880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



best advantage, and to arrange for future con- 

 signments. 



ik 

 Mr. W. H. Hall says that in his apiary, when 

 the maize (corn) crops and the red bloodwood 

 are in bloom at the same time, certain stocks 

 can be relied on to fill their hives with the 

 pale, mild, sweet maize honey, and others with 

 the rich yellow glutinous honey of the blood- 

 wood ; and in this case it is remarkable that 

 even the wax secreted by the bees after eating 

 the two types of honey will be different. The 

 new comb wax from the colony working on 

 maize will be pure white, and crumbly to the 

 touch ; while the wax in the hive working on 

 bloodwood will be a bright yellow, and tough- 

 er in texture. 



m 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 On page 390, Oct. 5, the theory was advanced 

 that bees do not naturally build a cell six- 

 sided, but that the shape is due to the crystal- 

 lizing of the wax when it becomes cool. Mr. 

 Cowan replies, and shows up the other fallacy 

 of that idea. His strong point is that bees 

 could not endure a temperature high enough 

 to admit of crystallization. Mr. Cowan seems 

 to admit, however, that the form of a cell is 

 due to outside interference, as all circles com- 

 ing together naturally assume a hexagonal 

 form. Mr. Cowan's closing paragraph is as 

 follows: " In one respect the experiments of 

 Messrs. Dawson and Woodhead are interesting 

 to the bee-keeper, inasmuch as they demon- 

 strate that, however faint may be the hexago- 

 nal impression upon the plate of wax, the bees 

 are willing and ready to accept it as a guide 

 for the commencement of their cells. We 

 might also incidentally point out that even 

 the hexagonal shape is not necessary, as bees 

 will readily accept simple circular pits in wax 

 sheets if they are the right distance apart, and 

 will construct their combs upon them." 



HONEY-DEW. 



Something about a New Kind. 



BY F. GREINER. 



About a week ago it looked very much as 

 though our bees would go into winter very 

 light in honey, and that we should have to do 

 some feeding ; but, curious as it may seem at 

 this time of the year, I find myself giving my 

 bees this 1st of September more room in shape 

 of extracting- combs, and adding half-stories 

 filled with wired foundation. We are having 

 a great flow from honey-dew, and I thought 

 it was a good opportunity to get a lot of foun- 

 dation drawn out into combs — an opportunity 

 I did not find in all the now nearly past sea- 

 son. As honey-dew honey is not fit for table 



use it would not be advisable to have it stored 

 in sections ; so I have taken nearly all the 

 section supers off, and intend to keep the bees 

 busy as stated. 



This is the second time in over 25 years 

 that we here have an abundance of honey-dew, 

 appearing principally on the chestnut-trees, 

 and our bees are now not slow gathering it, 

 especially early in the morning. While writ- 

 ing this it is not quite light yet ; but the bees 



are already fairly roaring over it, reminding 

 one of the times when we had a good bass- 

 wood-honey flow. There are great numbers 

 of aphides on the twigs and leaves of the 

 chestnut-trees, and, according to the authori- 

 ties, they are the producers of the saccharine 

 matter. 



There is also honey-dew to be found on 

 pear-trees, and in considerable quantities, 

 which, to my taste, is of better quality than 

 the other, although our bees do not work on 

 it as briskly as they do on the other, for some 

 unexplainable reason, and much of it goes to 

 waste. 



While I believe the aphides are the origin 



