494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



do not believe that bee-keeping will ever be 

 gotten off the plane where all lifting will be 

 eliminated. The only way to get at any brood- 

 nest for any purpose, having supers filled with 

 honey on top, is to lift or slide the supers. 



tite junior editoe on anotiiek bicycle- 



touk; he discovers a bee-man who 



alavays gets the honey. 



Did you ever I Vor the past six or seven years 

 there has lived one of the most progressive, in- 

 telligent, and siiccessful bee-keepers in the 

 United States, within four miles of the Home 

 of the Honey-bees, and we didn't know it. We 

 had noticed that large amounts of fine honey 

 would come in from York, but thought nothing 

 particular about it. Observing one day that 

 the boss packer, Jake, was putting up a lot of 

 goods for a York man. we became interested, 

 and asked to see him when next he came. We 

 finally had the pleasure of meeting him last 

 week. He kindly invited us to come down and 

 see his bees that day. which we did toward 

 evening. We mounted our trusty steed, the 

 wheel, and in a few minutes more beheld one 

 of the neatest and prettiest apiaries in all the 

 country. 



A year or so ago. when we went by on the 

 bicycle, on that 4()0-mil(^ trip, to hunt up and 

 gather all the pointers we could from promi- 

 nent bee-keepers, we little realized, as we 

 passed, that we were leaving behind us a bee- 

 keeper who is not less piogressive than those 

 we intended to visit, hundreds of miles away. On 

 the present occasion, as we were standing at 

 the apiary we fell considerably chagrined to 

 find that we had all this time never known 

 more about this man and his success. We did 

 not have to wait long before the owner, Mr. 

 Vernon Burt, cann' out; and as we were 

 short of bees at Medina, we desired to look over 

 his, to see what we could ^buy. We remarked 

 that we were using only Hoffman frames, and 

 so we did not care for combs; all we desired 

 was the bees and brood, and old crooked combs 

 would answer our purpose, because the bees 

 and brood would soon be transferred into 

 frames of more modern construction. There 

 were something over 1(X) colonies, and every 

 one that we examined was fairly boiling over 

 in strength. The bepswere beautifully marked, 

 and even at that time were strong enough to 

 be in good working condition for honey. But, 

 not satisfied with it, Mr. Burt was encouraging 

 them all he possibly could to get a large force 

 of bees of the right age to work on clover and 

 basswood later on. He uses almost exclusively, 

 chaff hives — our old two-story and the old Sim- 

 plicity one-story. He hns nearly as many of 

 the latter a-^ of the former; and. as between 

 the two. the results in wintering compared as 

 favorably in one as in the other. We asked 

 nim whether he discovered any slight difference 

 in favor of the large two- story chaff hive. 



Not a particle, and what was more, the one- 

 story hives were very much handier. All things 

 considered, he very much preferred them. Dur- 

 ing the past unusually severe winter, when 

 everybody in our locality lost so heavily, he 

 lost only two colonies out of 110 or 115— the 

 exact number we do not now remember. Very 

 cautiously we ventured the question: 



" Did — did — did you use any sealed covers?" 



He gave us a sly twinkle, and said. " Not a 

 one. I was entinMy satisfied with the old way 

 —using a large absorbing cushion. I secured 

 good results, and I did not know why I should 

 not do, so again." And with a smile he added: 

 " I thought you would : abandon that sealed 

 cover later on." ■ . , 



We tried to tell -him that, the only way that 

 we could know a thing is to test it practically. 



" That is all right," said he; " but I prefer to 

 let the other fellows do the testing." 



We finally made him an offer on the bees for 

 the number that we would take. He hesitated 

 a little bit, and we noticed that he was disin- 

 clined to accept our offer. We finally said to 

 him. "Your colonies are in No. 1 condition, 

 beautifully marked, boiling over in strength, 

 and on perfectly straight wired combs; and, to 

 tell the truth, we would not sell them if we 

 were in your place. But we could not make 

 the price any more, as we could buy colonies on 

 crooked combs that would answer our purpose 

 just as well, for less money." 



" Yes," said he, '" my net profits on every one 

 of my colonies have been more, and I think I 

 prefer to take my chances on a honey crop." ■ 



It seems Mr. Burt has, during all these poor 

 seasons, made his bees pay well: and while 

 many of his neighbors have been droi)ping out 

 he has been steadily and surely increasing his 

 stock and getting his crops of honey. He has 

 a small farm that he runs in connection with 

 his bees; but the major part of his time is de- 

 voted to his pets, because he finds more money 

 in them. 



SHEEP AS LAWN-MOWERS IN THE AI'IARY. 



As we were walking through the apiary we 

 noticed the grass was kepi down, perhaps not 

 so nicely and evenly as a lawn mower would do 

 it, but well enough to answer all practical re- 

 quirements of the apiary. 



" You do nut dare to turn stock in here, do 

 you '?" said we. 



'• No." said he; "' I let loose a flock of sheep." 



" Only at night," we interposed. 



'" No," said he; " it makes but little difference 

 whether it is night or day. The sheep are sel- 

 dom molested, and they will eat the grass clear 

 up to the entrances. And even if the bees do 

 sting, they can not hurt them very much, on 

 account of their great woolly coverings." The 

 only time he had ever seen any commotion 

 among the sheep was when one of them "got 

 pecked in the nose." But that was rare. 



That evening, vvhen we got home and saw 

 the long grass among our hives (it is all nicely 

 mowed out now) we thought how nice it would 

 be to have some sheep that would keep the 

 grass down " automatically " and without the 

 help of any extra man. 



This method of keeping down the grass in the 

 apiary by means of sheep is certainly a good 

 one. We have seen the idea advanced a num- 

 ber of times before, but never had a chance to 

 witness how nicely they do the work, and at 

 practically no expense — nay, rather at a slight 

 net profit, because the grass is converted into 

 wool and mutton. Here is one case, at least, 

 where sheep and bees go well together. But in 

 California the thing seems to be reversed; or, 

 rather, to put it more exactly, a few sheep in 

 an apiary are an advantage; but when the 

 bee-pasturage is encumbered with ,5000 it is a 

 little too much of a good thing. Our stenog- 

 rapher suggests that the difference is here: In 

 California the sheep and bees are dependent on 

 the same plant for a living; hence the sheep 

 can very soon destroy all prospects of a honey 

 crop; but here the stieep eat the grass and let 

 the bees have the basswood and clover. 



Vfe have made arrangements with Mr. Burt 

 to make for us a number of experiments, as he 

 is so close at hand, to test, among other things, 

 the Pratt automatic hiver and the Langdon 

 non-swarmcr. He is in position to test practi- 

 cally a number of things that we could not do 

 here. Later on we will give you a picture of 

 his handsome apiary, and. if possible, will try 

 to make thecamera show how nicely the sheep 

 keep down the grass. 



