226 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 14, 



peDsable one in small apiaries; but in large apiaries, if one 

 wants to accomplish the same objects, it can be done with a 

 greater saving of time and money by returning to the old plan 

 of wide frames — single-tier ones, of course — with anything 

 one wants on top for warmth. Last season I used one set of 

 double-tier wide frames. The results were all that could be 

 desired, as far as the sections were concerned. 



Montrose Co., Colo. 



Some Southern California Notes. 



BT PROP. A. J. COOK. 



Det Season. — Southern California is experiencing an ex- 

 ceptionally dry season. This place, which stands higher than 

 most sections, has had only about eight inches. The season 

 is now so far advanced that little more can be expected. As 

 about 15 inches Is necessary for a full honey crop, the outlook 

 Is not encouraging. Already the bees have stored some from 

 fruit-bloom, eucalyptus and the early-blooming buckthorns, 

 which will help to feed the bees, tho unless a goodly supply 

 was left in the hives last year, many colonies will surely starve 

 to death. 



Intelligence in Bees. — Speaking of intelligence among 

 bees — is it possible that bees sense the unfavorable seasons, 

 and are rendered cross by the outlook ? Bees are unusually 

 cross this spring. A young lady, who has kept bees for three 

 years with no trouble, finds them so provokingly petulant and 

 irritable this season that she contemplates disposing of them. 

 She says that they are too much for both veil and smoker. 

 She has never had such trouble before ; and this notwithstand- 

 ing that she has secured considerable honey during the last 

 weeks. 



County Associations. — The Central California Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, consisting of Kern, Kings, Tulare, and 

 Fresno counties, is likely to break up and each county form a 

 separate association. As there are enough bee-keepers in 

 each county for a good association, this seems wise, especially 

 as the railroad fares are very high in that region. 



Storing Honey. — There are reports that considerable 

 honey has been stored already, notwithstanding the limited 

 rainfall. The flowers are out very early this season, and the 

 citrus trees and buckthorns are crowded with bees. 



Shipping Honey to England. — It is reported that four 

 carloads of honey were shipt enroute for London, England, 

 from San Diego county last month. 



Manzanita and Buckthorn.^ — It is reported from San 

 Diego that the black manzanita and buckthorns are in blos- 

 som very early this season, and the bees are securing not a 

 little honey from them. The same is also true of the later 

 plants and the wild pea all over Southern California. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif., March 2V>. 



Honey from Pine-Needles — Is It New? 

 by d. c. leach. 



About the first of last October, after the honey-gathering 

 season was over, I noticed one morning my bees were busily 

 at work. They came in as heavily laden a3 when the bass- 

 wood is yielding its rich treasures in greatest abundance. 

 They would drop on the alighting-board aud on the ground, 

 and stand for a minute or two panting as if their strength had 

 been taxt to the utmost in reaching their hives. 



I thought it very strange, but as I was very busy I gave 

 the matter but little attention. I found, however, their ac- 

 tivity was kept up all day, and renewed early the next morn- 

 ing. I then concluded that some one had cut a bee-tree in the 

 woods not very far off, aud my bees were gathering up the 

 broken and wasted honey. 



Tho third morning, however, they were at it as busily as 

 ever. I knew then that my bee-tree explanation was at fault, 

 for 20 strong colonies of bees, working as mine then were, in 

 a few hours would have gathered every drop of honey that 

 could have been thus spread over the ground. I resolved, 

 therefore, to follow the course of the bees, and, if possible, 

 solve the mystery. The rush and roar was so great that they 

 were easily followed. 



After going some 50 or 60 rods I became conscious from 

 the motion and numbers of the bees I was nearing the solution 



of the mystery. A few rods farther on I entered a grove of 

 young white pines, from 10 to 30 feet high, and then I knew 

 all about it! The needles of those pines were covered with 

 thousands of minute globules of as clear, white, sweet nectar 

 as I ever saw ! They glistened in the sunlight like diamonds. 

