518 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1919 



shallow supers are preferable to full-depth. 

 The little combs are filled and sealed to the 

 bottom-bars, while full-depth combs are not 

 ready to extract. 



One day I sat idly watching the bees, and 

 just as my eyes dropped on one colony, I 

 saw a sudden excited bunching of the bees 

 on the front of the hive, a bit above the 

 entrance. Stepping closer, I found a queen 

 the center of attraction, presumably a young 

 one just returned from her nuptial flight. 

 What a time she had finding her way into 

 the entrance, or at any rate, what a time she 

 took. She went nearly to the top of the 

 hive, then nearly back down, then around 

 the corner to the side. Presently I held my 

 hive tool in front of her, and she obligingly 

 ran on it. I laid the tool in the entrance, 

 but she wandered off down on the grass, all 

 the time with a goodly following of eager 

 attendants. At last, however, she climbed 

 back up the alighting board, and ran into 

 the entrance. 



One thousand, seven hundred and nineteen 

 hives burned! Didn't Jamaica act quickly 

 and severely when foul brood came her wayf 

 What would Our Fire Department, that rush- 

 ed so vainly but valiantly forth to extin- 

 guish a one-hive fire, have done with sucli a 

 mighty conflagration? Well, anyway, it 

 sounds thoro. 



We have seen no further sign of disease 

 since promptly treating our one tragedy. I 

 have been expecting to find it in the swarm 

 this colony had cast about two weeks before 

 the trouble was discovered, and over which, 

 in approved orthodox style, I had set the su- 

 per from the parent hive. So far it is free, 

 liowever. 



"Shade is convenient, but not essential," 

 Mr. Buchanan says, page 360, June. Mr. 

 Bartholomew used to assert the same thing, 

 — that shade was in no wise essential. 



Last month a neighbor returning from a 

 visit to Chattanooga told me of having been 

 seriously ill while there. Shortly aft^er 

 breakfast one morning she seemed threaten- 

 ed with a violent headache; soon, becoming 

 dizzy and very sick, she rose to leave the 

 room. Thereupon she fainted dead away, 

 and, after being restored to consciousness, 

 was taken with horrible nausea and vomit- 

 ing. Her hostess and friends were distressed 

 and gave her the best possible care. Of 

 course she ate no lunch. The others did, 

 however, and soon afterwards two others be- 

 came ill about the same way. A doctor was 

 called, and questioning developed the fact 

 that my neighbor was the only one who had 

 eaten honey for breakfast, while the other 

 two ate it for lunch. This honey had just 

 been brought down from the mountains, 

 where the mountain laurel had been for some 

 time in full bloom. Eepeated reports of 

 similar trouble make a bad case against this 

 beautiful blossom. I recall when I was at- 

 tending a reception in a near-by county a 

 few years ago, how lovely the summer home 

 looked with great jars of mountain laurel 

 thru all the spacious halls and on the wide 



verandas, and how emphatically a young 

 lady disagreed with me when I exclaimed 

 in admiration over its beauty. ' ' I certainly 

 don't like it," she declared, "it poisons my 

 father's cattle." 



It was two weeks ago that we brought 

 home the supers from the little country yard, 

 to extract. A double-handful of bees that 

 came with them collected on the corner of 

 the screened window of the shed where we 

 extracted. Mr. Allen loosened a few tacks 

 and let them out. Ever since then, they 

 have hung collected in a little bunch there 

 on the outside corner of that screen wire. 

 Two weeks is a long time, isn't it? But 

 just the same, there they are. 



Bee-escapes usually work well when they 

 work, but about one colony in ten doesn 't 

 empty the super thru them at all, for us. 

 The bees just don 't go down. We looked 

 ours all over before putting them on, boiling 

 up most of the escapes to make sure they 

 were not choked with propolis, yet a few 

 supers had about as many bees the day after 

 escape-boards were put under them as be- 

 fore. In only one was the escape clogged, 

 where a drone had wiggled himself into a 

 misunderstanding with the escape and died 

 in its clutch. Bees in these supers were 

 brushed from the combs. 



There was no disturbance at all in get- 

 ting the honey away from the yard, tho it 

 was taken about 50 feet on a wheelbarrow 

 and stacked, awaiting the delayed truck. 

 We were painfully particular to keep it 

 covered while thus being carted out of the 

 yard. But returning the empty supers, 

 when of course the process was reversed, 

 the supers being stacked on the ground by 

 the driver and immediately wheeled to the 

 colonies, there was a different story. The 

 truck reached the yard about seven o'clock, 

 but the bees were on those empties faster 

 than they could be wheeled down and put 

 back on the hives. And after they were 

 all on, there were menacing rows of bees 

 along every crack and a decided uproar in 

 the yard. It could not last long, however, 

 at that hour. Beginners will do well to be- 

 lieve that there is a sound reason for the ad- 

 vice not to return wet extracting-supers till 



evening. 



* » » 



THE UNCAPTURED SONG. 

 M\ soul stood silent on a hill 



Of listening. And something sung! 

 Bright flocks of sky-born vibrant things 



In sun-blind distance hung. 



From out the blue of heaven they tlew, 



And high in heaven stayed. 

 Across and thru its heart of blue 



They swung — -and swayed. 



The far sweet drift of sunloved song 

 My tetnse soul strained to hear; 

 " O flashing, rhythmic, far-off wings, 

 Fly nearl Fly near!"' 



I listened long, but lost the song — 



My empty world is still. 

 Some other time my soul shall climb 



A higher hill. 



