SKl'lKMUKK. Ullit 



G L E A N' I N G S 1 X H K K C V L T V K E 



587 



Just move the whole apiary a fow rods, 

 leave at the old loeation a hive in which the 

 old bees might assemble, aiui then wreak 

 your vengeance on them. Surely you must 

 be old enough to remember the ado that was 

 made about a man who did the very thing 

 you talk about. Rut I think he has left no 

 imitators. » » » 



J. V. Brumfield thinks that when a man 

 is deciding whether to make lieekeeping the 

 business of his life, remuneration shoubl be 

 entirely a matter of secondary considera- 

 tion: and with this he couples the thought 

 that length of life is one of the things to 

 be seriously considered. Some one might 

 reply, "You're off, Mr. Brumfield; if I 

 have my choice between a business at which 

 J can lav bv .$500.00 a year and another at 

 which I'caii lay by .$1,000.00, I'll take the 

 latter every time. Business is run to make 

 money, and the money that 's in it is the 

 only thing to be considered." I like better 

 the Brumfield view. Money is only of value 

 for the happiness it brings, either to its 

 possessor or to some one else. So the man 

 or the woman with a real love for bees has 

 more enjoyment every day as he goes along 

 than he would with twice as much money 

 and no bees. Not only is his life happier, 

 it is longer; and Mr. Brumfield thinks that 

 stands to his credit, for it shows he has 

 been leading the right kind of a life. 

 » * * 



A. E. Lusher, who hauls a large number 

 of colonies every year, and never loses a 

 colony, says, page 524, * ' I never sprinkle 

 the bees with Avater, for every one I gave 

 the least bit to always smothered. ' ' On 

 page 509 E. F. Townsend says, "For the 

 bees we carried a barrel of water which we 

 sprinkled on the tops of the screens. An- 

 other time we would find it convenient to 

 have with us a hand spray-pump to water 

 the bees more effectively." This latter 

 should bring disaster according to Mr. 

 Lusher, and it is very im])ortant that we 

 should know which is right. The use of 

 water when shipping bees has been so com- 

 mon, and it is so unqualifiedly recommended 

 in the ABC and X Y Z, that one wonders 

 whether there may not be some mistake 

 about the least bit of water always smother- 

 ing Mr. Lusher 's bees. Just possibly it 

 might be something like this: He never 

 gave water except in a few^ cases where 

 there was danger of smothering; then he 

 gave the least bit and the bees smothered 

 because he gave only the least bit and didn't 

 give enough. 



On page 530, Geo. P. Smith asks about 

 putting hives close together, ])erhaps want- 

 ing to use as little ground as will answer, 

 and you tell him. Miss Fowls, "In our api- 

 aries we like the hives at least six feet 

 apart, and doubtless a little further would 

 be better. ' ' That 's all very well as far as 

 it goes, but why in the world didn 't you 

 tell him that by putting his hives in pairs 

 he could double the number on the same 



ground without increasing the danger of 

 bees getting into the wrong hives? Was it 

 because hives in pairs is a hobby of mine, 

 and you didn 't mention it because of spite 

 against me? Anyway, I'll tell you how it 

 is. If the hives are in pairs in a row, and 

 No. 13 and No. 14 are the hives in one of 

 the pairs, you cannot put those two hives 

 too close together except for the danger 

 that jarring one of them may jar the other. 

 The bees of No. 13 will not go into No. 14; 

 if they go into a w^rong hive it will be more 

 likely into No. 11 or No. 15, for to them 

 No. 11 or No. 15 has more the look of their 

 own hive than does No. 14. They know that 

 their hive is the right-hand one of a pair, 

 and they'll not enter a left-hand hive. So 

 putting in pairs wall allow just double as 

 many on the same ground. [Not exactly 

 ' ' spite,' ' Dr. Miller, but I do kind of like 

 to scrap a little, especially with you.. This 

 time, however, I '11 have to admit we have 



. found grouping in 



I 1 I — I I I ])airs (|uite satisfac- 



I I tory. Grouping in 



' — ' Fig. 1 looks better 



f"'^- 1- f*^'^- 2 and takes up a little 



less room than in Fig. 2, but the latter is 



more convenient if two people are working 



together at the same hive. — Editor.] 



» « * 



"Bees naturally store honey above, and 

 therefore, during a honey flow, they would 

 be likely to crowd the queen out of the up- 

 per story into the lower one and fill the up- 

 per one' wath honey," page 531. Yes, my 

 observation has been that bees naturally 

 build down, keeping their brood below and 

 their honey above. The brood perhaps gets 

 lietter air below, and the honey above is 

 safer against robbers. Once, and I think 

 only once, I knew them to break the rule. 

 To keep them safe from moths I filled the 

 lower story with empty combs, having the 

 brood-nest in the second story. A heavy 

 flow came on, and those bees promptly filled 

 the lower story with honey, continuing the 

 brood-chamber in the second story. Which 

 only goes to show again that "Bees do noth- 

 ing invariably. ' ' 



^ » * 



Did you ever notice when bees are work- 

 ing on a basswood or other honey-tree, if 

 there is the least breeze stirring there will 

 be few or no bees outside the com])ass of the 

 tree on the windward side? On the leeward 

 side there will be plenty, no doubt attracted 

 by the scent which the breeze blows in that 

 direction. Making practical use of this ob- 

 servation, always have the door of your 

 bee-tent on the windward side, and if your 

 honey-house has different openings, keep 

 open the one on the windward side. 

 * » * 



Now it's migratory queen-rearing. J. E. 

 Wing of San Jose, Cal., is at it, as reported 

 in the American Bee Journal. When the 

 flow stops, instead of feeding sugar syruj) he 

 packs up his queen-rearing outfit and treks 

 75 miles to a place where a flow is on. 



