1889 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



51 



Hme-kilns are a great destruction to the forests, if ■ 

 such they may be called. Although strict ordersjj 

 from Constantinople have forbidden the cutting-up | 

 of trees and roots, still the work of destruction is 

 going- on, and before long it will be difficult to find 

 the traces of where once stood oaks, pines, carobs, 

 or terebinth-trees. The shrubs also are disappear- 

 ing; and if no stricter measures are taken by the 

 actual government, it will be the task of the future 

 conqueror of Palestine to restore it to what it might 

 have looked like in the times of the kings of Israel, 

 and then under the Romans; later, under the Cru- 

 saders; thus bee-keeping will suffer by the care- 

 lessness of the authorities as well as the communi- 

 ties that help the authorities in the line of complet- 

 ing the destruction. 



PAINTING HIVES. 



The subject of painting hives interested me. Our 

 hives were painted, some red, others white, others 

 blue; and placing the same colors in a row it had a 

 good effect, and young queens easily found their 

 way by marking the one they left. Surely bees see 

 the color; for, taking away a hive, the bees coming 

 home fly to the next hive having the same color as 

 the one taken away, no matter if another hive of a 

 different color be nearer the place where the re- 

 moved hive stood. By migrating, the hives being 

 placed beside and upon each other, and rubbed all 

 the night through by the tossing movements of the 

 camels, a good deal of paint is rubbed off, so that 

 two seasons, or hardly three, is all our hives can 

 bear. They must be repainted for outside comfort; 

 and, besides, we are of the opinion the sun warps 

 up unpainted hives. The light colors are the best, 

 and bees feel more comfortable in them. The 10,- 

 000 hives on page 141, and 10,000 dogs, 142, that ended 

 with the tracks of a dog only, I compared with our 

 difficulties with the Turkish government— a land 

 of " baksheesh" (gratification), where every thing 

 can be done provided you "smear the hands," as we 

 put it. A few years ago the tax-gatherer, finding 

 our "improved hives" got more honey than the clay 

 pipes, pretended to tax our hives ten times the val- 

 ue of the native hive, and would hear no explana- 

 tion whatever till the question was solved by the 

 usual method, and only the tracks of his enormous 

 demands were left. This year new difficulties 

 arise. It seems as if the Turks were taking advan- 

 tage of the continual war preparations in Europe to 

 take us to task. Of course, when matters get too 

 serious we are backed by our consul. 



QUESTION NO. 39, MARCH 1. 



Honey gets a better taste after some weeks. The 

 orange and thyme flavors are more pronounced; 

 but I am astonished that none of those eminent 

 bee-keepers can tell us anything about the wax- 

 moth, in trying to keep comb honey from one year 

 to another. Does sulphuring the combs not injure 

 the flavor? With us, no combs could be kept with- 

 out occasionally sulphuring; or are you not trou- 

 bled with this pest? I should want P. Benson's 

 worm annihilator to keep them off (page 258), Egyp- 

 tian bees have heen known and handled by very few. 

 Although they have a bad name, we can not strictly 

 rely on such experiences, as no modern apiarist 

 ever tried to raise good-natured ones, or, so to say, 

 weed out the furious ones. Cyprians, claimed by 

 Mr. F. Benton to be the best-natured bees, have re- 

 ceived the greatest attention, notably by himself; 

 still they have led Mr. Abbott, in the British Bee 

 Journal, to say, " I had time only to put the quilt 



.on." Now, all Eastern bees are very irritable and 

 difficult to handle, at times; but are we not living 

 in a time when people are trying to overcome all 

 difficulties, and especially using our senses as to 

 what method we had better resort to, to obtain the 

 result we are aiming at? for since we don't keep a 

 certain race of bees as a hobby, but as profit, why 

 not wear gloves, if such be necessary, to provide 

 against the unpleasant infliction of too many 

 wounds, if the Oriental races be acknowledged as 

 superior, both as honey-gatherers and as being 

 more prolific? The man who was cornered, page 

 294, April 15, about having seen comb manufactur- 

 ed, reminded me of a German here who would call 

 our nice granulated white orange honey " sugar 

 syrup," because he heard we fed the bees sugar at 

 times, and concluded the grains of sugar were still 

 visible in the syrup. We are glad at times to sell 

 off our honey at a reasonable price, and have hard- 

 ly any time and would have no sale for adulterated 

 honey; besides, we have to explain over and over 

 again to such unbelievers, and often to no appar- 

 ent avail. 



I am of the opinion that bees know the place ex- 

 actly where the hive stands; for on a flat plat of 

 ground, with no trees, and very often no grass or 

 flowers, bees still take exactly the direction of their 

 entrance-holes, and do just exactly as the bee in 

 Dr. C. C. Miller's apiary does— "goes back and tries 

 again, if its bearings were not right." Our hive6 

 are placed differently, according to the plain or 

 mountain. In the plain, the hexagonal system is 

 adopted, the hives being about seven feec apart 

 from each other (2 meters); if space enough, they 

 are set at three meters, about 10 feet, apart; and, 

 as already remarked above, bees fly to the hive of 

 the same color standing next to the hive taken 

 away. I will not stand up to say bees can count, 

 but they very likely put into their memory before 

 leaving the apiary, especially when it is the first 

 time, " Well, I dwell in second, third, or fourth hive, 

 in the first diagonal white row." Now, I hardly 

 ever think a bee misses its house and street for its 

 neighbor's. Moving the hives in June, I went to an 

 olive-grovelO miles from here, and there placed the 

 hives round about the trees, working west before 

 noon and east after noon, thus having shade almost 

 all the time; and to work in the sun with the ther- 

 mometer marking 95 and 122° P. is fearful, yet it 

 must be done. I like to see a well-ordered apiary, 

 rather than letting them stand about in every di- 

 rection; but I think we can easily correct both, as 

 two trees planted in the same line, and in the same 

 soil, under the same care, will still grow up to look 

 somewhat different; and to the bees' small eyes, no 

 matter how tiny the difference may appear, they'll 

 be sure to make it out and find their sure way. 



BEE-STING REMEDIES. 



Page 499 tells us about a bee-sting remedy. Oil 

 always did good to wounds, as we read in the para- 

 ble of the good Samaritan, who put oil on the 

 wounds. It was very surely olive oil that was 

 meant. Now, the greater part of bee-keepers find 

 need of it ; and, being stung, occasionally the poison 

 get* inoculated Into the whole system, making 

 the body at least swell. Saliva is the surest remedy 

 with me, and it is always carried "about by every- 

 body; but very likely it depends on whether the part 

 stung is very fleshy or not; for then the swells 

 ing dissipates, whilst in a bony region the swelling 

 is better seen, The pain differs according to time 



