110 



Feb. 7, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



for him to live on it when it was bot- 

 tomside up. The bees evidently work 

 upon damaged fruit, and they feel so 

 ■innocent about it tliat they do not even 

 attempt to fly away when we catch them 

 in the act. But let us get up with the 

 dawn, before sunrise, and go to the 

 vineyard or the peach orchard, and there 

 we will catch the real culprits that feed 

 upon the fruit — quails, robins, cat-birds, 

 etc. They gather in a vineyard by the 

 hundred, eat their fill, and when no 

 longer hungry they find pleasure in 

 wantonly plunging their beaks in the 

 soft juice. In many instances you will 

 find a bunch of grapes with hardly a 

 sound berry, and they are all plucked on 

 the same side, many of the berries show- 

 ing two holes, one above the other, a 

 short distance apart. It was done by 

 the two points of the bird's beak. 



But the sun rises above the horizon 

 and the bees come to gather the frag- 

 ments, and so does man, and he straight- 

 way puts the blame on the industrious 

 little toiler which works from sunrise 

 till sunset for its board, and never fails 

 to bring its harvest to the hive, to be 

 later robbed by this complaining human 

 miser. 



Bees do not work on unsound fruit 

 at all times. Is it because they are lazy 

 at times? No, it is because they some- 

 times find better food. Whenever you 

 see the bees on damaged peaches or 

 grapes, you may be sure that there is 

 no honey to be found in the blossoms. 

 There are seasons of honey scarcity, 

 \yhen they manage to gather quite a 

 little partly-fermented fruit-juice. It is 

 the best they can find, but is not good 

 for them. It will sour in the hive and 

 make bad winter food. The prudent 

 apiarist removes all this unhealthy food 

 from the hive before winter, and gives 

 them good honey instead. There is 

 never any great quantity of it harvested, 

 because many bees are made drunk by 

 its fermentation, and fail to reach the 

 hive alive. So when bees are seen in 

 numbers on damaged fruit, it may safe- 

 lybe asserted that the apiary is more 

 injured than benefited thereby. 



Untimely Spraying Injures Bees. 



Let us look upon the damage which 

 has been occasionally inflicted upon the 

 bee by the horticulturist. It is done by 

 injudicious spraying of fruit during the 

 bloom. Dealers in spraying instruments 

 have asserted that it is necessary to 

 spray the fruit-trees during the bloom. 

 1 he result has been, in some instances, 

 wholesale poisoning of insects where 

 this method was pursued, the poison in 

 the spray mixing with the honey in the 

 corolla and endangering, not only the 

 life of the bee that sipped part of this 

 liquid, but also the life of those who 

 might eat of this poisoned nectar in the 

 combs. 



So the spraying of fruit during the 

 bloom might easily be made a criminal 

 matter. But there is no advantage in 

 spraying fruit during the bloom. What 

 we seek is to prevent the puncture of 

 the fruit by the depredatory insects, 

 such as the codling moth, the curculio, 

 etc. These insects puncture the fruit 

 when it is formed, and their destruc- 

 tion must follow the formation of the 

 fruit. The throwing of any poisonous 



mi.xture upon the lilossom can have but 

 one effect — that of destroying the ef- 

 ficiency of the pollen, if it is diluted in 

 this poison. 



The assertions I have made in this 

 paper are based upon positive facts 

 gathered in a large orchard and exten- 

 sive vineyards, connected with an apiary 

 of about 100 colonies of bees. I have 

 often taken visitors into the vineyard 

 and the apiary during the maturing of 

 the fruit, and shown them, without any 

 possibihty of error, that bee-keeping and 

 fruit-growing are not antagonistic, but 

 are profitable and helpful to one an- 

 other, when carried on together in a 

 suitable location. 



Hamilton, 111. 



[Since the foregoing was written and 

 read, Mr. Dadant adds the following in 

 reply to Mr. Hasty: — Editor.] 



