GLEANINGSolNBBEE CULTURE. 



:dec. i5.tr 



and. Investigation, however, showed many 

 bees already on the Island in caves, and Mr. 

 Wood reluctantly gave up 1he scheme. We 

 predict Mr. Wood will return here some time 

 and become one of our successful bee-keepers. 



AN KPISODE. 



Bee-keepers should not be unduly observing 

 in the city of Los Angeles, or perhaps, for that 

 matter, in any other city. The writer was re- 

 cently sauntering along in the suburbs of the 

 East Side, and, observing a blue-gum tree 

 nearly in bloom, stopped to give it a more crit- 

 tical examination. While indulging in this 

 laudable purpose a lady from a house near by 

 skipped out to the sidewalk ; nd shouted, " Air 

 you the city tree-inspector?" The front rim 

 of my straw hat came down from an acute per- 

 pendicular to a horizontal position with alacri- 

 ty, and I meekly replied, "No, mom, I am not 

 the official inspector. 



" Well, what on earth are you staring up all 

 the trees for?" 



•' My dear mom, I am a bee-keeper, and I am 

 merely inspecting the mellifluous inflorescent 



condition of the frondescent furfuraceous flow 



)> 



" Whew !" said the lady drawing a deep breath. 

 " Say, stranger, if you are one of them scien- 

 tific fellers, who don't know any better'n to 

 sling around such words as them 'mungst com- 

 mon folks, you jest step into our back yard. 

 You'll find a humpbacked cherry-tree there 

 you can talk to by the hour. Mebby you'll be 

 useful enough to straighten it. Good bye," and 

 she ambled into the house. 



I did not interview the cherry-tree, but 

 peacefully pursued my way with less slant to my 

 hat-brim, and sighing to think that the free 

 ways one enjoys in the country can not be 

 broughtintothe city without causingcriticisms. 



WINTERING IN THE SOUTH. 



A REAL, PROBLEM ; SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES 

 IN FEEDING TO PREVENT STARVATION. 



By Adrian Oetaz. 



There is no wintering problem in the South, 

 is the general verdict of all our leading writers. 

 That is true in a certain sense; but neverthe- 

 less there are some serious difficulties, of course 

 of a different nature from those met in colder 

 climates. Here in East Tennessee the winter 

 period begins about Nov. 1, at the end of aster- 

 blossoming, and ends some time during the lat- 

 ter part of March when the maples blossom — a 

 period of nearly five months. 



The chief difficulty lies in the nature of the 

 weather, which is not cold enough throughout 

 the winter to stop entirely the working and fly- 

 ing of bees. The general program is a few days 

 of rain, followed by a day or two of cold and 

 clear weather; then the temperature rises grad- 



ua'ly during a few days. During that time 

 bees fly every day. A gieat number go out too 

 late in the evening to come back before getting 

 chilled, and are lost. If the sun strikes the 

 hive they will come out when the air is too 

 cold, and be chilled before they have been able 

 to get back. Sometimes, if there is snow on the 

 ground, they are blinded by the light, and fall 

 down to rise no more. 



After a few days of rising temperature the 

 rains come again; then a cold wave, and the 

 process is repeated through the whole winter. 

 For a variation some snow takes occasionally 

 the place of the rain — rarely more ihan a few 

 inches, which disappears during the following 

 warmer days. Once or twice durinc the winter 

 the temperature may fall quite low (in the 

 neighborhood of zero); and the snow, if there is 

 any, may not disappear during the follo'wing 

 days of relatively high temperature. We have 

 then, for perhaps two or three weeks, a state of 

 afl'airs more like the northern winters except 

 that the temperature does not fall nearly as 

 low. That kind of climate causes considerable 

 loss to the apiarist. Din the first place, some 

 bees are lost by not being able to return home, 

 either by being chilled or by some other acci- 

 dent. Then',ihere is, during these warm days, 

 quite a consumption of honey, and, worse than 

 all, quite a little amount of brood raised, which 

 entails notonlv a diminution of stores but aloss 

 of vitality on the adult bees. If that brood 

 were raised safely, the loss might not be great; 

 but the trouble is, when the next cold wave 

 comes it can not always be covered or fed; and 

 by next flying-day, quite an amount of it will 

 be dead and thrown out. As the spring draws 

 near, this state of things^^gets worse. .The 

 warm days are still warmer ; and the cold 

 spells, though not so cold and not so frequent, 

 are yet cold enough to occasion a considerable 

 loss of brood, even after the blossoming of ma- 

 ples and peach-trees. The greatest danger at 

 that period is from the stores giving out, which 

 happens more frequently than an inexperienced 

 person would suppose. 



To guard against all this, one or two things 

 must be dene. The first is to te sure that every 

 colony has a good deal more than enough honey 

 before entering into the winter period. Anoth- 

 er is, to use chaff hives, not so muchtas a pro- 

 tection against excessive cold as an equalizer 

 between days and nights and between cold and 

 warm days. With a chaff hive, even if it is 

 exposed to the sun, which is the best, the inte- 

 rior of it will, as a rule, never get warm enough 

 to induce the bees to fly unless the outside tem- 

 perature is sufficient to permit them to do so 

 safely; and the heat thus stored up in the chaff 

 is there protecting the colony during the night. 

 A double case without packing will not do. It 

 will, of course, keep ofl' the warmth during the 

 day, but leave the hive colder than ever during 



