250 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



with no more smoke. They have one trait that I 

 value highly, and which some, if not most, Italians 

 lack. While they will stay on the combs in handling 

 well enough for all my purposes, they will drive be- 

 fore smoke very readily, and will not hang to and 

 mar the honey when you are trying to drive them 

 off; and I believe I can take nearly twice as much 

 comb honey from them in a given time as I could 

 from full-blood Italians; and this is no small item 

 With me, especially in such a year as 1881, when I 

 took over 11,000 lbs. of comb and 3000 lbs. extracted 

 from 125, spring count. H. V. Tkain. 



Mauston, Wis., Dec. 8, 1883. 



VARIOUS ITEMS FROM FRIEND DOO- 

 lilTTliE. 



"BEES won't sting SOME PEOPLE." 



ra» WAS much interested and amused in reading 

 Jl|[ R. C. Taylor's account on page 179 of the man 

 ^ who thought he could handle bees without get- 

 ting stung. Many similar cases had come under my 

 notice, all of which resulted as friend Taylor's did; 

 i. e., the persons claiming bees never stung them 

 were soon put to flight, receiving more or less stings, 

 till one day an elderly man came to the bee-yard. 

 I cautioned him not to come too near (as my custom 

 Is), but he did not heed it, saying, as he came close 

 up to the hive I had open, "Bees never sting me." 

 As this was in May, the bees were not so inclined to 

 sting as they are later in the season; and although I 

 wore a veil, still few bees offered to sting, so of 

 course he was not stung. Later in the season, after 

 the honey-flow had ceased, as myself and a friend of 

 mine were taking off nearly the last section honey, 

 this s.^me man came walking into the apiary. The 

 friend was about to caution him about coming too 

 near, as the bees were quite cross, when I told him 

 in a whisper that the bees never stung that man, so 

 there was no need of caution. As he oame where 

 we were I laid aside the smoker; and when handling 

 the cases of sections I managed to jar the hive and 

 crush some of the bees, which were cross hybrids. 

 The air was soon filled with angry bees which were 

 flying in rage about the heads of my friend and my- 

 self, stinging through pants and shirt, and even 

 crawling into our pants pockets, and stinging there. 

 Very much to my surprise, not a bee flew angrily 

 about this man; and to test the matter still further 

 I asked him to take some of the side cases out of the 

 hive, so as to help me while I held others. He did 

 as I requested, while I carelessly let a case of partly 

 filled sections drop upon the top-bars of the frames 

 which were covered with bees, killing a dozen or 

 two. This brought a cloud of bees at the heads of 

 my friend and myself, like so many hailstones, while 

 the air was fairly perfumed with poison from the 

 enraged bees ; still not one offered to touch this man. 

 I closed the hive; and as we walked toward the 

 house, my flesh fairly crawled at the hissing of the 

 bees on my hat and clothing, with now and then a 

 sting penetrating through; still this man was not 

 stung, nor did I see a single bee offer to sting him. 

 Afterward he told me he had kept bees for years, 

 and never was stung by a honey-bee in his life. I 

 told him I would give considerable money if I could 

 have the same freedom from stings he enjoyed. 

 Has any one met with a similar case, and how can 

 It be accounted for? 



ENAMELED CLOTH, ONCE MORE. 



Upon setting about a third of my bees out of 

 the cellar I find that those which were full swarms 

 having enameled cloth over the frames have win- 

 tered well, while the weaker ones (I had a few nuclei 

 last fall I put in cellar by way of experiment) with 

 said cloths over them are in poor shape. The bees 

 are nearly all dead, and the combs are dripping with 

 moisture. The honey had soured, and the bottomsof 

 the combs are quite moldy. The nuclei having 

 quilts over them are in much the best shape, while 

 the strong swarms with quilts are not nearly as good 

 as those with the enameled cloth. This would seem 

 to show that the strong swarm maintained warmth 

 enough to drive the excess of moisture out at the 

 entrance of the hive, except enough to supply their 

 need of water; while the weak ones, not having that 

 warmth, allowed the moisture to condense on the 

 cloth in such quantities that it ruined them. On the 

 other hand, the dry warm quilt benefited the weak, 

 while it retained no moisture for the strong swarm 

 to slake their thirst. 



SETTING BEES FROM THE CELLAR. 



1 find that most parties wintei ing bees in the cellar 

 are in the habit of setting all out on one day. When 

 this is done the bees will mix, more or less, if no 

 precaution is taken to set them on the stand they oc- 

 cupied the season previous, so some stocks will have 

 more than their proportion of bees, and others be 

 weak. Of late years I have adopted this plan, and 

 find I can set out the bees with no mixing, without 

 setting any on their old stands, it making no differ- 

 ence where they are placed. On *varm days, at 

 about the time the first pollen appears, I commence 

 about i o'clock p. m., and set out, say 10 swarms, 

 scattering them over the bee-yard as far apart as 

 possible, which prevents their mixing. By this time 

 of day the bees which have been out previously, 

 have ceased to fly pretty much, so there is no dan- 

 ger of their robbing those just set out, which is often 

 the case where bees are set out in the middle of a 

 warm day; as those newly out are so anxious to fly 

 they pay little or no attention to robbers. If Itie 

 next morning is fine, ten more are set out before the 

 others commence to fly, so they have their flight and 

 get prepared for i-obbers by the time those out be- 

 fore get on the wing. These last ten are scattered 

 over the apiary as the first was, so as to be as far 

 from each other as possible, paying no attention to 

 how close they come to those already out. Thus I 

 set out morning and evening every pleasant day, till 

 all are out. Having set out ten this afternoon, 

 caused me to speak of it, as this way pleases me so 

 much better than the old one did. First pollen to- 

 day. G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N.'Y., April 11, 1883. 



I too, friend D., have lieartl people say 

 bees would not sting them, and I have heard 

 many more say that bees stnng- them at ev- 

 ery opportunity, and that they would even go 

 several rods from their hive on purpose to 

 sting them if they came anywhere near. 

 Now, my position in all this as you know, 

 perhaps, has been that bees are no respecters 

 of persons ; that it is the behavior of the in- 

 dividual and not the individual himself. In 

 all my experience I have never had any good 

 reason to think otherwise. The case you 

 give is a little surprise to me ; and if I were 

 you I would not drop the matter there. Get 

 this man to work again, and work among 



