1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



405 



H.'s 'dish-pan' for carrying swarms isn't half as 

 convenient as ' my big work-apron.' I always have 

 it on in the bee-yard; it will hold half a bushel of 

 bees, and has the advantage of being fast to me. I 

 can let down one end of it, roll my bees in front of 

 entrance, and by unpinning it and holding the bind- 

 ing over top of hive, have my pets all cooped up as 

 nice as you please, with liberty to enter the hive at 

 leisure, and shaded at that. Give me the apron 

 every time for gathering a swarm from a currant or 

 berry-bush!" Is not that an original and truly wo- 

 manly method, brother bee-keepers? 



For the past three days, honey has come in faster 

 than at any time last season. Notwithstanding the 

 cold backward spring, the dearth of honey two 

 weeks since, and the continuance of quite too fre- 

 quent showers, work in sections is considerably in 

 advance of this date last year. And it has all been 

 done within a week. Cyula Linswik. 



June 23, 1883. 



Thank you, friend Cyula. I know exactly 

 how you and your sister felfc when buying 

 sugar to feed right in June. I well reniem- 

 ber the time when it was almost witli a 

 guilty conscience that I went to the grocer's 

 and bought sugar to feed my bees, barrel 

 after barrel, and hearing my friends and 

 neighbors say, " Why, that fellow Hoot has 

 gone crazy. He has gone and bought a 

 whole barrel of sugar, just to feed 'tliem 

 bees,' and he will never get half of it back in 

 the world." To tell the truth, I was almost 

 afraid I wouldn't either. But I wintered the 

 bees, almost to a colony, and the next season 

 the neighbors were in a greater consternation 

 than when I had to feed the sugar. Jaut it 

 was for another reason. " Who ever heard 

 of such tons of honey V" said they. "And will 

 he ever be able to sell it all V " — I am greatly 

 interested about that force-pump. Are we 

 to understand that it is something dilferent 

 from our fountain pump that we are selling 

 so largely V or is it sometliing that the friend 

 you mention improvised herself? — Your 

 idea of a big apron for a swarming-basket is 

 wonderful ; and when reading it I fell to 

 wondering whether any of the bee-keepers 

 of our sex would have the courage to use 

 it, even Avere a big apron furnislied them. 

 After the bees began to climb toward his 

 face, it seems to me he would be in consider- 

 able of a hurry to get those strings undone. 

 Your friend must be a genius truly. Can we 

 not have some more hints from her V 



DOES ONE'S TREATMENT BY BEES DE- 

 PEND ON HIS BEHAVIOR? 



JJEES IIIAT WOULD FIGHT A STOVE-PIPE. 



fi AM glad to see by June Gleanings that W. A. 

 Pryal has supplemented my correction of the 

 — ' naming of our white sage with an engraving 

 that is readily recognized, the only trouble being 

 that the intlorcscence is not clearly represent- 

 ed. I have wondered many times where Prof. 

 Cook got the sample which furnished the en- 

 graving in his book and in yours. The flower 

 so carefully pictured there on a larger scale 

 is as far removed from all relationship with the sage 

 family as is the tlax or the rose. 



But, I write this to ask you if you are sure about 

 your position that a person's rnanner among bees is 



the sole governing power in their conduct toward 

 him. To prove that it is not, let me recite a case in 



point. 



An inoffensive stove-pipe presumed to lift its 

 somber head above the cabin near the city of bee- 

 hives belonging to one of the apiaries of R. Wilkin, 

 San Buenaventura, Cal. It was on its own soil. It 

 never tried to rob. It had never harbored evil 

 thoughts toward any creature. Whenever a man 

 opened a hive of hybrid bees near by, did it act 

 nervous and lidgetty? No, verily. It bore itself 

 sedately and decorously as any elderly stove-pipe 

 should. But, when the hive was opened, the bees 

 danced the scalp-dance, sounded the war-whoop, etc. 

 (see Virgil), and rushed headlong at the stove- 

 pipe. 



How did it behave itself then? I never saw it 

 dodge its head. It did not beat the air. It did not 

 prance nor swear ( unlike a man ), nor run away. It 

 remained as rigidly motionless as a stoic. In fact, 

 it was and is one. But still came the bees; and they 

 battered and rattled against the stove-pipe's sinless 

 head till it sounded like window-panes in a first-class 

 hail-storm. They even crawled down its whole 

 length into the stove. It was liable to be attacked 

 at any hour of the day, whether fire was in the 

 stove or not. If the former were the case, hosts of 

 bees ^v%re killed inside the pipe. At such times the 

 bees would likewise vent their rage on any person 

 who came in sight. As a last resort, we made it a 

 bee-veil of wire gauze ; but I fear this was more for 

 the sake of the bees than for the stove-pipe. 



Mora?. — If bees Avill try to sting a motionless 

 stovepipe, how can a person bear himself so quietly 

 as to be safe from their attentions? 



Andrea Norton. 



Gonzales, Cal., June 13, 1883. 



Friend N., "Aunt Mate," who is still 

 opening the letters, has neatly penciled, at 

 the close of your article, " pretty good," and 

 I think I shall have to say the same. In 

 fact, you have got me into a pretty tight 

 place, and I don't know but that I ought to 

 give up ; but on the whole, I think I will 

 try to hold my point a while, after all. I 

 believe I shall take the ground now, that 

 human intelligence has a power over the 

 brute creation that a simple, inoffensive 

 stove-pipe has not, and that there is often 

 something in the bearing of an individual 

 that makes a bee, a dog, or a horse, respect 

 and fear him ; or, in other words, his pres- 

 ence and manner impress them in a way that 

 a stove-pipe does not, begging the pipe's 

 pardon. Yesterday, while passing through 

 the apiary, I saw a new hand opening a 

 hive, and I felt sure she would get stung, 

 just because she removed the enameled 

 sheet from the frames with too little respect 

 to the feelings, or, rather, rlglitf^, of the little 

 people underneath. I don't get stung when 

 opening hives, because I know better the 

 habits and dispositions of the bees, and 

 what they will bear with impunity, and what 

 they will not. And further, give me a pupil 

 who is docile, bright, and anxious to learn, 

 and I will teach him to do it just as well as 

 I do. Perhaps I might add, that I do not 

 find one bee-keepei- in a hundred who 

 handles his bees as it seems to me they 

 should be handled, and I think both time 

 and money would be saved by humane man- 

 agement. 



