1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



775 



RABBITS IN THE BEEYARD TO KEEP DOWN 

 WEEDS. 



In answer to Mr. H. D. Burrell, p. 735, I 

 will say that we kept from ten to forty hares, 

 or rabbits, in our bee-yard for several years. 

 The yard was 50X80 feet, and contained about 

 100 colonies of bees. The rabbits were con- 

 fined by means of poultry-netting, and a plank 

 ten inches wide was sunk edgewise in the 

 ground to prevent burrowing out. We found 

 the rabbits seldom disturbed by the bees, and 

 the bees not disturbed by the rabbits. 



Occasionally, when working with the bees 

 a colony would become " riled ; " a bee would 

 try to burrow in the soft fur of a rabbit, which 

 Mr. Rabbit could not endure. A few buck- 

 jumps, a kick, a double summersault, a roll 

 over on the ground, and if the bee was not 

 gone, Bunnie dear would quickly pick the bee 

 out with his teeth, and at once flee to his bur- 

 row. The bees seemed to become accustomed 

 to having the rabbits around ; and as the hives 

 were raised several inches from the ground it 

 was under these they found a favorite resort. 

 We found the rabbits just the thing to keep 

 down vegetation. They would greedily eat 

 all obnoxious weeds. They were rodents true 

 to their instincts, and would sometimes bur- 

 row 20 to 30 feet under ground. Our rabbits 

 were of good size, and comprised every color 

 imaginable in rabbits. My stock was bought 

 of Mr. A. L. Boyden, of Saline, Mich., but 

 now of The A. I. Root Co. W. H. Laws. 

 Round Rock, Texas, Sept. 22. 



FINDING OUEENS — HARD CASES. 



J. A. Green's method of straining out 

 queens, page 728, is all right in principle, but 

 I prefer using an empty hive and honey -board. 

 Place the empty hive on the stand where your 

 bees are ; put one or two combs of brood in an 

 empty hive ; put on a wood-bound honey- 

 board ; remove the bottom-board from your 

 colony of bees, and place them on top of your 

 empty hive. Take out the combs and brush 

 off the bees, and you will be sure to find the 

 queen on the honey-board. Of course, this 

 plan is too much trouble to use except in ex- 

 treme cases. I had one colony last year whose 

 queen beat me, even with the above process. 

 She would fly off and come back and hide 

 among the bees, and the bees would run all 

 over the hive and out in the grass, anywhere 

 and everywhere. I tried at least half a dozen 

 times to catch her before I succeeded ; but 

 when I did I pinched her head off. 



Another plan I have used with the Simplici- 

 ty hive is to smoke the bees at the entrance 

 until the hollow space in the lid is filled with 

 bees, which will take about one or two minutes. 

 Take off the lid, and shake the bees a few at 

 a time in front of the hive, and about nine 

 times out of ten you will find the queen. I 

 find this about as good a plan with black bees 

 as I ever tried, and I have tried nearly all of 

 them. J. M. CuTTS. 



Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 21. 



[This plan will probably work ; but, very 

 fortunately, in the case of Italians at least, it is 

 seldom necessary to resort to so much trouble, 



and that is one reason why I would not have 

 a black bee in the yard. They are cross, 

 strongly inclined to rob, and their queens — 

 well, it takes an expert to find them unless he 

 takes some such method as that described by 

 Mr. Green or Mr. Cutts.— Ed.] 



Our crop of honey amounts to nothing. 

 Something seemed to blight the bloom ; but I 

 do not think we shall ever get such crops as 

 we used to — too crowded with bees. We have 

 2500 stands within ten miles, up and down the 

 lakes. s. S. Alderman. 



Wewahitchka, West Florida. 



Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, editor of the Re- 

 view, Flint, Mich., took a picture of the mem- 

 bers of the Chicago convention at the close of 

 one of the sessions. For a group view it is 

 exceptionally good, and he offers to furnish it 

 to bee-keepers who desire it, at 75 cents post- 

 paid. The picture will be sent on approval, 

 and, if satisfactory, the amount can be remit- 

 ted or the picture returned. 



BEES, BIRDS, AND GRAPES. 



This is the season of the year when we may 

 begin to hear complaints of bees puncturing 

 grapes. "Why," say the complainants, "our 

 grapes are fairly covered with bees ; and do 

 you mean to say that your bees do not punc- 

 ture those grapes ? Why, I can show you that 

 they are running their bills away down into 

 the pulp of the berries." Until within a year 

 or so we were not able to meet successfully 

 this sort of talk ; but now we have learned 

 that a little bird called the Cape May warbler, 

 with a very sharp long beak, during the early 

 morning, when most folks are not around, 

 will run its beak into grape after grape, mak- 

 ing the whole bunch look as if it had been 

 riddled by fine shot. They are quick of flight, 

 and rapid in their work. They will alight on 

 the vine, look this way and that, and then go 

 into the business of puncturing in a wholesale 

 way, which they do most successfully. As 

 these birds are rarely if ever seen by human 

 beings, on the vines, and as the bees come in 

 an hour or two later to complete the work of 

 destruction by running their tongues down 

 into the hole made by the bird a few hours be- 

 fore, the innocent bees are blamed for the 

 whole work. 



The facts are, the grapes were ruined by the 

 birds, and the bees only help -themselves to 

 fruit ruined and otherwise useless. 



The other morning, as we sat eating break- 

 fast, we watched from the window one of these 

 so-called " warblers " get in some of its dirty 

 work. Yes, we "caught him in the very act." 

 Later in the day the bees began their visita- 

 tions, and ordinarily would have been blamed 

 for something for which they were entirely in- 

 nocent. 



