1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



457 



If you do that, they will likely come out, 

 brood or no brood. Only yesterday one of 

 the girls in the apiary was picking some 

 bees off from a comb to put into the queen- 

 cage. While she did this she had left the 

 hive uncovered, and the sun shone in against 

 the side of a comb. Before I could get the 

 hive covered, the comb dropped out, fell 

 against its neighbor, and that would have 

 dropped out in a moment more, and so with 

 the contents of the whole hive. You see, 

 friends, what mischief a few minutes' shin- 

 ing may do in a hot summer's day. Perhaps 

 you like the business of mending up broken 

 comb, and resuscitating suffocated bees ; 

 but if you do, I do not. One reason I do not 

 like it is, because it consumes valuable time; 

 and neither combs nor bees are ever quite as 

 good again after being broken down or par- 

 tially suffocated. 



DO BEES STEAL EGGS, OR CARRY EGGS FROM ONE 

 COMB TO ANOTHER? 



I have settled that matter in my own mind. Last 

 summer I had two black stocks and one Italian nu- 

 cleus. These were all the bees I had at the time, 

 and there was not another Italian bee within 14 miles 

 of mc that I know of. Well, I had the misfortune 

 to set the chaff cushion on Are in the nucleus hive. 

 It did not burn much (only the top was burned off), 

 but it made smoke enou<?h to drive all the bees out 

 of the hive; and before I could induce them to re- 

 turn, my black stocks had robbed it completely, not 

 only of honey, but every egg: was gone, and the lar- 

 vii? were starved dead. I did not think much of it at 

 the time; but some three weeks or more afterward, 

 I had lots of young Italians in my black stocks. 

 Now, where did they come from? I leave you to 

 answer the question for yourself and others. I am 

 pretty well satisfied. Herbert Shaw. 



Broadhead, N. V., June, 18s;{. 



Friend S., you have given us a most im- 

 portant fact, and I see but one possibility of 

 your being mistaken. This is, that bees mix 

 to a considerable extent from one colony to 

 another. For instance, if you have one col- 

 ony of pure Italians, and live colonies of 

 blacks, you will, in a very little time, find 

 Italians sprinkled all through your black 

 colonies. I do not know why this is, unless 

 because it is the young bees, when out play- 

 ing, come to the wrong hive. In your case 

 you say you had lots of Italians in your 

 stocks. Now, if you saw Italians hatching 

 out of liie brood-combs of hives containing 

 black bees and a black queen, your proof is 

 conclusive. Did you look to sea if the young 

 bees were Italians ? If you did, we may 

 consider the matter settled. It will be pret- 

 ty difficult to make such an experiment, be- 

 cause robber-bees seldom take a notion to 

 carry home eggs and larva', as you think 

 bees must have done. Can we have any 

 more facts in regard to this strange matter ? 



RAISING WAX instead OF HONEY; A NEW IDEA. 



Inclosed you will find some drone-cells containing 

 wax. This, I think, was derived from the honey 

 which the cells contained. Has there ever been a 

 process to make artificial wax? I think, before many 

 decades bee-keepers will bo wise enough to make 

 their own wax. I f the beos can make it from honey, 

 wby can't we, with tbe proper utensils? These cells 



you will see are fair samples of wax, very likely 

 made from dark honey. They were out in the bee" 

 shed all winter, which probably had a tendency to 

 transform it into wax. One cell I found which con- 

 tained honey, but began to crystallize along the 

 walls, and resembled wax. What is j'our opinion in 

 regard to it? H. J. ScnROCK. 



Goshen, Ind., June 34, 1883. 



It is an actual fact, friends, that the piece 

 of comb sent by friend 8. contains drone- 

 cells filled with very fair wax. The wax has 

 very much the appearance of having been 

 melted and poured into it. IIow it came 

 there, I am unable to tell ; but I can not 

 yet quite accept the idea that the honey the 

 cells contained had turned to wax. Even if 

 it did, as the established rule is, that it takes 

 from 1(J to •20 lbs. of honey to make one of 

 wax, the cells should contain only a small 

 portion of wax. Friend S., is it not possible 

 that some melted wax had, at some time or 

 other, been run into these drone-cells by ac- 

 cident or otherwise V I do not think we are 

 quite ready to go into the business just yet, 

 are we V 



FOREIGN BEES. 



The following comes from the IVanscript, 

 Lexington, Ky. : 



Yesterday some bees were V>rought into our office 

 that had just been imported from Italy. They hart 

 been sent by express in a neat little hive, with honey 

 in it. They can not speak a word of English, but 

 they sting in the American language. The importa- 

 tion was solely for the sake of the (lueen that was 

 in each little hive, and the few common bees sent 

 along with them were simply a retinue for their roy- 

 al highnesses; the queens, like royalty, queenly pre- 

 ferring to starve to death rather than do any menial 

 service for their own sustenance. 



BEES THAT CARRY LEAVES. 



I received the bees to-day noon, and guess they are 

 all right. There were a few dead ones — no more 

 than I expected. Mr. Root, did j'ou ever see bees 

 carrying leaves? There are some bees working in 

 the gable-end of our house, in a knot hole, carrying 

 leaves in. They look like the Italian bee. I never 

 saw any carrying leaves before. Several came and 

 saw them carrying, but would not believe it. 



John N. Corbktt. 



Maiden, Bureau Co., 111., June 37, 18813. 



The bees you allude to, friend C, are not 

 honey-bees. They are a species of wood- 

 Ijees, or borers, and the leaves they carry are 

 for making nests for their young. Some of 

 these borer-bees are very prettily marked, 

 and are not unlike bright Italians, if one 

 does not take a very close look at them. 

 They gather little if any honey, however ; 

 and, if I am correct, they visit the tlowers 

 mostly for pollen. 



using wired FRAiMES FOR NATURAL COMBS. 



We extract the following from The Kan- 

 sas Bee-Keeper: — 



Last season we ran short short of comb founda- 

 tion; and having no frames at the apiary but wired 

 ones, we put in some two hundred of them, when, 

 much to our surprise, the bees not only readily ac- 

 cepted them, but seemed delighted to tind the wires 

 so canvenient for supporting the newly made comb, 

 and in every frame left the wires exactly in the 

 center of the comb. It worked with us to our en- 

 tire satisfaction; so much so that, when we came to 

 extracting honey from those newly made combs, we 

 found them worth at least twice as much as the un^ 

 wired ones. 



