GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



of last year in, and the pioneer with every 

 thing to do business with but bees, out. It's 

 too bad. It's "superficial" thinking indeed 

 that prompts any one to be " foolhardy ' ' 

 enough to advocate the passage of a law for 

 the protection of a bee-keeper in the right 

 to monopolize a given territory when he has 

 no more moral right to it than he has to the 

 exclusive use of the atmosphere. 



I notice that some specialist makes a kick 

 because I suggest that every farmer should 

 keep a few bees, and asserts that bee-keep- 

 ing is a specialty. So is fruit-raising a 

 specialty; but is that a bar to a farmer rais- 

 ing fruit? The most natural place in the 

 world for fruit is on the farm, as it is for 

 keeping bees. Floriculture is a specialty; 

 but every farm should have a flower-gar- 

 den; poultry-raising is a specialty; but the 

 most natural place in the world for a few 

 chickens is on the farm. Any business may 

 be made a specialty, but does that fact offer 

 even a plausible reason why a mixed busi- 

 ness should not be carried on if one chooses 

 to do so? 



Why, Mr. Editor, such a theory carried to 

 the extreme would drive a large part of the 

 world's enterprising workers out of a large 

 share of their business. Where would the 

 A. I. Root Co. be in such an event? But it 

 may be said that manufacturing bee-keepers' 

 supplies, keeping bees, printmg a bee-paper, 

 etc., go together; but do they, any more than 

 raising fruits, flowers, and nearly all kinds 

 of grain, and bee-keeping? 



Yes, sir; notwithstsndin-:^ Dr. Miller's 

 Straw kick in favor of bee-keepers' patent 

 right to a monopoly of given territory, and 

 the Specialist's special kick in the American 

 Bee Journal, I still assert, without fear of 

 successful controversion, that there is no 

 such thing as a prior right of a bee-keeper 

 to territory he does not own, and that he can 

 not acquire such right by simply squatting 

 and commencing bee-keeping. The claim 

 that any person has such right is too ludi- 

 crous to merit serious consideration. Also 

 that the farm is the natural place for keep- 

 ing baes, and that evei-y farmer should have 

 some good woi'k in his library on bee-keep- 

 ing, and should take some bee-paper, and. if 

 situated so that he can, should keep a few 

 colonies of bees for recreation, study fertili- 

 zation of flowers, and to supply the table 

 v/ith honey, providing that they are proper- 

 ly kept, as every thing on the fai'm should 

 be, otherwise they should not be kept at all. 



ARRANGEMENT OF HIVES IN AN APIARY. 



Cutting Out the Hive-rabbet; Honey Failure in 

 Jamaica; Strength of a Bee, etc. 



BY JOHN BOWEY. 



Mr. Root:— On page 648 you ask why those 

 big stones are put one on each hive. I my- 

 self should like to know why. I have seen 

 them many times in California, only, of 

 course, in apiaries where quilts or cloths 



were in vogue. Is it not time quilts should 

 be a relic of the past? I see no earthly use 

 for them, only, as a contributor to Glean- 

 ings recently said, they are good for puffing 

 the smoke down between the frames. 



I have seen, hundreds of times, on lifting 

 the quilt, the top of the bi'ood-chamber pre- 

 sent the appearance of a solid board plas- 

 tered with dead bees and propolis rather 

 than a series of frames. As I observed this 

 state of things I said to myself, "Deliver 

 me from bee-keeping after this sort." 



You also interrogate: "I notice that the 

 hives are in regular rows. Does not this 

 confuse the bees more or less?" You say 

 that, in your experience, robbing is worse; 

 that young field bees go into the wrong hive 

 and are often killed. My experience and 

 yours along this line are at variance. My 

 300 colonies are arranged in regular rows, 8 

 feet between the rows and 2 feet between 

 the hives, all rows facing east during the 

 height of a logwood flow of honey. When 

 the bees tumble in heaps in front of the 

 hives, too weary to reach the alighting- 

 board, if they were entering the wrong 

 hives there was no indication; every bee at 

 every hive seemed equally welcomed. Sure- 

 ly if killing had been the order I should have 

 seen it. As to robbing, I have had nothing 

 out of the common. 



Again, I have visited apiaries where four- 

 frame queen-rearing colonies were in rows 

 not more than three or four inches apart, 

 each hive the same color and pattern, and 

 not a strain to distinguish one from the oth- 

 er. I said to the apiarist (who, during the 

 year, rears thousands of queens), "Do you 

 have trouble with the queens entering the 

 wrong hive being so closely in touch with 

 each other? " 



"Not at all," said he. With him I am 

 inclined to the opinion that both bees and 

 queens scent their own hives rather than 

 sight them. 



Dr. Miller, page 636, refers to a scheme 

 of cutting out the rabbet and mailing a cleat 

 on the end of the hives. This would be ex- 

 actly to my liking, not with the view of 

 lengthening the top-bar, but because it 

 would give a bee-space, thereby eliminating 

 the accumulation of propolis that is such a 

 dirty nuisance in hives as they are now 

 made. I have a number of such supers in 

 use, and what a pleasurable contrast the 

 ends of the top-bars in these supers are — 

 perfectly clean from propolis, while those in 

 the Dovetailed are glued solid at the ends, 

 and in many cases the gutter formed by the 

 tin rabbet is also choked with the same sticky 

 mess. In a hive of this kind the staple-end 

 frame must necessarily be used. 



"One who was there, "pages 653 and 654, 

 must evidently have enjoyed a delightful 

 time at the truly Bible supper as he terms 

 it. The milk and honey sounds Mosaic; but 

 pray, Mr. Editor, where did the Israelites in 

 days of yore get their Jersey butter and 

 rolls from, and the other unmentioned edi- 

 bles, all raised within a mile of the feast? 

 To me it appears more like a'supper pre- 



