276 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL, 



Mav 4, 1899. 



tion is strong^er, and will stand more banging' than any 

 nailed section I ever saw, and I used to nail a good many. 

 I have seen a case of honey drop over 10 feet to the ground, 

 vyith dovetailed sections, but not a box was broken ; of 

 course the honey was masht. 



A LAUGHABLE EXPERIENCE IN FOUL BKOOD INSPECTION. 



I would like to relate a laughable experience that I had 

 last fall while I was inspecting bees for foul brood. 



I was notified one day to examine some bees about 10 

 miles from home. After some inquiries, and traveling over 

 a very crooked road, opening at least a half-dozen pairs of 

 bars, I found the place, and walkt up to the door. I rapt 

 gently, and a large, portly woman with sandj' hair and an 

 extremely large mouth responded to my rap. I lifted my 

 hat, and in as gentlemanly a way as possible bade her good 

 afternoon. I askt her if her husband, Mr. H., was at home. 

 Drawing her mouth to one side, the corner of which ex- 

 tended nearlj- to her left ear, and cocking her head to one 

 side as far as her shoulder would permit, she replied : 



" Y-e-s, he is over on the hill raking up buckwheat, a 

 half mile or more away. IV/iat dew yi'w ivant to see my 

 husband for ? At this outburst, and the important way 

 with which she brought it out, I made up mj' mind I had 

 struck a snag, and it would be policy for me to proceed very 

 carefully, for I had had some experience before, and some- 

 thing seemed to whisper in my ear, " Look out. old fellow, 

 there is trouble ahead." 



I smilingly and very genteelly replied that I had been 

 informed that they had some bees that were diseased with 

 foul brood, and that I had — but before I could finish my 

 answer she strode up to within about two feet of me, and 

 again cocking her head to one side, and putting' both hands 

 upon her hips, extending her mouth this time until the cor- 

 ner was so far around as to be invisible, she said : 



" A-r-e y-e-w the chap what's around burning up foaxe-s 

 b-e-e-s?" 



Cautiously and carefully taking a step or two backward, 

 and sh'ly glancing my eye over my shoulder to measure the 

 distance to where my horse stood, in case of emergency, I 

 replied that I had come to examine their bees, and if they 

 were badly diseased, and no hope of saving them, I was 

 there to see that they were properly taken care of. Again 

 she came up toward me, and lifting' that long arm with in- 

 dignation and scorn written on her face, with her front 

 finger she pointed towards the lane whence I had come, and 

 roared out : 



"N-o-w y-e-w g-e-t ! If you don't I'l-l scald your ej'es 

 with hot water !" At this she made a dive for the kitchen, 

 but as good luck would have it the fire was out, and I could 

 hear her upbraiding one of her girls for being so shiftless 

 as to let the fire go out, and not a drop of hot water in the 

 teakettle. 



" Oh," she said, " if I only had some hot watier," com- 

 ing back again to where I stood. Oh, I shall never forget 

 the look that creature gave me, as then she bolted around 

 the house out of sight, and at once began yelling to her 

 husband to come to the house quick, for the man was there 

 to burn up the bees. Oh, what a pair of lungs that woman 

 did have. I thought to myself, when I heard that voice, if 

 every one had such lungs we would not have any use for 

 short-distance telephones. She made the hills and valleys 

 ring, and as it echoed back and forth it reminded me of the 

 old, long tin-horn that my grandmother use to blow to call 

 the men together in anti-rent times, when the sheriff was 

 coming. If all women had such a voice the tin peddlers 

 would have no traffic in dinner-horns. I thought about A. 

 I. Root, where he tells of getting his second wind while rid- 

 ing his wheel ; if he only had half of the wind that woman 

 had, he would not have to wait until he got his second wind. 



After giving vent to those lungs, she rusht back to 

 where I was standing, and if ever a man got a dressing 

 down it was myself. Vainly I tried to reason and explain 

 to the woman, but it was of no avail — her tongue was loose 

 at both ends and hung on a double swivel with ball-bear- 

 ings, well oiled, and it would have to be an expert at short- 

 hand to have kept track with one-half of what she said. 



Finally her husband appeared around the comer, and 

 after introducing myself and explaining to him the object 

 of my visit the best I could under the circumstances, we 

 proceeded to examine the bees, after he had partly quieted 

 her down and told her to shut up, and not to make a fool of 

 herself. 



