1S<I5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



903 



dreds of miles apart, have done their worl< 

 faithfully and speedily. While I hardly see 

 how the proposed constitution could l)e im- 

 proved, it is now submitted to the larger wis- 

 dom of bee-keepers at large for suggestions. It 

 may occur to some, for instance, that the mem- 

 bership-fee should be reduced, as that has been 

 advocated some: but the committee, if I am 

 correct, feel that this is too bold a step just now. 

 This is. perhaps, a question that should be left 

 for the fnture. 



THIEVES AND MISCHIEVOUS BOYS AT OUT- 



YAKDS; HOUSE -APIARY THE BEST 



SOI-UTION OF THE PBOBLEM. 



Several times our basswood out- apiary has 

 been visited by thieves; and a few days ago 

 some boys, bent on mischief or malice, actually 

 overturned several of our two and three story 

 colonies. It could not have been the wind, 

 because there was intelligent (not to say mis- 

 chievous) design in their madness. For in- 

 stance, one hive — a three-story one — was turned 

 bottom upward, and set back exactly on the 

 same spot of ground. Strangely enough, al- 

 though there was lets of honey, none was 

 stolen; and, again, tools were scattered all over 

 the apiary. Happening by on my bicycle I dis- 

 covered this reversed order of things, and. as 

 luck would have it, I must have come around 

 shortly after the boys left; for robbers had not 

 yet gotten at the exposed tops of hives from 

 which the covers were removed. Is it possible 

 I happened to scare them off before they had 

 time to appropriate the honey ? 



The apiary is located among the trees a little 

 way back from the road, and the next house 

 stands a little excluded from the view. 



Well, what did I do? Simply set things to 

 rights. Those big double and triple deckers I 

 simply rolled like so many sugar-barrels, over 

 and over and over, until succeeded, after 

 much effort, in getting them near their old 

 location: then I boosted, and grew red in the 

 face, until I cot them back where they were. 

 " My I" thought I, as I got the last hive hack to 

 its place, "it must have been lots of fun for 

 those boys to tug at them, if they worked as I 

 did." for they were pretty well filled with honey 

 and bees. You see we had not yet fixed them 

 over for winter. 



But how about the bees, the combs, and the 

 frames? The latter were Hoffman, of course, 

 and stayed right where "they were at;" and 

 after the hives were back in their places you 

 would not know, by looking at the bees or 

 combs, that they had been subject to such 

 rough treatment. So much for self-spacing 

 Hoffman frames. What would have been the 

 result if they had been the old-fashioned loose 

 unspaced kind ? 



the remedy. 



At first I proposi^d inserting a notice, offering 

 a reward for the arrest and apprehension of 



the guilty parties, for the penalty, in this State 

 at least, is very heavy for in any way unlaw- 

 fully meddling or tampering with hives of bees; 

 but on second thought I concluded it would do 

 no good, and perhaps direct the attention of 

 other niallciuus persons to the apiary in ques- 

 tion. 



In mentioning the matter to F. A. Salisbury 

 he told me that not only his home but his out 

 bees were in a house-apiary — just such a one as 

 was recently described on page (i(J2 of our issue 

 for Sept. 1st. He could not only handle twice 

 as many colonies with the same labor because 

 every thing is so handy, but he could lock it 

 up, secure from petty thieves and mischievous 

 boys. The honey could be taken off at the 

 proper season, and stored in the building, and 

 he could at his leisure come and take it away. 



Speaking of the house-apiary in this connec- 

 tion reminds me of the quick way of feeding 

 his bees, and to which he briefly alluded in his 

 article on page 663. Of course, inside he uses 

 for convenience the common out-door hives. 

 These give him the advantage of shifting 

 whole brood-nests or supers; and then he can, 

 when desired, bring an outdoor colony inside, 

 and, vice versa, shift an inside colony to the 

 outside. Instead of regular bottom-boards he 

 uses shelves that are part and parcel of the 

 house. In the bottom of this — that is, under 

 each hive — are two grooves that are intended 

 for feed. These grooves, extending outside of 

 the hive proper, and covered with wire cloth as 

 far as they project beyond the hive, prevent 

 tlie escape of bees. When feeding-time comes, 

 syrup is made in the hou>e by the extractor 

 plan, as given elsewhere. Glass Mason jars are 

 tilled full; squares of tin are then laid over, 

 and, last of all. the jars are inverted and set 

 over the wire cloth covering the aforesaid 

 grooves. The tins are withdrawn from the 

 jars now inverted, and the feed rims along the 

 grooves under the brood nests. The whole 

 work is done inside of the building, secure from 

 robbers and thieves of the human kind (some 

 of our syrup during feeding was stolen also, at 

 our basswood yard). Friend S. says the feed- 

 ing can be done up in short order: and as fast 

 as the jars are emptied, which can be told at a 

 glance, they may be refilled if the colony 

 requires it. As soon as they are fed they are 

 prepared for winter, which is another short 

 operation. 



Mr. Salisbury says he lias also overcome the 

 smoke nuisance. By his arrangement he se- 

 cures a cool pleasant place to work, no matter 

 how hot outside. 



I believe I shall not rest till we get a house- 

 apiary at our basswood yard. A few more 

 visits from thieves, to say nothing of the annoy- 

 ance of having the hives tampered with, and 

 tools stolen, would pay for a good building, in 

 time. 



