1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



407 



two boards or planks l)etween the rows that 

 form the stand. These planks are a little low- 

 er down. Now, the popular way of feeding in 

 the South is to pour the syrup or honey on the 

 bottom board ; but if the hive is level the feed 

 will run out of the entrance and incite rob- 

 bing. This manner of feeding is, of course, 

 done at dusk, just after the bees have quit fly- 

 ing. In this manner every thing is licked up 

 clean before morning, so there is no tendency 

 to rob. Of course, the bottom-boards are per- 

 manent. Well, now, to keep the feed from 

 running out at the front, the hive is pulled 

 forward just enough to let the back end sink 

 down and rest on the plank ; and a hive may 

 remain in this position as long as you are 

 feeding unless you have considerable rain. If 

 it commences raining very much you want to 

 go around, lift up the back end of each hive, 

 and slide it back. 



Now, there is another advantage in these 

 movable stands for hives such as I have de- 



we have exceedingly high winds. If I re- 

 member correctly, friend Marchant says that, 

 during the heat of the summer, he will put up 

 posts and make a roof of boards to shade the 

 hives and the operator. But this roof will be 

 removable so it can be taken off and piled 

 away during another fall, winter, and spring ; 

 for during winter, he says, he must have all 

 the sunshine on the hives that can be had, and 

 the same until the sun gets so hot that the 

 shade-boards are an advantage. 



Well, my two pictures are pretty good for a 

 green hand with the kodak. Don't you think 

 so ? But lest you should not notice it, let me 

 direct your attention to No. 1. It is a little 

 like the puzzle pictures we see in some of the 

 newspapers. If you look sharp, perhaps you 

 will see two girls in the background. They 

 do not belong to the bee-keeper, however. 

 Mr. Marchant wanted to take me up to his 

 out-apiary, a mile or more up the river. The 

 obliging captain of a little steamer very kind- 

 ly carried us up there. Aft- 

 er we got back, his two lit- 

 tle girls wanted to know if I 

 could take their pictures. 

 They stood up in front of 

 Mr. Marchant's house. 

 Well, I took their pictures, 

 but forgot to turn the film. 

 I insist that I did 7iot forget 

 — that I turned the film ev- 

 ery time ; but Ernest says 

 that the kodak, like figures, 

 never tells lies ; and while 

 the poor girls did not get a 

 picture they are (after all) 

 there just back of the hives. 

 I wrote them the best apol- 

 ogy I knew how to make ; 

 and next time I will try to 

 turn off the film after I take 

 a snap shot at the hives, es- 

 pecially when some good- 

 looking little girls want their 

 pictures taken. 



MARCHANT'S STANDS FOR HIVJiS, AND MiiT 

 ING THE HIVES. 



scribed. In many parts of Florida, ants are 

 very troublesome. Some of the larger kind 

 will drive out and destroy a colony of bees 

 unless they have protection. Just put each 

 leg of the hive-stand in a dish containing wa- 

 ter, with a little coal oil on the surface, and 

 the ants will be helpless so far as meddling 

 with the bees is concerned. 



Last, but not least, these kodak views were 

 taken to illustrate Marchant's method of 

 shading. The shade board is made of shin- 

 gles, as you will notice, and their form is such 

 that they hold their place on the hives unless 



HUD OF SHAD- 



At Stuart, Dade Co.,Fla., 

 I found our wide-awake vet- 

 eran bee-keeper, O. O. Pop- 

 pleton, as busy as usual, and 

 actually getting honey from 

 the Florida pennyroyal, al- 

 though I rather think there 

 is no other bee-keeper in 

 Florida who secured any 

 honey in the month of Feb- 

 ruary. There was a very cool north wind, 

 so the bees could not fly very much ; but 

 the hives were " chockful " of honey, and 

 he said he would have been extracting had 

 not the weather been so cold. This Florida 

 pennyroyal grows more or less through the 

 woods in many parts of Florida, but there is 

 not such a quantity of it anywhere else that I 

 know of as right around Mr. Poppleton's. 

 The honey is not as light in color as some, but 

 it is very fair, and it has a peculiar enticing 

 flavor. We have a barrel of it on the way to 

 Medina. When it comes I will tell you more 



