THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



357 



What a pleasure it was to me to write the 

 articles. It was upon a new subject and car- 

 ried me back so completely to my boyhood's 

 days when I tramped the banks of the dear 

 old Butternut creek with a pack of traps on 

 my back. The articles were sent to the 

 American Agriculturist and the first one ap- 

 peared in the November issue. My next 

 effort in this direction was a bee hunting 

 article, tellins how to hunt wild bees and 

 was sent to the Vonths' Companion. It has 

 been accepted but is not yet published. To 

 illustrate this I made a bee box, and filled it 

 with comb that was nearly white, then with 

 a printer's roller I rolled some printer's ink 

 upon the mouths of the cells, thus blacking 

 them, and you have no idea how clearly the 

 net work of cells showed in the picture. I 

 also put a little honey in the cells and car- 

 ried some bees with me in a cage to where I 

 was to take the picture and placed them upon 

 the comb, and while they were " filling up " 

 I " pressed the button '' as the advertise- 

 ments say. I spent at least half a day find- 

 ing exactly the spot that suited me for taking 

 the photograph, and finally found just what 

 I wanted, where there were stumps and 

 brush, and a barn in the distance, with the 

 river to one side in the background, and a 

 tall stump in the foreground upon which to 

 set the bee box. I then hunted up a good 

 looking young man to go with me and lie 

 down on the ground just back of the stump 

 and pretend that he was watching the bees 

 in the box to see them take wing and then 

 "line "them. My visit to the skunk farm 

 as mentioned ia the last Review has been 

 written up and sent with the photos, to the 

 ^;/i. Agriculturist, and been accepted. I 

 have lately been to Saginaw and photo- 

 graphed all of the processes of salt making 

 from getting the brine from the earth, to 

 the finished salt piled up in cords and cords 

 of barrels ready for market. One of my 

 girls lately said : " Papa is just crazy to go 

 somewhere and take a photograph and then 

 write a story around it," and she has ex- 

 pressed it exactly. Now, while this enthusi- 

 asm will be at its height, say, next summer, 

 I propose'to visit the principle bee-keepers 

 of the Northern States and Canada, taking 

 my camera with me and photographing these 

 bee-keepers, their families, residences, api- 

 aries, and whatever of interest I may come 

 across, have cuts made from the photographs, 

 " write stories around then," and then put 

 all into the Review. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



1^* (-) inquisitive has modern apiculture be- 

 "^^ come that it is even inquiring after the 

 ^^ drones' brains. Of course the querist 

 does not intend to fill vacancies with them, 

 but only to increase the general fund of 

 knowledge. In creatures that have the brain 

 and intelligence mainly limited to the head, 

 cutting the head off leaves the body a help- 

 less lump. On the other hand some crea- 

 tures of a low down sort have the brain mat- 

 ter so diffused that they may be cut in pieces 

 and the pieces will set up in life for them- 

 selves. T. R. Bellamy, A. B. ./., i)?A, reports 

 concerning the drone as follows : 



'■ Once I behea<leil a drone, and in 24 hours af- 

 terward I saw him standing on his feet. I turned 

 him over on his back, and he would turn right 

 over and stand on his legs again." 



Consider once how much this implies — 

 control of nerves and muscles, sense of di- 

 rection, and so much of thoughtfulness, if 

 that is the proper word, that the slight dis- 

 comfort of being wrong side up was noticed 

 and acted on. Well, late in the season as it 

 was, I had some drones at one colony, and I 

 went for their heads. Alack ! none of mine 

 could stand up after decapitation, much less 

 turn over when put on their backs. After 

 some five hours, being kept warm mean- 

 while, two out of four could feebly move 

 the legs a little. All were stiff and still next 

 morning. Wonder if friend B.'s guillotine 

 did not bungle its job — cut off, or tear off, 

 most of the bulk of the head while leaving 

 most of the brain attached to the trunk. 

 Doubtless he is right as to the great vitality 

 of drone brood. He has often had them sur- 

 vive three days of starvation and cold down 

 cellar, and has reports of survival after six 

 days of it. 



I have a vitality yarn to tell also, only it 

 is of a worker bee. (Jn the 1.5th of October 

 I opened a big can of honey which was closed 

 and brought into the house eight days be- 

 fore. A bee inside, complately plunged in 

 honey, was still struggling, poor fellow. 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



This journal saems not to require any 

 special remark since last time, and we can 

 proceed at once to a "simmer" of the orig- 

 inal articles in the November number. 



