1S'J4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



461 



ermined to try to trap them. The plan of 

 ceeping them busy by slow robbing had not 

 ;ome out yet. After trying several devices, and 

 ailing, I finally hit on one that was successful, 

 tls made of an ordinary 10-frame Langstroth 

 iXtracting-supor, without frames; a bottom- 

 )oard is nailed on the bottom, and a three- 

 nch hole bored in each side and end near the 

 lOttom. A short wire-cloth cone is pushed into 

 iach hole, and nailed; a % hole is made in the 

 kpex of each cone, and a West cell -protector 

 crewed on to finish out the cone. The cover 



we do not know but we should be tempted, 

 after caging them, to destroy them altogether. 

 As in the case of human beings, so with bees; 

 when they once learn bad tricks— when they 

 once acquire the habit of stealing— it is hard 

 for them to get honey honestly thereafter.— Ed.] 



KOBBEKTRAP. 



s made of two sheets of wire cloth, one nailed 

 m each side of a frame the size of the top of 

 .he hive. This is to prevent the robbers inside 

 rom passing the honey used as a bait through 

 jhe wire cloth, to the robbers outside. I hang 

 1 frame of honey inside for bait. It is neces- 

 sary to have plenty of light above to draw the 

 oees away from the cones below; but the hot 

 5un should not be allowed to shine in on the 

 oees, for it will kill them. By setting this trap 

 3ut in the apiary with a lighted smoker on it I 

 soon caught all the robbers that were in the 

 habit of following the smoker and killed them. 

 [ would not kill bees in the spring or any other 

 time if they were of any value; but these old 

 hairless robbers were of no value at that time. 

 At other times I catch the robbers and keep 

 them imprisoned until dusk, when they are 

 glad to get home and quit. 



After I had quit working with the bees in the 

 fall I went out to the apiary one day and found 

 a weak colony overpowered. The robbers were 

 just tumbling over each other, and the whole 

 apiary was in an uproar. My honey-house has 

 bee-escapes on the windows, so I just carried 

 the hive inside that was being robbed, and 

 placed the trap on the stand where the hive 

 was. In a short time I had nearly all the rob- 

 bers in the trap. I kept them there until about 

 dusk in the evening, when they were glad to go 

 home, and next day all was quiet. 



Fillmore, Cal. 



[Something similar to this has been suggested 

 "before; but we can not now recall when or 

 Avhere. The idea is a valuable one; and during 

 those seasons when robbers are especially bad 



THE BEST HONEYS OF THE WORLD. 



HOW TASTES VARY ACCOKDING TO LOCALITY. 



B\j Chns. F. Miith. 



Friend Boot: — Our friend Hubbard, of Wai- 

 pole, N. H., is asking for my idea on sourwood 

 honey; and as the matter may prove interest- 

 ing to others, and I know that our friend will 

 see it, please give it space in Gleanings. 



Sourwood fuinishes a very good honey, of 

 light color and good flavor. I should put it in 

 the same class with basswood of the North and 

 Northwest, or the orange-blossom or saw-pal- 

 metto of the South. We have just now a new 

 arrival of orange-blossom honey. It is of good 

 quality and fine taste, and we advertise it as 

 something "new and choice;" but we shall be 

 no more able to raise a customer for it now than 

 we were at former trials. A certain preference 

 would be given to basswood over sourwood 

 honey, because of the former having a lighter 

 color. All the above will be sold to manufac- 

 turers principally, almost e>clusively. The 

 most popular and most praiseworthy honeys 

 are: Northern white clover; mangrove of Flor- 

 ida, and sage of California, in their purity — i. e., 

 without an admixture of other qualities. Ac- 

 cording to my experience, iliis trio includes the 

 only qualities accepted by the public for table 

 use. Almost all other qualities go to the man- 

 ufacturers principally. 



It must be remembered that our tastes are 

 cultivated. While basswood honey is of fine 

 quality, and, no doubt, popular in the bass- 

 wood region, still it will never be successfully 

 introduced in a clover country, for table use. I 

 have tested the matter for many years. Horse- 

 mint honey, very obnoxious to our taste- at 

 first, loses its bad flavor gradually by our han- 

 dling and tasting it. When my friend Dr. Lay 

 said, " Horsemint is the honey for a man of 

 Texas," and when I replied that it amounts to 

 nothing in business (what he and I should like), 

 both of us were correct. Only those qualities 

 which are popular, or can be made so, count. 

 All qualities next to the above-mentioned trio, 

 in regard to flavor and color, go to manufactur- 

 ers The idea I intend to convey is, that, 

 according to my experience in the business, 

 white-clover honey stands at the head of the 

 list; next comes mangrove of Florida; next, 

 sage of California; and next, any amount of 

 other varieties too numerous to mention, all of 

 which can be sold to manufacturers only, be- 

 cause of their lower prices. However, any 

 thing is possible these times, the business fea- 

 tures of which are abnormal and unnatural. 



