1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



83 



next best thing; and so far as the cost of twine 

 is concerned, I shall not pay out a cent, as I 

 shall use corn-husks for strings by slitting the 

 husks up into half-inch strips when wet. By 

 twisting a little they are much nicer for that 

 purpose than any twine I can find. I have used 

 husks for tying up grapevines, and like them 

 very much."" A. E. Manu>[. 



Bristol, Vt., Jan., 1893. 



[Mr. Manum's accidental experiment was 

 rather disastrous to the sealed-cover idea. It 

 didn't work that way for us. We are trying 

 the matter on a more extensive scale this win- 

 ter, and this spring we shall be able to come to 

 a more definite conclusion of the actual value 

 of the sealed covers, as the winter has been very 

 cold so far.] 



BALDENSPERGERS LETTER. 



thp: flack wheke eli.jah called down fike: 

 bee-moths of the east; moving bees 



ON camels' backs; DKONES, how FAR 

 WILL THEY FLY? ETC. 



On p. G47. Sept. 1. you ask in a footnote wheth- 

 er they are able to identify the spot where Eli- 

 jah called down fire from heaven. I do not 

 know. You are aware that almost every mira- 

 cle and every great deed spoken of in the Bible 

 was utilized, at a remote period, may be for pie- 

 ty, but more likely to extort money, to identify 

 a spot in every locality which might serve to 

 draw the attention of pilgrims to the Holy 

 Land. Of course, every one lays down a small 

 sum of money, an offering, and churches, chap- 

 els, mosques, and convents have sprung up at 

 such points, still held partly by the Franciscan 

 friars, partly by the Greek church, and many 

 have fallen into the hands of the Mohamme- 

 dans since the retreat of the Crusaders. At the 

 spot you call our attention to, no art has been 

 used. A rough altar of stones is built ud, and 

 pointed out as the very place on which Elijah 

 called down the fire. It is called " Muhraka." 

 " the burning place,"' and is still visited yearly 

 by the natives. Christians, and Mohammedans, 

 and probably this custom has been kept up ever 

 since the great event. Four hundred and fifty 

 prophets were beheaded on the banks of the 

 river; the Israelites kept up their yearly visits; 

 the Christians followed their example when 

 they were masters there, and the prophet Eli- 

 jah is held in great esteem by the Mohamme- 

 dans also, by the name of " Chadder." the liv- 

 ing, on account of his translation to heaven; so 

 the custom was probably kept up, and is so to 

 this day. Sheep and goats are taken there and 

 offered in remembrance, or to fulfill vows made 

 in illness, or for any kind of relief. The ani- 

 mals are killed, and eaten by all partakei's of 

 the feast. The big Carmelite convent whicli is 

 located here gives one a very good idea of the 

 buildings scattered about here and there in 

 Palestine, mostly built with pilgrims' money. 

 This is also a place where like festivals are 

 held in remembrance of Elijah's being fed by 

 ravens. The sanctuary of the convent is built 

 over a cave, which is still pointed out as the 

 identical cave of Elijah. The newly establish- 

 ed apiary is about two miles back of the convent. 



In warm climates, honey-bees eat a good deal 

 more honey, when they can get it, than in the 

 North. I think a colony needs fully 40 lbs. from 

 the end of September to the end of February or 

 middle of March. The warm days in winter 

 are not scarce, and bees fly out in search of pol- 

 len and water, and take their stores in passing. 

 Thus the mild winters are a nuisance, inasmuch 

 as they cost us Southerners a good deal more 

 honey than you Northern people. The most in- 



telligent and progressive bee-keepers live in the 

 North; but it is just this that made them start 

 up there, while Southern bee-keepers depend a 

 good deal on the let-'em-alone system. The 

 few there are invent nothing, or next to noth- 

 ing, leaving that honor to the busy Northern 

 heads. We then buy your articles ready made, 

 and use them gladly and profitably. 



Mr. E. France, on page (549, talks about bee- 

 moths. Although our Eastern bees keep the 

 moths at a distance, yet old combs and want of 

 bees greatly favor the breeding of the moths. If 

 we do not take away, during the autumn, the 

 surplus combs, the moths do away with them in 

 the shortest time imaginable. We therefore 

 take a hive with 13 combs at the bottom, and 

 tier up in supers five or six stories high, and 

 sulphur them once a week to begin with, and 

 once a month later on. Camphor put in be- 

 tween the frames will also preserve them. 



The '•full-blooded" Cuban apiary, Sept. 1, p. 

 6.51, is just as much a genuine North-African 

 apiary. Laying the hives down horizontally, 

 and a few square hives, with one or two of cork 

 oak, round, is just the thing you meet with in 

 Algiers. Tho Spaniards probably got the idea 

 here, and carried it to Cuba centuries ago. I 

 think it would be very interesting, especially 

 for Southern bee-keepers, to hear more about 

 migratory bee-keeping, and the way of doing it 

 at the least expense. Of course, in this country 

 a different system will have to be used. In the 

 old country I used camels to carry the bees 

 where I wished. J wish I could have such ani- 

 mals here for carrying hives some little distance 

 up the mountain-paths into the Alps; although 

 I think with horror of the time of our greatest 

 trials in getting the hives loose from the cam- 

 els' backs, the cordage being very much in the 

 way (see p. (527, 1890). But we used to pay only 

 20 to 50 cts.. according lo distance, sometimes a 

 dollar, to carry eight hives. 



I have never seen bees fly back to their place 

 when removed V^ miles from their original 

 stand, in the height of the season; and do the 

 big queen-breeders really mean to say that 

 drones will fly 7 miles away from their homes, 

 or, say, only 2i.j miles, the queens meeting them 

 half way, thus also flying 2'.j miles'? I shall try 

 this next season here in the Alps, where I can 

 easily tell black from yellow bees. I always 

 thought, from the way bees acted and drones 

 congregated in Palestine, that it was next to 

 impossible to have queens mated at such dis- 

 tances. I left ten nuclei with virgin queens in 

 the home apiary in Jaffa, one apiary being two 

 miles away, some very considerable apiaries 

 about four miles, and an apiary of about ten 

 hives about one mile away. Well, not one of 

 my virgins was mated. This was in June, 1889. 

 I then concluded that, unless hives with drones 

 were in the immediate neighborhood, they 

 would not be mated, and consequently that 

 queens can be mated pure, provided no other 

 apiaries are within a radius of one mile. Again, 

 as I am writing I remember that, in 1883, I was 

 raising queens in Beirut, at the Lebanon Apia- 

 ry, for Mr. Frank Benton; and having young 

 queens continually, by June I had no more 

 drones in the apiary, and 1 could not get my 

 queens fertilized. In my trouble I wrote to Mr. 

 Benton, then at Athens, Greece, to ask him 

 how I could induce my queens to lay diones. 

 They were all given up entirely to queen-rear- 

 ing. He wi'ote some directions; but I had al- 

 ready bought native bees, with plenty of drones, 

 a few miles away, and brought and iransferred 

 them into bar-frame hives. That helped me 

 out of my trouble. 



Your description of the "big Injun," p. 741, 

 reminds us of our Arabs, in their haughty and 

 indolent way; and the further you go among 