Bees and Grapes. 



I am sorry to feel that I must take 

 issue with Mr. Hasty concerning bees 

 vs. grapes. But it has been my misfor- 

 tune to be mixed up with a great deal 

 of trouble in this line, and I have made 

 so thorough an investigation of the work 

 of bees on grapes that I know — absolute- 

 ly know — that what I advance is true. 

 I have heard people make the same 

 statement that is quoted by Mr. Hasty, 

 about Mr. Pocklington, (page 33) and 

 in every case I proved it to be only an 

 opinion advanced, which the party did 

 not dare back up. 



I have starved bees on grapes. I 

 have tried just what Mr. Hasty suggests. 



getting the bees to "cluster on the bunch 

 till they cover it all up, out of sight, 

 like they were balling up a queen or try- 

 ing to force a hole into a hive." I have 

 had bees in this way just as long as they 

 had the patience or persistence to stay, 

 and I will tell you that they stayed a 

 long time, for they knew the juice was 

 there, just under the skin. But it was 

 out of their reach. One berry punc- 

 tured, out of a bunch treated in this 

 way, had a depression in it where the 

 juice had been suclyed after 3 hours of 

 exposure, but not a sound berry was 

 damaged, except for the loss of its 

 bloom. 



Any of my readers can try this, and 

 also try putting sound grapes into a 

 full colony of bees and note the result. 

 To make the test more secure, puncture 

 one or two berries when putting them 

 in. But be sure and do not handle the 

 bunch carelessly, for you may loosen 

 the berries slightly at the stem, and in 

 that case the bees would soon take ad- 

 vantage of it. 



I am sure of wliat I say when I as- 

 sert that bees zvill starve on sound 

 grapes, for I have tried it, not in one 

 instance only, but in a number of in- 

 stances, and with the greatest care in 

 making the tests. Too many people 

 make assertions in this matter without 

 any actual test, and only from a super- 

 ficial investigation, or, as in the case of 

 some grape-growers, because they are 

 anxious to find the bees at fault. 



Test this for yourselves, and do not 

 depend upon any eyes but your own. It 

 is not Qifficult to do. 



C. P. D.\DANT. 



'IKeedom 



Conducted by LuUis H. Scuull, New Brauusfeih, Tex. 



Number of Colonies to Produce 

 $500. 



The following question has been asked 

 me to be answered in "Southern Bee- 

 dom :" 



"How many colonies will it take to 

 produce an income of $500 a year? 

 And what price pur colony will they 

 cost?" 



The product per colony in my own 

 apiaries has ranged from 50 to 150 

 pounds for a number of years. A fair 

 average for southwest Texas, and for an 

 average number of years, would perhaps 

 be 73 pounds. For a period of 9 years, 

 of which I kept close account, the total 

 average of my apiaries was 66 2-3 

 pounds. 



As bulk comb honey is produced most 

 extensively, with some extracted honey, 

 a good average price per pound would 

 be about 8 cents. A hundred colonies, 



therefore, should, with reasonable care, 

 bring an income of $soo or more a j'ear. 

 Full colonies in frame hives range 

 all the way from $3 to $6 per colony, 

 depending a great deal upon their con- 

 dition and the race of bees. Box-hives, 

 where such have not already seen their 

 day, and can still be obtained, will cost 

 from 75 cents to $2 each. It is some- 

 times good policy to buy such, if they 

 can be obtained cheap enough, and trans- 

 fer the bees into frame hives that have 

 been obtained "in the fiat," and nailed 

 up by the bee-keeper himself. This is, I 

 believe, the best and the cheapest way to 

 begin bee-keeping, unless a whole apiary, 

 or a large number of colonies in the 

 hives wanted, are bought at once, A 

 start may also be made by buying nuclei 

 and then building them up to full colo- 

 nies. This is a cheap way of starting 

 apiaries, but it is rather slow for an 

 income the first season, unless a person 

 has something else to depend upon for 



