758 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



They are now building comb and storing hon- 

 ey rapidly there. 



This strip of coast, you must know, is an 

 evergreen land, and they tell me bees can 

 make a living any month. 



" I knew where sixty or more bee- trees 

 were ; but the fire last year killed most of 

 them," said my trustee. "But I think I can 

 find some more," and so we did. Every Sat- 

 urday we took a bee-tree except when I was 

 busy at shells. We have 16 colonies now, and 

 I don't wish to tell how much honey we took 

 out ; and, earlier in the season, it was beauti- 

 ful honey too. As for bee-trees and bee-caves, 

 they are so thick that you can't help finding 

 them. They ride around, guess that yonder 

 redwood, pine, or oak, might be a bee-tree, 

 ride up to it, if accessible, and often find an- 

 other tree on the way. I do not doubt there 

 are 100 now left within easy reach of this 

 house. Not easy reach — that is not true. This 

 is one of the roughest, wildest mountains I 

 ever saw — no roads and trails to make your 

 hair and horses stand on end. When my land- 

 lord says, " The tree is a little hard to get at," 

 I leave a letter of farewell to be forwarded to 

 my wife in case of accident. Even 1000 or 

 2000 feet of climbing is nothing in going to a 

 bee-tree here. You are lucky not to have sev- 

 eral such climbs. I kept bees in Southern 

 California for ten years, as old files of Glean- 

 ings will show ; but in some ways this beats 

 any other spot I ever saw ; but it almost kills 

 a man to get in and out. They have wonder- 

 ful gardens and orchards here too, and a 

 steamer once a year to bring in fresh grocer- 

 ies. When they wanted honey they went and 

 cut down a bee-tree, any time of year, took 

 the honey, and let the bees rustle. They did 

 not want bees ; there were lots of them ; and 

 as for saving the wax, they never thought of 

 it. By the way, we had to made our hives by 

 cutting a redwood-tree and splitting the hives 

 out. One good tree will make, I estimate, 500 

 or more hives. 



Gorda, Cal., Sept. 13, 1899. 



BEE-KEEPING IN CUBA. 



Are Once Robbers Always Robbers? 



BY HARRY HOWE. 



As my experience here is limited by a few 

 weeks I will attempt no general view of the 

 situation. There are, however, some particu- 

 lar points upon which I wish to write. At 

 the Philadelphia convention there was some 

 discussion as to whether robber bees ever 

 return to honest ways. When I got here and 

 saw robbers thicker and more aggressive than 

 I ever saw them at home I went at it to see 

 what the facts were upon this point. About 

 the only bees flying very much after it gets 

 hot in the forenoon are those shiny black fel- 

 lows — professional robbers it may be. 



At this time a walk through the fields will 

 show but few bees upon the blossoms, and a 

 good share of these are those identical " rob- 

 bers." This is true, not only near the apiary, 

 but as far away as I have found bees. These 



fellows are such a small] minority of all the 

 bees, that, in a time when the bees generally 

 go to the fields, it is hard to find one on the 

 blossoms. 



Another point I should like the advocates 

 of the " once a robber always a robber " idea 

 to explain. What becomes of them when a 

 honey-flow commences suddenly, as it often 

 doeh,from basswood for instance? One day 

 the robbers may follow one around the apiary 

 by the hundred, pitching into every hive that 

 is opened. In a day or two basswood is out, 

 and one can leave honey anywhere in the 

 yard, and not a bee will look at it. 



I am feeding considerable here now to stim- 

 ulate the bees for the honey harvest in No- 

 vember. It is a sticky, mussy job at the best 

 to feed each colony separately in an apiary of 

 200, so I have tried the plan of taking a hive- 

 body, with enough combs to keep a Miller 

 feeder from dropping through; set it up a few 

 inches from the ground, with a feeder full of 

 honey, and water on top. A row of them are 

 set in some bushes in one corner of the apiary; 

 and as fast as they are emptied by the bees 

 they are filled up again. When the feeders 

 are on the hives there are always robbers 

 hanging around trying to get at the honey, 

 which they smell. By this method they seem 

 to act about as they would if the honey came 

 in from the fields. 



The home yard here, instead of being under 

 sheds, is in a dense grove of tropical fruit; 

 then when the apiarist feels like it, all he has 

 to do is to reach up and knock off the kind 

 he likes best. 



There is also a hammock under the shade 

 of a wide veranda to the tool-house, where 

 there is nothing to detract from the enjoy- 

 ment of the almost constant breeze but a Span- 

 ish grammar. Senor Ranelo, with whom I 

 am, speaks but a few words of English, while 

 my first start in Spanish was on the way 

 down. 



There is no one within several miles who 

 does speak English. This makes me take 

 Spanish grammar in larger doses than I 

 should otherwise. 



I have a fine boarding-place and two large 

 airy rooms, one of which I have fitted up for 

 a photographic dark-room, where I spend 

 many of my evenings trying to get the hang 

 of making good pictures where the well water 

 stands at 75° and gets to be 85° very soon in 

 my washing-tanks, etc. Just enough of the 

 plates make good pictures to keep me at it. ^ 



[If any one has ever seen real robbing at 

 home it is Harry Howe ; so you can imagine 

 the robbing must be pretty bad in Cuba. In 

 Straws in this issue this same subject is refer- 

 red to ; and while I think we may conclude 

 that bees that get into the robbing habit can 

 and will gather honey like other bees, yet they 

 are not quite the same bees for getting an hon- 

 est living that they were before they got into 

 the bad habit. A drunkard may reform ; but 

 he is never quite the same man afterward that 

 he was before. The old craving is there, and 

 the old sinful desires just the same, although, 

 perhaps, held under control. — Ed.] 



