190 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



October 



Th^Kf Bee-keeping World. * 



SWITZERLAND. 



Now and then something is said about 

 the blind apiarist of Switzerland. He is 

 not only blind but also crippled. He is 

 very poor and his bees furnish him the 

 best part of his little income. His 

 name is Benjamin Imseng. He lives 

 in the little village of Saas Fee, Canton 

 of Naiais, Switzerland, at an elevation 

 of 5,904 ft. above the level of the sea. The 

 climate at this lieight is very severe. 

 The snow remains on the ground eight 

 months of the year, and the temperature 

 goes down frequently to 25 or 30° below 

 zero. At that altitude the wax moths 

 are unknown; that is one redeeming 

 feature. 



His method of finding the queen to be 

 killed is quite peculiar. The hive is 

 first removed to another stand, then a 

 comb filled with syrup, is substituted for 

 one of the side frames, from which the 

 bees are shaken back in the hive. When 

 the comb containing syrup is covered 

 with bees, they are shaken off into the 

 colony with which they are to be united, 

 or in a hive on the old stand, if a new 

 queen is to be introduced. The remain- 

 ing combs are treated in like manner 

 until the last one is reached, on which 

 the queen will be found, as she avoids 

 the syrup. At this point his blindness 

 obliges him to kill all the bees on the 

 last comb, to make sure of the queen. 



He judges the amount gathered from 

 day to day by means of a very primitive 

 machine, with which he can neverthe- 

 less estimate weights as low as three or 

 four ounces. A plank is balanced on a 

 triangular edge. The hive is placed on 

 one end of the plank and stones of 

 known weight near the other end at a 

 point which is as far from that end as 

 half the width of the hive. 



9 

 Mr. Ruffy is a queen-breeder and often 

 sells nuclei with his queens. This, of 

 course, curtails his supply of combs, 

 and he has to fall back on some procc^ss 

 to induce rapid comb building. One of 

 these is to feed the bees the cappings of 

 his extracted honey. He simply presses 

 them into balls and places them in the 

 hive above the brood-nest. It is neces- 

 sary to use the cappings unwashed, 

 otherwise they would not be noticed. 



Frequently in reading foreign books 

 and papers, we meet with the descrip- 

 tion of some implements or processes 

 that seem at first very imperfect ; but 

 after examination we often find that 

 they are well adapted to certain circum- 

 stances. The hives in use in Europe 

 belong generally to one of two systems 

 of construction. In one the frames are 

 taken out from' the top ; ift the other 

 they are taken from the back of the 

 hive, which forms a door adapted to 

 that purpose. To us who always place 

 the hives in the open ground, the idea of 

 taking the frames from behind looks 

 ridiculous and inould be ridiculous, sure 

 enough ; but the majority of hives in 

 Europe are yet kept in what is called 

 in French "ruchers ;" and the point 

 to which I want to call the attention of 

 the American Bee-keeper readers is 

 that a "rucher" is the best place for 

 keeping bees that I know of. A rucher 

 is not exactly a bee-house, it is rather a 

 bee-shed. The front is formed of three 

 or four strong shelves extending the 

 whole length of the building. On these 

 shelves are placed the hives. The first 

 shelf is about eight or ten inches above 

 the ground ; the second high enough 

 above the first to admit the hives 

 between ; the hives on the third ( or 

 fourth, if there are four)'each nearer the 

 roof. Between the shelves and the back 

 of the building there is an alley or room 

 four or five feet wide. The back and 

 ends of the building are enclosed. A 

 door is put at the most convenient place, 

 generally at one end. A fair idea as to 

 how a rucher looks can De had bv look- 

 ing at the engraving of Gravenhorsfs 

 apiary in the A B C of Bee-culture. 

 Generally the shed faces the south or 

 south-east. All the manipulations, all 

 the work is done from the alley behind 

 the hives, that is, from inside. Under 

 such circumstances the taking out of 

 the frames from behind instead of the 

 tops of the hives is simply a necessity. 

 As the inside of the rucher is compara- 

 tively dark, few bees get in, tiie work 

 can be done without a veil and there is 

 but little danger of robbing. The work 

 can be done in rainy weather as well as 

 in sunshine. That item alone would be 

 invaluable to a queen-breeder. Then, it 

 is more agreeable to work under a shed 



