216 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



HONEV DEW. 



«f?f SEND you some honoy dew insects. Last Sun- 

 fe| day, I noticed my bees moving over a small 

 ^ pophti- (tulip tree), and, upon examining- it, I 

 found the leaves dripping with honey dew. Did it 

 exude from the leaves? 1 saw no living insects, and 

 yet the dew fell in a continuous shower. A closer 

 examination showed mc the small limbs covered 

 with scale like bunches, piled on each other like 

 oyster shells. One end of the apparent shell or 

 scale is larger and broader than the other, with a 

 slight crease up the middle; about midway vip this 

 crease is a small white dot; this dot is a small valve 

 covering a hole through which the honey dew is 

 thrown by the insect. As I stood and watched, I 

 could seethe valve open, a few jets of fluid thrown 

 out, and the valve closed again. This would be re- 

 peated every moment or two, and as there are un- 

 told numbers of there strange things on the tree, 

 you can have some idea of the amount of dew 

 thrown out. For a whole week now, these insects 

 have been making honey dew; how much longer 

 they will continue to do so, I can't tell, but intend to 

 watch them. 



I never noticed any thing like it before, and 

 thought that it might be of interest to some of your 

 readers, therefore I write this account. I send you 

 some of the insects to-day by mail; if it is anything 

 new, let us all have the benefit of your opinion 

 through Gleanings. 1 cannot yet believe the "Exu- 

 dation Theory" of honey dew, but will wait till I find 

 out more about it. W. J. Willard. 



Jonesboro, Ills. 



Many thanks, friend W. The scaly little 

 fellows that cover the twig you send. I 

 should scarcely have thought of calling in- 

 sects, had you not mentioned it. The phe- 

 nomena are truly wonderful, and, at least, 

 demonstrate that honey dew is not the 

 product of any one species of insects; for, in 

 our vicinity, it is thrown off by a kind of 

 aphide, as I have described in A B C ; and 

 it seems to me quite possible, that those 

 who have declared that no insects were vis- 

 able, where the honey was ])lenteous, may 

 liave entirely overlooked this animated 

 scale on the limbs and twigs. Prof. Cook 

 writes in regard to the specimen as follows: 



The bark lice are the first ones referred to in first 

 edition of Manual, page o5, in second edition, page 

 318. It is a species of Lecanium, and a great pest, as 

 it furnishes miserable stores for bees, a7id soon de- 

 stroys the tulip tree. A.J.Cook. 



CALiIFORNIA. 



BID you ever try to hive a wagon load (,f bees? 

 If so, and you had thom all in one mass, with 

 — 6 or 8 old qvieens and l.'i or ii) youn^- ones, you 

 had a taskthat tried your bc('-kctpi'ng(iualiHcations. 

 I had such a time; they wouldn't sta.u put anjwhere, 

 and after hiving 1.5 or 30 large swarms, each ^vith 

 one or more queens and two emptj' combs, they 

 woxdd peisM in coming out and flying back to the 

 heap. At last, they started for the mountains, but 

 Eddie (my 13 year old boy, who is my only assistant 

 so far), with a looking glass, made them light, f nd 

 they lit in good sized swarms, scattered over a dis- 

 tance of 40 rods; so that, by gi^^ng each hive a 

 frame of brood, all were saved and no trouble made. 

 And right here, comes in the secret of hiving 

 swarms with old and young ((ueens, or with any 

 other, for that matt- r-o /rame of hrood iviU keep 

 anuHwnrm. 1 have trcd it in more than 100 cases, 

 without a single failure. 



This business of hiving bees is one to which little 

 attention isjriven in your journals, ami .\ et it, and its 

 following duties, are quite as important as fixing 

 smokers, over which so much contro\ersy has aris- 

 en. Hf' f. with .5 or 6 weeks of c\ery day swarming 

 (I have J d over 300 this season so tar), the business 

 becomes systematized, and we Ijccome so used to 

 hearing the oft n pcatccl crv "Swarm out!" that it 

 excites no feeling exci'pt that of work to be done, 

 or of disgust 1 hat some swarm, alreadv partlv hived, 

 must be hurried in, before the next conies and tries 

 to go in or join it. All through April, we had cloudy, 



j rainy weather, pretty cold, too; but every day, even 



! in light showers, one or more swarms would issue. 



