55S 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



sh )uld be kept in mind is that, after a horse 

 or a child, for instance, has had several 

 stings, and the bees are on a stinging ram- 

 page, considerable care should be taken un- 

 til the odor of the poison has left it. 



A year or two ago Mr. B. B. Fouch, who 

 keei)s bees down the river below us, came 

 near losing a line mare because the bees 

 simply followed her and stung her. They 

 first stung her a few times while loose In 

 the bee-yard, and then, although he took 

 her to shelter, they hunted her out and he 

 Avas forced to take her down in the field, al- 

 though they paid no attention to the other 

 horses about. The mare had not been 

 working, and was not sweaty, nor did the 

 bees show any unusual spite toward her. 



Last week a neighbor of mine came over 

 to play tennis with me. I had been work- 

 ing with the bees just after dinner, and had 

 not taken a bath, nor had I changed all my 

 clothes. The tennis court is within a few 

 steps of the bee-yard, and no sooner had I 

 come on the ground than the bees began 

 bothering me. T killed them with my racket, 

 and went on playing, although I got stung 

 every minnte or so. Finally I called my 

 brother-in-law to come and fight bees for 

 me while I played. He too had beeji work- 

 ing with the bees, and they made it hot for 

 us both until we finally had to light a torch. 

 As soon as the smoke from the torch filled 

 the air with an odor sufficient to obscure the 

 odor from the bee-sting poison from our 

 clothes, and from the dozens of bees we had 

 killed, the bees ceased to come, and I went 

 on with the game in comparative peace un- 

 til the smoke died down, and then I had to 

 renew it. The smoke did not drift toward 

 the bee-yard, so it must have been that bees 

 that were out looking for trouble smelted 

 me and attacked me. All this time my op- 

 ponent across the net had only one bee come 

 near him, and even then it quickly sought 

 me. I cite this simply as an example of 

 bees being antagonistic" to any thing having 

 the odor of their poison about it. Do not 

 understand me as being radical enough to 

 think that the odor of a single bee is suffi- 

 cient to infuriate a whole colony and start 

 it on the war-path. The j^oint is, that every 

 sting means more odor, and that for ihis 

 reason the trouble may multiply. 



So much for proof and value of knowing 

 that bees do resent, in an indirect way, hav- 

 ing their comrades crushed. The way I 

 happened to study into this matter came 

 about in this way: Two or three years ago, 

 while I was experimenting with a smelling- 

 tube which I had conceived as an instru- 

 ment forhuntingout foul brood by the sense 

 of smell, the bees bothered me a great deal 

 by stinging it furiously as soon as one bee 

 for any reason had stung it. It was a small 

 rubber tube with a hood attached to one 

 end of it. The small hood fitted closely 

 over my nose, and the other end was run in 

 at the entrance. It took only a short time 

 to learn that, as soon as I had gotten the 

 odor of a bee-sting on the end of this tube, 

 I must stop and wash it before I could go on. 



I have abandoned the smelling-tube now, 

 but I have worked out a system for hunting 

 foul brood by the sense the smell, which is 

 of great value to me; and now that I have 

 given it two or three years' test, and have 

 done practical work with it, I mean to write 

 up the method soon. It has two points of 

 advantage which carry such weight that 

 every bee-keeper who is bothered with foul 

 brood should try it. It can be quickly done, 

 and will, for that very reason, be often used. 

 It also has the advantage that it may be 

 done in bad robbing time, and done well 

 enough to catch any colonies which would 

 be dangerous to extract from or to leave 

 standing in the yard. 



Mesilla Park, N. U. 



How Far will an Absconding Swarm go 



Ho'.v far will an abscondine swarm go to a home 

 in the woods? I trailed one about a mile and a half, 

 and gave up the hunt at the head ol a lake. They 

 flew in a straight line. This swarm issued from a 

 colony that came off the 27th of April. They were 

 placed in a hive with full sheets of foundation and 

 one super. I found that they had filled both, there- 

 lore had a good excuse for getting out. This was 

 on the 26th of this month. I would not have lost 

 them, but they issued while I was asleep, and hung 

 on a bush very faithfully for quite a while. They 

 hiked out one minute after discovery. It was one 

 of the largest I have had this season. This made 

 me look around a little, and I found a younger col- 

 ony had done the same amovmt of work and was 

 ready to cast a swarm, whereupon I took off the 

 full super and put on an empty one. They do not 

 now show an inclination to swarm. This may ap- 

 liear " greeny " to an old timer, but there is a sequel. 

 I tried the "Alexander plan " last year for keeping 

 down swarming. I had It down pretty fine, and 

 "tiered \ip" accordingly. I"teared down " when 

 the season was over. I prevented swarming all 

 right, but was caught with a drouth on one hand 

 and a long wet season on the other. 



Suffolk, ^•a. W. T. Bailey. 



[We are not able to tell you just how far an ab- 

 sconding swarm would go before settling in its new 

 iiuarters. If this swarm had previously sent out 

 scouts, it is presumable that those scouts woiild 

 not go much more than a mile or a mile and a half 

 from their old home. Having found their location 

 they would probably lead the swarm when it came 

 out to this very spot, which would probably be 

 within a mile or a mile and a half from the old 

 home. If, however, the swarm should leave with- 

 out any preliminary scouting of any sort, it might 

 go anywhere from one to ten miles, or even fur- 

 ther, depending upon their ability to sustain them- 

 selves in the air in flight. — Ed.] 



Poultry-netting over the Fronts of the Hives to 

 Keep Chickens from Eating Bees. 



I have had an experience similar to that mention- 

 ed in the article entitled " When Chickens are a 

 Nuisance," on page 48fi, Aug 15. As I had a few nu- 

 clei formed this summer, and found them gather- 

 ing no honey whatever, and the bees disappearing, 

 I began to seek the cause. There was an opening 

 in each j\ist large enough to let the bees pass one 

 by one, and here my young chicks (three months 

 old) were on the lookout, and caught almost every 

 bee immediately after it came forth. This was eas- 

 ily remedied by putting in front of the hive a piece 

 of 4J^x3-mesh poultry-fence just high enough to 

 prevent the chicks from reaching over. As there 

 are never many bees flying from the nuclei, this, 

 in my judgment, does not hinder them in the least, 

 and the chicks would not tackle a large colony. I 

 would not move the hives. 



There are many robber bees that are killed, and 

 others that crawl away and die. All of these are 

 good for chicks to eat, and they like the taste, judg- 

 ing by the way they go after them. They will just 

 as readily eat dead bees as those they have killed. 

 It is true they have to work harder to find bees 

 than capture the ones coming from the hive: but 

 work is what makes a chick hardy. 



A. F. Droste. 



