792 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



Figs, ll and 12.— Passing the supers of honey through the canvas Hap door of the extractlng-tank. 



carried into the house, some honey will be 

 wasted by "bleeding "while the supers are 

 stacked up. When the honey is wheeled in 

 on the wheelbarrow, four or five full-depth 

 seven-frame supers is our usual load; but a 

 strong man can wheel more on good ground. 



Figs. 11 and 12 show the oiierator passing 

 honey in through the canvas flap door. One 

 of the interesting things about this type of 

 door is that, while it does not always hang 

 right to close the door completely, the bees 

 rob very little around it. Here is where the 

 big screen windows come in handy in our 

 honey-house. The bees go to the point of 

 the strongest odor of honey, which is, of 

 course, at the big screen windows. There is 

 often a great whirl of robbers about these 

 screen windows or screen sides whi'e scarce- 

 ly a bee will be bothering about the doors. 

 The greatest advantage of the screens, how- 

 ever, is that they permit plenty of air. Our 

 old tent with much smaller windows was so 

 hot that we could scarcely stand it; but with 

 the windows we have now we have not suf- 

 fered at all from the heat this summer. 



Mesilla Park, Xew Mexico. 



BEE-KEEPING AS A HOBBY. 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



Census reports show that three-quarters 

 of a million people in this country are suffi- 

 ciently interested in bees to keep at least 

 one hive, the average being about four to 

 each apiary. Most people will be rather 

 surprised to learn that about one person in 

 every hundred in the United States keeps 

 bees; but should they ever catch the bee 

 fever they will soon discover hives in yards 

 near by where their presence was never sus- 

 pected. 



While there are, perhaps, a thousand men 

 who depend upon raising honey as a means 

 of livelihood, the vast majority are keeping 

 bees for pleasure rather than for profit, con- 

 tented to get a few hundred pounds of hon- 

 ey for family usp. Foj many years the 



writer's family has consumed 200 pounds of 

 honey annually, in his opinion with highly 

 satisfactory results, judging by the general 

 health of the members. Honey is a predi- 

 gested food, capable of rapid assimilation; 

 better still, it is a natural laxative, deserv 

 ing consideration from people of sedentary 

 habits. 



The average reader of the title of this 

 chapter will, at the first glance, be tempted 

 to move that it be amended by introducing 

 the word "country" before the word "hob- 

 by." Bee-keeping as an occupation is un- 

 doubtedly a rural one, frequently very iso- 

 lated, but it is just as often — nay, very much 

 oftener — a city hobby, for in every one of 

 our large cities there are men amusing 

 themselves by caring for a few colonies of 

 bees in back yards, on roofs of dwelling- 

 houses — aye, even on the roofs of business 

 blocks. The marvel frequently is, where do 

 the industrious little insects get their food? 

 But get it they do, usually with a surplus 

 of delicious honey for the owner as a ma- 

 terial gain that adds to the zest of the fas- 

 cinating pastime. Any one within a mile 

 and a half of a region where there are a few 

 acres of clover or sweet clover, whether in 

 the form of city park, vacant lots, or every- 

 day unimi^ roved streets, need have no hesi- 

 tation in making a venture with a hive of 

 bees with the full certainty that, from an 

 investment of about twenty dollars, he will 

 have not only a daily interest in living crea- 

 tures, but once in a while a little mild ex- 

 citement that will make him for the mo- 

 ment forget all his other troubles. 



A hive of bees may be kept almost any- 

 where; but, of course, the most favorable lo- 

 cation is out in the rural regions where 

 flowers are in plenty. A hive is an attrac- 

 tive feature in the back yard, and, in the 

 writer's experience, interferes in no way 

 with its utility for other recreation. On a 

 corner lot in a Chicago suburb he once kept 

 four colonies near the back porch within 20 

 feet of the children's croquet ground, with- 

 out any annoyance. Often a ball would 

 roll in front of a hive and be fished out at 



