470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



enough to catch the pollen, then puts on the 

 partly filled sections from the old hive. Friend 

 Burrel, if you want comb in the brood-cham- 

 ber without having it bulge into the founda- 

 tion, put a dummy between the combs and 

 the foundation. See if it doesn't work as 

 well as a dummy at the side. [P-e-r-h-a-p s 

 you are right — I don't know. — Ed.] 



Prof. Lazenby makes a statement that 

 would have brought "aid and comfort " to 

 me a few years ago. I insisted bees didn't 

 work on strawberry-blossoms at all. He comes 

 pretty near that, saying they work on weeds 

 among strawberries, seldom touching the lat- 

 ter. I was obliged to admit their doing a lit- 

 tle on strawberries. Well, this year the bees 

 take a mischievous delight in showing me I 

 don't know when I think I do. Strawberries 

 by the acre on my place (Ghordis Stull raises 

 them) show the bees working quite busily on 

 them every da5^ Perhaps another year Prof. 

 L. may find different results. [Nearly every 

 spring our bees are found to be working on 

 strawberry-blossoms. This was especially no- 

 ticeable a year ago, and it seemed as if every 

 blossom (and there were thousands of them) 

 in our strawberry -bed had a bee on it. — Ed.] 



"Three years ago I extracted about 2000 

 pounds of nearly pure dandelion honey be- 

 fore white clover commenced to yield," says 

 C. Davenport, in Ainerican Bee Journal. He 

 says the honey is dark, rank-tasting, fit only 

 for brood- rearing, or to sell for manufacturing 

 purposes. ( Doolittle says it is splendid when 

 a year or two old.) Formerly dandelion 

 bloom was about gone soon after fruit bloom, 

 but it has increased so much that now there is 

 too much of it, and the honey is sometimes 

 mixed with that of white clover. About Ma- 

 rengo it has increased to such an extent that 

 it blooms till fall frosts, but I doubt whether 

 the bees work on it much late in the season. 

 [I am glad to know that there are some locali- 

 ties where the bees gather honey from dande- 

 lions. They may get a very little from that 

 source here, but I have my doubts about it. 

 But I have seen bees by the hundreds carrying 

 home dandelion pollen ; and Prof. Lazenby 

 says that bees do not carry both honey and 

 pollen at the same time. — Ed.] 



A little mixed seems the matter of jelly 

 or no jelly in cell-cups. Doesn't it depend on 

 circumstances ? I have tried cells without jel- 

 ly, and had not one accepted. I have tried 

 cells without jelly, and have had them accept- 

 ed just as well as with jelly. In the latter case 

 the larva was transferred with the bottom 

 part of the cocoon, in a cell-cup specially 

 built for it. In the ordinary Doolittle cups, I 

 don't believe I can get best results without 

 jelly. By transferring cocoon and all, there 

 is no need of jelly ; and it is certain that the 

 tiny grub takes with it a ration of exactly the 

 right consistency. [Nothing mixed at all, 

 doctor. Mr. Wardell (perhaps he is prejudic- 

 ed in favor of his old way ) prefers Doolittle 

 cups with large bottoms, with royal jelly. 

 He says he doesn't like to slice across a brood- 

 comb, mutilating larvae of all ages, and young 

 bees, that cups with large bottoms and royal 



jelly make him really less labor. You and he 

 agree that with such cups royal jelly is al- 

 most a necessity ; and he agrees that cups with 

 cocoons, without royal jelly, will be accepted. 

 —Ed.] 



H. M. Jameson, in Review, thinks I mis- 

 lead by saying that hives, etc., are cheap 

 enough. I don't know that I ever said so, for 

 I don't know how much profit there is on 

 them ; but I know that I can buy them cheap- 

 er than I can make them. He says he can 

 pay double price for lumber, and with a foot- 

 power saw make $3.50 a day cutting and rab- 

 beting hives. Why wouldn't it be a good plan 

 for him to go into the business and furnish 

 hives at lower rates? [If Mr. Jameson is a 

 good mechanic (and there is only about one 

 bee-keeper in a hundred who is) he can, per- 

 haps, make his own hives ; but even then I 

 hardly think they would be as accurate as fac- 

 tory-made hives. Perhaps he could make 

 $3.50 a day ; but a shop -using power usually 

 estimates the cost of labor, power, machinery, 

 and shop room, at 40 cts. per hour. That he 

 could pay double price for the lumber depends 

 on where he is located ; for sometimes freight 

 is a big item. But I'll bet him a cookey that 

 the lumber he uses will not be equal to that 

 found in the factory goods. If every one 

 could do as well it would pay to buy foot pow- 

 er saws and make one's own hives. But hun- 

 dreds who have tried it have given it up. — 

 Ed.] 



"The bee, quick as thought in the execu- 

 tion of her attack, nevertheless does not in- 

 flict a wound until she has examined the na- 

 ture of the surface to be punctured, using a 

 pair of very beautiful organs called palpi, 

 elaborately provided with feeling-hairs and 

 thin nerve ends. She is never so mad with 

 anger but that she has method in her madness, 

 . and some substances, applied to the 

 skin, will almost, if not absolutely, save it 

 fromattack."— Cheshire, Vol. I., p. 191. This 

 for the consideration of ye editor. [While I 

 have great admiration for Mr. Cheshire, yet 

 his own statements, viewed in the light of 

 present developments on many a question, 

 show that he is by no means infallible. I need 

 only to refer to Prof. Cook or Mr. Cowan for 

 proof of it. On the point under considera- 

 tion I think he is clearly wrong. If he had 

 been a more practical man, and had spent 

 more time in the apiary, I think he would have 

 been convinced that there is no substance un- 

 der the heavens, when applied to the skin, 

 that would "almost, if not absolutely, save 

 it from attack." Cyprians and cross hybrids 

 will make a dart like a bullet ; and the idea 

 that they stop to feel before they apply their 

 stings is amusing I do not deny that there 

 are certain organs called palpi; neither would 

 I deny that bees do sometimes feel around for 

 a good place to do their job ; but that a bee is 

 " never so mad " that it does not feel for a 

 good spot is putting it altogether too strongly. 

 Now, look here, doctor. I feel mad at you 

 because you did not give your ow7t opinion. 

 Here you are, leaving me to fight it out with 

 Cheshire, and he is not alive to defend him- 

 self.— Ed.] 



