826 



TrnM MMMMl^MM MMM J©WKlfMS<. 



by Mr. Wheeler, and we helped each 

 other occasionally in manipulation, etc. 



Cross Bees and their Stings. 



The bees were pretty cross from the 

 time they were put out in the spring 

 until basswood bloomed, and we were 

 the victims of a good many stings. I 

 think I received about tiiirty stings 

 during the summer, and Mr. Wheeler's 

 avei'age was somewhat higher, he 

 being a large man and not a very swift 

 dodger. My greatest trouble was, 

 that the bees persisted in crawling up 

 my pants' legs ; contrary to the good 

 advice in the books, however, I in- 

 variably made a quick motion about 

 that time and escaped a sting — the 

 bee generally died, and — Mr. Wheeler 

 laughed. I tind that is one great fault 

 with the black bees ; upon lifting a 

 a comb, if the weather be a little cool, 

 they will scatter like a flock of sheep, 

 alight upon the ground, and then crawl 

 up one's pants' legs. 



But for all the bees were so cross 

 during the spring and early summer, 

 I can truthfully say that 1 never once 

 while handling them, put on a pair of 

 gloves. Gloves are awkward and 

 clumsy things to handle bees with ; 

 they are hard to get on and off, and 

 in many ways hinder the movements 

 of the operator ; and besides, an angry 

 bee can easily sting through a pair of 

 dog-skin gloves, as I saw them do i-e- 

 peatedly last summer. I just used my 

 last winter's mittens ; they were thick 

 and heavy, having been built for cold 

 weather, and no bee could make its 

 presence felt through them. 



When basswood bloomed, about July 

 4, the bees filled their brood-chambers 

 in about a week ; then basswood 

 ceased, and we got no more honey 

 until the latter part of August and 

 September, when the golden-rod, as- 

 ters and heart's-ease bloomed. Then 

 the sections began to fill up, and in 

 the fall we took oif some of the nicest 

 "digested nectar" that ever was gath- 

 ered, averaging about 40 pounds of 

 comb honey to tlie colony, spring 

 count, in one-pound sections. 



It is a very fine quality of honey, 

 heavy, fine flavored, and not dark in 

 color. But the bees got all the bass- 

 wood honey in their brood-chambers, 

 and as I had no extractor, and did not 

 care to bother with strained honej% I 

 put into the cellar, on Nov. 27, 2 

 strong colonies with about 75 pounds 

 of honey each, and a couple of weaker 

 colonies, built up from nuclei, with 

 about 25 pounds each. I expect by 

 " this method " to get the basswood 

 honey next season " in this section." 



My bees did not swarm during the 

 season, and Mr. Wlieeler had but 2 or 

 3 swarms from his 20 colonies. I Ital- 

 ianized one colony, and next season I 



will keep none but Italian bees. 

 All the bee-keepers around here that I 

 have talked with, are going to Ital- 

 ianize their bees. Most of them have 

 blacks and hybrids, and one man has 

 " high breds " in " Longtrough hives." 

 He can take out a " sash " of honey 

 whenever he wants it. 

 Denison, Iowa, Dec. 3, 1888. 



MAPLES. 



What do the Bees Oalher from 

 the Hard IMaplcs i 



Written f 07- Glcaninga in Bee-CuHure 

 BY MAHALA B. CHADDOCK. 



How much honey do bees get from 

 the hard maple ? We have them in 

 our dooryard, and they were in bloom 

 last spring for two weeks, and the liees 

 fairly roared about them. I watched 

 them at work, and it seemed to me 

 that they did not stay long enough at 

 one blossom to suck nectar from it, but 

 just rolled and tumbled the stamens 

 about as though they were hunting for 

 something that they never seemed to 

 find ; then on the wing a moment, 

 twisting their legs together in a most 

 frantic way, then to another cluster, 

 and the same hurrying-scurrying mo- 

 tions. 



They worked on the maples only 

 when the days were warm. On cool- 

 ish daj's they flew away somewhere and 

 came back — some of them with a dif- 

 ferently-colored pollen on their legs, 

 but the most of them with nothing on 

 them. They came to the well for wa- 

 ter, and it seemed to me that, if pollen 

 was all that thej- got from the maples, 

 they might as well be working away 

 at them. 



I see, in examining the stamens of 

 difl'erent flowers, that there is a white, 

 sticky substance on the most of them, 

 wound carelessly around the pollen- 

 grains, something as an ear of corn 

 might look after being thrust through 

 a thin spider-web. Now, is this sticky 

 substance propolis P and do the bees 

 get some of it out of flowers if they 

 want it ? If this sticky substance is 

 propolis, it woidd be easy to see why 

 bees gather pollen better on warm days 

 than on coolish ones. 



This substance is very tenacious. A 

 thread of it will lift half the pollen on 

 one stamen — a thread that is invisible 

 to the naked eye. I killed a few bees 

 as they attempted to enter the hives. 

 Only one of them had honey in the 

 honey-sac, and I am inclined to think 

 that it was old honey that the bee had 

 carried from the hive. But finding 

 no honey in the bees would not prove 

 that the maple-blossoms contained no 

 honey. They might yield enough to 

 make the pollen stick together, and 



still the bees have none to carry home 

 in her sac. So with what I have inves- 

 tigated as to whether maple-blossoms 

 yield nectar, I have concluded that I 

 do not know. Is the nectar ever in the 

 stamens ? It seems to me that the 

 tube, or cup, that all flowers have, is 

 the place for the nectar. 



I like to look at flowers under the 

 magnifier. The most dull and insig- 

 nificant flowers are then gorgeous and 

 beautiful. The currant, gooseberry, 

 sassafras and maple are all interesting. 

 But the most delicate and beautiful of 

 all that I have seen is the cherry. The 

 petals look as if one could almost see 

 through them, while the many stamens 

 spread ever)' way. 



Nature seems to be veiy free with 

 her stamens, placing them not only 

 where thej' are needed, but also where 

 they are not needed. I find that the 

 maple-blossom has eight (or seven) 

 stamens protruding from its bell-shaped 

 flower. No more are to be seen any- 

 where ; but in some days — a week per- 

 haps — when the wings are half grown, 

 if we turn down the husk that was 

 once the flower, we find six more sta- 

 mens, with anthers bigger and more 

 full of pollen than any of the eight 

 that protruded from the flower. These 

 six stamens are useless. No bee, no 

 insect of any kind can get to them to 

 carry the pollen away, and the seed in 

 the seed-pod is much too far along to 

 need pollen. 



Vermont, Ills. • 



EXPERIMENTS. 



When to Put Bees into the 

 Cellar, etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY A. C. WALDRON. 



An experience of two years makes 

 me more enthusiastic than ever in my 

 chosen pursuit, having gone beyond 

 my own expectations. I started with 

 2 colonies, increased them to 8, lost 

 one, bought 5 more last spring, and 

 now I have 58 colonies, all in good 

 condition, so far as I know. Perhaps 

 I ought to say that I bought 3 Italian 

 queens during the time of working 

 for increase. I have had no large 

 yield of honey, although that has been 

 satisfactory. My bees are now in the 

 cellar, with the exception of one col- 

 ony, which is on the summer stand, in 

 a single-walled hive. 



I am experimenting a little in re- 

 gard to the time to put bees into the 

 cellar, and also in regard to ventilat- 

 ing the hives in the cellar. I weighed 

 nearly all of my hives on Sept. 21, and 

 on Nov. 14 to 16 I put them into the 

 cellar, weighing them again. The loss 



