542 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



there were any dead bees in the cage. In due 

 time he replied that the queen arrived in 

 splendid condition, and that there was not a 

 dead bee in the cage. 



Several times since then I have tried similar 

 ways to see if such bees as had lost their 

 stings were in an)' way inconvenienced there- 

 by, and, so far as I can tell, by means of con- 

 fining them so as to know that I have the 

 same bee, I can see no difference between such 

 bees and those which have their stings, as to 

 length of life. Nature understands her work 

 very much better than we do ; and it now 

 appears to me that it was so ordained that the 

 stingy poison-sac, and contents, might be torn 

 away from the bee, and yet it remain as per- 

 fect in every other way, save the defending of 

 its home, as it ever was. If such is the case 

 we can readily appreciate the carelessness 

 manifested in rushing to an attack upon slight 

 provocation, rather than ascribing so much to 

 the patriotism of "home protection," result- 

 ing in "the death of hundreds and thousands" 

 of their numbers, which has been the idea of 

 the past. Whether bees having lost their 

 sting gather honey or not, or whether they 

 are "allowed to live in the hive without their 

 weapon of defense, is something which would 

 be next to, if not quite, impossible to tell, for 

 in this case we have no means of keeping 

 track of an individual bee. As bees wnich 

 are in any way imperfect are not tolerated in 

 the hive, it might not be unreasonable to sup- 

 pose that the perfect ones might dri\e off one 

 which had lost its sting, as being incapable of 

 defense, were the hive attacked ; yet as there 

 are so m:my thousands, perfect and ready for 

 defense, to where one has lost its sting, I 

 hardly think such would be the case. At any 

 rate I have often seen bees which have either 

 stung myself or into my cloihing, so as to lose 

 their stings, alight back on their combs with- 

 out any molestation by the other bees, save 

 some little irritation from the perfume of 

 poison in the air, having watched such for 

 several minutes. If they did not then try to 

 evict them from the hive, when would it be 

 done? That it was not the design of nature 

 for the bee always to lose its sting when de- 

 fending its hive, is manifest where bees repel 

 robbers to the extent of hundreds, and at 

 times often thousands, which the slaughtered 

 ones attest, when in such cases not one bee 

 in one thousand loses its sting, is self-evident. 

 In such times of great slaughter, each bee 

 keeps its sting, so that it can slaughter bee 

 after bee till the attacking party is repelled 

 or they lose their lives in the combat. Then 

 at times of the balling of the queen, hundreds 

 of bees are slain, yet not one of the dead ever 

 has a sting fastened to it. At times they do 

 lose their stings in other bees, but this is the 

 exception rather than the rule. 



[I have several times confined bees depriv- 

 ed of their stings in queen-cages, and have 

 had them live two and three weeks — just 

 about as long as they would have lived if they 

 had had their stings. The notion that bees 

 die shortly after losing their sting is all a 

 myth. — Ed.] 



FONDNESS OF BEES FOR VASELINE. 

 I noticed, the other day, a large number of 

 bees working very busily on an old vaseline- 

 keg, and they seemed as enthusiastic over it 

 as if it had been a molasses-barrel. Can you 

 explain the cause of it? and did you ever 

 know of a similar case ? 



B. E. GOODENOUGH. 

 Barton Landing, Vt., May 4. 



BAD RECORD FOR SMALL HIVES. 



I would say all the good things you sent 

 were received in due time. I am very sorry 

 to say I am this year without a bee, it being 

 my luck to use eight-frame hives ; and my 

 colonies being very strong the hives were un- 

 able to hold sufficient to feed my bees through 

 winter so they starved to death. I will discard 

 those hives and try again as soon I can get 

 some more. Wm. LeaTham. 



Armada, Mich., April 30. 



HONEY-DEW OF INSECT ORIGIN. 



Friend Root: — I would add my testimony 

 to Prof. Cook's in regard to honey-dew. This 

 morning I saw the bees gathering it from the 

 leaves of the wild California walnut, and I 

 feel quite sure that not one person in ten 

 would notice the source of this honey-dew. 

 It came from a small yellow aphis lying close 

 along the mid-vein on the under side of the 

 leaves. I have noticed honey-dew for the 

 past twenty-five years, and have never failed 

 to find the insect source. Now, if nine people 

 should say to you, " We saw honey-dew on a 

 walnut-tree this morning, near Mclntyre's 

 gate, and did not see any insects to produce 

 it, so it must have come down from heaven," 

 and I should come up and say, "I also saw 

 the honey-dew, and here are the insects that 

 produced it," which would you believe? To 

 my mind the idea of obtaining honey or sugar 

 from the air is absurd ; and when a man testi- 

 fies that he saw honey-dew without insects, it 

 only proves that he is a poor observer. 



Sespe, Cal., June 15. J. F. McInTvre. 



[The fact of insect origin can not be doubt- 

 ed now. It's settled. — Ed.] 



ODOR AS WELL AS COLOR; TESTIMONY OF ONE 

 OF THE. MOST EXTENSIVE BEE-KEEPERS. 

 I consider odor of clothes as great a consid- 

 eration as color. I buy light odorless clothes, 

 and have no trouble. Bad-smelling clothes 

 are irritating to bees. I am now resting one 

 of my teams of browns, and drive one gray 

 and one brown, and let them pasture off the 

 grass from among the bees. The gray pas- 

 tures much longer than the brown without be- 

 ing stung ; but switching the flies would be 

 the only thing that would cause the bees to 

 sting. The brown would be stung at a dis- 

 tance. I notice the above every day I am at 

 this Piru apiary. It is a further proof that 



