486 



Eoi 



Dong] Dm 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



RIPENING HONEY ON THE HIVES. 



For more than ten years we have followed 

 the practice of leaving our honey on the 

 hives until after the honey-flow. This in- 

 sures a product that can not be obtained by 

 any other method — a thick, heavy-bodied, 

 M'eil-ripened article that has a velvety taste 

 and an excellent flavor, very much unlike 

 the most of the honey on the market. It 

 gives a honey that will be bought by any 

 customer who may happen to get a taste of 

 it if he likes good honey. " It is thick and 

 ripe enough to chew," if left on the hives 

 long enough: and the aroma that goes with 

 such honey is lacking in that which is taken 

 off earlier in the season. 



Aside from the question of the quality of 

 honey obtained by this practice we make 

 use of it for another reason. This is a very 

 important one with the bee-keeper manag- 

 ing large numbers of colonies in many api- 

 aries. By tiering up during the honey-flows, 

 and giving his entire time toward securing 

 the most honey at that time, leaving the re- 

 moval of the crop until the flows are over, 

 an extra advantage is gained. The atten- 

 tion given to the bees during the flows in- 

 sures for him a larger crop, and he can not 

 afford the time to take otT honey during 

 this period. After the flow is over, there is 

 nothing else to worry him, and his time is 

 not M'orth nearly as much, so that he can 

 make it more valuable by devoting it en- 

 tirely to the harvesting of a crop of a supe- 

 rior grade of honey. 



4?- 



WHEN CHICKENS ARE A NUISANCE. 



During one of our best honey-flows recent- 

 ly we were very much provoked by a num- 

 ber of our young chickens which disturbed 

 the bees to such an extent that the loss to 

 the colonies which were storing was consid- 

 erable. We were very proud of our young 

 stock of a little more than a hundred pure- 

 bred chickens; but to find them each morn- 

 ing having a feast of the heavily laden bees 

 as they were dropping in front of the hives 

 on their return from the fields caused a great 

 deal of vexation. It was impossible to pen 

 the chickens off; and to move the bees dur- 

 ing the height of the honey-flow, and that 

 during the most severely hot weather of the 

 summer, was equally out of the question. 

 The only remedy left was to "shoo "the 

 chickens every time they were found feast- 

 ing on bees. 



The way the chickens i)ersisted in eating 

 them in spite of the constant chasings show- 

 ed that bees must have been appetizing food 

 for them. The alertness with which the 

 bees were picked up and pecked to pieces 

 before being devoured was vel-y interesting 

 indeed, and it was seldom that a chicken 

 was stung. The few cases in which they 

 were stung did not seem to have any effect 

 on discouraging their feasting. This was 



noted especially in the case of one of the 

 young Rhode Island Reds which was stung 

 twice during four days, but which was the 

 most persistent little chap in the game. 



Just how serious the damage might have 

 been can be estimated, perhaps, if we con- 

 sider that as many as twenty or thirty of 

 the young birds were busy catching bees at 

 a time; and u])on several occasions, when 

 they were watched for the purpose, it was 

 found that a dozen bees seemed not to ap- 

 pease the appetite of a single bird. They 

 were not catching drones either, as might 

 be supposed at first thought, because there 

 were none present, the swarming season 

 having been over a long time. This has 

 proven to us a thing we did not know be- 

 fore — that bee culture and poultry-keeping 

 go well together; but that sometimes, at 

 least, they must be carried on in separate 

 yards. That is why we shall move the bees 

 out of the ijoultry-yards as soon as the 

 honey season is over, 



DO BEES AND POULTRY PAY? 



This is a question that has been asked us 

 several times, and time and again we have 

 answered that it does if it is followed in the 

 right manner. We have made bee-keeping 

 pay for nearly twenty years, and have made 

 it pay well. We have always believed strict- 

 ly in specialty in one certain line of work, 

 and we still believe in it; but at the same 

 time we are following the advice of some 

 who claim that a busy man should have 

 some side issue or "hobby" on which to 

 spend his spare time, and thus sometimes 

 get his thoughts off his main business. 



Thus it is that we have mixed in the 

 poultry business as a "hobby," with our 

 extensive bee business, and we do not regret 

 it either, since we have been very success- 

 ful with the new venture. This matter was 

 mentioned by us some time in the early 

 spring; but at that time we had not had 

 time to make any success out of the poultry 

 business. However, we have found that the 

 fun or even the work given to the chickens 

 early in the morning, which is about the 

 first thing we do, as well as in the late eve- 

 ning, after the bee work for the day is over, 

 brings with it a certain amount of profitable 

 pleasure that is not to be had without the 

 "hobby." 



Besides this the dollars-and-cents point 

 of the poultry business is quite satisfactory, 

 especially if it "i)ans out" i)retty well. 

 Aside from the large number of egg settings 

 at a good price, there were sold a great 

 many dozens of table eggs. Then more 

 than a hundred young chickens were raised 

 that are worth something since all our poul- 

 try are pure-bred White and Barred Ply- 

 mouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. 

 These will bring a good price for breeding 

 stock. 



