Apr. 15, 1912 



rat to make his home there. Witliout mak- 

 ing any noise I reached for my rille, and 

 waited. Soon the digi^ing started again, 

 and in a few moments a sleek skunk emerg- 

 ed. I did not want to kill it right there, so 

 I let it go a little way before I tired. Well, 

 it was too dark to shoot, and I missed. The 

 skunk started forhis liole, but I headed him 

 off. I guessed then what had been (Usturb- 

 ing my bees, and so 1 set a trap in front of 

 a hive. 



The next morning I had not caught any 

 thing; but on looking around I found tracks 

 before some other hives, liorrowing some 

 trai)s from a friend I set about half a dozen, 

 and the other morning I found one trap 

 sprung and a chicken leg in it. I'oor biddy 

 had gone there during the day, got caught, 

 and the skunk had eaten her." 1 took up all 

 the traps during the day and reset them at 

 night, baiting one with the chicken leg. 

 and in this trap I found the thief next 

 morning. The bees in the hive were quiet; 

 but when I got as close to the skunk with 

 the camera as I dared he started to back up 

 to the entrance of the hive, and the fight 

 was on. 



That fall I caught eleven skunks in front 

 of the hives, and have had no trouble since. 

 Skunks are easily caught, as there is no 

 need of hiding the traps nor even baiting 

 them, as one has to do for most other wild 

 animals. 



Columbus, Mont., July 1. 



[Occasionally we hear reports of damage 

 done by skunks. They seem to delight in 

 scratching at the entrance, and then devour- 

 ing the bees as they come out. It is seldom 

 that any serious loss is noted, for the ani- 

 mals, as our correspondent states, are easily 

 caught. — Ed.] 



A START WITH BEES ON A NEW JERSEY 

 TRUCK FARM 



A Detailed History of Some of the Mistakes Made 

 the First Few Years 



BY WILLABD B. KILLE 



Beekeeping on a large scale is a business 

 in itself; but I believe bees can, in a limited 

 way, be made quite profitable on many 

 farms where at present none are kept. Many 

 are deterred from keeping bees simply 

 through fear of being stung; others because 

 they know nothing of the business, and 

 hesitate to start. 



Our first experience with bees was not ex- 

 actly a pleasant one. Father, believing bees 

 beneficial, and worthy of a place on the 

 truck farm for the purpose of pollination, 

 jiurchased a cfilony in an old box hive. It 

 arrived at night. While sitting around the 

 table before bedtime, two youngsters lired 

 questions about bees faster than a whole 

 corps of present-da\' bee-experts could ans- 

 swer them. Among other things we learn- 

 ed from a story told by the hired man that 

 "natural beekeepers ' could pick up bees 

 V)arehanded, and that every colony had in 



it one very remarkable bee called the queen, 

 and that she was " boss " of them all. That 

 night in bed we boys thrashed it over and 

 decided that we were "natural beekeepers," 

 and that our first business the next morn- 

 ing would be to capture that wonderful 

 "lady bee," or queen, and display her to 

 the rest of the family, thus demonstrating 

 our prowess as beekeepers, and laying claim 

 to our fitness for taking full charge of that 

 colony as well as its future offspring. 



Thus inspired we sallied forth the next 

 morning to execute our well-made plans. 

 Being older I volunteered to catch the bees 

 in groups of five or six as they emerged, and 

 to pass them to my brother, who was to ex- 

 amine them and locate the queen. But, 

 alas for worthy motives and well-laid i)lans! 

 I caught the bees. How many, I don't 

 know — neither does my brother. He stop- 

 ped neither to count nor console, but rush- 

 ed pellmell to the house and hid well away 

 from the bees, from my own bowlings, and 

 from mother's scoldings. It was a sad ex- 

 perience. That house held two wiser and 

 more thoughtful boys. But it taught its 

 lesson. 



After that experience we felt perfectly 

 willing to let father be beekeeper. We were 

 interested at swarming time when he hived 

 the new swarms in boxes similar to the old. 

 We were also on hand with good appetites 

 when any surplus honey was secured. How- 

 ever, the quantity was usually so small we 

 felt but little sorrow when the bees got what 

 my father called a "case of millers," and 

 died, although at the time I failed to see 

 why the bees did not drive the millers away 

 by treating them as they did me. 



The millers did good work— not one of 

 father's colonies survived; yet there was no 

 talk of securing more to replace them until 

 about four years ago when all the bees in 

 the neighborhood seemed to have contract- 

 ed " the millers " and died. Then we notic- 

 ed that our cantaloupes, watermelons, cu- 

 cumbers, squashes, etc., were not setting 

 fruit as they did formerly. We also observ- 

 ed that bees were seldom if ever seen work- 

 ing in the blossoms of these and other vege- 

 tables, while formerly the fields had been 

 full These facts made evident the necessity 

 of having bees in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood, so we determined to try again. 



This time my brother, then in grammar 

 school, having read in a farm paper that 

 some people were making honey from the 

 sale of honey, and also having partially for- 

 gotten his former exi)erience, which was not 

 as painful as my own, he determined to buy 

 some bees; and to make them profitable, not 

 only as pollinizers but as honey gatherers. 

 He did not buy any, for our uncle, who had 

 three colonies "in box hives, presented him 

 with a colony. This was placed on a stand 

 of four bricks in an out-of-the way place un- 

 der a peach tree. Then he bored four holes 

 down through the top of the hive and cov- 

 ered them with a weighted board. All was 

 done on a cold day, when bees were not fiy- 

 ing. He also made an SXH'-inch box. Jle 



