1004 



(;!.KANI?>'(:s IN HEE C'UL'IUHE. 



Aug. 15 



THE BACK EDGE OF THE CROWD THAT ASSEMBLED IN FRONT OF THE GRAND STAND AT 

 JENKINTOWN, WHERE THE STINGLESS BEES WERE BEING HANDLED. 



to do is to pull at the eyelashes, and Hy into 

 the nostrils, when, presto! they are victors. 



Mr. Morrison gives it as his opinion that 

 these l)ees can be domestieated in the United 

 States. There are seldom inore than 2000 

 bees to the colony; they are vigorous defend- 

 ers of their hoiue, anil when left alone will 

 niind their own business. They very nuieh 

 resemble yellow Italians in size and color- 

 markings. Their general shape is somewhat 

 blunter, and the whole body is a little short- 

 er (see illustration in Dec. 15th Gleanings, 

 last year). No scientist as yet knows their 

 species: in fact, 1 believe it has not been 

 named. We know very little of their haliits 

 or how they may be propagated. I lielieve 

 Mr. Morrison stated that stingless j^ees or 

 inelipoiut have more than one queen. In 

 that case the loss of the (lueen woukl not nec- 

 essarily cause the loss of the colony. As 

 these bees belong to an entirely different 

 genus they can not, of course, be crossed with 

 any of our common varieties; hence there 

 will lie no danger of intermingling. 



One of the pictures here sliowii represents 

 the rear of the crowd while the stingless-liee 

 demonstration was going on. The elevated 

 stand is shown at the upper right-hand side, 

 about half way up. 



THE DEMONSTRATION BY E. L. rUATT. 



The work performed by ]\Ir. Pratt, com- 

 monly known as "Swarthmore, " both at the 

 tield-day meeting a year ago and this year, 

 attracted a great deal of attention. I think 

 it is safe to say that Mr. Pratt has gone deep- 

 er into the general subject of (jueen-rearing 

 than any other man in the United States. 

 He has made a number of interesting as well 



as valua])le discoveries in connection with 

 this subject, and the crowd was always in- 

 terested in hearing him talk anil ex])lain his 

 methods. One of the illustrations herewith 

 shows him in the \ery act, on his elevateil 

 stand, with his various appliances scattered 

 here and there. 



DEJH)NSTRATION BY W. L. COGGSHALL. 



]\Ir. AV. L. Cogg.shall. of (iroton, N. Y., 

 the man who has the reputation of being the 

 most extensive bee-keeper in the world, was 

 on the program for illusti-ating his method 

 for taking oft" extracted honey; for be it 

 known that Mr. Coggshall is the man who 

 teaches all his helpers to become "lightning 

 operators." His lightning act of kicking off 

 an extracting-su])er full of bees and exti-act- 

 ing-combshas attracted wide attention amcmg 

 liee-keepers generally. At the various con- 

 ventions, and at this meeting in particular. 

 Mr. Coggshall was jossed about his kick-off- 

 super act. I had seen him do the work at 

 his own yards, but did not see it at this meet- 

 ing. As 1 came up with tbe camera 1 said, 

 "Say, ("oggshall, 1 want to catch you in tlie 

 act of kicking off" a super." 



"Say, Ernest, you want to poke fun at i;.e 

 aliout this kick-off" act." 



As he said this 1 caught him with the cair.- 

 era. The result shows in the upper right- 

 hand-corner of the large plate. Leaning 

 against the fence and the uncapping-can he 

 said, "Say, some of you fellows have got the 

 wrong idea. If you kick the su])er I'ight, you 

 loosen the pro])olis and do not disturb the 

 bees any more than when you use a wedge 

 i>r a pry. The kick is no harder than 'just 

 enough to l)reak the propolis connections. 



