142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feu. 15, 



less; others will have fertile workers, and others 

 may have been tampered with by skunks, and 

 bipeds that are worse than skunks. So, upon 

 my approach to the apiary, I heard a note that 

 made me hasten my steps; and, sure enough, 

 there was robbing in progress, and several hives 

 were being assaulted. It is the practice here to 

 close the entrances, after the extracting season 

 is past, down to about an inch; and knowing 

 that these were strong colonies only a few weeks 

 before, I was a little surpiised to see the vortex 

 of bees whirling around them. Without wait- 

 ing for veil or smoker I grasped the sharp-edged 

 steel tool that we use to pry open the supers; 

 and the first one that I tipped back I found had 

 been cleaned of its brood -combs, bees and all; 

 and though there was no one within a mile of 

 me I shouted right out, " Pulled bees!" and an 

 examination revealed that 13 colonies had been 

 stolen. The frames from the brood-chambers, 

 with adhering bees, had been removed (pulled), 

 and placed in hives owned by the puller; and a 

 person entering the apiary would miss no hives 

 from their accustomed place. 



" Well," said I to myself, " this puller beats 

 the puller of honey;" but I soon changed my 

 mind in that respect; for, when I unlocked and 

 entered the cabin, I found eleven 60-lb. cans of 

 honey missing, and about 30 lbs. of beeswax. 

 All manner of schemes for the entrapment of 

 the thieves were entertained, and finally I re- 

 solved to watch nights, or to let the thieves go 

 on in ihe evil way they had been doing; and 

 by thus giving them rope enough they would 

 hang themselves; and, sure enough, a few 

 evenings after, there came a knock, knock, 

 knock, at my lonely cabin door. It was not the 

 woodpecker in the attic this time, but at the 

 door I found Mr. Mofl'at, of the neighboring 

 town of Rialto, and a tall lank man. The 

 Rambler, it has been said, is a lank fellow; 

 but this man was extremely lank — much lanker 

 than the Rambler, and he was introduced lo me 

 as the chief detective of Rialto. 



INIr. Moffat and I compared notes on the pull- 

 ing business, and we found ourselves in the same 

 boat, Mr. ^lolfat having lost over twelve col- 

 onies also. But Mr. INIofTat had the good for- 

 tune to visit his apiary the next morning after 

 the pulling, when tracks were fresh, and track- 

 ed the wagon to an apiary away out in* that 

 brush in which I rambled a few weeks ago. 

 The result was the arrest of several parties, 

 and the Rambler was called upon to go over the 

 ground with Mr. M. and the chief detective, 

 and note points of inten^st that would be of 

 value in court. The next morning I was in 

 Eialto, bright and early, and with my compan- 

 ion we visited the despoiled apiary. Pony Vix, 

 who is so used to the artistic arrangement of 

 my apiary, pointed her eais with some surprise 

 at the medley of old rattle-trap hives before 

 her. Mr. M. said that he used to take much 

 pride in his bee-hives and grounds; "but," 



said he, "since I came to California, and where 

 I have so much ranch work to do, I neglect the 

 bees; and all I care for them is to extract the 

 honey when it is time to do it. Oh. yes!" said 

 he. in reply to my question; "it pays to have 

 things fixed nice; but I have much else to do." 

 As a consequence, here were some 140 colonies 

 in old unpainted hives, and scarcely a super 

 that fitted close enough to keep the bees in at 

 those points of contact. The hives, being un- 

 painted. were warped so that bees could come 

 out at the corners. Still, Mr. M. had taken 

 eight tons of honey from this apiary. I reflect- 

 ed that, if his fruit-orchard liad been neglected 

 as he had neglected the bees, he would have 

 received no revenue from it whatever; but the 

 bees will stand much neglect, and still produce 

 a crop for the owner. I found myself wishing 

 that some one would invent a bee, or change 

 all of our bees to non-neglectahle bees, and 

 then see how many would remain in the busi- 

 ness. 



Jf{i-JKoffatWorl(ed'f\ii(5feM^on6n\ol(er, u)/\He/ 

 'XA/'or/iecC fde A ii/ej-. " 



Mr. Moffat doesn't believe in any of the new- 

 fangled smokers, but prefers to use a sort of 

 stew-pan arrangement — a tin box about. 5x8, and 

 6 inches deep, with a loose cover and a long 

 handle. A fire is built in this stew-pan. and 

 any kind of fuel crammed in. It makes a beau- 

 tiful snujke. If the fire g(>ts too hot, the cover 

 is put on. If the smoke is to be directed over 

 the hive, take the cover in on^ hand, the stew- 

 pan in the other, and fan the smoke toward the 

 hive with the old flippity-flop cover. I became 

 so interested over this (to me) new smoker that 

 I forgot all about pulled bees or the pullers 

 thereof. 



Our examination revealed that the same tac- 

 tics had been practiced here as in my apiary— 

 the brood-chamber rifled, and the hive left on 

 the stand. Here, however, five colonies had 

 been removed bodily, and we all came to the 

 conclusion that the men in the brush began to 

 think they owned all of the lone apiaries, and 

 were going to remove them to their respective 

 homes. While we were examining hives, the 

 detective was measuring tracks, both of man, 

 beast, and wagon, and picking up pieces of sliv- 

 ers here and there; and one of these that came 

 from, or that was broken from the top of a 



