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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bees Working on the Spanish Needle. 



In the spring of 1883, I bad 40 colo- 

 nies of bees, all Italians but 3. I 

 did not get any clover honey, but got 

 about 600 pounds of linden honey, 

 and increased to 72 colonies. I have 

 not obtained any honey since Aug. 1, 

 though the bees are doing well now, 

 on Spanish needle and buckwheat. 

 VVm. T. Scott. 



Mill Grove, Mo., Sept. 4, 1883. 



Sand Wasps. 



I send you a hornet tliat I saw with 

 a fly in its fore feet. I never saw one 

 like it before. Please say what it is, 

 through the Bee Journal. 



J. M. HiBBARD, Jr. 

 Athens, Ohio, Aug. 10, 1883. 



[The large insect found holding in 

 its forefeet a bee, is one of the sand 

 wasps [Pompilidtx), which store their 

 nests with insects, to be used as food 

 by the young. Usually a single 

 species of insect or spider is selected 

 by each kind of wasp, but I am not 

 aware that this or any other wasp 

 stores its nest exclusively with honey 

 bees. The most remarkable thing 

 about their method of hunting is that 

 the wasp stings the prey in a particu- 

 lar nerve centre, in such manner that 

 the captured insect 'is rendered en- 

 tirely helpless, but is not killed. In 

 this condition it is packed with others 

 in a hole dug in the ground, accom- 

 panied by several eggs of the wasp. 

 When these eggs hatch the young find 

 in the stung insects food still perfectly 

 fresh, because alive, but entirely at 

 their mercy. 



Along with the above, in the box, 

 was a dog-day cicada (Cicada canicu- 

 lau's]. It is much like the 17-year 

 "locust," but appears every year. It 

 is quite harmless, except that it bores 

 twigs of trees to deposit its eggs ; as 

 soon as hatched the larvae enter the 

 ground and live on the roots of 

 plants.— T. J. BuKRiLL, Champaign, 

 111.] 



12 with boxes on that have some sec- 

 tions completed, 2 that have the 

 entire 12 two-pound sections nearly 

 full. I have some colonies that have 

 not swarmed this season. I have a 

 record of 3, 4, 5, 6 and even 7 swarms 

 from one colony. The one giving 6. 

 its first swarm cast three, one of 

 which went into another hive and was 

 killed ; but I saved two, making an 

 increase of 8 from that colony. I had 

 combs for all increase. J. E. Cady. 

 Medford, Minn., Aug. 31, 1883. 



Bee-Keeping' in Minnesota. 



As I am sending for 100 copies of 

 " Honey as Food and Medicine," I 

 will report something of what my 

 bees are doing, and it is a big report 

 for Minnesota, but not in the least 

 over-drawn. My account shows 317 

 pails of honey. These pails will hold 

 from 15 to 18 pounds each, making in 

 all about 4,755 pounds of extracted, 

 and I have besides 1,624 pounds of 

 beautiful comb honey. This amounts 

 to 6,379 pounds without taking into 

 account the strainings from the un- 

 capped, which would avenige a pail- 

 ful a day. I began the season with 

 32 strong colonies, and kept them 

 warm and well fed during the spring. 

 I now have 90 splendid colonies, 40 of 

 which were not looked through during 

 or since bass wood bloom. There are 



Syrphus Files, etc. 



Enclosed find three flies and a bee. 



1. I found the flies hovering around 

 the hives, evidently persuaded in their 

 own minds tliat, if they had their 

 rights, they ought to live there. The 

 bees did hot appear to mind them 

 much. What are they V 



2. Of what race is the bee enclosed ? 

 I am often puzzled about these 

 stripes. How many stripes has this 

 bee ? My bees should be Italians, 

 but I see every once in a while ttie 

 15th amendment to the constitution 

 there. R. J. Kendall. 



Austin, Texas, Aug. 26, 1883. 



[The insects are the prettily-banded, 

 useful Syrphus flies, whose larvpe prey 

 upon plant lice. They do the bees no 

 harm.— T. J. B. 



After a bee is dead and " mashed 

 up " in a letter, it is hard to tell much 

 about it. If it had " stripes " they 

 are not discernible now. — Ed.] 



Borage as a Good Honey Plant. 



