1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



229 



flight and a "change of rations," but on no 

 account is he to let the queens out. If our 

 young soldier friend has not been shot down 

 in the late battles we ma}' expect shipments of 

 Apis dorsata in the near future. Whether 

 they will get through alive remains to be seen. 

 We have offered him §25.00 for one queen 

 alive ; $35 00 for two ; "$45.00 for four, and 

 §50.00 for five. 



I have also heard from our missionary friend, 

 Mr. W. E. Rambo, of Damoh, India, stating 

 that he has got track of Apis dorsaia. As 

 soon as he can secure them he will prepare 

 shipments and send them on. 



It will be a joke if Gleanings gets ahead 

 of the government in securing the big bees. 

 At all events we propose to leave no stone un- 

 turned, and will get them if they can be se- 

 cured. While I do not believe they will ever 

 be of much value to us practically, yet we 

 shall never know much about them unless we 

 make the attempt. 



If there are any others of our subscribers in 

 India, Philippine Islands, or elsewhere, who 

 will be in position to help s. cure for us Apis 

 do>sata, we hereby give them notice that we 

 will pay the above prices on the first shipment. 



The daily press has given us enough free 

 daily advertising of these big bees to create a 

 large demand for them already. We are al- 

 ready getting calls. One man says he wants 

 Apis dorsata — that he has not been able to get 

 any honey with his common bees, and thinks 

 it would be a good idea to " change my breed." 

 —Ed.] 



the recent freeze in florida ; also 

 some suggestions in regard to pro- 

 tecting florida stuff. 

 The loth of February Florida received a sad 

 blow in the shape of a freeze. All tropical 

 trees are killed as far south as Palm Beach, 

 and badly injured in Miami. The orange, 

 lemon, and grape fruit trees were very badly 

 hurt as far south as Titusville, and injured 

 more or less as far south as Palm Beach. My 

 groves escaped with but little loss. A few of 

 the orange-trees were in bud and bloom, and 

 did not freeze so but I shall have a full crop 

 of fruit. I banked with dirt about 400 of my 

 youngest buds to save them, and had a few 

 not banked killed. I have 15 acres out in 

 grove, or 1500 trees, and the ground ready to 

 set 500 more this season. My grape-fruit trees 

 which you saw in 1895, Feb. 7, that were kill- 

 ed back to the trunk of the tree, averaged me 

 $13 worth of fruit to the tree; and some that 

 I budded at the ground in March, 1896, bore 

 from §5.00 to $13.50 worth of fruit to each 

 tree this year. This freeze has fixed the prices 

 on good fruit for years to come. I had a good 

 many tropical trees, but I think I shall have 

 to leave these to Cuba and Porto Rico I had 

 % acre of bananas under cover, with six inch- 

 es of hay on top of the common cover, that 

 were all frozen to the ground, and five acres 

 of beans and five acres of Irish potatoes, some 

 of them eight inches high. Tell A. I. they 

 looked about like the little patch he saw at 

 Weise's, Feb. 6, just before the freeze of 1895. 

 My bees are in good condition, but the re- 



cent cold will cut off some of the honey 

 sources. I am running my bees in six differ- 

 ent apiaries. I think people make a great 

 mistake in having too many bees in one local- 

 ity. H. T. GlFFORD. 

 Vero, Fla., Feb. 23. 



ZERO WEATHER IN FLORIDA. 



Mr. Editor: — About a week ago I wanted 

 to tell you (but being very busy failed to d j it ^ 

 how the bees were working in this part of Flor- 

 ida. They came sailing heavily laden, and 

 dropping in front of their hives like shot. 

 The titi, that grand source of honey in this lo- 

 cality, had commenced to bloom. On the 

 night of the 8th of February the mercury fell 

 to 24°, and on the 9th a shade lower. The 

 orange-trees had blossom-buds, which were all 

 turned black; also the new growth. There 

 have been frequent rains since August, and, 

 preceding the frost, many days of warm misty 

 weather, which promoted vegetation. 



Last Sunday, the 12th, there was a cold rain, 

 followed by snow and sleet, and vegetation 

 was coated with ice. The cold increased, and 

 finally the thermometer indicated zero; the 

 13th, ten degrees above zero; the 14th, a little 

 below freezing. To-day, the 15th, there is a 

 cold rain with chilly wind. 



Our rejoicing is turned into mourning as we 

 view the wind scattering the bright green 

 leaves of our orange and lemon trees which 

 we have petted and caressed for many years. 

 Our garden vegetables are destroyed. 



Mrs L. Harrison. 



St. Andrews Bay, Fla., Feb. 15. 



BEES FLYING OUT OF THE HIVE IN ZERO 

 WEATHER ; WHAT CAUSES IT ? 



My father has three colonies of bees in box 

 hives under a shed facing the southeast. Yes- 

 terday evening at 4 o'clock, temperature 4 de- 

 grees above zero, one of the colonies (a hybrid) 

 commenced flying out as they would during a 

 heavy flow of honey in mid summer, going 

 only a rod or so from the hive, until, overcome 

 by the cold, they dropped dead in the snow 

 near the hive. Some carried out dead bees 

 from the hive, and were chilled before they 

 could get back. About a quart perished be- 

 fore they quieted down. The other two colo- 

 nies on the same bench were quiet. 



Chapmans, O., Feb. 11. W. L. McGhee. 



[This is a rather hard question to answer. 

 As it was a box hive, possibly a field-mouse, 

 or even a rat, crawled up among the combs to 

 get food and warmth; and if so, he would 

 cause a general excitement among the bees. 

 This would result in their flying out, perhaps, 

 as they did. I could scarcely think that dis- 

 ease, or, more specifically, dysentery, would 

 cause them to fly out in this way. In that 

 case, the snow would be badly spotted around 

 the hives. I have known mice to get into 

 hives in winter time, and cause a general com- 

 motion. While the bees would be balled up 

 in such a compact cluster as to make them al- 

 most insensible to ordinary disturbance, yet 

 the odor of an animal crawling round their 



