536 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



f erred sorghum. So when the weeds 

 were as liigh as my head, Jeems had 

 the pleasure of cutLiuR them down 

 with a scythe ; but we think tlie clo- 

 vers pay. We have halt an acre of 

 sweet clover, sowed a year ago last 

 spring. In the fall and last spring it 

 was just the thing for calves. As we 

 have four hundred acres of land, most 

 of it under cultivation, we liave to 

 look out for other live stock besides 

 bees. Bees are oidy a side show for 

 pastime, and to raise a little money to 

 pay taxes on the land. 



Do you pay a premium to tlie one 

 who sends most weedsV I send you a 

 few. The one labeled No. 1 we got of 

 an old country doctor wlio keejjs bees, 

 (don't believe in bee papers or books). 

 He called it burrvine, also, square- 

 plant and bees work on it from June 

 1st. It is a fever idant, prized highly 

 for ils mediciuul iiroperties. No. '2 

 covers tlie lields, and is called square- 

 plant, also vervain ; No. .3 is square- 

 plant ; No. 4 is wild beet, my silver 

 nectarine. We have not learned yet 

 the figwort or Simpson lioney plant. 

 No one knows anything bv tliose 

 names; we want that, and spideriilant, 

 and motliervv(ut, and I tliiuk with the 

 clovers we will be fi.xed. I have read 

 a good many cook books, but I think 

 the "Manual" will be the book for me. 



I nearly forgot to tell you about a 

 little experiment. We had two nuclei 

 whicli were made u]) with queen cells 

 6 or 7 weeks, when about discouraged 

 looking the combs over for her lady- 

 ship and eggs, I at last discovered 

 eggs. I tliouglit they were all right, 

 but alas ! they were pouched out into 

 drone cells. One morning while look- 

 ing one of them over, I found in anew 

 comb half a dozen eggs in a. cell ; 

 while studying what to do with the 

 nuisance, a swarm came out, .so we 

 just poured them down in tVontof the 

 hive, and in a couple of hours they 

 were at work in the boxes. In the 

 afternoon another swarm came out, so 

 we put them in the other liive, but 

 they quarreled some, and next morn- 

 ing absconded. I had inserted a 

 queen cell in the last one a day before. 

 Would that make the differenceV This 

 occurred a week ago. I examined the 

 hive yesterday and found the queen 

 cell still there. Well, forbearance 

 ceased to be human iuiture,soI slashed 

 it off and found dead larvai. I gave 

 them a couple of queen cells from a 

 colony just swarmed. You see our 

 apiary is run on the happy-go-lucky 

 system, every one doing that which is 

 good in her or his eyes. In my next I 

 will tell you how that swarm panned 

 out: 



Noble, 111. 



[The plant you sent numbered 1, is 

 motherwort, and is of considerable 

 value as a medicinal herb, as well as 

 for honey. 



Putting the queen cell in the nucleus 

 would make no difference in regard to 

 the swarm remaining. The trouble, 

 we think, was internal, i. e., the bees 

 in tlie nucleus had developed several 

 fertile workers, and the bees swarmed 

 out again to save the life of their 



queen, as the mated queen and fertile 

 workers would not all be tolerated in 

 the same colony. The fertile-worker 

 theory also accounts for the chrysalis 

 dying in the queen cell which you af- 

 terward slashed off. The bees, in 

 view of the presence of fertile work- 

 ers neglected the cell, tlie embryo 

 queen chilled and died, and the bees 

 were satisfied and did not destroy the 

 cell. We tried a similar experiment 

 this season with a medium Syrian 

 colony in which many fertile workers 

 were developed, except that we caged 

 the swarm-queen on one of the combs 

 in tlie Syrian colony, then enlarged 

 the entrance to its fullest extent, 

 emptied the bees of the swarm in 

 front, and encouraged them to enter 

 the hive as rapidly as possible. At 

 the end of 24 hours we liberated the 

 queen, and with the exception of per- 

 haps a score of bees killed (which we 

 supposed to be all fertile workers) 

 there was no further disagreement, 

 and the colony is yet very prosperous. 

 We think, had we not caged the queen 

 when putting in the swarm, she would 

 have been killed or the swarm would 

 have deserted the hive. We are not 

 giving premiums for the best collec- 

 tions of honey plants. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Apis Melliflc€a Poisoning. 



