killed four-fifths of his bees in the cellar, 

 where he had previously wintered a large 

 apiary several times without any loss. He 

 says he might have still believed it was a se- 

 cretion of bugs had not an old bee-keeper 

 come into his apiary one morning and said, 

 " Look a-here. You told me this honey-dew 

 was made by bugs. Now, I jist cut a black- 

 hickory tree that was covered with honey-dew, 

 and there were not forty lice on the whole 

 tree, as I could find, and I have two good eyes. 

 Don't you think it was a sorter heavy strain on 

 them lice to make all that? I allow they sot 

 up nights." Mr. Nash says there were tons 

 of that stuff gathered, and the lice could not 

 be found at all. 



»»/ 



J. H. Martin is enthusiastic in regard to 

 having pretty apiaries. He says he used to 

 cover his honey-house with paintings of the 

 high-colored Italian bees. He found these bits 

 of bright color were a great relief to the eye 

 and the brain when tired with work. " A bit 

 of bright color in the shape of a rose or gera- 

 nium has the same effect where they can be 

 grown judiciously." But Mr. Martin adds, 

 in his own graphic way, " It may not pay in 

 dollars and cents — certainly would not where 

 the owner sees more beauty in a pigsty than 

 in a bit of bright color." He says Mr. J. F. 

 Mclntyre has the most orderly apiary in South- 

 ern California. Owing to the beautiful pic- 

 tures it makes, it is the best advertised apiary 

 in the country. I am sure there is much to 

 rest one by looking at bright positive colors. 

 I find the tedium of shorthand writing is en- 

 tirely relieved by using bright carmine ink a 

 while, then some other lively color, such as 

 blue, violet, or green. I supposed it was a no- 

 tion of mine, but I see I am not alone. That 



