1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



621 



linman beings, with their hands in tlieir 

 pockets, sitting on hitching-posts ; and as 

 Satan alwajs tinds some mischief for idle 

 hands to do, the.\ were ready to pick and 

 pnll at anybody who came along. It any 

 trouble is "started, these people grab hold 

 and make a pretense of being eager to re- 

 store law and order, trying to pass them- 

 selves oil', as it were, lor good honest citi- 

 zens working hard tor law and order, while 

 the truth is, they are sneak thieves wait- 

 ing for a chance to steal, where there is no 

 danger of getting into trouble. 



In regard to buckwheat versus v^iieat, if 

 your land is suitable you ought to get thirty 

 or forty bushels an acre, instead of ten. The 

 crop, however, is quite uncertain, and it is 

 a hard matter to lay down rules for the (Cul- 

 tivation of buckwheat in all localities. The 

 price paid for it is also quite uncertain. It 

 is not nearly as regular as wheat. I should 

 be very glad indeed to have a little treatise 

 entirely" on the cultivation of buckwheat. 

 At the present time we have a crop of nice 

 buckwheat in full bloom, and yet the bees 

 scarcely notice it. In an adjoining county I 

 saw a tield of nice buckwheat in full bloom 

 a few days ago. The proprietor had sown 

 this expressly for his bees, but he said the 

 bees didn't work on it at all. It may be be- 

 cause it is too early in the season. 



TROUBLE In TRANSl'ERRING. 



I transt'erred a colony of bees into a Simplicity 

 hive last evening. It was very weak, but had some 

 honey and some brood. In about one hour after I 

 had transferred them, the bees had nearly all left 

 the hive. The queen was, or seemed to be, very 

 much excited. She ran all over the combs. Now, 

 will you please tell me what was the cause of those 

 bees leaving the hive? Did I make a mistake in 

 transferring- them, or did they get discouraged be- 

 cause they were so weak? My wife and L transfer- 

 red four colonies before, and had the best of suc- 

 cess. She can beat me working with bees. She 

 never wears a veil in transferring, while I have to 

 wear one. N. F. Gripe. 



Montevallo, Mo.. July 30, 1887. 



Once in a great while, friend C, a colony 

 will seem to be displeased with their new 

 arrangements after being transferred, and 

 under such circumstances the bees and 

 queen will desert. It has been my impres- 

 sion, however, that the work was not very 

 skillfully done when sucli things happen as 

 you mention. I may, however, be mistaken. 

 In your case the queen seemed to be alarm- 

 ed and frightened, and she perhaps com- 

 municated her demoralized state to the 

 whole colony. I have been a great many 

 times puzzled to know where the bees and 

 queen went to, but concluded they had gone 

 into other colonies, but I have always been 

 unable to find where. 



THE MOSyUlTO-HAWK, AND HOW THE BRAZILIANS 

 CATCH IT. 



I paid a visit the other day to a Portuguese gen- 

 tleman who lives at Carlos Pass, in this county, 

 and he told me how the apiarists of Brazil rid them- 

 selves of this terrible enemy of the bees, the mos- 

 quito-hawk, or dragon-Hy. The method employed 

 is to stick stakes in the ground throughout the 



whole apiary, the sides near the top of the stakes 

 being pierced thickly with holes about the size of a 

 leadpencil. These holes are to receive small pins, 

 about four inches long. These pins are covered 

 thinly with a sticky substance called in Portuguese 

 "gomodiigo." Now, when the bee-hawk seizes a 

 bee he alights on the tirst twig near him, to eat his 

 victim; and as these little wooden pins are a very 

 inviting place for him to alight, he is almost sure to 

 alight on one of them, and, twining his legs around 

 the pin, is caught and held fast by tli(^ gomo, and 

 is killed by the ajiiarist, and another coat of gum is 

 put on the stick, and it is ready for another hawk. 



Now, as almost all the damage done by these 

 hawks is done an hour before dark, the apiarist can 

 be on hand and kill nearly all that visit his yard; 

 and as the hawk, on being caught, liberates the bee 

 he has caught, I believe this plan is worthy of a 

 fair trial. Will you please tell me if gomo di igo is 

 bird-lime, and where can I get it? May be Prof. 

 Cook can tell us how to make it. For stakes, the 

 Brazilians use canebrakes or reeds, called " canis- 

 ta," or " pitto." The Cubans call it " caiia brava." 



W. W. Wilson. 



Punta Rassa, Florida, July 35, 1887. 



Friend W., I should think the substance 

 is bird-lime, or something ([uite like it. 

 Some years ago we discussed the matter of 

 bird-liine pretty fully, and several recipes 

 were given for making it. The idea seems 

 to be quite sensible as well as ingenious ; 

 and where mosquito-hawks are a pest I 

 have no doubt it would fix them. 



THE working op THE MITCHELL HIVE ; A PAT- 

 ENT MOTH-TRAP, AND HOW A FARMER WAS 

 SWINDLED BV IT. 



I am in a section of country where Mr. Mitchell 

 has been selling quite a number of hives. Among 

 the many small apiaries that I have visited I found 

 but one L. -frame hive. Mostly the American and 

 the Mitchell hive are used. One man said when he 

 first saw a Mitchell hive he thought it looked nice, 

 and every thing looked as though it would just be 

 fun to take honey from such a hive. But when he 

 undertook to take lionej'he remembered about bees 

 using propolis in every crack, and said it was a 

 wonderful job to take honey out, as every thing 

 was glued tight. A Mr. Kieffer, not far fri>m me, 

 said a man came around to him one day with a i>at- 

 ent wire-bottom bee-box to prevent moth and rob- 

 bers from getting in. Mr. Kieffer agreed to pay 

 him $20.00 for the township right. After the patent- 

 right man made out the right, or paper, to that ef- 

 fect, Mr. Kiett'er handed him his I^SO.OO. Each man 

 went his way. After Mr. K. had ^one home, he 

 thought that night he would read over his township 

 right, and was very much surprised to find he had 

 paid the money for a farm-right instead of a towii- 

 8/jfp-right. The swindler, of course, had left on the 

 first train, for some other i)lace. 



D. E. Baughey. 



Waynesboro, Pa., July 11. 1887. 



Friend H., your neighbcu- was swindled 

 without question ; but even had he received 

 what he paid for, I do not see that it would 

 make any great difference, for I don't be- 

 lieve I know of a farm-right, township- 

 right, or State-right to a patent hive that I 

 should consider worth a copper. That old- 

 fashioned way of doing business seems to 

 be passing out of date and out of memory. 



