456 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



in a prosperous condition, and worked witii a 

 largre force of men. There were evidently some 

 rough cliaracters here, for a man had been re- 

 cently killed in a shooting-affray. Mr. LaRue 

 owns a prosperous apiary near the mines, and 

 there are others scattered up and down the 

 canyon. 



Night caught up with us. as it has a habit of 

 doing when people are traveling, and we forth- 

 with camped by the roadside near a respectable- 

 looking ranch. It seemed to be a highly pros- 

 perous ranch; and among the other products of 

 the soil were several boys, dogs, cats, poultry, 

 and cattle. The boys were very attentive, and 

 had a great desire to lay in a fund of useful in- 

 formation. They knew us to be bee-men from 

 our wagon, such rigs being common thereabout. 

 They informed us that Mr. Crawfoot was a very 

 big bee-man, owning hundreds of colonies just 

 over the eastern hills. We were subjected to all 

 sorts of questions. One little biped wanted to 

 know if I had any little boys 'nd girls 'nd cats 

 'nd dogs at my house. His little snoozer of a 

 dog just then grabbed for our dish of canned 

 beef. Our frying-pan corrected his bad habits, 

 and distracted the attention of all concerned. 

 The boss of the ranch also sat down for a friend- 

 ly chat; and as we were about to turn in under 

 our wagon he gave us permission to sleep in the 

 granary. Having eaten a large supper we ac- 

 cepted his invitation wiih grateful hearts. 



As we tucked ourselves comfortably in our 

 horse-blankets, among the sacks of barley, pil- 

 lowing our reflective ends on our shoes, from 

 which we had previously extracted our feet, 

 we mercifully thought of the poor people in our 

 great cities who have not even the comforts of 

 a granary with a hen-roostattachmentin which 

 to rest their weary and emaciated bodies. This 

 hen roost attachment of ours possessed a roost- 

 er with a very sonorous disposition ; and at 

 most unseasonable hours his disposition would 

 break forth into a fortissimo chanticleer chal- 

 lenge. At the close of his exercise, a broncho, 

 just through the board partition at my left, 

 would draw about twenty feet of halter-chain 

 through a ring, suddenly hump up his back, and 

 groan. I think, however, it was a horse-laugh. 

 He was practicing the bucking process, and 

 laughing at the exploits to be performed on 

 some tenderfoot the next day. As he \yould let 

 up on his exercise the chain would run back 

 through the ring; and the rhythm of that chain 

 music, and the various other attachments to our 

 granary, soon lulled us into undisturbed repose. 

 We hurried off in the morning before the boys 

 got around with a new set of questions; and, 

 having a good road, we sent the dust behind us 

 at a good rate, and arrived at our destination at 

 a little pa«t the noonday hour. We were upon 

 the McCombes ranch, and ^(K) colonies of bees, 

 save 4, were to be prepared for removal in the 

 shortest possible space of time by Mr. Powell 

 and myself. 



DZIERZON'S TWIN HIVE. 



HOW HIVES ARE USED DOUBLE IN GERMANY. 



By Karl Rudolph Mathcy. 



KAHL UriiOI.rU MATllKV. 



Itis well known that 

 the inventor of mov- 

 able bars, to which 

 combs were fastened, 

 John Dzierzon, is like- 

 wise the inventor of a 

 hive which he strong- 

 ly recommends as the 

 most perfect abode 

 for the bees. This, to- 

 gether with the fact 

 that his hive is very 

 simple and cheap in 

 construction, is the 

 reason why the dual 

 form of hive is so widely disseminated. 



The "twin" hive (as we will now call it) is 

 not a two-story one, as one might conjecture 

 from the name, but a single-story. It is called 

 " twin," therefore, because of its peculiar form, 

 two of them being used back to back, as seen in 

 ground-plan in Fig. 2. The side and front walls 

 are double, and packed with straw. The rear 

 walls, which lie against each other, are made of 

 single boards. Besides this, the hives have the 

 additional twin feature of having their contig- 

 uous back walls provided with entrances of 

 equal height and breadth, exactly opposite each 

 other. These extrances are usually kept closed 



* We give above a picture of a man who lias fol- 

 lowed bee-keeping since tlie sixth year of his life, 

 and wlio for nineteen years has been engaged in 

 apicullure and agriculture with untiring devotion. 



Our bee-keeping friend, Karl Kudolpli Matliey, 

 was born June 39tli, 1859, in Rattibor, Prussian Si- 

 lesia. His fatlier was a lawyer, but died suddenly 

 in 1865. The mother gave her son a very careful 

 edut'ation and training. The love for bees dates 

 from his earliest youth. On his sixth birthday he 

 received as a present from his uncle (a major in the 

 German army) his first colony of bees, and tlie fam- 

 ily gardener became his teacher. From that time 

 on he has followed bee-keeping. In his eighteenth 

 year lie went to the University. Since the year 1884 

 he has been actively engaged as an apiculiural 

 writer. In April, 1879, -100 colonies of bees were 

 already in his yard. In 1884 he opened up an ap ary 

 with .WO stocks for the sale of bees. From that time 

 forward lie followed the business of bee culture, 

 ai d raising fruit-trees by the wliolesale, and now 

 h.MS several bee-yards, with 1700 colonies in all., 

 which ai'e under the management of his brother. 

 With the patience of a Job he has read nearly all 

 works on the l)ee and its culture which have appear- 

 ed since the invention of piinting. 



Mr. Mat-hey traveled, as member of a natural- 

 history club in IS^Ci, tlitoughout Russia. In 1889 he 

 traveled throughout France. In ]890-'91 he made 

 the tour of Italy as a member of a party of students 

 in natural history. Rome, Naples, Herculaneum, 

 Pompeii, were visited. Mt. Vesuvius was also in- 

 cluded in the trip. The parly tlien traveled from 

 Brindisi, by steamer, up the Nile to Aussuan, in 

 Middle Egypt; whence, after Hying visits to various 

 places, they returned to Cairo. From Cairo they 

 proceeded to Alexandria, Port Said, JatTa, and from 

 there to Jerusalem. From the latter place they 

 made several e.xcursioiis, going down to Jericho, to 

 the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and back over Mar Saba 

 to Bethlehem, and then back to Jerusalem. The 

 journey home was by way of Constantinople, 

 ihroiigh the orient, to civilized lands, each person 

 getting home as soon as possible. 



