1024 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Straw hackles keep the hives cool in summer and warm in winter. 



pares to gather from his unpaid laborei"S 

 the result of their summer's toil among the 

 blossoms. The annual honey hai-vest is a 

 welcome and looked-for r»leasure to all who 

 keep bees in the old-time way, and the skep 

 supplies yearly a quantity of delicious hon- 

 ey that is carefully kept for use in the long 

 winter months. The time was when this 

 yearly looting of the little brown workmen 

 was a much more serious matter tlmn now. 

 Before the sugar-cane 

 was domesticated from 

 the wild weed, and the 

 various other sources 

 of sugar had been util- 

 ized it was upon the 

 \dllage skeppist that 

 the community relied 

 for its sweet. It is 

 pleasant to visit a 

 Cotswold bee-garden 

 at this time of the 

 year. 



Nestling in a cjuiet 

 corner overhung witli 

 lilac bushes could be 

 seen an irregular row 

 of a dozen hives, each 

 on a stool of its own, 

 with a covering or 

 thatch of straw hackle, 

 clipped away at the 

 entrance, and sur- 

 mounted by an iron 

 hoop to keep it rigidly 

 in place. If in a talk- 

 ative mood the owner 



might be induced to exj^lain which lots were 

 the prime or first swarms that " ring out " 

 for a week in a mass from the entrance, 

 and finally swarmed on a hot sabbath morn- 

 ing ; or of the nimble " cuts " that came out 

 and returned several times before they 

 allowed themselves to be captured and 

 placed on a stool to commence for them- 

 selves " the daily round and common task " 

 of r-ollpr'tina' Iiorpv. 



A cottage off the villasre stropt. Tt has heen inhabited by itis present 

 owner and father before him for nearly 75 years. The rental of this, a 

 productive garden, pig-styes, and potato-shed, is three pounds a year 

 ($14.55), an amount the owner considers very dear. 



