1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



253 



frames being used. These hives are placed in 

 bee-houses, each tier of hives resting on sepa- 

 rate siringers of its own so as to be removable, 

 by sliding out at front or rear, without inter- 

 fering with the others. There are generally 

 six or eight tiers — often fifty hives in each tier. 

 The rear end of each hive (occasionally the 

 front end instead) is removable for the purpose 

 of feeding, introducing queens, etc.. while, to 

 get at queen-cells, the bottom is taken off — the 

 latter being commonly fastened by hand-made, 

 wedge-shaped nails that are easily pulled. 

 Frame-hives are not popular, the few bee-keep- 

 ers who have tried them not having, except in 

 rare instances, understood their advantages. 

 But frames, when used, are mostly shallow — 

 from (■) to S inches only in depth, and are placed 

 crosswise of the hives, being removable from 

 the rear end. 



THE "shake-out"' FUNCTION AS PRACTICED BY 

 THE NATIVE BEE-Kf;EPERS OF CARNIOI.A. 



There is in Carniola, on the whole, very little 

 manipulation of combs or interference with the 

 interior of the hives beyond the cleaning of the 

 bottom-boards, feeding (which is diligently 

 practiced), and the supplying occasionally of a 

 queen or a queen-cell to a hive that has through 

 accident become queenless. The native bee- 

 keepers do not often have occasion to hunt out 

 queens: but when they do (most of the hives, 

 as already stated, being without frames), they 

 can only remove the bottom-board and shake 

 out the bees. They do this by main strength, 

 taking hold of the box in the middle, and giv- 

 ing it several violent jerks downward. But as 

 the main cluster of bees (especially in the fall, 

 or in weak colonies, after-swarms, etc., or in 

 such as have stored the rear end of the hive 

 full of honey) is generally in the front end of 

 the hive, I was able to adopt, and to show the 

 native bee-keepers in many places, much to 

 their delight, a far easier way; namely, the 

 plan of holding the back part of the hive be- 

 tween my knees, while I grasped the sides about 

 six inches from the front end and gave two or 

 three quick downward jerks, each followed by 

 a quicker upward motion, thus landing about 

 all — oftentimes ((ff— of the bees on the ground. 

 In this way I often captured from these box 

 hives, and caged in mailing-cages, 30 to 40 

 queens in two or three hours. 



Migratory bee keeping is followed extensive- 

 ly in Carniola. Hives are taken part way up 

 the mountain-sides to get the spring yield from 

 heath blossoms (Erica), and to the plains for 

 the buckwheat harvest. About 75 of the fiat 

 hives are loaded at one time on a swinging- 

 platform wagon, and moved at night. 



NATIVE HOME OF CAIiNIOI.ANS. 



The Duchy of Carniola {Herzixithuin Knilii), 

 as it is called, is a province about three-fourths 

 (SS.'iT sq. mi.) as large as Connecticut, situated 

 in the southwestern part of the Austrian em- 

 pire, where the Tyrolean Alps bend southward. 

 The main railway line (Siicdhdlni) from Vien- 

 na to Trieste passes thiouy:!! the center of Car- 

 niola, and the RiidolfslKilm. following down 

 the Save River from the northwest, joins the 

 first-mentioned line at Luibach, the capital of 

 the province, a city of about 27,000, situated 

 near the center of the elevated plain which, 

 sloping gradually to the southeast, constitutes 

 the gn^ater part of the surface of Carniola. 



This plain is some 3tM) to 4(K) feet above the 

 sea-level, in the southeast of Carniola, while at 

 Laibach it is nearly lOOO feet above that level, 

 and rises as one proceeds northward in the val- 

 ley of the Save. The latter narrows rapidly, 

 being bordered on the east and west by moun- 

 tain-ranges — the Carnic Alps, whose peaks 

 range from 20fW to nearly 10,0<K) feet in height. 



the culmination being near the northwestern 

 point of the province, whence the two ranges 

 proceed, and where the Save enters by a narrow 

 pass. As may be imagined, the winters, especial- 

 ly in the more elevated portions in the northwest, 

 are rather long and generally severe. The 

 snows are very deep in the mountains — a fall of 

 three or four feet at a time frequently occurring. 

 I have known the mercury to reach 30° below 

 zero Fahrenheit. There is much humidity in 

 the atmosphere, both winter and summer — 

 largely, no doubt, because of the nearness of 

 the region to the Mediterranean Sea, and in 

 summer to the constantly melting glaciers of 

 the mountains which feed many streams, and 

 to frequent and often rather long-continued 

 rains. The summers are, in fact, cool and moist, 

 clouds are frequent, and the air is often cooled 

 off very suddenly by winds laden with fog. or 

 at least cold, which sweep down from the 

 mountains. At such times — particularly in the 

 spring, and again in August during the buck- 

 wheat harvest (it is always much cooler after 

 Aug. 1.5T,h than before), the ground in front of 

 hives of bees is often literally covered with the 

 chilled workers, overtaken within the space of 

 a few moments, when attempting to regain their 

 hives. The race is very prolific, and recovers 

 with great rapidity from such disasters, though, 

 of course, when occurring at the opening of a 

 given harvest the latter is not of much use so 

 far as securing surplus honey is concerned. 



BEE-HOUSES IN CARNIOLA. 



The bee- houses are inclosed on three sides, 

 and the hive-fronts fill out the fourth side. A 

 space of about five feet is left at the rear of the 

 hives, and a door opens at one end into this, 

 while at the ojtposite end there is usually a 

 window closed by a wooden shutter. The bees 

 are wintered in these houses by stuffing hay, 

 forest leaves, moss, or something similar, in 

 between the tiers, of hives, at the ends of the 

 tiers, above, below, and against the back ends 

 of the hives, the material in this latter place 

 being held iu position by boards or quilts. 

 During Vury severe weather, and also when 

 bright sunlight might attract the bees out 

 upon the snow, a wooden shutter, like a trap- 

 door, is let down from above so as to close the 

 whole front. But this does not fit very closely, 

 being roughly made. 



The sides of the hives touch each other. The 

 tiers sometimes do. but usually each tier rests 

 on pieces of scantling which run from one end 

 of the bee-house to the other— one in front and 

 one at the I'ear. so placed that the hives can be 

 readily slid in free from each other, and so 

 the fronts will just fill the space between the 

 scantlings. Tops of hives are nailed on, except 

 in the small number of instances in which 

 frames are used in these long hives, when the 

 tops are generally hinged. Occasionally sur- 

 plus honey is obtained in caps such as farmers 

 place on box-hives in this country, the cap, in 

 this case, being placed over a hole in the top of 

 the Carniolan hive the same as with us. The 

 use of such a cap is exceptional, especially as 

 the hive with cap occupies the place of two 

 long flat hives. Most of the honey is obtained 

 by "taking up" (sulphuring) a certain pro- 

 portion of the colonies in the fall. Sometimes 

 the cleaner, newer combs ar(> placed by them- 

 selves and allowed to drain tolerably dry in a 

 warm room, the product, of course, being simi- 

 lar to extracted honey. It is sold as drip honey 

 (Trt)pfenhimi(j), while the most of the combs, 

 having been crushed in casks or vats, are per- 

 mitted to drain off a dark, rank, pollen-laden 

 iiijuid which they use in baking honey-cakes 

 in, in preparing various drinks, as well as to 

 feed bees. In truth, it is fit for nothing but this 



