1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



263 



As the following little sketch given in 

 Gleanings, in July, 1S74, gives a vivid 

 idea of one way of giving bees water, and of 

 the way they use it, I give it entire. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



"They are robbing the Quinby hive, now," 

 Mrs. N. had said to Novice who was suffer- 

 ing from a "tormented headache, " to use his 

 own expression, one pleasant Sunday after- 

 noon in May. lie had often boasted he 

 didn't have headaches, and seemed, so the 

 women folks say, to regard the matter as a 

 kind of feminine weakness that one should 

 be ashamed of, but now he was making more 

 of a row about it than a whole dozen of the 

 weaker sex; besides this, some neighboring 

 black bees had just discovered that a quanti- 

 ty of combs of nicely sealed sugar syrup 

 were but poorly guarded by a few miserably 

 weak Italian stocks. Under the circum- 

 stances. Mrs. N. and Master Ernest had been 

 directed to close the entrances of such hives 

 as failed to make a successful resistance, by 

 banking the saw-dust up in front. They 

 soon reported that the robbers were going 

 out and in under the cover of the Quinby 

 hive, it having warped enough to allow this. 

 In this dilemma. Novice was again consult- 

 ed, and was obliged to cease rolling and 

 tumbling on the bed where he lay, long e- 

 nough to direct that stove wood be piled on 

 the cover until the cracks were closed. This 

 was done, and Mrs. N., for additional securi- 

 ty, placed on the centre of the top of the 

 hive a large stone jar, inverted. 



When Novice awoke next morning at a- 

 bout his usual hour— -5 o'clock — although a 

 little sadder than usual, and perhaps wiser, 

 his head was free from pain, and he, of 

 course, repaired at once to the apiary, the 

 scene of yesterday's troubles and turmoils. 



A refreshing shower, which had been 

 much needed, had materially changed the 

 aspect of things, and as the locust blossoms 

 had opened during the night, all robbing 

 had ceased and every thing was lovely. 



On turning his eyes toward the Quinby 

 hive, which stood under the shade of a dwarf 

 pear tree, he beheld a perfect circle of bees 

 for all the world like beads strung on a 

 string, greedily sipping the rain water from 

 the concave bottom of that inverted stone 

 jar. It was raised up so they could find it 

 readily, was clean, and so shallow it could 

 not drown them, and altogether seemed just 

 the thing. Later, after Blue Eyes was up, 

 the numbers had increased, and so intent 

 were they on sipping the pure water, that 



she could touch them with her fingers with- 

 out their scarcely noticing the interruption. 

 Of course the supply was soon out, or would 

 have been had we not replenished it; the 

 concavity held about a tea-cupfull, and Miss 

 Maudie was commissioned to see that they 

 did not u get out." But they did for all that ; 

 for during hot days, several tea-cupfulls 

 were needed, partly on account of evapora- 

 tion, and it only remained for Novice to de- 

 vise a cheap and simple mechanical arrange- 

 ment to keep constantly full the shallow 

 cavity in the bottom of that stone jar. This 

 he did very quickly by filling a quart glass 

 fruit jar with water ; a piece of paper was 

 laid over the mouth until it could be invert- 

 ed on the stone jar, and then the paper was 

 drawn out. Of course when the water be- 

 came exhausted so as to allow a bubble of 

 air to go up into the jar, a little more water 

 came down, and so on. A quart of water 

 lasts several days, and the receptacle being 

 glass, we can always see when it needs re- 

 plenishing. We were amused this morning 

 to see the usual number of bees around it, 

 and more going and coming quickly, even 

 though it waajmmwgi quite briskly. Many 

 of the bees were quite young Italians that, 

 it seems, had become so accustomed to go- 

 ing to a certain spot for water, that they 

 couldn't think of doing otherwise even 

 though water was raining down all about 

 them. We are well aware the principle of 

 the above is not new, as feeders on a similar 

 plan are in use, but the plan of supplying 

 fresh water is new, at least to us. We have 

 in former years tried arrangements with 

 shavings, water allowed to drip on a board, 

 and a cloth laid over a vessel full of water, 

 but all of them were soon abandoned because 

 they were too much trouble, or were untidy, 

 etc., and the bees were allowed to go to dis- 

 tant muddy streams, to the pump, etc. Is it 

 not a fact that during the working season 

 the workers mostly fail from worn out 

 wings V and, if this is the case, should we 

 not save them all we can by having supplies 

 near at hand ? at least water, if we can do 

 nothing further ? 



Our 4000 basswood trees were planted 

 with this end in view ; that is, to give them 

 as much forage within one fourth mile of 

 their hives, as they usually get in an area of 

 one and a half or two miles around their hives. 



The device we have mentioned can of 

 course be used for out door feeding, and it 

 is perfectly secure from waste ; by inverting 

 a tumbler of syrup in a saucer, we can also 

 use it for feeding in the hives, when there 



