AUGUST 15, 191'; 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER. 



BY J. H. DONAHEY 



Uncle Andy Swcetclovcr saijs these loafers that 

 hang on the outside of the hive when honey is comin' 

 in remind him of a colony he once bought from a 

 stranger. Smoke wouldn't bvdge them. They seem- 

 ed to like it. Come to find out', the hees hwd come 

 from Pittsburg. 



iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!miiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiii!;iii^^ 

 THE HUMMING OF BEES, 



BY GRACE ALLEN 



When the white cherry bloom with its breath 

 of perfume 

 Made fairyland here in the tree, 

 How the bees all would come and hover and 

 hum 

 In riotous ecstasy! 

 And then when I heard, I was stirred — was 

 stirred 

 By the mood that eternally seems, 

 In blossoming trees that are haunted by bees, 

 To open the doors of dreams, 

 The bonnie bright doors of dreams. 



But now it has died, the tree of my pride — 

 Its woi'n boughs are ugly and dead; 



The sjiring, too, has gone and the midsum- 

 mer dawn, 

 Half-clouded, hangs hot overhead. 



But tho cherry-trees die and Aprils drift by. 

 And shadows come blurring the gleams, 



Yet forever to me shall the hum of a bee 

 Swing open the doors of dreams. 

 The bonnie briolit doors of dreams. 



What in the World was She Doing? 

 A few days ago, while looking thru a 

 nucleus I happened to be just in time to see 

 the queen push the cap of the cell open and 

 look out for about a second, when she went 

 back again. I lifted the cap of the cell, and 

 she came out. I watched her closely to see 

 what she would do, and was greatly surpris- 

 ed to see her put her abdomen into a worker 

 cell as far as it would go, and keep it there 

 for a few seconds, just as a laying queen 

 would do. When she came out I looked 

 closely into the cell, but could see no sign 

 of anything. Next day I looked at that hive 

 again; and after looking over the combs 

 several times without seeing the queen I was 

 about to close the hive when I saw the tip 

 of a bee's abdom.en sticking out of a worker- 

 cell. But there was something unusual about 

 it, so I touched it with my finger; and, after 

 a great struggle, out came the queen. But 

 she did not stay out long, for she just walk- 

 ed a few inches away and crawled into an- 

 other cell in which she stayed until I got 

 tired of waiting (about 15 minutes). I 

 again touched her, and again she laboriously 

 backed out, but only to go into another cell. 

 As she seemed determined to stay there, I 

 let her stop. I migh,t say that there was 

 absolutely no honey in any of those cells, 

 being cells from which bees had just hatch- 

 ed. And they were deep cells, too, as only 

 about % of an inch of the queen 's abdomen 

 was protruding. Do you think that she was 

 sleeping? and what do you think she was 

 doing the day before? 



CAPEWEED HONEY, BUT NOT CAPEWEED 

 POLLEN. 



After reading Stray Straws for Oct. 15 I 

 thought the following, regarding bees visit- 

 ing the sam.e kind of flowers on the same 

 trfp would be of interest. This season, fully 

 half of the bees working on capeweed, which 

 yields light-yellow pollen in large quantities, 

 had a full load of bright-red pollen. The 

 bees, which were getting honey from the 

 capeweed, were, in most cases, well covered 

 in the yellow pollen. Evidently the red 

 pollen was of a better quality, as very few 

 bees had loads of the yellow pollen. 



Douglas D. Brearley. 



Subiaco, West Australia, Dec. 10. 



[Dr. Miller rei:)lies:] 



This is interesting, and helps answer a 

 question that has puzzled me no little, and 

 no doubt has puzzled others. When one is 

 looking for a queen it sometimes happens 

 that she cannot be found, no matter how 

 carefully one looks over the combs, even for 

 the second time. When that happens, ex- 

 perienced beekeepers well know that she is 

 not likely to be found, no matter how many 

 times one looks over the C07nbs, and the wise 

 thing is to close the hive until an hour or 