I got a hive open, and to my great joj- I found that they 

 were about the crossest bees I had ever come in contact 

 with, as she stood there with an old mopstick, flourishing it 

 at me. I had fully made up my mind if she made a charge 



-If SO, in What 



at me I would arouse the bees in my defense, and drive her 

 from the field. I bumpt the hive and shook the bees, and 

 even crusht a few so as to arouse their ire. It was but a 

 moment before I was master of the field. Her husband 

 made a dive and shot into an old pigpen with a lot of fight- 

 ing bees in hot pursuit ; and, glancing over my shoulder, I 

 saw a sight I nev.er shall forget, and often in my sleep I 

 have dreamed about it, upon awakening I have laught out 

 loud, and my dear wife has often told me that she believed 

 I had the nightmare, but it was no such thing. It was only 

 a vision of a 200-pound, red-haired, sandy-complexioned 

 woman, with powerful lungs, a calico apron over her head, 

 stamping and jumping with a few bees twisted up in her 

 golden locks, with a mop in one hand, trying to get thru an 

 old woodhouse, and calling to her daughter to come and 

 pull a stinger out of her nose. 



I proceeded to examine the rest of the bees in peace, and 

 when once in awhile I would quickly glance up toward the 

 house I could see the old woman peeking out of one window, 

 and the husband and a couple of red-headed girls looking 

 out of the other. 



I found the bees rotten with foul brood, and rotten- 

 broody combs strewn around the yard from colonies that 

 had succumbed to the disease long before. 



Finally, before I left, the husband came out, and then I 

 told him that he seemed to be a quiet sort of a man, with 

 considerable sense, and that I did not believe there was a 

 law in New York State that would compel a man to live 

 with such a woman as he had. He replied that he had be- 

 come used to it, and one must not pay attention to all that 

 women said. Schoharie Co.. N. Y. 



Is Pollen Fed to Larval Bees ?- 

 Form? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A LETTER lies before me in which I find the following : 

 "Do larval bees, at any stage of their existence as 

 larva;, eat pollen, or is their food of some other mate- 

 rial ? I see it is claimed by some that the young bee in the 

 larval state does not eat pollen, but its food consists of a 

 purely animal secretion. Please tell us thru the columns of 

 the American Bee Journal what j'ou think regarding this." 



I am not informed in these matters to an extent suffi- 

 cient to be considered an authority on this subject, there- 

 fore I am very glad to know that my " think " is what is 

 wanted of me, rather than what I knoiv. However, I am 

 glad this question has been brought up, for it will be one of 

 interest to most of us, and it will be a good time during the 

 summer months to interrogate the nurse-bees, and perhaps 

 while they are liberallj' feeding the larva? they will tell us 

 just what it is they are feeding then. 



From many careful observations during the past, re- 

 garding the food of larval bees, I have been led to believe 

 that such food is composed of about two parts honey or 

 saccharine matter, four parts pollen or flour (where the lat- 

 ter is used in early spring as a substitute for the former), 

 and one part water, the whole being taken into the stomach 

 of the nurse-bee and formed into chyme, after which it is 

 given to the larval bees in the cream-like form we see it 

 surrounding the larva; in the cells. 



Right here I wish to digress a little and give some other 

 observations as bearing on the eating of pollen by the old 

 or hatcht bees. The older readers of the American Bee 

 Journal will remember that some ten or more years ago I 

 told how I starved some colonies entirely, and others par- 

 tially so, trying to make them eat pollen in the fall, and at 

 other times when there was no brood in the hive : and that, 

 so far as I could see, not a cell of pollen was toucht. At 

 another time some of the colonies had to be fed, when I 

 again tried an experiment which I had formerly tried sev- 

 eral times, which was to see if the bees in hives which had 

 scarcely a cell of honey in them, but plenty of brood in all 

 stages, would live, if provided with pollen. 



As the weather at the time of this latter experiment 

 was so bad that the bees did not fly for several days, it was 

 with much anxiety that I waited to see what would be the 

 outcome of the matter after the honey was gone. The first 

 thing noted was that, as soon as the few cells of honey were 

 gone, the larva; was scrimpt for food, and the eggs removed 

 from the cells, or more probably eaten by the bees, while a 

 little later there was a general eating of the larva;. A day 

 or two later the sealed lirood was taken from the cells and 

 suckt dr)', while the harder parts were scattered about the 

 entrance and bottom-board of the hive. At this time I no- 