I hived several swarms with my rubber coat on in 



the rain, and two swarms were caught, one day, in a 



, pouring rain and hail storm. With the thermometer 



: at 03-' and raining, it is simiething besides /jfcif which 



drives out a swann. Let some of those gentlemen 



who want to account for the fact of bees swarming, 



j lay it to the natural instinct of all animal creation, 



; to increase their species. 



I There has been general complaint of swarms re- 



1 turning, of (jueens getting lost, etc. Many of mine 



! went back, but by a little management they can be 



[ hived just as well as any other swarm. Eddie 



usually secures the old queen, by finding her on the 



ground near the hive, while I replace the old hive 



with a new one, and as soon as all arc in, put the 



swarm where 1 want it, and set the old hive back. 



Swarming, with me, ended May 1st, but since then, 

 we get from 3 to 5 a day. During April, I had 15 to 

 3-i a day. 



While that wet weather lasted, the flowers yielded 

 no honey, the rain washing it all out; so that, from 

 the L^th to 3tith, I had to feed the swarms to keep 

 them from starving. On the 28th, it cleared up, and 

 the blue sage then being in full bloom poured out 

 the honey in such quantities, that in 3 days, all 

 strong hives were filled full; and all at once they 

 rushed for the section boxes, and began building- 

 comb at a furious rate. Now I have them filling- 

 some hundreds of section boxes; not your kind of 

 frames, but 8 frames make a box here; some hives 

 are at work in 6 boxes, which, when filled, will hold 

 80 lbs. net. Since the rains held up, we have foggy 

 nights and by 6 A. m. it is drizzling a fine rain, mak- 

 ing everything -wet. All the honey gathei-ed so far 

 is thin as water,— so thin it will run out of the cells, 

 if a comb is held wrong side up. They can't cap it 

 and we can't extract any of this unripe sweetened 

 water, and so we are waiting for it to get ripe, -while 

 every cell is full to overflowing. Comb building is 

 going on like magic. A good swarm fills its main 

 frames full in from 5 to 6 days. I have about 75 fill- 

 ing- t he 3d story main frames, in my new two stoi-y 

 Simplicity hives. The combs are white as snow, and 

 the frames are hea-v-y as iron wedges. 



Mr. C. J. Fox, president of our county bee society, 

 called a day or two ago, on his return from his apia- 

 i-y, some 15 miles north of me. He brought along 

 a ease of new, blue sage honey, white as the driven 

 snow. He reported any quantity nearly ready to 

 come off. He has, by much labor, perfected a pack- 

 ing case which, when you come to see it this fall, 

 filled with our honey, I think you will adopt in place 

 of your "Prize crate", with glass sides. This crate 

 holds '4 boxes or whole ones, and has slides at the 

 ends of the combs, acting like the covers of starch 

 boxes. The case, holding 3 full Harbison section 

 boxes, or about 45 lbs. net, is of fine size, 13x30x7, 

 with holes at the ends for the ends of the fingers to 

 carry by. W'e call this the "Fox crate", as he gives 

 its use free to all. 



Our main honey plants, white sage, sumac, and 

 greasewood, are not yet in bloom. All promise 

 splendidly, for honej' and lots of hard work. 



G. F. Merriam. 

 San Luis Eey, Cal., May 13th, 1878. 



I think you are right, friend M., in regard 

 to the importance of the matter of swarming 

 being more thoroughly systematized, but 

 you certainly are putting it rather strong, 

 when you say that a frame of brood will 

 keep any SAvarm. EA'ery now and then. Ave 

 have exceptions to the rule, as the folloAving 

 note, just at hand, Avill attest. 



I would say that I have "Bee on the brain". I 

 sent to you, in March, for A B C in Bee Culture, and 

 you were kind enough to sendGLEANiNGS for March. 

 At that time, I had 7 colonies in log and box hives. 

 I went to work and put up 30 nunable frame hives, 

 something like Langstroth's, I suppose, and I now 

 haA-e 15 strong colonies. It is a "new departure" in 

 this section, and some of the wise ones shake their 

 heads ominously. I have had ti natural swarms, 

 one of which absconded, after being hi\c<l the sec- 

 ond time with a frame nf hrond; also 3 artificial 

 swarms, which are all doing well. The bee fever is 

 rising very fast, in this community, and I have al- 

 ready had several jobs of transferring for my neigh- 

 bors. H. H. Fox. 



Tribulation, Mo., May 28th, 1878. 



