1897 



c;i.IvANIXGS IN ]{KK CULTURE. 



(33 



am iiicliiiod to think the hoes will huihl down 

 to this. 



"Oh!" some will say, "that cunih-.iLiuiile 

 will take up too much space." 



Now, don't condemn the idea till you try it 

 anil see that it is no <,food. If any one has al- 

 ready tried this I should like to see a report of 

 his experiment. It might .save me the trouhle 

 of jnakintj a failure. 



We had pro.spects for a real good fall honey- 

 flow, hut it was cut off by a cold rain_v spell. 



Byrdstown, Tenn., Sept. 2'A. 



[Along about the middle of the summer I 

 expressed a leaning toward square bottom- 

 bars; but since that time I have paid particu- 

 lar attention to square and wide bars, as I 

 have been looking over the hives. The former 

 are objectionable for the very reasons you 

 have mentioned, and I am not sorry we drop- 



termed it, sitting on a thistle near some hives, 

 and asked permis.sion to go to the house and 

 get his gun. While the boy was away the 

 bird nuide a swoop out over a hive, and I 

 recognized him instantly as a whippoorwill. 

 I watched him then until the bees were all in, 

 when he took his departure, and before the 

 gun came to hand. If stmie of us don't catch 

 the yellow fever by next Monday night, this 

 whippoorwill will pay the penalty for eating 

 my Italians. I am ashamed to say that this 

 is the first evening that I have been among 

 my bees for several months; and to find a rob- 

 ber of this size and capacity among them is 

 rather a surprise. It is the first time the 

 possibility of the whippoorwill's eating bees 

 has ever been suggested, to my knowledge ; 

 but there can be no doubt about the fact. I 

 saw him swoop and hover in front of the hives 

 distinctly threo times; and if nothing prevents 



\V. A. SELSKR, WIFE, AND BABY. — SKK EDITORIAL PAGES. 



ped them. A bar V "'ch wide and '4 inch 

 thick suits me as well as any thing, I now 

 think.— Ed.] 



ENEMIES AMONG THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



The Whippoorwill, or Night-hawk, of the South ; 

 King-birds. 



BY T. S. FORD. 



The writer has a bit of information for 

 Southern bee-keepers that will be of interest. 

 It is in relation to a new enemy to the apiarist. 

 Going about dusk to the apiary this evening, 

 for the purpose of feeding some weak colonies, 

 mv son called my attention to a hawk, as he 



I will verify my own statement next Monday 

 night by examining his maw. 



Our whippoorwill is very different from 

 yours, being much larger, and has a different 

 note. He is properly a night-hawk. 



Before closing this letter I will wait till 

 Tuesday, so as to be certain. 



ScpL 2j. — Late this evening my son killed 

 the whippoorwill, sure enough; and on exam- 

 ination of its crop we found the proof of his 

 guilt in the shape of a wad of partially digest- 

 ed bees. 



You will find inclosed a feather from the 

 tail, which will give you an idea of the color 

 of the bird. On a close examination the 

 plumage is very beautiful, though the coloring 

 has a somber appearance. On a careful 

 measurement the mouth of this specimen was 



