1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



167 



trigona, or rraziiilan stingl.ess 

 hoin£\:-be:es. 



m S the stintless honey-bees are causing some 

 J^\ excitement in America just now, by Mr. W. 



' S. Hawley, of Rochester, N. Y., trying to form 



a " Stiugless-Bee Association," and to get hold of ten 

 dollars from bce-kcepers, and as he states he never 

 heard of these stinglcss bees until lately, I send you 

 an account of my stinglcss bees, as they arc the only 

 ones that ever arrived in England alive. 



These bees came to England in a hollow piece of 

 logwood, from Honduras; and when being unloaded 

 at Manchester, on Saturday, July 17th, 1809, the nest 

 fell out of the hole on to the ground, and was carried 

 into an office and placed on the desk. When they 

 came to the office on the Monday morning following, 

 the desk was found covered with the bees (but at 

 first they were thought to be ants.) The gentleman 

 in whose oflice they had been placed, being a scien- 

 tific man, placed the bees and their nest in a box 

 which he covered with glass, and knowing that I 

 took such a great interest in bees, brought them out 

 to me at Newton Heath. 



As I had never seen any of these Trigona bees be- 

 fore, I sent some of the live bees, with a piece of the 

 brood comb in which young bees were just being 

 hatched, also a section of the nest containing honey- 

 pots filled with pollen, etc., to the late Mr. Frederick 

 Smith, of the British Museum, late President of the 

 Entomological Society, and one of the Vice-Pres- 

 idents of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, he 

 being one of the greatest authorities we had in Great 

 Britain on hymenopterous insects. Mr. Smith kind- 

 ly wrote to me, saying, " The bees sent are the Bra- 

 zilian honey-bees belonging to the genera Trigona; 

 they being exotic, I do not imagine it will be possi- 

 ble to propagate them here. They do not construct 

 honey-cells, but honey-pots ; as you have the brood, 

 the most imjjortant thing you can attend to is to se- 

 cure the queen. I once obtained one from a brood 

 sent from Brazil in spirit. I can not find that your 

 bees are a described species, as it is not in the Brit- 

 ish Museum. Tou will have ascertained that these 

 bees are the stinglcss bees of South America; they 

 are found also in India and the Islands of the East- 

 ern Archipelago." 



The nest of the Trigona is nearly the color of log- 

 wood, with a smooth, hard, outside casing, in shape 

 the same as the size of hole in the logwood, which 

 measured 8J4 inches long, and 5 inches wide, and 

 about IV^ in. in diameter; each of them nearly round, 

 but joined together. The nest and insects weighed 

 lli oz., and the pots are filled with pollen and honey, 

 ■which is of greenish color,— thin, and tastes sour, or 

 like fermented honey. The brood combs contained 

 brood in all stages of development. 



On August IVth, the thermometer went up to 98 

 degrees in the sun, and the Trigona were very busy 

 flying about in the box, so 1 placed it in the garden 

 and allowed a number of the bees to fly out; but I 

 did not see any of the bees return to the box, so I 

 concluded they must have lost their queen, other- 

 wise they would not have deserted her; and this af- 

 terward proved to be the fact. 



As the brood combs when brought to me contained 

 eggs and brood in all stages of development, the 

 queen must have been in the nest within a day or 

 two from that time, so I think she must have got 

 lost when the nest fell out upon the ground, or 

 that she swarmed with the bees when left on the 



oflice-desk, and got lost. So the bees gradually died 

 away; but I think I could have kept them in a warm 

 room over the winter if they had not lost their 

 queen. 



It was very amusing to watch these beautiful 

 active Lilliputians, as they were constantly brush- 

 ing themselves and smoothing the hairs on their 

 body with their hind feet, and sometimes with four 

 feet at once, holding on with the two fore feet. I 

 have no doubt they thought themselves great dan- 

 dies, being so very particular about their dress. At 

 night they all returned into their nest. These Tri- 

 gona were nearly shining black, less than 3-16 of an 

 inch long, with wings of rainbow colors longer than 

 the abdomen. I have had a number of them dissect, 

 ed and mounted for the microscope. 



These were the only Trigona, or stinglcss bees, 

 that ever arrived in England alive; the late Mr. 

 Woodbury tried to import these bees into this coun- 

 try, and a nest was sent to him from Australia, 

 which is now in the British Museum. The brood 

 was fed with honey and water, but they all died be- 

 fore they arrived in England. William Cahb. 



Newton Heath Apiary, Near Manchester, Eng. 

 (To be Continued.) 



^ i^*^^ 



FRIEND CARPENTER'S IMPROVEMENT 

 ©N THE PEET CAGE. 



fi RECEIVED the Peet cage all right; very much 

 obliged for the same. After looking the Peet 



' cage over I went to work and made a cage for 

 which I will send you a model for your inspection. 

 I have added a quill for water. If it becomes 

 necessary to use water io the cage, put the water in 

 the quill with an oiler, then take an apple or a pota- 

 to, cut in slices U, inch thick; push the quill in one 

 of these slices till the quill goes clear through. This 

 makes the stopper. Take a wire the size of those that 

 are at each corner of the cage to fasten the cage to 

 the comb. Take alike wire and punch a hole in the 

 stopper of the quill; this will let the water out just 

 as fast as the bees lick it off the stopper. You can 

 put 3 or -t quills of water right in the cage with the 

 bees, by running a wire over or across the cage 

 overthe quills to keep them in place. As the ventila- 

 tors are open on both ends, it don't make any differ- 

 ence in what position the cage is; they can get air. 

 It is not very apt to have both ends shut at the 

 same time in the mail pockets. 



I have also made a half-inch hole in the tin slide to 

 put the bees in at, by raising the slide till the hole 

 just comes above the candy-box. 



Well, friend Root, if you can improve it any after 

 looking it over, just tell us how tb do it. We won't 

 grumble a bit, but thank you for so doing. I think 

 there is still room for improvement; but I can't just 

 see it now; but just as soon as I see that it can be 

 improved, I will send you a model. 



H. F. Carpenter. 

 Polo, Ogle Co., 111., March 1, 18S1. 



Friend Carpenter lias given us one idea in 

 the above, tliat is so simple I almost feel 

 ashamed to think I never thought of it. 

 It is the use of a quill for a water-bottle. 

 I have often wished for some thing as 

 substantial as tin, and as clean and trans- 

 parent as glass, but supposed it out of 

 the question. I would suggest taking 

 large quills, and cutting them off so as to 

 have both ends closed. Now take off just 

 the point of the quill, draw out the silk, and 



