GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1. 



AT THE ATCHLEYS. 



Dec. 8.— I omiited to mention that the bees by 

 the office door have not only become accustom- 

 ed to people passing, but so used are they to 

 the tramping on the floor that stamping and 

 jarring the floor has no effect on them what- 

 ever. They have apparently forgotten how to 

 sting; and ah hough they are handled repeated- 

 ly without smoke or veil, no one has ever been 

 stung by them. 



A MULE WITH A BEE VEIL. 



In unloading bees it is often desirable to drive 

 right in among the hives. Well, bees seldom 

 trouble a horse more than to buzz about his 

 head; therefore the mule trained fur this work 

 wears a bee- veil made on purpose for him, and 

 thus t quipped he goes anywhere without any 

 reluctance whatever. 



THEIK 500 NUCLEI. 



The Atchleys have a little more than 500 

 hivt-s now, devoted to queen-reariug; later ou 

 they will be divided so as to make a full thou- 

 sand. They are located in six apiaries, four to 

 seven miles apart. Yesterday we visited the 

 Cyprian apiary, the Holy Land apiary, and the 

 Carniolan apiary. So far as I can learn, they 

 have a locality here that furnishes honey to 

 some extent every month in the year. They do 

 nofeedina, and with any decent care there need 

 be no robbing. I have looked over hundreds of 

 hives, and there were almost no weak ones, and 

 none but that are well provisioned. As a rule, 

 eight frame Dovetailed hives are used I sug- 

 gested that these were larger than necessary; 

 but, all things considered, I believe they are 

 about right. With smaller hives there would 

 be more trouble on both extremes— getting out 

 of stores, and getting the hive full of honey or 

 full of eggs and brood before the attendant got 

 round. During 1896 they have raised about 

 3000 queens and secured about 10 tous of honey. 

 Our veteran readers may remember I once ad 

 vocated, pretty strongly, putting the hives on 

 the ground, with no bottom boards. Well, here 

 is a whole large apiary worked on that plan. 

 It is Willie Atchley's apiary of Holy Land bees. 

 It stands on a sandy knoll shaded with wild 

 grapevines and live oaks. The sand is banked 

 up a little around the hives, and the entrance 

 is contracted by sand piled up a little on either 

 side. It seems to work admirably. In a damp- 

 er soil I would prevent rotting the hives by a 

 small stone or half-brick under each corner, 

 then make it tight around the bottom by clean 

 sand that will dry out quickly after a rain. 

 Any kind of bottom-board is pretty sure to 

 make a harbor for insects, to admit cold air 

 underneath, to rot, warp, or be in the way. 

 This stock (100 colonies) of Holy Land bees has 

 all been reared from a queen from Baldensper- 

 ger, direct, in 1894. 



There isn't a trace of bee-paralysis or foul 

 brood anywhere in this part of Texas. I have 

 looked the apiaries over carefully, but didn't 

 see any thing of the symptoms of paralysis. 



HOW TO CUT PERFORATED ZINC FOR ENTRANCE- 

 PASSAGES. 



Have the strips so that a very narrow piece 

 rests down on the bottom-board. It is like this : 

 It bothers a horse to step over a board a foot 

 wide, but he can step over a strip 3 inches wide, 

 when set edgewise on the ground, without any 

 trouble. So with the bees. To get the correct 



spacing there must be just a little zinc left on 

 the lower edge, so as to exclude the drones but 

 to admit a worker loaded with pollen; don't 

 trouble him to raise up his heels so he can get 

 over a board more than "knee-high." 



THE TEN-YEAR-OLD BEE-KEEPER AND ENGI- 

 NEER. 



Leah Atchley, ten years old, has just been 

 showing me through her apiary of ten hives. 

 She can lift out the combs and find the queens 

 as deftly as almost any one whose eye meets 

 this. Not only this, but when the factory was 

 started up to fill a small order she took her post 

 as engineer- and fireman. It is worth a lot to 

 see her black eyes sparkle as she showed me 

 she was as much at home here as with the in- 

 side of a bee-hive. Her father says he would 

 rather trust her to keep up steam, and see that 

 every thing is " O. K.," than any hired man he 

 can get. As the boiler is 12 horse power and 

 the engine only 10, it is not very hard to ao the 

 firing. 



It is in just this way that the whole family 

 help in the business. While Leah looks after 

 this department, Charley, aged 17. runs the 

 planer, saw, and other machines. Miss Aman- 

 da is cashier for the firm; takes charge of the 

 funds, does the banking, pays off the help, etc. 



You must not think from what I have written 

 that thf^ir children are all work and no play. 

 If you could hear them now you would think 

 from the childish voices and merriment there 

 was no lack of recreation. It is 3}^ miles to 

 school, it is true: but "Nick," aged 13, just 

 brought me his deportment-card, to show that 

 he stands from 90 to 96 in nearly all his studies. 

 The 96 was for penmanship, and he got it by 

 doing business with a pen in his father's office. 

 His " arithmetic " was almost as high. 



THE CLIMATE OF SOUTHERN TEXAS, ETC. 



Beeville is about 30 miles from the Gulf, ,50 

 miles by rail; Corpus Christi is about 60 miles 

 by rail, and quite a business is novy growing up 

 there in early vegetables for the North. Before 

 the freeze I have spoken of. tomatoes, wax 

 beans, summer squa?hes, etc.. were being ship- 

 ped daily. This freeze during the last of No- 

 vember was a very unu.«ual thing. Many win- 

 ters pass without frost enough to damage the 

 most tender stuff. During the great Florida 

 freeze of two vears ago the orange-trees about 

 here were either killed or greatly injured. I 

 have now been here three days, and the temper- 

 ature has ranged from 46 to 76. On Sunday, 

 Dec. 6, the sun was so hot I was glad to see it 

 go down. During the day a shade tree was 

 very refreshing. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Yesterday we visited a branch of the Experi- 

 ment Station, under the management of P. 

 A. McHenry, about five miles from Beeville. 

 He is testing oranges, lemons, pineapples, 

 grapes, etc. Nearly a hundred varieties of 

 grapes and as many of peaches are being tested. 

 By the way, friend Atchley had so many 

 peaches last year that bushels were allowed to 

 go to waste. One reason was, however, they 

 needed marketing at just their busiest time 

 with the bees. The fruit is rather smaller here 

 than further north. I was told by some that 

 garden stuff didn't do well; but with plenty of 

 water they get fine crops on the experiment 

 farm. 



Before Mr. McHenry was given the manage- 

 ment he sold *227 worth of cabbage from two- 

 thirds of an acre, on a little garden-patch in 

 Beeville. Not only this, but he produced sim- 

 ilar crops on the same land year after year. Of 

 course, he used large quantities of stable ma- 

 nure, and water when needed; and yet most 