J. E. MOORE. 



Being in the "same box" as Mr. 

 Ileddon, I felt quite interested in his 

 article in the Bee Jouknal, "Apis 

 Mellifiea — Its Poison." My symptoms, 

 viz: itching of the ears, etc., are pre- 

 cisely as he describes them, only it 

 settles ill my eyes. 



Last season in the month of August, 

 I had some 40 to .50 queen cells to 

 transfer, which must be done in .3 

 days, in addition to the other work of 

 the apiary. My eyes had been troub- 

 ling me some previous to this, and the 

 lids were much intlamed when I had 

 part of the cells transferred, but "busi- 

 iies.s must be attended to," and I per- 

 sisted in finishing the job. The result 

 was that I was "off duty" for a week 

 with my eyes bandaged part of the 

 time. Three years ago I discarded 

 the use of gloves altogether, and found 

 the more I was stung the less 1 felt it 

 at the time, but during the season of 

 1880 I began to feel those symptoms 

 several days after being stung ; and 

 now, if I get stung I am sure to have 

 them commencing .3 or 4 days after be- 

 ing stung. I thinfe it poisons the blood, 

 going into the circulation and locating 

 in the weaker organs of the body. 

 The ball of the eyes are not affected, 

 but the upper lid's, wliich at times are 

 much inflamed and swollen so as to 

 almost close the eyes. 



I have tried a good many remedies 



on the eyes and the best one is to di- 

 lute essences of peppermint in rain- 

 water, and apply witli a linen cloth. 

 I find the useof glasses beneficial, and 

 now always wear them while handling- 

 the bees,and using the London smoked 



We have taken 112 two-pound boxes 

 of white honey. This seems like 

 "small potatoesaiid few in a hill" to 

 one who has taken 103 such from 

 one hive. As we have had fine rains 

 during the past ten days, the prospects 

 are good for the fall crop, provided we 

 do not get early frosts. 



Byron, N. Y ., Aug. 14, 1882. 



From Knowledge. 



The Habits of Honey Ants. 



GRANT ALLEN. 



The Garden of the Gods in Colorado, 

 is a bit of show-scenery of the true 

 American type— a green aiuphithea- 

 ter, studded with vast ledges and cliils 

 of red sandstone, weathered here and 

 there into chimneys or pillars, in 

 which a distorted fancy traces some 

 vague resemblance to the sculptured 

 forms of the Hellenic gods. Hither, 

 a few years since. Dr. McCook, of 

 Philadelphia, went on his way to New 

 Mexico, where he wished to study the 

 habits and manners of a famous, but 

 little-known insect, the honey aut. 

 To his surprise, he accidentally stum- 

 bled here upon the very creatures he 

 had set out to find. There are two 

 kinds of entomologists : one kind, 

 now, let us hope, rapidly verging to 

 extinction, sticks a pin through his 

 specimens, mounts tlieiu in a cabinet,, 

 gives them systematic names, and 

 then considers that he has performed 

 the whole duty of a man and a natur- 

 alist ; the other kind, now, let us 

 iiope, growing more usual every day, 

 goes afield to watch tlie very life of 

 tlie creatures themselves at home, and 

 tries to learn their habits and customs 

 in their own native haunts. l)r. Mc- 

 Cook belongs to the second class. He 

 forthwith pitched his tent (literally) 

 in the Garden of the Gods, and pro- 

 ceeded to study the honey ants on the 

 spot. 



Like many other ants, these little 

 honey-eaters are divided into differ- 

 ent castes or classes ; for besides the 

 primary division into queens or fertile 

 females, winged ants or males, and 

 workers or neuters, the last-named 

 class is further sub-divided into three 

 castes of majors, minors, and minims 

 or dwarfs. But the special peculiarity 

 which gives so much interest to this 

 species is the fact that it possesses, 

 apparently at least, a fourth caste, 

 that of tlie honey-bearers, whose ab- 

 domen is distended till it is almost 

 spherical by a vast quantity of nectar 

 stored within it. Dr. McCook opened 

 several of the nests, and found these 

 honey-bearers suspended like flies 

 from the ceiling, to which they clung 

 by their legs and appendages. All 

 over the vaulted dome of the ant-hill, 

 these little creatures were clustered in 

 numbers, their yellow bodies pressed 

 tight to the roof, while their big round 

 stomachs hung down behind from the 

 slender waist, perfect globes of trans- 



