214 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



sapling, the equal of any male gender. Better 

 continue to say she, young man, when you 

 speak of a worker-bee ; this is the age of 

 "woman's rights," and you may wish you 

 had if you do not. She is not so " soft and 

 good " as she might be when you get her 

 aroused ; for illustration, a she, it, or him, 

 which shall I say ? — bee, a neuter, if you please. 

 — The Modern Farmer and Bee-ket per, by E. 

 T. Abbott. 



TRAVEL-STAIN. 



The Whole Question Reviewed and Restated ; Get- 

 ting the Game Holed, and then Digging it Out; 

 a Valuable Article. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



In Gleanings for Feb. 1 Dr. Miller says, 

 "J. E. Crane's article, page 42, is entirely 

 correct ; but it only shifts the question one 

 step farther back — is the black carried up 

 from the brood-nest into the super caused by 

 travel-stain, or what is it?" to which the 

 editor adds, "I do not believe we can tell 

 where the black does come from — perhaps 

 sometimes from out of the hives ; but I sup- 

 pose that, in the majority of cases, it is chunks 

 of propolis." 



Now, then, let us see if we have got our 

 game "holed," as the hunters say, before we 

 proceed to dig it out. But first let us take a 

 short lesson in colors. 



I suppose we are all familiar with what is 

 said of the diamond and lampblack — both the 

 same chemically, yet one the purest white 

 while the other is the purest black. Whence 

 the difference? Just a little different arrange- 

 ment of particles, we are told. 



Take another illustration. The egg from 

 which a honey-bee is hatched looks like a 

 minute elongated pearl. With the heat of the 

 hive it soon hatches, and is fed by nurse-bees 

 a white substance like milk, and in a few days 

 it becomes a large larva nearly white, when it 

 is sealed up ; and in a few days more, if we 

 remove the cappings, we shall find a nearly 

 mature bee almost as white as snow. A little 

 later it may emerge from the cell as gray in 

 color, and, after a few flights, its body is 

 black, softened by a light-colored fuzz or 

 numerous short hairs. Where did it get its 

 color ? Is it travel-stain ? I think not. 



I have introduced these illustrations to show 

 how slight a change is required to change 

 color, but hardly need them to prove the origin 

 of the so-called " travel -stain," for the color 

 is not black, but rather a reddish brown, or 

 cinnamon, and evidently comes from some 

 substance or substances of the same or similar 

 color. 



There are three or four sources from which 

 it is derived, and it may be, in exceptional 

 instances, more; viz., pollen, propolis, cocoons 

 of young bees, and all of these mixed. 



Pollen varies in color with the flowers from 

 which it is gathered. It is often nearly white, 

 and again a light yellow or dark yellow, or 

 orange or pink, or red or brown, or it may be 

 some shade of green. 



What is propolis? I look in my Standard 

 Dictionary and find that it is "bee-glue." 

 Good ! Some of us have been aware of that 

 for some time. But what is bee-glue ? It may 

 be one of a dozen different things, or all com- 

 bined, which the bees gather to stop up cracks 

 and crevices, or smear or coat the inside of 

 their hives, daub the inside of sections, or 

 even the surplus combs or the brood-combs, 

 or even for capping. This very afternoon a 

 neighbor brought me some section honey to 

 show me, and wondered if I could tell him 

 what it was that made his combs look so col- 

 ored, while the honey was white. I told him 

 the combs were built late in the season, and 

 propolis used in capping. 



"Yes," he said, "they were built late;" 

 and when I gave him a glass to look through 

 he could see nothing but propolis to discoli r 

 his combs. 



I believe all the coniferous trees furni>h 

 propolis in varying quantities and quality. I 

 have found of late the butternut furnishes a 

 good deal of a dark brown color. The north- 

 ern poplars have long been noted for the pro- 

 duction of this substance ; but there is one 

 variety, Populits balsamifera, that is the abom- 

 ination of bee-keepers, so abundantly does it 

 produce bee-glue. But bees gather it also 

 from old bee-hives, or from slumgum that 

 some careless neighbor has thrown out, or it 

 may be from that thrown out of some hive by 

 the bees, or perhaps they may get a full sup- 

 ply from the newly grafted orchard of my 

 neighbor across the way, and be grafting wax 

 with a little dirt. Now I believe we have 

 ample evidence that our game is in its hole. 

 Let us see if we can dig it out. 



If we take a new colony with new combs we 

 shall find the combs a pure white. The first 

 intimation of color is in some cells partly 

 filled with pollen. Later we shall find that 

 every cell from which a young bee has emerg- 

 ed has lost its snowy whiteness. Indeed, we 

 cm tell every cell used for this purpose if 

 even only one bee has hatched in it. The 

 brown cocoon is left, and gives its color. 

 Every succeeding bee that comes out leaves 

 the cell darker until, in old combs, they look 

 almost black. 



But there are other processes going on that 

 change slowly, perhaps, but surely, the color 

 of the comb. Every cell in which pollen has 

 been stored is likely to be changed in color, 

 not the same as where brood was reared, but 

 changed. The whiteness of virgin wax is 

 gone, and in the place of it a dull yellow or 

 brown. As honey becomes scarce the latter 

 part of the season, and the bees cease to make 

 wax, they will gather propolis and stick it 

 about the mouth of cells, and perhaps give 

 the lower edge of the comb a good coating of 

 it also. 



The following winter the bees gnaw down 

 the combs more or less, and in spring gnaw 

 out cells of pollen that may be coated with 

 mold, or some of the combs that may also be 

 colored with mold. 



If the colony is strong, these chippings are 

 picked up, mixed more or less, and used 

 again to build comb or cap brood, and these 



