924 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



RAMBLE 157- 



At Work in the Apiary; Experience with Harbison 

 Hives. 



BY RAMBLER. 



On my arrival in Oro Fino a very agreeable 

 episode occurred. I found temporary quarters 

 with the nearest neighbor to our apiary. As 

 I sat down before the ample fireplace in the 

 evening, to enjoy its btnign influence, a 

 fleshy, square-built man sat in the corner, 

 and, addressing me by my normal name, he 

 said, "You are the fellow who used to keep 

 bees back iti York State. I have been by 

 your old place a great many times. Do you 

 reniemljer me ? " 



ing m}^ own experiences I am sure it will 

 interest the reader to know something about 

 the original owner and his methods of man- 

 agement. 



Mr. Newton Levering came to this valley in 

 the early days, and followed mining for sev- 

 eral years. He became interested in bees 

 through the number of bee-trees that were on 

 the mountains, and his first start vvas from 

 bees taken from trees. He early adopted the 

 Harbison hive, and, as will be seen in the 

 photo, the bees are nearly all in that stjde of 

 hive. 



Mr. L. practiced migratory bee-keeping. 

 In the early spring, or about the time fruit- 

 trees were in bloom, the bees were moved 

 from the home yard and placed in various 



rambler's apiary at oro fino, cal. 



Not having had a speaking acquaintance 

 with him in the old times, and not having the 

 pleasure of the sight or thought of him for 

 many years, I could not recall his name ; but 

 when he said "Temple," memory forged the 

 missing link, and I remembered the man I 

 had often seen. We had many pleasant remi- 

 niscences of our respective Eastern homes, 

 and I reflected that here, where I supposed I 

 had gotten to a place where it would be hard 

 for a friend to find me, nearly the first one I 

 met had known of me in the far East. 



The apiary that had fallen into Mr. Lever- 

 ing's hands through the death of his brother, 

 and into my hands through Mr. Levering 

 when it changed brothers' hands, contained 

 265 colonies of bees. When I arrived on the 

 scene of action a few had died through the 

 winter, and there were 234. I herewith pre- 

 sent a photo of the outfit with which I strug- 

 gled for several months ; and before recount- 



places in the valley and in some of the can- 

 yons. In these outapiaries the hives were 

 placed upon platforms about eight feet in 

 height. The platforms were built to trees, 

 and were so constructed as to prevent bears 

 from destroying the colonies. A bear is very 

 persistent in his search for honey, and, owing 

 to defective platforms, he lost at one time 

 about $800 dollars' worth of bees and honey. 

 A bear with her cubs would approach a plat- 

 form, and, while the cubs waited below, the 

 old bear would get upon the platform and 

 knock the hives off. They would all fall to 

 and have a feast. Mr. L. at length made the 

 platform tight around the trees, and boasted 

 that he had gotten them bear-proof, squirrel- 

 proof, and mouse-proof. It was no easy job 

 to move and lift these awkward hives to and 

 from these platforms. A platform would ac- 

 commodate about 20 hives, and some of them 

 were only two miles from the home apiary. 



