4G 



THE AMERTiAX BEE-KEEPER 



March 



A Few Current Thoughts. 



I By Adrian Gelaz.) 



IHAX'E nothing to contribute this 

 month to the foreign department. 

 Not that there is nothing in the bee 

 papers published in the French lan- 

 guage, far from it. But most of it is of 

 a local character and would be of little 

 interest to American readers. Quite a 

 number of interesting items have been 

 published time and again in different 

 papers on both sides of the "pond," 

 and do not seem to me worth repeating 

 again. To make matters worse, two of 

 the best correspondents of the Revue 

 Internationale have been seriously sick 

 during the last, four months. But both 

 have recovered and will soon be at work 

 again. 



IIIVKS AND "UrCHEKS " 



Some time ago I spoke of "ruchers," 

 that is. a kind of- bee shed or house 

 apiary very much in use in Europe. In 

 looking over the matter, I came to the 

 conclusion that our present system of 

 hives and apiaries is in great need of 

 improvement. 



What is the ideal home of a bee? 

 What home has Nature provided? 



A hole or cavity in a dead tree. Away 

 up in the air. Away from the damp 

 earth, from the ants, the lizzards. the 

 frogs, and other "varmints." Away 

 from the other colonies, from robbers 

 and thieves of all sorts and kinds (apiar- 

 ists included). Protected from the hot 

 sun by the foliage of the neighboring 

 trees. Protected from the cold by the 

 thickness of the wood. Note also that 

 rotten wood is about as bad a conduc- 

 tor of heat 'or cold) as cork and fur- 

 thermore absorbs all the dampness that 

 may arise. In a dead tree there is no 

 difference of temperature between day 

 and night; that is, the most favorable 

 condition for brood rearing and comb 

 building. 



What home do we provide? A thin 

 box right on the ground; exposed to 

 the hot sun, the cold nights, the rain, 

 snow, winds, "varmints," etc. 



Then we discourse learnedly (?) upon 

 the necessity of following Nature's 

 ways ! 



KKKDERS. 



During the first period of modern 

 bee-keeping, all sorts of hives were de- 



vised. Some were very pretty. Just 

 like a nice country house, with doors 

 and windows, and often a drawer un- 

 der the entrance board, said drawer to 

 contain pieces of comb, lumps of sugar, 

 or whatever the apiarist would feed his 

 bees with. 



That drawer might not be a bad af- 

 fair, if properly arranged. To begin 

 with, it should open at the back of the 

 hive instead of the front. Then the 

 entrance to the drawer from inside, be 

 so arranged, that th-e dirt and other de- 

 bris could not fall in. The possibility 

 of the apparatus being propolized and 

 stuck should be considered. The feeder 

 should be arranged like the Heddon or 

 Miller feeder, or something similar, so 

 the bees would not be drowned, or 

 bother the apiarist when refilling. The 

 whole should be robber-tight, of course. 

 It might be large enough to contain 

 several extracting combs when these 

 need cleaning. 



Feeding on the top of the hive is ob- 

 jectionable on account of the loss of 

 heat. The space occupied by the feed- 

 er takes heat which would be better in 

 the supers and brood nest. In opening 

 the hives, a great loss of heat takes 

 place. If the feeder is such as to be 

 refilled with.out being bothered by the 

 bees, the same arrangement prevents 

 resealing of the cover; and the warm 

 air of the colony constantly escapes 

 through the cracks between the cover 

 and body of the hive. 



Feeding outside will not do. The col- 

 onies that need the most get the least, 

 and those needing the least get the 

 most. More or less bees get drowned. 

 The neighbor's bees may get a share. 

 Whatever little nectar is in the field is 

 lost, for it is the field bees which take 

 the feed. It teaches the bees to rob. 

 After a bee has taken feed from an out- 

 side feeder or robbed a few times, she 

 will be on the watch all the time for 

 more and as soon as anything sweet is 

 exposed, she will quit the field work 

 and go for it. Some will eventually dis- 

 cover that when the apiarist is at work 

 there is a chance to rob: and get in the 

 habit of following him around, buzzing 

 around his head all the time. 



The entrance feeders do not quite 

 fill the bill. They are too small, have 

 to be filled late at night. And if the 

 night is cool, they may not be emptied 

 when the morning comes. Then, look 

 out for the robbers. 



