1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



585 



guage, but writing a private letter, telling 

 the would-be inventor that he had better 

 waste no time on that idea, adding either 

 that it is old or why it is impracticable. It 

 would be cruel to tell him so publicly. Where 

 an invention, on the other hand, has some 

 merit, or whenever one without value is 

 being continually invented by every new 

 enthusiast who imagines he has a fortune in 

 it, I bring it before our readers. If it be- 

 longs to the first class I say so; if not, I let 

 our correspondent down as easily as possible, 

 yet in language plain enough so that the 

 average bee-keeper will not be wasting time 

 on the same thing. It almost makes the 

 heart of a bee-editor ache to see the number 

 of ideas that are being submitted almost 

 weekly on bee- feeders. Applications for 

 patents for feeders are going into the Pat- 

 ent Office one after another. I try to tell 

 all our feeder friends that the very best 

 bee- feeder in the world, if covered by a pat- 

 ent, would not net him in royalties enough, 

 perhaps, in five years to cover the cost of 

 the patent. The reason is, every one can 

 make his own feeder at practically no ex- 

 pense, and almost as good as the best, with 

 a tin pan and a piece of cheese-cloth. He 

 can even make an entrance feeder out of a 

 Mason jar and a collar-box. He can copy 

 any of the feeders in the catalogs, making 

 his own at comparatively small expense. 

 On the other hand, a bee-smoker is an indis- 

 pensable article that can not be made with 

 the materials around home, and any slight 

 real improvement on it may be worth pat- 

 enting. —Ed.] • 



ClEANlNCSfRDiMTHE j^lFltCOASt 



By Pnon A:J.Coak. :'PoM,ONA;:CoilLEdJE.'GAi:.' 



ORANGE HONEY. 



I predicted in one of my notes of a recent 

 date that the coming season would be excep- 

 tional in the amount of honey produced in 

 Southern California. This prediction is al- 

 ready being realized. I have heard several 

 accounts of prodigious yields from orange- 

 blossoms. It is true of orange-blossom hon- 

 ey, as of fruit honey in the East, that we 

 usually get very little. This is to be regret- 

 ted; for, like fruit honey, orange honey has 

 superior excellence. We are not surprised 

 at this, because the flavor would be indicat- 

 ed somewhat by the odor; and if there is 

 any thing sweeter than the perfume from an 

 orange-grove it has not yet been found. I 

 think the reason we do not get more honey 

 from such sources is simply that the colo- 

 nies of bees in the apiary are not very popu- 

 lous at the early season of fruit- bloom. That 

 is certainly true at this season in California. 

 The very fact of no honey-gathering last 



year tended greatly to depopulate the hives. 

 Hundreds of colonies have died of starvation. 

 Other hundreds are certainly very weak. 

 Indeed, unless stimulative feeding has been 

 practiced (and this is not at all general), 

 nearly all colonies are weak. Does this not 

 argue, then, a profusion of nectar that bees 

 are gathering quite largely of this orange- 

 blossom honey? We should be sure that 

 this was in profusion from the very intensi- 

 ty of the scent, which fills the whole atmos- 

 phere at this season of the year (May 1), 

 In examining orange-blossoms I have seen 

 the nectar in such quantities that I was re- 

 minded of the linden bloom in my old native 

 State of Michigan. I believe that this or- 

 ange-blossom honey can not fail to give us 

 a reputation, so much of it is being pro- 

 duced at the present time. 



YELLOW-JACKETS. 



Miss C. asks what relation the wasps are 

 to bees, and whether there are any pomts of 

 resemblance between them. The yellow- 

 jackets are well named, for nearly all of 

 them are brightly striped with yellow. They 

 are very compact, trim insects, and always 

 have very small tapering waists. I have 

 never heard that they practice tight lacing, 

 but appearances would suggest as much. 

 The true yellow-jackets belong to the fami- 

 ly VespichF, and are known as the paper- 

 making wasps. As they construct nests oft- 

 en of large size, this name is very appropri- 

 ate. This paper evidently comes from wood 

 pulp, and so insects invented paper fiom 

 such material long before man did. The 

 bright, trim, shining appearance of most of 

 these yellow- jackets makes Ihem very at- 

 tractive, and. except for the keenness of 

 their sting, they would certainly be greatly 

 admired. Indeed, as with our bees, this 

 sting is much more dreaded than need be. 

 Like bees, if well treated these vespids will 

 rarely sting. One year I had a great big 

 nest close beside my front steps. I never 

 disturbed the wasps, and they never attack- 

 ed me. I often sat down close beside them 

 and watched their interesting maneuvers at 

 close range. I often wondered if they had 

 not learned me. I think this was not true, 

 as I often induced my company to observe 

 as I had done, and they always came away 

 unharmed. I think my kind treatment gave 

 the wasps confidence. As all know, the 

 cells of their nests are much like the same 

 in the honey-comb in form and size. The 

 comb, however, if we may call it comb, is 

 horizontal instead of vertical, and so the cells 

 are vertical, not horizontal. To answer Miss 

 C.'s question, there is much in the natural 

 history of these wasps to remind us of bees. 

 We have here the three forms— queen, males, 

 and workers, and the males are agamic as 

 are drone bees. They mate on the wing, 

 probably but once, and the workers continue 

 to increase in number during the season. I 

 think, too, none but the queens live over the 

 winter in many sections of the country. 

 Like bees they are social. The food of 