 All the bee had to do was to alight on a pine-needle and drink 

 her fill I 



About four days this unexpected honey harvest continued 

 and then ended as suddenly as it came. 



I have kept bees in the immediate vicinity of pines for 

 many years, but never knew a case of this kind before. None 

 of this nectar appeared on the foliage of the Norway or Jack 

 pines in the vicinity. None of the honey gathered from the 

 pines was deposited in the sections, so I cannot speak posi- 

 tively of its quality, but I have no doubt It was as good as the 

 best — if not better ! The globules were clear as crystal, in 

 taste the perfection of sweetness, and thicker than first-class 

 syrup. 



Is It something new for bees to gather honey from pine- 

 needles? I think I have read of a certain kind of pine on 

 the Pacific Coast that yields a poor quality of honey, but I 

 have never known it to happen in Michigan. 



I will add, in conclusion, that I think my bees must have 

 Increast their winter stores nearly 200 pounds from that pine 

 grove. Grand Traverse Co., Mich. 



Exhibiting Bees in a Glass Observatory- Hive. 



BY A. F. BROWN. 



The following bit of experience Is called forth by informa- 

 tion askt for on page 39, replyiug to which Dr. Miller advises 

 keeping the observatory hive covered as much as possible. 

 My experience differs. Nine or ten years ago, when working 

 for a railroad company, I kept a 3-frame observatory hive 

 in one of the windows of the passenger waiting-room of the 

 station at Huntington, Fla., for upwards of three years, and 

 never during the whole time had the light excluded from the 

 bees. I put them there to be seen — to study their habits, and 

 for other people to see, and to do this it was necessary that 

 the bees and their work be iu sight all the time ; consequently 

 I had no cover or shutters to exclude the light, nothing but 

 the glass, and I assure you the bees never " buzzed themselves 

 to death," but after the first week workt on in their normal 

 condition as if in a hive as dark as Egypt. 



I used the Langstroth size of frame, the entrance was at 

 the bottom at one end, then through a tube about S feet long, 

 slanting upwards so the bees came out about 6 feet above 

 one's head on the outside of the building, there being a 

 platform or wide veranda, as it were, all around on that side 

 of the station. 



The exit-tube was made of strips of laths, size inside 

 about %xl;4 inches. I put a small colony of Italian bees 

 into this hive at first, and later on, by changing the queens, 

 had several different kinds of bees — blacks, hybrids, Car- 

 niolans, and Holy Lands; in fact, I did everything with this 

 colony of bees that one would do with a full size colony, and I 

 had them right where I could observe all that took place in 

 the work inside a normal colony. 



Often I would have only one full comb in the hive, letting 

 the bees build new comb in the other two frames to give me 

 the opportunity to observe the whole work. If allowed to get 

 strong in bees and brood, which they would soon do, they 

 would swarm like any other colony ; or if space was given 

 above {on top) by means of an inch bole, and a tumbler turned 

 upside down over it — first attaching a bit of comb or founda- 

 tion to the bottom of the tumbler — the bees would go up and 

 fill it with honey, and once we got them to work in a bottle 

 inverted over the hole. 



Having no wooden shutter or cloth to cover them up, on& 

 could watch everything without disturbing the bees in the- 

 least. When all three frames were in the hive, and the queen 

 got the inside one filled with brood, she would come over on 

 the outside comb, and one could watch her in her work of 

 depositing eggs, and see the bees feeding her, etc. 



The two glass sides of the hive were hung on hinges the 

 same as a door, and often I would open the hive for various 

 purposes, changing the frames about, removing the frames 

 the queen was on, so as to be next to the glass, or some other 

 operation ; in such cases quite a few bees would take wing, 

 the same as when a hive is opened out in any apiary. i i 



Well, the interesting part I wish to] call attention to is, 

 that when the hive was closed up these bees did not hang- 

 around buzzing, trying to get in where they came out, but at 

 once flew out one of the open windows or door, .and up to their 



