1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



89 



the bees. In severe cases the wound should 

 be washed well with warm water, then bath- 

 ed in alcohol; then bind a folded linen wet 

 with alcohol or vinegar over the wound, 

 changing the application every ten minutes 

 until the pain subsides. A slice of fruit — ap- 

 ple, peach, or tomato — bound lightly on the 

 wound will help in many cases. This is most 

 practical if the apiary is located in an orchard 

 with ripe fruit. Many other remedies have 

 been suggested but not ti'ied by us in our 

 apiaries. 



MISTLETOE 



-OUR FIRST HONEY-PLANT. 

 SEE PAGE 110. 



Often I have thought whether this should 

 be called the last or the first of the season. 

 It sometimes begins to bloom, and bees roar 

 on it early in December. Other plants may 

 bloom almost up to this time, and we might 

 call mistletoe the last of the season. But 

 with the beginning of mistletoe bloom, really 

 begins the real new life with the bees for the 

 following year, and especially marked is this 

 during a year with an early spring. 



Mistletoe {Phoradevdron Jlavescens Nutt) 

 belongs to the family Loranthactce (mistletoe 

 family), and is a parasitic plant on the 

 branches of certain trees, from which it ob- 

 tains a living from their sap. It sometimes 

 kills the branch or even the tree on which it 

 is a parasite. It occurs as an evergreen, gla- 

 brous, pendent bush, from one to four feet 

 long, sometimes in lai'ge dense clusters, with 

 its tiber roots insinuated into the wood of 

 the tree upon which it preys Its branches 

 are stoutish and knotted, branching twos, or 

 dichotomous, with thick and smooth, green, 

 oval leaves, generally in pairs. The flowers 

 are small, inconspicuous, and greenish- yellow 

 in color. An abundance of pollen is obtain- 

 ed from these. The fruit is a small, white, 

 viscid beriy, the flesh portion of which is 

 very mucilaginous. Birds fond of them will 

 sometimes have them sticking to their bills, 

 take them to other trees, where the berries 

 with the seed are removed by rubbing them 

 off on some branch to which they adhere, 

 and new plants begin to grow. I have seen 

 this pest on different species of oaks, elms, 

 mesquite, hackberry, bois-d'-arc, and other 

 trees. It is most abundantly found on our 

 shade trees here; the hackberry ( CeJtis Mis- 

 sissippiensis), to which it is doing much dam- 

 age. It is just as plentiful on the mesquite- 

 trees [Prosoins juliflora), our leading honey- 

 producer. 



The photos (p. 110) show it on the mes- 

 quite-trees. It will be noticed how dwarfed 

 the branches are upon which the largest 

 quantity preys. This photo also shows two 

 valuable honey-plants on one root-stem. Sev- 

 eral of my apiaries are located where the 

 mistletoe is plentiful, and I value it very 

 highly. It is the earliest pollen-yielder, and 

 such in large quantities, and stimulates ear- 

 ly brood-rearing. 1 am not sure about its 

 honey-yielding, but believe it gives some. 



The mistletoe was deemed sacred by the 

 Druids, and is still frequently employed in 



Christmas festivities and sports. '"Kissing 

 under the mistletoe," according to Scandina- 

 vian mythology, is given as follows by 

 Braver: 



' ' The wicked spirit Loki hated Balder, the 

 favorite of the gods, and, making an arrow 

 of mistletoe, gave it to Hader, the god of 

 darkness, and himself blind, to test. He shot 

 the arrow and killed Balder. He was re- 

 stored to life, and the mistletoe given to the 

 goddess of Love to keep. Every one passing 

 under it received a kiss as a proof that it 

 was the emblem of love and not of death." 



with 'mm-' ,7' 



LOSS OF QUEENS WHEN MATING. 



" Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. Got those 

 bees in the cellar yet 'i The last you told us 

 about them in Gleanings was that they 

 were not in, and that they were out in four- 

 teen inches of snow." 



"Yes, I remember, Mr. Allen. But the 

 snow went off a few days later; and we had 

 a day in which they had a reasonably g >od 

 flight soon after. This allowed me to get 

 them in all dry and nice. It would have 

 been a little better had the south wind not 

 blown quite so hard, as this prevented their 

 flying as freely as they otherwise would." 



"Do you have much south wind here ?" 



" Lots of it during the winter, and especial- 

 ly every time when it becomes warm enough 

 or nearly so for the bees to fly. This is one 

 of the things against outdoor wintering here 

 in Central New York. Neai'ly every time 

 when the mercury goes from 45 to 55 degrees 

 above zero we have a south wind which 

 sweeps over the country at from 35 to 50 

 miles an hour: and if the bees attempt to fly 

 they are blown down in the snow, mud, or 

 slush, so that many of them perish, fully 

 half or more with the mercury as low as 45 

 to 48." 



"That makes it bad, surely. But I came 

 down from Michigan to have a little talk 

 with you about the loss of queens when they 

 go out to mate. So far I have lost a large 

 proportion of what I have raised in getting 

 them fertilized. Can you tell me where my 

 trouble lies?" 



" Do you have any king-birds hanging or 

 perching about your apiary?" 



"Not that I know of. How does a king- 

 bird look?" 



"Do you know of a bird that they call a 

 'pee-wee, ' a bird which builds its nest in 

 some old out-building or about the barns, 

 using moss and mud for the constructing 

 material?" 



