1S7G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



181 



SQUASHES AXU BEES. 



^^njS^ EAR G LEADINGS: -The back numbers onine to 

 ^Wj hand all in order. Have had a feast of good things, 

 — ill gleaning their pages. Perfection is not for mor- 

 tals here, below, a'.id we alll see with different eyes, ex- 

 cept those who grope their way through life and do not 

 see at all. With the latter I am not going to find any 

 fault at present, but I am astonished at brother Doolittle's 

 assertion that bees gather no pollen from the pumpkin 

 and squash; pape 155, July No. Now dear Gleanings 

 this touches a rather tender spot. You know wc all have 

 our hobbies and if they are assailed, we very naturally 

 defend them if we can. There is much said about 

 honey plants, and of cultivating special crops expressly 

 for honey. Now I am of the opinion there is no crop that 

 v/ill pay for this special purpose, but I do think the 

 squasJi as good, if not better than any other pollen pro- 

 ducing plant we have ; and I would advise every apiarian 

 who can, to have one acre of squash to cultivate and at- 

 tend in connectiort with his bees. 



All good apiarians love pets. You Mr. Editor have your 

 pet Blue Eijes, your pet bees, your pet hobbies in pet 

 hives, etc. I have my pet bees, pet chickens, pet goose- 

 berries, and above all my pet sqasJi, which mv bees fer- 

 tilize abundantly, and they— the sq«ash— supply the bees 

 with a rich harvest of honey and pollen from fresh and 

 rich bloom every morning, from May until September ; 

 three ftcU months at ieast. There is something peculiar 

 in the bloom of this vegetable, as it only opens its rich 

 golden bloom at break of day, just as the busy bee is 

 ready to sally forth, to commence the labors of the day ; 

 and here she finds the petal of purest pollen and beneath 

 it a cell of the purest nectar, awaiting the arrival of the 

 early worker. Yes, so rich is this bloom, I have often 

 seen three bees quietly taking the sweets from the base of 

 the cylinder, while the fourth was very deliberately load- 

 ing her baskets with pollen from the cylinder above. 

 Thus as she jxisses from the male (lower to the pistillate 

 or female flower, it is fertilized by the pollen from the 

 male cylinder. But stay, I am writing for a Bee journal 

 and not for an agricultural paper. As I said before, we 

 all have our pet hobbies. Jline are bees, poultry, and 

 squash. As we all know, to make bees profitable we must 

 help them all we can. There is some profit in poultry if 

 jn-operly managed ; mine i)ay their way by killing moths, 

 squash bugs, young drones and destructive insects, both 

 ia the apiary, orchard and vine patch. 



The fine varieties of squash that I raise, require nnich 

 care and attention ; they have as many enemies as the 

 bee, and can not defend themselves half as well. Were it 

 not for my chickens, I could not raise them here, and the 

 squash I know is a material help to the bee. The squash 

 crop is self sustaining ; one acre of Hubbard, Boston mar- 

 row, or Butman squash, is worth from SlOO,00 to 8150,00. 

 Just try it some of you, and if you don't have pet squash 

 as well as pet bees, I lose my guess. I have some of the 

 Hubbard at this date, (July 9th) weighing 10 lbs., of the 

 Boston marrow, that weighs 18 lbs., other varieties very 

 fine but not so forward. 



I would say to all readers of Gleanings, I am not so 

 young as I was fifty years ago. I have filled my mission 

 by raising a family of seven children, aiy Blue Eyes are 

 all married and heads of families. But I must still have 

 my pets, and I find myself yet able to attend to 150 or 200 

 hives of bees, make my hives, cultivate my garden and 

 one acre of squash, and have plenty of time to digest 

 Gleanings once a month. 



At another time if desired I will give Gleanings a sure 

 method of wintering bees. 



T , .„ , , ^ , A. J. Savage. 



Lakeville, Mo., July nh, 1S7G. 



As for as honey is concerued we heartily 

 agree with our friend, but must say with 

 friend Doolittle that ic is our opinion after 

 giving the matter some study, that the bees 

 get only honey from the vines. It is true they 

 get so covered with the pollen as to resemble 

 anything but bees, but as nearly as we can 

 discover, this is only accidental, and nothing 

 that the bee desires or appropriates ; for we 

 could never tind that they stored the sub- 

 stance in cells, or that it was taken off and 

 used in any way by the other bees. If our 

 friend has actually seen them loading it into 

 their pollen baskets, we suppose we shall have 

 to give up, but we really do not believe our 

 bees ever appropriate it in that way. We 

 heartily commend such innocent pastimes as 

 having pet squash vines, queens, chickens etc., 

 and the pleasure felt in seeing what can be 

 achieved with single specimens, by unremit- 

 ting care and study, is not to be compared with 

 those recreations that waste time, money, and 

 health. Happy is the one who can during the 

 eve of life, lind peace and joy in communion 

 with and in the study of the bees, birds and 

 flowers all about us. Ten acres of pumpkin 

 blossoms once gave our apiary as much as 1 

 lb. of honey per hive per day for several days. 

 We satisfied ourselves of the fact by observing 

 that the scales only showed this increase very 

 early in the morning, and at a time when the 

 whole apiary seemed going in that one direct- 

 ion. See page 78 Vol. I. 



ii p i ♦^^ ail 



HOW TO KEEP BOX HONEY. 



]®J)^-^ honey should be kept, if possible, in a honey 

 J-IDj) ') house made lor that very purpose. This house 

 shoukl not be over 7 feet high, and should be 

 large enough to hold all (he honey you think you will 

 ever produce, with room enough besides, for crating 

 it. Some one asks, "Why not have a house higher ? -' 

 Because we want to secure all the heat possible with- 

 out a lire, during August and September ; for tliis beat 

 causes your honey to grow thicker every day instead 

 Qf becoming transparent and standing in drops on the 

 surface as did Mr. Wolfenden's. Honey swells only 

 as it becomes damp from some cause, and the first 

 you will see of that dampness will be in the unsealed 

 cells, where the honey will have become so thin that 

 it will sta.-.d out beyond the cells ; or in other words 

 the cells will be "heaping full." If the dampness re- 

 mains, the sealed honey will become transparent, ami 

 eventually soak through and stand in drops on the 

 surface of the comb. Now if you keep the room thus 

 warm you will be liable t » be troubled with the moth 

 worm. Let your first honey taken oiV be separate, ex- 

 amine it every few days, and if you see many boxes 

 with little white places on them (generally near bot- 

 tom of box) resembling flour, you will have to brim- 

 stone it, as the moths will eventually eat the sealing 

 all oil' and make a bad job of it. 



Novice is right about our selling our honey early, 

 but wo should not think it right to sell honey that we 

 knew would depreciate in value in the ijurchasera 

 hands, to save ourselves a little troulfie, as he rather 

 seems to intimate. We have always sulphured oar 

 honey with the exception of one year, the last thing 

 before crating it. To do this, fix a solid foundation of 

 scantling two feet above the floor, on this place your 

 honey and whenever you think the moth should be 

 headed oil", get a pan of coals and set them in a kettle, 

 or fix in some way to prevent danger from fire, and 



