1900 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



559 



larvae not more than 3 days old, was the pre- 

 ferred age ; but here is a case where the bees 

 evidently had a preference for the five-day 

 limit." I think you misinterpret, Mr. Editor. 

 The bees took larvae five days out of the egg, 

 not because they preferred such, but because 

 they had nothing younger. I've no sort of an 

 idea you could get them to start royal cells 

 over larvae that had been fed more than three 

 days if any thing younger was present ; and I 

 don't believe they would of choice take any 

 thing more than t7CO days from the egg. [I 

 do not think I misinterpret you, doctor ; but 

 perhaps you misinterpret me. Quoting from 

 the footnote under consideration I said, " What 

 surprised me. . . was that the bees should 

 have apparently waited so long before starting 

 the bulk of the cells." Note the italics which 

 I have added to make the quotation better un- 

 derstood. Now, if the bees preferred an ear- 

 lier age, why didn't they start the bulk of 

 them at the proper age limit instead of wait- 

 ing two days after the limit? for, according to 

 what you say, the bees were building cells all 

 the time ; but they " seemed especially des- 

 perate in the matter when the age limit had been 

 passed some two days." And a liltle further 

 up you speak about two cells that were started 

 with larvae of the proper age. Now, to reit- 

 erate, why didn't the bees start 16 cells at the 

 proper age, instead of only 2? but it appears 

 they waited till 2 days after the proper age. — 

 Ed.] 



About that stinging business, Mr. Editor, 

 if you'll stop getting mad I'm ready to tell all 

 I know. I know that many a time the dart is 

 so sudden and swift that the first I know 

 about it is the sting. Then sometimes a bee 

 will fumble around time enough so I can kill 

 it before it stings. Sometimes it fumbles 

 awhile, and then seems to change its mind 

 about stinging. Sometimes it fumbles awhile, 

 and I say, " Oh ! fool away if you want to, I 

 know you don't really mean to sting," and 

 then the little vixen will up and sting just for 

 spite. But when that lightning dart comes, 

 I'm really on the fence to know whether it 

 can first have time to feel where it stings. 

 For a sufficient consideration I'm ready to 

 believe either way. [There, your experience 

 is exactly my own after all ; but J am not " on 

 the fence " as you are. After one has been 

 punched in the eye by a mad hybrid that has 

 suddenly darted from the hive and struck 

 with its sting, feet and all, in a very small 

 fraction of a second, I do not see how any 

 one, much less yourself, could be on the 

 fence, or, rather, be in doubt as to whether 

 the bee had time to feel before it stuck in the 

 sting. If you should suddenly, in a fit of 

 anger, hit me in my eye with your fist, I do 

 not think that, when I appeared against j'ou 

 before the court with a charge of assault and 

 bat ery I would swear that you " felt around " 

 before delivering your blow. " Allee samee," 

 I am not afraid of being hit ; for as soon as I 

 can I am going to pay you another visit, for 

 A. I. R. came home all enthused on the sub- 

 ject of bees, and especially Pridgen's method 

 of rearing queens. — Ed.] 



^icKijyrGS 



\^/lOM 0l//fH£iGHB0R5 FIELDS. 2^ 

 'Br'ISTCNOCi-,'"' "^ 



Torrid days and chilly nights, 

 L,ightniug's fl .sh and thrinder's bang ; 



Raius and windstorms, clouds and fogs, 

 Warring, jarring, angry gang. 



xV 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 Mr. J. R. Schmidt, of Cincinnati, contrib- 

 utes an interesting article on yellow sweet 

 clover and sweet clover in general. He says: 



The honey-producing qualities of the j'ellow sweet 

 clover can not be excelled if ever equaled by any oth- 

 er plant, excepting the white sweet clover. The fol- 

 lowing little instance will serve as a good example: 



The past early spring and up to the last of May I 

 practiced uncapping sealed honey and spreading 

 brood almost to an extreme, and as a result the hives 

 were crammed full of brood with little or no honey. 

 Then came a spell of very disagreeably cool, rainy 

 weather, with the bees confined to the hives almost 

 entirely for 5 days. At the end of this time all the 

 honey was consumed, and they were actually begin- 

 ning to starve. The prospects tor buying .several dol- 

 lars' worth of granulated sugar were excellent, but on 

 the sixth day the ciouds all cleared away, the weather 

 warmed up. and the bees began to work desperately 

 upon a small patch of this yellow clover along a rail- 

 road track. As this was the only thiag they were 

 working on I thought the sugar had to be bought any 

 how. 



But I waited two days longer, trusting to luck that 

 thev would at least work upon the profuse bloom of 

 white Dutch clover that was now in bloom; but every 

 bee seemed to make a bee-line for this yellow clover, 

 and it fairly swarmed with them. l,ate in the after- 

 noon of the second day I took a peek at some queen- 

 cells that I expected to hatch, and you can imagine 

 my surprise on seeing the top part of ec^ch comb more 

 or less filled with neiv honey. Now, I know this came 

 from the yellow clever, because it was so bl^ck and 

 dirty. I first thought it was stored on top of pollen, 

 but this was the color of the honey, and was caused 

 by the soot and dirt falling on the blossoms from 

 passing trains. 



In conclusion Mr. Schmidt says, " Do not 

 spend money on white Dutch clover." 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



New South Wales, Australia, is reported to 

 have received recently a consignment of bum- 

 ble-bees from New Zealand. They came 

 originally from this country, and were im- 

 ported as pollinating agents. 

 \i> 



Some time ago Col. Viete, of Cuba, was re- 

 ported as having produced 360,000 tons of 

 honey in one year. This should have been 

 pounds and not tons. The error was too great 

 to be misleading. 



\ii 

 BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



An interesting feature of this journal is a 

 fine view every week of an English apiary. 

 At the Royal show of bees and honey at York, 

 the Prince of Wales and tlie Duke of York 

 were interested spectators. Mr. Carr laid a 

 section-case containing the queen on the top 

 of a frame hive near at hand, whilt the driven 

 bees were shown in the hive, and their subju- 

 gation and disinclinaticn to sling were dem- 

 onstrated by the bees being taken up in hand- 

 fuls. The Duke of York having inquired in 



