246 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



We have received word from Mr. France that 

 the National convention is to be held at Sioux 

 City next fall (a fact due to the support of our 

 association and the efforts of Mr. France); and I 

 believe we can guarantee a strong local atten- 

 dance. 



Sergeant's Bluff, Iowa. 



MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES 

 IN WARM WEATHER. 



The Plan Works Well so Long as No 

 Honey is Coming in. 



BY THE NEW-MEXICO CHAP. 



On page 91, Feb. 1, the editor describes " the 

 only practical way to move bees 100 yards." If 

 the colonies have to be moved duiing a honey- 

 flow I think the advice is right; but if they have 

 found no honey for two weeks I think they could 

 be moved directly to the new stand. Our bees 

 fly freely every day in the year except, perhaps, 

 three or four days in a month during the coldest 

 weather, and I have just moved some 25 colonies 

 a distance of 25 or 30 yards without any trouble. 

 A year ago last fall my partner and I moved 300 

 colonies a distance of three or four hundred yards 

 without any appreciable loss. Later that same 

 fall, but after cold weather had set in, I moved 

 200 colonies about 300 yards without loss. I 

 know of one other party who moved her bees 100 

 yards a year or two ago, and there was no trou- 

 ble. In moving the 25 colonies a few days ago 

 I noted carefully, and sa^v that a few of them 

 went back and flew around the old stand for an 

 hour or two; but I think most of them had some- 

 what located the new stand, for they seemed to 

 go back to it; others seemed to beg their way 

 successfully into other hives near wheie their old 

 hive had been, and a dozen or two I saw that had 

 tried to enter other hives near the old stand and 

 had been killed. 



I would suggest that Mr. Cheatham move 

 one or two stands to the new location late some 

 evening, lean a board up in front of the entrance, 

 and the next day carefully watch the result. If 

 there is no honey-flow on I think it will work. 

 If there is a honey-flow on, I know it will not 

 work, for a neighbor of mine tried to compel 

 me to move some 200 stands off his land last 

 summer during the honey season, and after try- 

 ing in vain to convince him it would not do, we 

 tried it by moving about 25 stands one night over 

 on to the next neighbor's land, some 20 yards 

 away. The first neighbor happened around those 

 parts about noon the next day, where I was hav- 

 ing a rather " hot time," and he decided that it 

 would be better for us both for the bees to stay 

 where they were until the end of the season. The 

 confusion resulted in one great whorl of bees 

 over the old stands, and many clusters here and 

 there on the bushes. These clusters of bees re- 

 sembled natural swarms except that some of them 

 were large enough for two or three swarms; and 

 if any one else ever gets into a similar confusion 

 I would advise him to be well veiled before at- 

 tempting to hive one of these clusters. I never 

 wear gloves, and often take a dozen stings in a 

 minute without much complaint; but if I had 

 had a pair of gloves that day 1 would have been 



thankful. I never saw bees fight so. This hap- 

 pened at one of our outyards, and I had few ex- 

 tra hives there, and could not have used them if 

 I had had plenty. I hurried to a neighboring 

 farmhouse and got all the gunny sacks I could 

 and went back. As fast as the bees settled I 

 sacked the clusters and tied the sacks and laid 

 them in the shade. A few minutes later I saw 

 by a few escaping bees that the bees were getting 

 too hot in some of the larger sacks. I then threw 

 a little water on the sacks, and after the bees had 

 quit settling I loaded the sacked bees in the spa- 

 cious buggy which I always drive from yard to 

 yard in, and after wetting the sacks again I made 

 for our nearest yard, a mile and a half away, 

 where there were many new nuclei; and when 1 

 got there I opened the mouth of the sacks and 

 let the bees crawl into the nuclei, which 'hey 

 seemed very willing to do, and where they s* em- 

 ed to do no damage but a lot of good. 

 Mesilla Park, N. M., Feb. 13. 



BUCKWHEAT ONE OF THE MOST 

 PROFITABLE OF FARM CROPS. 



How to Grow it; how^ to Turn it into 

 Money. 



iY H. B. HARRINGTON. 



[Our neighbor, Mr. H. B. Hariinglon, has had a large expeii 

 ence in the growing of buckwheat, both from the standpoint of 

 honey production and as a profitable farm crop. He has secured 

 some very Hoe standi of it near one of our outyards. The plants 

 grew so thrifty, and the bees worked so well on it, that we a=keJ 

 him to prepare an article on how to grow it. It should be re- 

 membered that neighbor H. is an old experienced bee-keeper as 

 well as farmer. — Eu.] 



Having been requested to give in Gleanings 

 our experience in raising and handling buckwheat 

 we will give the actual tests, ranging over a peii- 

 od of more than forty years. 



Buckwheat is the best, and, in fact, the only 

 artificial honey-pasture that a bee-keeper can sup- 

 ply himself with at a profit, from the middle ot 

 July, when basswood and clover are past, up 

 to the middle of September, when the fall 

 bloom of wild flowers commences. There are 

 no arbitrary rules that can belaid down as t) 

 its culture, because buckwheat, probably more 

 than any other grain, will adapt iiself to seasons 

 and conditions. Very hot weather will some- 

 times blight it if you sow too early, and early 

 frosts destroy if you sow too late in the season; 

 so you see you have a seed time from the 20th of 

 June to Aui'ust 1; and we once harvested over 

 40 bushels of very fine buckwheat per acre from 

 a crop drilled on the 4th of August; but we used 

 over 300 pounds of first-class blood-and-bone 

 phosphate per acre. 



It is a strong point in favor of buckwheat th t 

 it is a quick grower, and can succeed . another 

 crop. That crop was on the ground but 51 days 

 from the time it was sown until the day it was 

 thrashed; and the next day we drilled the same 

 field to wheat without even the use of a dray and 

 but very little extra fertilizer. The buckwheat 

 left the land so mellow that it was the finest kind 

 of summer fallow. We always raise our largest 

 crops of wheat when we sow after buckwheat. 



It is easy to see where the profit comes in from 

 two crops where you have only to plow and fit 



