Jan. 3, 1907 



American ^Bcc Journalj 



ions on the subject are a little hereti- 

 cal, and I am giving the brethren more 

 heresy now than they are able to stand. 

 Notwithstanding he " knows " it isn't 

 the birds, I'll be just impolite enough 

 to guess that it is. I<et him look for 

 very small and very sly birds, with 

 needle-like bills, and a Satanic dispo- 

 sition to stab, stab, stab a multitude 

 of grapes, taking only a minute drop 

 from each. And if I am right, the only 

 time in the day when they can be seen 

 anywhere around the vines is just as 

 day is dawning in the morning, when 

 the grape owner isn't up yet. Mr. K. 

 looked in the night with a lantern, and 

 looked also through the day, but per- 

 haps he didn't look closely enough just 

 -at the right time. 



However, that's not the only theory 

 open. His small bumble-bees may 

 really be mason bees (so called from 

 boring their nests in masonry where 

 the mortar is not very hard), and mason 

 bees are likely enough to have just as 

 sharp mouth-parts as the carpenter 

 bees have. I never observed mason 

 bees when they were at the flowers, 

 but the other fellows I have. The car- 

 penter bee has a bill so sharp that he 

 won't take pains to go inside flower- 

 tubes, but just punches right through 

 from the outside. Might, perhaps, 

 serve grapes the same way. So I judge 

 that the whole of these two " cala- 

 bangs " of big bees (including several 

 species) are possible enough culprits 

 when grape mischief is being done. 

 Page 980. 



Putting a Robbed Colony Over a 

 Strong One. 



Sure ! Robbers can't renew the same 

 wickedness next day if you put the 

 hive they are after over another and 

 much stronger colony. Once in a while 

 it may be desirable to do so, I guess. 

 In general, putting a weak colony over 

 a strong one doesn't seem to be win- 

 ning popularity much ; but this one 

 item bids fair to be saved from the 

 wreck. Page 983. 



Faith in the Bee-Man. 



A lesson to us all is that little girl on 

 the face of No. 48. She is not one of 

 the child bee-keepers, and she doesn't 

 like to get stung. She simply believed 

 what the bee-man told her, whqn he 

 said the bees wouldn't hurt her. How 

 good a thing is faith ! (and how bad, 

 sometimes, when the person at the far 

 end is not worthy !) 



Those Night 'Water-Carrving Bees ! 



And J. Pawletta stirs us up again. 

 He's the man whose bees carry water 

 at night. Admits that at their daytime 

 watering-place, 210 yards away, bees 

 are not found at night. Sticks to his 

 previous report. And still he finds it 

 too tiresome ever to get around and 

 say, squarely up and down, that he has 

 ever seen a bee load up with water and 

 start for home — sees 'em come and go 

 • at the hive-end of the performance. 

 Page 968. 



Spring Moving of Bees. 



And here is a very graceful and 

 luminous sentence from Mrs. Null, on 

 apiary moving : " Oh, but it's so nat- 

 ural to wait for spring, and join hands 

 with Nature, and promenade all !" 

 Page 965. 



Mr. Bingham's Step-Ladder Hives. 



Bingham thinks he's smart to show 

 us, on the face of No. 47, hives tiered 

 up till one needs a step-ladder to get 

 the cover olT. Mr. B., you never read 

 the poem which says ; 



Not alwayt? people 

 Clear up in the steeple. 



No, I guess you never did. 



r 



\.. 



Pacific (Toast 

 Illunnurinas 



'^ 



J 



Chickens in the Apiary. 



The bee-periodicals from time to 

 time have had something to say pro 

 and con on the subject of chickens in 

 the apiary. At our place the apiary 

 and vegetable garden are on the oppo- 

 site side of the fence from where the 

 poultry is allowed to run, as none of 

 the folks like the chickens to come 

 near the house or roam through the 

 garden. If poultry knew where to 

 scratch without rooting up valuable 

 seeds and plants, we would tolerate 

 them in the garden ; but how few 

 chickens have " horse sense 1" In a 

 few minutes an old hen, which is a 

 "lightning striker " with her "lower 

 limbs," will do untold mischief to a 

 bed of newly-planted seed or a bed of 

 plants that we may have spent much 

 time and considerable money in estab- 

 lishing. Too often do these old hens 



This year I became, as it were, fos- 

 ter father to a pair of black chickens. 

 How this came about I shall not here 

 relate in detail, though suffice it to say 

 that I took them under my " motherly " 

 care when they were but a few hours 

 old. I raised them in the way that a 

 well-educated chicken should go. They 

 are "cute " chickens now, though they 

 are not yet fully grown. They were 

 given privileges the other chickens 

 were not allowed to enjoy. I early in- 

 troduced them to the bugs and things 

 that are to be found in an apiary. I 

 would take them into the apiary, and 

 by turning over a board or box would 

 disclose a lot of worms or bugs. It 

 was as good as a picnic to see how the 

 little chicks would go for the insects. 

 Sometimes I would find a moth, or the 

 larva of a moth, inside a hive, and I 

 would give the two-legged little pets a 

 lesson in that sort of entomology. 

 They did not seem to care for such 

 study. "Gastronomy " was more to 

 their liking, for they would devour the 

 enemies of the bees quicker than one 

 could say "Jack Robinson.'' 



In time the little chicks made regu- 

 lar visits to the apiary in quest of in- 

 sects. They soon got a brood of chick- 

 eus that were just weaned to become 

 regular bug-and-moth hunters among 

 the bee-hives, too. In one part of the 

 apiary were a few hives that I had not 

 given any attention to, as my time 

 among the bees for some years back 

 has been far more limited than it was 

 a decade and more of years ago. In 

 this part of the apiary I found a few 

 hives had become the prey of the 

 abominable wax-moth. I closed the 



A MOTH-RIDPEN HIVE BEING INSPECTED BY CHICKENS. 



raise " old scratch," and a rank growth 

 of nasty cuss-words, even, sometimes, 

 in one religiously inclined. For this 

 reason it may be believed that said old 

 hens are in some way the instruments 

 of the Evil One in the undoing of us 

 humble mortals. But I am getting 

 away from what I was going to say 

 about chickens in the bee-yard. 



hive until I secured my camera. Then 

 I got things posed for a suitable view 

 of the situation — " Chickens in the 

 Apiary." What a world of endear- 

 ment there is in the little picture I 

 secured 1 One of my " black beauties " 

 ran away, as a bee got tangled in the 

 feathers about her ears. But a noble 

 pullet, that learned to hunt about the 



