1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



811 



The clear wax can be dipped from the barrel 

 into any kind of molds desired. 



Tell Dr. Miller we are going to shal<e our i/-c 

 and / bannt'r more than ever. The way he 

 goes for all who differ with him upon that very 

 ivxportiint subject reminds tiie Rambler that 

 the accompanying cartoon just expresses the 

 situation. Rambler. 



LADIES' Conversazione. 



OUTDOOR FEEDING TO PREVENT ROBBING. 



SOME GOOD SUGfiKSTlONS FKOM MKS. AXTEEL. 



Sometimes during tlie summer I go out to tlu^ 

 woodpile and carefully scrape up the clean 

 small dry chips and fill into barrels, being care- 

 ful that there has been no rain for some time 

 before gathering tliem. and get the men-folks 

 to set them away under sh(^lter for next year's 

 use. These, mixed with a little rotten wood for 

 starting the tire, make excellent smoke with 

 little time to prepare it. Where an old fence is 

 being rebuilt tliere are always plenty of old rot- 

 ten rails the builder is glad to give away to be 

 rid of, that, if gathered and laid away, make 

 excellent smoke when chopped or sawi'd up line, 

 or mixed in with the chips: also dry corncobs, 

 pounded just enough to split them open, and 

 Tiiixed with other fuel. It makes the work of 

 handling bees much easier if one has plenty of 

 smoke just when he wants it. and the smoke- 

 wood all in readiness. To have good smoke, the 

 fuel must be dry. The smoke does not gum up 

 the smoker so badly either. I have been asked 

 to look at others' bees when I had to wait for 

 them to run and hunt up tlie smoker, one mem- 

 ber of the family looking here and anotlier 

 there, and all in commotion, and then smoke- 

 wood had to be hunted up out of the woodpile 

 or barn, or along some fence, which, when 

 found, would generally be wet or damp, and 

 would not burn wtMl: or sometimes only very 

 rotten wood that burned out too quickly. Then 

 some inferior face-protector was brought, full 

 of holes. By the time I was ready to work at 

 the bees, if all things had been in readiness for 

 work, it would have been done. 



ROBBING. 



Toward tlie close of the honey-dew harvest, 

 even when we could shake honey out of the 

 combs, we had to work vej-y carefully to keep 

 all exposed honey covered, and close hives 

 quickly, ov the bees would be in a terrible hub- 

 bub of robbing as Dr. Miller speaks of. At one 

 time after honey harvest closed I had cons'ider- 

 able work I wanted to do. I got the bees quite 

 aroused before I realiz(Hi how bad they were. 

 I remembered how nicely I could work with 

 them while they were feeding from the troughs 

 of sweetened water. I went immediately and 

 tilled up thei/- trough with floats, poui-ed in 

 sweetened watei-. and set the robbers to work. 

 at the same time covering the robbed colonies 

 with wet sheets. Pretty soon all robbing ceas- 

 ed, and all were intent on bringing in the 

 sweetened water. After the robbers had left I 

 uncovered tlie hives l)eing robbed and let them 

 work too. 



For open-air feeding, only slightly sweetened 

 water should \m\ used, or they will sting each 

 other badly in the troughs and around the 

 trough. On the gi-ass for sevei'al feet away 

 they will be seen fighting and dying, as they 

 are often seen to do in the honey-house wliere 

 tliey have access to combs of honey. If we 

 catch a bee as it conies in from the fic-lds. with 

 its honev-sac full of nectar, and kill the bee 



and taste the nectar, we notice that it is not 

 very sweet. It only tastes like sweetened wa- 

 ter, so that is as sweet as the bees should be fed 

 out of doors. They not only kill each other, 

 but they daub themselves up so badly that 

 many are unable to reach their hives, and are 

 lost in the grass and dirt. 



ESCAPKS. 



To give best results with escapes we found 

 they need to be left 48 hours after being raised 

 up. Some supers could be taken off in :.'4 hours, 

 while a few would not all get out. so that they 

 might as well remain until all were gone, and 

 a clean thing made of the work. 



At our out-apiary we have so good an escape 

 window in our honey-house that we concluded 

 this summei' it was about as convenient to 

 smoke them well and stand supers on end in 

 the house in such a way that the light from the 

 windows shone through the spaces in the sec- 

 tions, which attracted the bees quickly to the 

 windows, so that, in two hours, many cases 

 would be cleared out; in half a day all would 

 be gone. 



The bees nearly all find their way back to 

 their own hives. Possibly the young bees went 

 into the nearest hives: but if so. they would be 

 received all right, because they were young 

 bees. Carrying them into the honey-house 

 saves opening the hives twice. Apiarists whose 

 supers were set on top of the hive would not 

 mind lifting the lids to take the supers off the 

 second time: but our supers are set inside the 

 hives. We have to take out the back-board or 

 l)ack end of the hive; and by the time we got 

 the super raised up, especially hives that were 

 not high enough to take in a slatted honey- 

 lioard and the bee-escape, the bees would be 

 coming t)Ut pretty lively at the back side of the 

 hive, except as they were smoked back: so that 

 it takes, with our hive, more time than it would 

 with some othei's to get the bees brushed off 

 and board returned and hive closed: and the 

 dripping slatted honey-board, unless great pre- 

 caution is used, would cause robbing. Some of 

 our hives will take in both the slatted honey- 

 board and the escape-board. In that case the 

 hive is closed up so tightly there is no danger 

 from robbing. 



At an out-apiary where supers are set on top 

 of hives w ith no hive surrounding them, and 

 then lifted up with an escape put under, in the 

 hands of careless bee-keepers I fear some will 

 find their honey robbed out unless great care is 

 tak(m that there is no crack or opening large 

 enough for robbers to pusli tliemselves in. as 

 there are no bees to keep them out. as they can 

 crowd tliemselves through a very small place 

 when in search of honey. At a home apiary 

 such r ibbing would be detected. 



BriI.DING UP WEAK COLONIES. 



We thought to piace an escape over a very 

 weak colony, and place on top several supers 

 with adhering bees asthey came from the hives 

 to build them up. as we have often done, unless 

 using the (^scape-board; but we found it would 

 not work, as eveiy bee that pass<'d down into 

 the colony was killed and dragged out. They 

 were making a wholesale slaughter. S(^eing 

 that they were killing them off so fast. I had 

 the supei-s removed and the escape-board tak- 

 en away, a cloth laid over the frames, except a 

 space at one side, so the bees could readily go 

 up into the combs of honey, and all fighting 

 ceased. The bees in the supers wei'e from sev- 

 eral hives, so they readily nniti^d: and. being in 

 a strange hive, they would not fight, and the 

 honey stopped the bees of the colony from kill- 

 ing the incoming bees. Then they uuiU'd 

 peaceably, and formed a nice strong colony. 

 So long as there is luisealed honey in supers 