You may put down borage as an 

 extra good honey plant. It commences 

 to bloom in June and keeps up till the 

 hard frosts. My bees have worked at 

 it unceasingly since basswood harvest 

 closed, and are still at it. Last year 

 it was green until the end of October. 

 It is very hardyj and is a perfect weed 

 when it once gets into a garden. 



C. W. Young. 



Stratford, Ont.. Sept. 6, 1883. 



A Worker in a (Jiieen-Cell. 



The Journal is a welcome visitor 

 to our home every week, and while 

 perusing its columns, last night, I 

 found an experience somewhat like 

 one I had not long since. I have ref- 

 erence to a " Curious Freak of Bees," 

 by A. Rickenbacher, on page 433 of 

 the Bee Journal. A few days ago 

 I had a nice lot of queen-cells that I 

 thought would hatch in a day or two. 

 I lifted them out In the sunshine to 

 see how nearly ready they were to 

 hatch, and to rny surprise several had 

 already emerged from the cells, and 

 were walking around on the comb. 

 I cut out all the cells that were not 

 uncapped, and when I had put one in 

 each hive or nucleus that I had pre- 

 pared, there was one left. I cut it 

 open, and found in it a worker bee in 

 tlie prime of life. I think that worker 

 bee crawled into the cell just when 

 the queen gut out ; tlie cap not being 

 cut cleai- off, sprung shut, and the 

 bees sealed it. "A. R. Nisbet. 



Dobyville, Ark., Sept. 1,1883. 



Honey Already Candied. 



I send you a sample of my honey. 

 It has all candied or turned to sugar. 

 VVill you please tell me, in the Bee ' 

 Journal, why it candied so, and can 

 I winter my bees on it y I started last 

 spring with one colony of bees ; the 

 bees swarmed three times, and the 

 four colonies have gathered about 300 

 lbs. of honey in the boxes, and body 

 of the hive, and it is all candied or 

 turned to sugar. Will the bees win- 

 ter on a syrup made by melting up 

 the outside combs, adding a little 

 water and skinmiing off the wax ? 

 Other bee-keepers living near here, 

 are complaining of their honey candy- 

 ing, like mine. E. Hamilton. 



Centre Conway, N. H., Sept. 4, 1888. 



[Some honey will " candy " much 

 more readily tlian that gathered from 

 other kinds of bloom. Linden honey 

 candies very quickly after being re- 

 moved from the hives. You do not 

 say what it was gathered from, but it 

 is evidently caused by the peculiar 

 flowers from which it came. You can 

 use it for wintering, either as it is, or 

 by making it into a syrup, as you sug- 

 gest.— Ed.] 



Good Honey Harvest in Maine. 



Bees have done uncommonly well 

 in Maine, this year. I have one 

 swarm that came out in June that has 

 gathered 135 pounds of honey, mostly 

 in one-pound sections. I am 77 years 

 old. LuciAN French. 



Dexter, Maine, Aug. 30, 1883. 



Queens with Scarlet Wings. 



I discovered a new kind of queen 

 (to me) in tlie last part of May. I 

 took the same queen and inserted it 

 in a colony of bees, and the colony 

 swarmed twice, and I received 175 

 pounds of honey from each. I think 

 that these queens are more profitable 

 than Italian queens. I think that I 

 will transform my whole apiary with 

 these bees ; the queens have three 

 yellow stripes, and their wings are 

 scarlet. Please give me some infor- 

 mation about the same. 



Prof. H ugo Sontag. 



Cucamongo, Cal., Aug. 31, 1883. 



[It is evidently another " case of 

 sporting," many of wtich have here- 

 tofore been reported in the Bee 

 Journal. The regulation " bands" 

 show them to be Italians. — Ed.] 



A Short Crop. 



The crop of honey from this section 

 is very short. Basswood was a failure. 

 A colony weighing 6^4 lbs. of bees, 

 gathered but 15 lbs. during basswood 

 bloom. The fall crop, so extraordinary 

 last season in the flow, is about as 

 extraordinary the other way, this sea- 

 son. "In a good season every bean- 

 pole sweats honey, but in a bad one, 

 no flower secrets any ;" so said our 

 German friends across the water; and 

 the two seasons have made the demon- 

 stration here. Jesse Oren. 



La Porte City, Iowa, Sept 5, 1883. 



J 



