188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



hopping off by themselves to die, it some- 

 how seems appropriate that somebody 

 somewhere should drop a tear over their sad 

 fate, even if they have been guilty of gob- 

 bling up the bees. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE STINGLESS BEES OF SOUTH 

 AMERICA. 



We, the Washtenaw Co. [Mich.], Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation, met as announced. It was a very inter- 

 esting meeting, of 30 members. Several papers were 

 read and discussed. Prof. Steer, of the Michigan 

 University, gave a very interesting account of the 

 "stiugless bees" of South America, and others, as 

 seen by him in his three years' travels around the 

 world, which he describes as no larger than our 

 house-flies; though they can not sting, they get into 

 the hair and whiskers, and bite. They would be of 

 no account to us, as they make but little honey (and 

 that is poor), but considerable wax, which is black. 

 They build their nests under limbs of trees near the 

 body. He thinks they would not endure our climate. 



After his graduation, the professor started, by the 

 way of the Amazon River, with his gun and knap- 

 sack. Where conveyance could not be obtained he 

 went on foot. After his return with all his spec- 

 imens, there was no room in the museum. The 

 State appropriated §30,000 for a new building, which 

 is now being occupied, and gave him $10,000 for one- 

 half of the specimens. It is the largest and best 

 ever collected in this country— animals, fishes, birds, 

 reptiles, minerals, ancient crockery, etc., 20 tons 

 weight. What is especially rare are his birds of par- 

 adise, a large number. One can not conceive the 

 exquisite beauty of their plumage and form, if he 

 has never seen them. The professor crossed the 

 Andes, and from Callao sailed for Japan; from there 

 through the East India Islands. 



He describes a race of bees in the mountains of 

 Formosa that are similar to ours; they are yellow, 

 like Italians. Their habits of docility are such that 

 the natives breed them in boxes made of slates, 

 along the sides of their huts (like your house apiary), 

 bat open inside as well as out, without disturbance 

 to the family. As the climate in the mountains is 

 similar to ours, he thinks perhaps they would be an 

 improvement. 



We extended our society and called it South-East- 

 ern Michigan Bee-Keepers' Association. Next meet- 

 ing the first Thursday in May next. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., March 8, '81. N. A. Prudden. 



A TELEPHONE DETECTIVE. 



I think if friend Baird [see page 97, Feb. No.] had 

 had a telephone running from his house to his " fine 

 turkey roost," he would not have had to resort to 

 the use of firearms; he could have said, "Boys, 

 which turkey do you want?" They would have gone 

 home satisfied. 



I took two 1-quart tin cans and wire No. 30, and 

 made one run to the grist mill, a distance of 200 

 yards. I can, by placing my ear close to the can 

 that is in my house, hear footsteps in the mill dis- 

 tinctly; and when I am at work at the mill, and 

 want any thing from the house, all I have to do is to 

 go to the telephone and say, "Boys! " and here they 

 come with whatever I want. Now, why not have 

 one to run from the house to the apiary, where the 

 distance is so gteat we can not hear the bees when 

 they swarm? and if any rogues were to come after 

 night for honey, you could tell them where the best 



honey was. The one I made cost only 15 cents, and 

 has already paid ten times its cost, say nothing of 

 the fun the boys have with it. Geo. W. Stites. 

 Spring Station, Ind., March 4, 1881. 



Friend S., will you please describe those 

 tin cans a little more definitely? Our boys 

 have used something similar, but I believe 

 they used thin parchment stretched over for 

 bottoms of the cans, and tied the wire in the 

 center of this parchment. Their principal 

 trouble in keeping the machines in proper 

 working trim, was the expansion and con- 

 traction of the wire, by changes of tempera- 

 ture. " 



COMB between upper AND LOWER STORIES, ETC. 



How to provide queens and Italian drones, and 

 not lose strength in my stocks in the interim, is a 

 problem, especially as some are in box hives and 

 will require transferring. My Italian hive is from a 

 dollar queen procured of you more than a year ago, 

 and produced 60 lbs. of nice section-box honey last 

 season. How shall I prevent the joining of broad 

 section frames and brood frames below? In every 

 instance they are joined by comb, and necessitates 

 jarring to remove them. I see Kidder has tricked 

 some of our N. C. neighbors, by the card of H. A, Da- 

 vis In March Gleanings. They were here, and 

 made the same pretensions, anxiously insisting on 

 my influence to secure sale of State or county rights 

 to another party. But I had read too much in the 

 bee journals to engage in a swindle. I send you 

 their card, and it would have done you good to see 

 me showing the "Gen. Agt." some of my nice Sim- 

 plicity hives and fixings. I prefer the Simplicity 

 hives to any, because, in addition to the other ad- 

 vantage possessed by frame hives having no bottom 

 (fixed), it enables us to hold a hand with the moth 

 miller, and build to any capacity required. My nice 

 well-filled 1-lb. sections are the admiration of all who 

 have seen them. L. C. Cannon. 



Spartanburg, S. C, March 9, 1881. 



The attachment between the upper and 

 lower frames is usually prevented by reduc- 

 ing the space to i or f inch; but some 

 stocks, during a heavy yield, will fill it up 

 solid even then. Greasing the tops and bot- 

 tom-bars of the frames will, if I am correct, 

 stop it effectually. We are glad to hear you 

 so pleasantly baffled the patent-right men. 



WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH AND STEAL. 



I would have ordered you to continue Gleanings 

 before now, but a thief broke in on me and robbed 

 me of all the money I had on hand, some $300,00 more 

 or less. I do not know how much I had on hand. 

 This left me very destitute of change for some time. 

 I trust as God saw fit to permit it, he will also see fit 

 to assist me to provide, etc. 



My bees seem to be opening out on the spring 

 flowers splendidly. They are taking in the pollen 

 from the early blooms. Every day the weather will 

 permit, I find them on some of them. Like myself 

 they are very low in funds. Whether the thieves 

 " broke through and stole," or not, I can't toll, but 

 I am trying to prevent any more stealing by feeding 

 them in the open air every warm day. I am feeding 

 sugar and water. They seem to take it up greedily, 

 and I see no robbing now since I began to feed. I 

 have lost six colonies out of forty, all on their sum- 

 mer stands. I am using the Simplicity hive. I have 

 no company in the bee business within forty miles 



