1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



541 



"That muft be fine," said I. " Could I see 

 your bee- ranch in a tree? " 



"Certainly," said she, leading the way to 

 the rear of the house ; and, sure enough, there 

 were four hives mounted on a platform nailed 

 to the tree, the tree in a hog-corral, and the 

 branches above the hives served as a hen- 

 roost. It was a unique combination of hogs, 

 bees, and poultry. 



" Why," said I, " that must be a profitable 

 plan, and your hives do not suffer from a lack 

 of refreshing showers." 



" Ze — ze showers?" said she, inquiringly. 



" Why, yes ! the tops of your hives." 



" Oh ! z-e-e fertilisher — ha, ha ! — we use ze- 

 ze showers in ze gardena." 



a» 3" » a*^ 



ANSWERS TO / 



SEASONABLE 



But I considered the dirty complexion of 

 the hives, and thought if there was foul brood 

 anywhere it would be there, and said, "I 

 should think you would have foul brood in 

 your apiary." 



" Oh, yesa ! we doa ; ze fowls a brooda ; 

 ze herea ; " and she then proceeded to show 

 me all the old sitting hens there were on 

 the place. Of course, the fowls were all 

 brooding. I observed that she was not up to 

 modern methods of management, though her 

 apiary was the most novel in its arrangement 

 of any I had met. 



I gradually withdrew from this hospitable 

 place, and pursued my journey. That eve- 

 ning I boarded the train again, and halted not 

 till I placed my feet upon the streets of lovely 

 Los Angeles, the place that seems like home 

 to me. 



TWO CENTS A POUND MORE FOR HONEY IN 

 PLAIN SECTIONS. 



I used a few of your plain sections and 

 fences last year, and was well pleased with the 

 results. I realized 2 cts. a pound more for the 

 honey in plain sections than what I did for 

 that in the beeway sections. I had 14 colo- 

 nies in the spring, increased to 36, and took 

 1400 lbs. of surplus comb honey, and did not 

 have one pound of dark honey the entire sea- 

 son. W. H. Swoap. 



DeYoung, Pa. 



►UESTIONS 



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DOES THE LOSS OF THE STING CAUSE THE 

 DEATH OF THE BEE ? 

 Question. — Can a bee live and do work after 

 it has stung a person, leaving its sting? Or 

 does it die, as is generally believed by many 

 persons who keep bees ? Why I ask is this : 

 A skunk was caught in a trap near a hive one 

 warm summer night, and before I was up in 

 the morning the bees from this hive stung the 

 skunk to death, and its body was filled with 

 stings to the number of thousands, it seemed 

 to me, for there was scarcely a place but the 

 stings and poison-sacs were a perfect mat. 

 The hive was watched ; but, so far as could 

 be seen, there were no fewer bees in it than 

 before, work continuing just the same, though 

 the bees from this hive were very irritable for 

 several days afterward. 



Answer. — That a bee dies soon after losing 

 its sting has been very confidently and re- 

 peatedly asserted. In fact, it has been con- 

 sidered by very many a ' ' settled fact, ' ' and 

 so has been reiterated without question. Up 

 to within the past ten or fifteen years nearly all 

 believed that a bee that had stung any one 

 must surely die ; for in leaving the sting, as 

 the honey-bee nearly always does in stinging 

 an animal, a part of the intestines was sup- 

 posed to be left with the sting, poison-sac, 

 etc., from which it was argued that the bee 

 could not live. This seemed so reasonable 

 that I formerly believed the idea which pre- 

 vailed was true till one day, after a bee had 

 stung me, leaving its sting, it came to attack 

 me again and again, with all the fury and 

 vengeance possible for a bee to work itself up 

 to, getting in my hair, and singing away as 

 only a a angry bee can sing, which will make 

 the cold chills run up and down the back of 

 the most hardened bee-keeper. As this bee 

 apparently had no thought of dying, it was 

 caught and caged with two or three others, 

 and kept a week or so to see what would be- 

 come of the matter. At the end of the week 

 it was apparently just as lively and healthy as 

 any of the rest, when all the bees were set at 

 liberty. 



At another time, when putting up queens to 

 send away, in catching the escort bees which 

 were to go with the queen, one of them stung 

 me on the end of my finger, leaving its sting, 

 when it immediately ran in^o the cage. As I 

 did not wish to remove all the bees and the 

 queen to get it out, I let it go, soon after which 

 the thought came to me that here would be a 

 chance to test the theory of the death of the 

 bee from losing its sting, as the queen was 

 going into the remote parts of Texas, which 

 journey would require seven or eight days' 

 time. I accordingly wrote to the party to 

 whom they were sent, telling him all about 

 the matter, and asking him to take notice par- 

 ticularly when the queen arrived to see if 



