70 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



HONEY -HOUSES; AN IlflPORTANT ITEM. 



SCREENS FOR WINDOWS, ETC. 



I THINK that friend Doolittle's bees are not very 

 smart, or they would find that space where the 

 — ' wire screen extends over the top of the win- 

 dows of his honey-house. I think my bees would 

 find it quicker than you could say scat; for proof, 

 read the following: A few years ago I stored my 

 honey In a roughly made storage room joined to my 

 house. It was boarded up and down, and not very 

 tight any way, and of course the bees soon found it 

 out. Then I began battening up cracks at the sides, 

 around thtj sills, roof, and, in fact, everywhere, for 

 3 weeks or more; and not until they had carried 

 several boxes of honey back to their hives did I beat 

 them. Every day they would find some new place 

 to get in, until finally they went around it to my 

 kitchen door, through thai, and across a kitchen of 

 13 ft., to the door of the honey-room. That door be- 

 ing tight they crawled under the casing, where it 

 lapped over drop siding, and around the studding, 

 and out under the casing again into the storeroom. 

 It was not now and then a bee that did that, but 

 large numbers. Beat that, if you can. 



My present honey-house is 8x10 ft., and bee-tigbt; 

 but when I first put honey in It they found a way in 

 through the key-hole, about as soon as there was 

 honey in there; and whenever honey is not plenti- 

 ful in the fields, they are hunting every crack and 

 joint from Pill to roof-ridge; but have never made 

 it a success, as it is plastered inside. To get those 

 out that get carried in, I have the top sash of the 

 windows hung on pivots, and a spring bolt at the 

 lop, so I can draw the bolt, tilt the sash, brush them 

 out, and tilt sash back. 



I will tell you next time how I keep my empty 

 combs. A. A. Fkadenburg. 



Port Washington, O., Jan. 8, 1883. 



Thank you for calling attention to this 

 matter, friend F. When I read friend Doo- 

 little's description of the way in which his 

 window was fixed so all the bees inside 

 could at any time get out, while none out- 

 side could get in, I fell to wondering wheth- 

 er it would work with such bees as we have 

 sometimes. On further reflection I decided 

 that, as friend D. is a very careful man, he 

 probably does not have bees educated up to 

 the pitch of pilfering, that we often do, and 

 that the device will be very valuable help to 

 all who keep things in any sort of decent or- 

 der. I can readily understand, friend F., 

 how the bees worked and "wiggled" (I 

 think that is the right word, isn't it V) to get 

 at the honey, for I have seen them. To 

 take an old building and batten it up so 

 bees can't get in, after they have been edu- 

 cated to it by several pounds of honey stolen 

 during an interim of a week or ten days, is 

 almost an impossibility. Why, it seems as 

 if they would go through inch boards, when 

 they get really into the merits of the case, 

 and it is '' a good day for robbing." Will 

 those who test, or who have tested friend 

 Doolittle's idea, please report? I presume 

 it is well known that our English friends 

 have a device called a bee-trap that lets bees 

 pass one way, but not back again. It just 

 now occurs to me that we did try having 

 the wire cloth loosened at the lower end, on 



one of the windows in our wax-room, and 

 it answered very well by letting the bees out- 

 side as soon as they had buzzed themselves 

 tired enough to fall through the opening. 



A LETTER FROM JERUSALEM. 



Holy-Land Bees in tlieir Native Home. 



ALSO A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH'S-HEAD, OR 

 THE MOTH THAT "SQUEAKS." 



fTAKE the liberty of addressing you these few 

 lines, hoping not to annoy you by a little report 

 ~^ concerning the death's-head moth. Being a 

 subscriber to your journal by the intermedial of my 

 friend and teacher in apiculture, Mr. F. Benton, liv- 

 ing at Athens at the present, 1 saw in the Novem- 

 ber number of Gleanings, page 559, an article, " A 

 Moth that Squeaks." Having previously made 

 some acquaintance with that " moth that really 

 squeaks," I thought of sitting down to-night and 

 giving a little account of my own experience with 

 them. 



On the 36th of October, this year, preparing my 

 hives for wintering at the " Gardens of Solomon's 

 Apiary " (near Bethlehem), I took two dozen of these 

 moths out of some such hives as had the entrance 

 high enough to permit them to enter. In one of the 

 hives I found seven such moths, all skeletons, for 

 the bees had taken out every portable particle from 

 them, stripped them of the thick hair growing over 

 their bodies, and began thus propolizing them. In 

 August, September, October, and November, I fre- 

 quently met with them disturbing the bees, but only 

 in the night. When I first saw them flying before 

 the hives, I could not make out whether the bats 

 were disturbing my colonies, and began chasing 

 them. When I succeeded in capturing one, it began 

 squeaking about as a mouse would, although not 

 quite as loud; since then I watched them closely, 

 and captured some also, by means of a butterfly- 

 catcher. They eat only honey, sucking it from 

 flowers; but when they find such hives as allow 

 them to enter, they prefer to suck it out of the 

 combs, taking a teaspoonful of honey at a time. 

 The insect measures 514 inches across the wings, 

 and about 'iM inches from head to tail. I should 

 very much like to send you a specimen; still, you 

 could not " hear it squeak." 



I possess 3 apiaries in Palestine, besides the Mt. 

 Lebanon and Cyprus apiaries, in connection with 

 Mr. F. Benton. Bees fly gaily, but have nothing to 

 carry in, when perhaps their North American 

 friends are snugly tucked in their underground win- 

 ter lodgings. Ph. I. Baldensperger. 



Jerusalem, Dec. 14, 1883. 



Friend B., there are three reasons why we 

 feel glad to get your kind letter. We are 

 proud to say we have, for once at least, had a 

 letter from that famed old city of the Bible ; 

 we are glad, also, to hear from our friend 

 Benton ; and, last of all, to know all about 

 that death's-head moth, so much has been 

 said about, and to Jinow that it really does 

 "squeak," as well as eat honey. Many 

 thanks for the very full facts you have given 

 us. The name of Jerusalem has been made 

 dear to us by our recent .Sunday-school 

 lessons. 



