AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



487 



Should the weather be warru, some 

 means for ventilating the hive must be 

 provided, however, or there is danger of 

 smothering the colony. 



Towards night open the entrance, to 

 allow the the robbers that have been 

 closed in to esfcape and return home. 

 The next morning allow them only 

 enough room at the entrance so that one 

 or two bees can pass in at a time. 



If the colony cannot or will not defend 

 itself against robbers, I would not con- 

 sider them worth bothering with. 



If this does not effect a cure, close 

 them up for three days ; by that time 

 the robbers will likely have forgotten 

 about robbing that hive. 



Another plan is to cover the hive en- 

 tirely over with a sheet or mosquito-bar 

 until the robbers cease pestering; and 

 when you remove the same, contract the 

 entrance as stated above. This gives 

 the guards at the entrance a better 

 chance to hold the fort against intrud- 

 ers. — S. E. MiLLEK, in Field, Farm and 

 Stockman. 



Bees in Sierra County, Calif. 



The honey crop in this section, last 

 season, was a good one. My health has 

 been poor, and the bees did not receive 

 The attention that they should have had, 

 but I secured about 50 pounds per col- 

 ony, all first-class comb-honey. — G. W. 

 Cover, in the Calif. Orchard and Farm. 



Keeping Time to the Music of Progress 



Are we advancing in the knowledge 

 and practices of apiculture ? Undoubt- 

 edly we are along many lines. Any one 

 who is familiar with the business forty 

 years ago, and knows what the practice 

 of the best apiarists of to-day is, can but 

 admit that bee-keeping is not behind 

 other pursuits in the onward march of 

 improved methods. There are to-day 

 more brains and more capital employed 

 in the business of bee-keeping than ever 

 before, since history recorded the doings 

 of mankind. — Eugene Secok, in the 

 Farmer and Breeder. 



Ideal Location for an Apiary. 



A friend tells me that he once found 

 the ideal bee location in Nevada. The 

 mountains climbed heavenward, and in 

 consequence there was an almost con- 

 tinual bloom, for when the valleys were 

 in bloom, the mountains were crowned 

 with a mantle of snow ; as the season 

 advanced the snow receded, and the 



bloom ascended. The same conditions 

 can be secured in almost every part of 

 this State, by wintering at an elevation 

 of 200 feet, and staying there until the 

 best part of the bloom is gone, move the 

 bees up to an altitude of 2,000 feet, 

 then to one of 4,000 feet, later 6,000 

 feet, returning in the Fall to the Winter 

 section of 2,000 feet altitude ; by thus 

 moving with the seasons the bees would 

 be kept in a section of continual bloom ; 

 and wintered in a mild section where 

 they would consume almost none of their 

 stores. — E. W. Schaeffle, in Orchard 

 and Farm. 



Queerest of Races. 



A pigeon fancier in Hamme, in West- 

 phalia, made a wager that a dozen bees, 

 liberated three miles from their hives, 

 would reach it in better time than a 

 dozen pigeons would reach their cot 

 from the same distance. The competi- 

 tors were given wing at Rhynhern, a 

 village nearly a league from Hamme, 

 and the first bee finished a quarter of a 

 minute in advance of the first pigeon, 

 three other bees reached the goal before 

 the second pigeon, the main body of 

 both detachments finishing almost sim- 

 ultaneously an instant or two later, says 

 the "Cornhill Magazine." The bees, 

 too, may be said to have been handi- 

 capped in the race, having been rolled in 

 flour before starting for the purpose of 

 identification. — Exchange. 



Absconding Swarms. 



Cases are rare where swarms issue 

 and depart before clustering. If they 

 have come out, and returned three or 

 four times, the last time they may go off 

 without clustering. It seems to be 

 nature's way for them to have a general 

 round up in the open air, and then set- 

 tle into a compact cluster, so that their 

 owner can take care of them. Swarms 

 have been known to remain clustered 

 for several days during cold rain-storms, 

 but it is the safest way to hive them, 

 when they have fairly quieted down. 

 Bees get very warm during the excite- 

 ment of swarming, and should the day 

 be very hot, with the sun shining 

 directly on the cluster, they will not be 

 apt to remain very long. — Mrs. L. Har- 

 rison, in the Prairie Farmer. 



"One of the best hygienic habits, and 

 also the hardest to acquire, is to keep 

 the mouth shut." 



