1118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



warning to all purveyors of food of any sort. 

 What Ohio is doing, other States are doing more 

 or less thoroughly; but Ohio has set up a high 

 standard that many are not following. 



MIGRATORY BEE-KEEPING; HOW O. O. POPPLETON 

 PRACTICES THE SCHEME BY MEAN'S OF GASO- 

 LINE-LAUNCHES ON THE INDIAN RIVER, 

 FLA. ; THE " LONG-IDEA " HIVE. 



We have just had the pleasure of a visit from 

 Mr. O. O. Poppleton, the veteran bee-man of 

 Stuart, Fla. He had just attended the G. A. R. 

 reunion at Toledo, and stopped off at Medina for 

 a couple of days before returning. Our old bee- 

 keepers will remember Mr. Poppleton as coming 

 originally from Williamson, Iowa, although a 

 native of Ohio. In Iowa he was a very success- 

 ful bee-keeper, and was an occasional contributor 

 to the bee-journals. But ill health finally made 

 it necessary for him to go southward, and the 

 next thing we heard of him he was located in 

 Florida, where he has been keeping bees ever 

 since. 



Mr. Poppleton has the distinction of being, 

 possibly, the only bee-keeper in the United States 

 who uses what is known as the Long-idea hive — 

 a hive that was much exploited some thirty years 

 ago. Instead of adding extra room or giving sur- 

 plus combs on top, story by story, the Long-idea 

 principle means an extension on a horizontal line. 

 It calls, therefore, for a /o//^ hive. The one Mr. 

 Poppleton uses may hold 25 twelve-inch-square 

 frames. As the season increases, and more room 

 is required, the frames are put at the side, the di- 

 vision-board being shoved over. This is contin- 

 ued until the entire brood-nest is filled. 



Our friend still believes in the hive, and thinks 

 that, for his purpose at least, it is far ahead of the 

 Langstroth tiering-up principle. There are no 

 heavy stories to lift off and on. The hive never 

 becomes top-heavy, and no wind blows it over. 

 When we asked, "Are not these hives awful to 

 lift?" he replied, "That is where you are mis- 

 taken. Two men can handle them very easily; 

 and they are never toted around except to put 

 them in and out of the boat in migratory'bee- 

 keeping. At all other times there is no lifting of 

 heavy stories — simply pull the frames out of a 

 single brood-nest and replace them." He could 

 not understand how the whole bee-keeping world 

 had gone after the tiering-up principle, when the 

 other plan has so many advantages 



Mr. Poppleton enjoys the distinction also, 

 of being the only migratory bee-keeper probably 

 in the United States, although there are many of 

 them in Europe; and we have read how the bees 

 are transported down the Nile in Egypt. 



But since the advent of the gasoline-launch, he 

 has worked out the principle along entirely new 

 lines. He first started with one good-sized launch 

 and a lighter, and now he has put a motor into it 

 so it is also self-propelling. 



Up and down the Indian River there are many 

 kinds of flora that come into bloom at different 

 times. When there is nothing doing at one yard 

 and something doing somewhere else, he puts 

 his hives on his launches and then carries them to 

 pastures new. When this locality fails, the hives 

 are put on the water again and moved once more, 

 and so on as long as the season lasts. On this 



scheme of migratory bee-keeping he sometimes 

 has yards a hundred miles apart. 



Mr. Poppleton has been in that locality long 

 enough to know its peculiarities. Lest some one 

 may get the idea that he has a bonanza all by 

 himself, and then think of moving down there, 

 and working on the migratory plan, it will be 

 proper to say that our friend has been "enjoying" 

 a series of poor seasons. Better stay out. 



In past seasons Mr. Poppleton has had some 

 experience with bee-paralysis, for his portion of 

 the State seems to be somewhat favorable to its 

 development; but instead of being driven out of 

 the business he set to work and learned how to 

 cure it. This cure has already been made public 

 through the various bee-journals, and is now in- 

 corporated in the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Cul- 

 ture under the general heading of " Diseases of 

 Bees." 



While Mr. Poppleton fears bee-paralysis no 

 more he found he would have to quit importing 

 queens from outside localities, and hence was 

 compelled to develop a strain of his own that 

 would be able to stand the inroads of that dis- 

 ease. In this connection we may remark that 

 his experience tallies very closely with that of 

 Mr. F. R. Beuhne, on page 998, Aug. 15. 



Mr. Poppleton, besides being one of the old 

 veterans of the war of 1861, is also one of the vet- 

 erans in the bee business. He was contemporary 

 with Langstroth, Grimm, Hetherington, Quinby, 

 Tupper, King, Gallup, and many others of those 

 early days. He is still very much interested in 

 the general subject of bees, and especially in ev- 

 ery new thing that has come up of late. His en- 

 thusiasm, although tempered by an experience 

 that every thing that glitters is not gold, is just 

 as keen as that of a beginner who has just arrived 

 at the first stages of the bee-fever. Indeed, we 

 spent several pleasant hours in talking over things 

 new and old. 



He has promised to send us some photos show- 

 ing his launches, his hives, and his manner of 

 keeping bees on the migratory plan. These we 

 hope to present at a later time, and perhaps re- 

 port a few more ideas that we gleaned from this 

 veteran of many summers. 



cause of sick bees on the SIDEWALK IN FRONT 



OF OUR BUILDING DURING THE HEIGHT 



OF THE HONEY-FLOW. 



Every year we have noticed during the height 

 of the honey-flow large numbers of bees on the 

 sidewalk and brick pavement unable to fly, and 

 apparently suffering a great deal of pain. With 

 their feet they would tug at their bodies, and 

 sometimes so great would be their contortions 

 that they would crowd the abdomen off from the 

 thorax. We were unable to account for mis pe- 

 culiar phenomenon, and we supposed they were 

 dying in equal numbers everywhere in the vicin- 

 ity of the yard. We have reported this at various 

 times in these columns, but no one has been able 

 to offer a satisfactory solution. 



In visiting Mr. L. A. Aspinwall, of Jackson, 

 Mich., our conversation drifted to the aforesaid 

 suffering bees. Then Mr. Aspinwall remarked: 



"I think I can tell you what is the cause. Is 

 it not a fact that you have a good many telephone 

 wires passing over this street?" 



