BEES AND FRUIT. 



61 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



APRICOTS DAMAGED 



BY BIRDS ; FRUITS THUS INJURED ARE 

 WHICH STORE THE JUICE AS HONEY. 



SUCKED DRY BY BEES, 



to be seen aroimd the vines when any human 

 being was present. This bird, about the size 

 of a sparrow, striped, and called the Cape 

 May warbler (Dendroica tigrina), hus a long 

 sharp needlelike beak. It will alight on a 

 bunch, and, about as fast as one can count 

 the grapes, will puncture berry after berry. 

 After his birdship has done his mischief he 

 leaves, and then come the innocent bees dur- 

 ing the later hours of the day and finish up 

 the work of destruction by sucking the 

 juices and the pulp of the berry until it be- 

 comes a withered skin over a few seeds. 

 While the birds during the early hours of 

 the day are never seen, the bees, coming on 

 later, receive all the credit for the mischief. 



The Cape May warbler is not the only bird 

 guilty of puncturing grapes. There are 

 many other species of small birds that learn 

 this habit, and amo»g them we may name 

 the ever present sparrow and the beautiful 

 Baltimore oriole, the sweet singer that is 

 sometimes called the swinging bird, from its 

 habit of building its nest on some overhang- 

 ing limb. 



For further information regarding grape- 

 puncturing birds, write to Dr. Merriam, of 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, "Washington, D. C. 



WHEN BEES MAY DAMAGE FRUIT. 



But there are times when bees do a real 

 damage : and it is then that their owner 

 should compromise, or, better yet, seek 

 means to avoid trouble in the first place. In 

 the fruit-drying ranclies of California, apri- 

 cots and peaches are cut up into small 

 pieces and laid upon trays exposed to the 



sun's says. If there is a dearth of honey at 

 this time, and a large number of bees in the 

 locality, this fruit is quite liable to be at- 

 tacked. The bees may visit it in such large 

 numbers that they suck out the juices, leav- 

 ing nothing but the shriveled form of the 

 fruit. The property is no doubt damaged 

 and its sale ruined. Before such a catastro- 

 phe can happen, the bee-keeper should move 

 his wliole yard to a point three or four miles 

 distant from any fruit-drying operations. 

 Failing to do so the fruit-grower, if the bees 

 caused trouble, might enter suit for dam- 

 ages, and possibly recover the value of his 

 crop. The bee-keeper, therefore, when the 

 drying season is on, should take the precau- 

 tion to move his bees away at once or make 

 arrangements with his neighbor whereby he 

 is to give immediate notice if the bees be- 

 gin work on the fruit. 



Years ago we had trouble with a cider- 

 maker.- He claimed that our bees would 

 lick up the cider from the press as fast as he 

 could make it. We easily adjusted this dif- 

 ficulty by screening his building with mos- 

 quito-netting, t 



In every case of this sort the bee-keeper 

 should avoid trouble. If he is a member of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association he 

 might put up a stiff defense, it is true ; but 

 in the case of the fruit-drying ranches and 

 the cider-mills, the bee-keeper had better err 

 on the safe side by avoiding suit for dam- 

 ages, because no bee-keepers' union or any 

 other organization, or lawyers either, for 

 that matter, would be able to give much as- 

 sistance where it was clearly proven that 

 the bees were doing an actual damage. 



