272 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



his mouth. I heard a man say, " That b&ats any 

 thing I have ever seen." Next I filled a paper 

 cone with bees. My son tamed toward me and 

 I dumped the full contents of the cone on his 

 bare back. Then he turned around and loaded 

 his hands with bees I heard one of the crowd 

 say, "That is enough, I wouldn't have the boy's 

 job for a thousind dollars." We shook all the 

 bees off in front of the hive. My bee-brush was 

 not just right, and in brushing off the boy's 

 back, one bee hung with its sting to his back. 

 In a low tone the boy said, " One is tickling me. " 



We took the colony back to its place, opened 

 the top of the cage, and in a few minutes every 

 bee was in the hive. The whole audience made 

 for the inside, where the honey exhibit was. 

 There was Mrs. Mondeng with the rest of the 

 bees and observatory hives. The inquiry was, 

 " Say, lady, can you tell us what the man and 

 boy got on their hides.''" The answer was, 

 " Nothing. " " But they must rub something.on; 

 it would be impossible otherwise." There was 

 no end to such inquiries. 



Minneapolis, Minn. 



[When bees are properly handled there is little 

 or no danger of getting stung while in the cage. 

 Our Mr. E. R. Root has made something over 

 fifty demonstrations of this sort before public 

 audiences. While he does not do more than to 

 bare his arms, head, and neck, he finds that he 

 can throw the bees all over his head, but he must 

 not handle them roughly. A double handful is 

 picked out of the mass, then they are gently de- 

 posited on top of the head; then the hands are 

 shaken very gently, leaving the bees on the head 

 and free from the hands. 



The boy as here shown ordinarily would be 

 perfectly safe; but in putting the bees on his back 

 we would not advise dumping them on, for then 

 there would be a chance for a sting. The atten- 

 dant had better pick them up and put them on 

 his back in the manner we have explained when 

 the bees are put on the head. 



Such demonstrations as these, accompanied by 

 some good honey salesman, will do much to help 

 the honey trade. The people generally know 

 practically nothing about bees or the bee busi- 

 ness. These public demonstrations and lectures 

 help to remove a great deal of prejudice, and 

 to stimulate the demand for honey. They do 

 not make bee keepers, but they do make honey- 

 eaters. Let the good work go on. — Ed.] 



NUMBERING HIVES. 



BY J. A. GREEN. 



Some method of numbering the hives of an 

 apiary is undoubtedly desirable. Although some 

 with large apiaries employ methods that seem to 

 make records of any kind unnecessary, and some 

 with small apiaries are able to remember the con- 

 dition of each colony and the work done on it so 

 perfectly that they are not in need of any mem- 

 orandum, most bee-keepers find, or should find, 

 that some kind of record is desirable, even if it is 

 nothing more than a record of the age of the 

 queen. This can hardly be dispensed with in 

 successful bee-keeping. For the practical bee- 

 keeper to keep any record of his hives, some 



method of numbering must be adopted; though 

 I have heard of some who have named the hives 

 and even the queens. 



The usual way of doing this is by painting the 

 number on the hive. The confusion that this re- 

 sults in in an apiary of any size, where hives are 

 moved about to any extent, makes it very diffi- 

 cult, or at least very wasteful of time, to find any 

 desired number. 



It is something of an improvement over this 

 plan to use numbered tags or other movable num- 

 bers, since they can, at least occasionally, be cor- 

 rected as to position in the apiary by changing 

 the numbers around. 



Some use the plan of changing the numbers at 

 the time the hive is moved. If this is faithfully 

 attended to, it prevents confusion; but it entails 

 considerable labor and watchfulness at a time 

 when the busy bee-keeper can ill afford it. In 

 fact, numbering the hives by any system of 

 fixed or movable numbers on the hives themselves 

 is so complicated and troublesome that I long ago 

 discarded it for a system by which I can almost 

 instantly tell the number of any hive, or as quick- 

 ly the position in the yard of a hive of any par- 

 ticular number, though no number or tags are 

 used on either hive or position for this purpose. 

 To do this I make use of a principle similar to 

 that used in modern systems of house-numbering 

 in cities. I subjoin a diagram showing the num- 



bering. To number an apiary according to this 

 plan, a straight line of hives along one side of the 

 apiary should be selected as a base line. There 

 may be any number of hives in this line. Other 

 hives should be set in rows at right angles to this 

 base line. It is better not to put over eight or 

 nine hives in each of these rows. By examin- 

 ing the diagram it will be seen that each hive has 

 two or more figures in its number. The first fig- 

 ure indicates the number of the row, from the be- 

 ginning of the base line (the upper left-hand cor- 

 ner in the diagram). The last figure of the num- 

 ber indicates the position of the hive in that row. 

 Thus, No. 11 is the first hive in the first row; 

 No. 34 is the fourth hive in the third row; No. 

 58 is the eighth hive in tlie fifth row, etc. 



It will be noticed that in the diagram the hives 

 are placed in groups of four each. I prefer them 

 this way for several reasons which I will not take 

 space to explain here. 



You may object to this that the numbers give 

 no idea of the number of hives in the apiary; but 

 this makes no real difference, and is of no more 

 importance than that the numbers of houses in a 

 city bear no relation to the actual count of resi- 

 dences. 



If you have many hives in your apiary it may 

 be desirable to put numbers large enougli to be 

 seen easily from a distance on a row of stakes, or 

 on the fence along the base line, and also, if you 



