548 



have to work under cages. Even after the 

 cages are removed, robbers will often pounce 

 upon the hives and sometimes overpower 

 them. 



OUTDOOR FEEDING TO CADL OFF ROBBERS 

 DURING LATE EXTRACTING. 



During the late extracting periods, out- 

 door feeding of honey thinned down to the 

 consistency of thin nectar will stop all the 

 robbing nuisance. We say thin honey be- 

 cause no one would advocate feeding sugar 

 syrup which possibly might go into the 

 combs and then into the extractor. 



It is wonderful how little of sweetened water 

 will keep a whole apiary on its good behav- 

 ior. Actually, 5 lbs. of sugar with nine times 

 its weight of water will keep a whole apiary 

 in good humor all day; and we venture the 

 statement that as many as a dozen hive- 

 covers can be taken off and left ofT for an 

 hour or more without a robber in sight. We 

 would not, however, advise anybody to try 

 out a scheme of this kind, and then go away 

 and leave the apiary, for there might be 

 trouble. 



MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES; HOW TO 

 UNITE COLONIES IN THE SAME YARD SO 

 THAT BEES WILL NOT GO BACK TO THEIR 

 OLD STANDS. 



At this time of the year there will be 

 more or less uniting, and, heretofore, it has 

 been something of a i)roblem to get the bees 

 of two or three hives located in different 

 parts of the apiary so that they will stay to- 

 gether conten tedly without going back after 

 being united. Something over a year ago 

 we told how bees could be moved short dis- 

 tances in the cool of the morning by jounc- 

 ing or bumping the hives considerably be- 

 fore they are moved, and then carrying them 

 to their new location. The plan has worked 

 admirably, so that very few if any bees go 

 back to \he old position. But emphasis 

 should be put upon the point that the mov- 

 ing should be done in the morning before 

 the bees get to tiying. Hives should be 

 smoked thoroughly, then bumped and 

 roughly handled, to get the bees completely 

 disorganized, and then put upon a spring- 

 less wheelbarrow and trundled to a point 

 where it is desired to keep them for the rest 

 of the season. It is often a wise precaution 

 to lean a board up in front of the entrance 

 so that, when the bees do come out, they 

 will mark the new location. It is also well 

 to change the appearance of the old spot by 

 leaving the ground on which the hives 

 formerly stood bare of hives or hive-stands. 

 If another hive be put upon the old place it 

 has a tendency to invite returning bees. 



ANOTHER SCHEME FOR MOVING BEES SHORT 

 DISTANCES. 



Our Mr. Ernest :Marchant, who has charge 

 of three of our yards, has been trying out a 

 new scheme that seems to work equally 

 well. The plan is this: On Monday, we will 

 say, he will move a hive facing north a few 

 feet, and point the entrance toward the east. 

 Bee's, on returning, will be somewhat con- 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



fused, but readily find their entrance. On 

 Tuesday he will move the hive again a few 

 feet and give it another quarter-turn, mak- 

 ing the entrance face directly opposite its 

 first position. On Wednesday he will give 

 it another move and another twist. On 

 Thursday he gives then another shift. By 

 this time the bees have become accustomed 

 to hunting for and finding their entrance 

 and hive. "Now, then," said Marchant, 

 "you can move these bees the night before, 

 or early in the morning, anywhere you like 

 in the apiary; and wherever you put them 

 the bees will stick." 



We don't know which is the better of the 

 two plans. It would seem as if the Marchant 

 way, while a little more work, would be 

 more sure of having all the bees stay in their 

 new location. 



Possibly it might be well to work a com- 

 bination of the two plans, of jouncing and 

 shifting entrances, practicing the jouncing 

 method on the last shift. 



BUCKWHEAT A PAYING CROP, BOTH FOR THE 

 SEED AND FOR ITS HONEY; HOW WE HAVE 

 SUCCEEDED IN FILLING THE HIVES OF 

 ONE YARD OF EIGHTY COLONIES FULL OF 

 BUCKWHEAT HONEY. 



Our neighbor, Mr. H. B. Harrington, at 

 one time or another wrote sevwal articles on 

 the subject of buckwheat as a paying crop. 

 Two years ago he put in 20 acres of buck- 

 wheat and sold the crop for nearly $700. 

 This buckwheat was put on to ground that 

 had already yielded a croj) of corn or wheat. 

 This year Mr. Harrington put in 35 acres; 

 but the grasshoppers (this seemed to be a 

 bad year for them) did considerable damage 

 to the fields; but in spite of their depreda- 

 tions, and notwithstanding there were no 

 more than 35 acres in range of 80 colonies, 

 the Harrington yard near these fields filled 

 their hives with buckwheat honey. Some 

 days it seemed as if every bee was going to 

 the fields, for buckwheat at its best is a tre- 

 mendous yielder of nectar. 



Mr. Harrington estimates that he will har- 

 vest between 1200 and 1400 bushels; and 

 this, at the present market price, will be 

 worth close on to $1000. 



Our hives at the Harrington yard are pret- 

 ty well filled with honey — so full that the 

 queens have been crowded for room in which 

 to lay. Our bees have done a good job in 

 fertilizing the blossoms, and our neighbor 

 has done a good job in filling our hives with 

 honey. One difficulty in sowing buckwheat 

 is that some years it yields well in our lo- 

 cality, and in others it yields apparently 

 nothing; but we suspect that one trouble is 

 that there has not been enough acreage. 

 If the bee-keepers in their localities will fur- 

 nish buckwheat seed at half price among 

 their farmer friends it will not take them 

 long before they will see that they can af- 

 ford to pay full price for the seed, because 

 they can take two crops off the same acreage 

 of land. The York State farmers have been 

 on to this trick of the trade for many years. 



