GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



of air on top, it was 

 evident that % by the 

 full width of the hive 

 was not enough for 

 the bottom. 



The season has been 

 rather below the aver- 

 age, and the weather 

 very erratic. The flow 

 was three weeks to a 

 month later than usual 

 in starting, and weath- 

 er was not settled till 

 the flow was past. Not- 

 withstanding the draw- 

 backs, I have secured 

 a fair crop. I have 

 increased from 31 to 

 68 colonies, including 

 7 or 8 swarms frona 

 other bees I had 



charge of; 14 of these are nuclei, and are 

 in good shape for next season. I have 

 extracted 3200 lbs. of honey, and secured 

 about 5 dozen sections and reared about 40 

 queens by the Doolittle plan. The six best 

 colonies gave 1121 lbs. of extracted honey. 

 All the queens were introduced by the smoke 

 method, and I am so well satisfied with it 

 that I am not likely to try any other unless 



E. G. Ward's bees and appliances loaded into an auto ti'uck ready for a 

 30-mile trip to a new location. 



it should be a very valuable queen, and in 

 that case I would use hatching brood. Every 

 queen was accepted; but in about 8 or 10 

 cases they were superseded after being in 

 the hive about a fortnight. I use the small 

 nucleus hive (three to Langstroth frame), 

 and have had good results and no trouble. 

 Christchureh, N. Z. 



A Glimpse Backward at Beekeeping in Palestine Years Ago, 

 Beekeeping in France Today; Moving Eee; 

 on th ' ----- — 



BY PH. J. BALDENSPERGER 



[We feel sure that the older readers of Gleanings will not need an introduction to the writer of this 

 article, Mr. Ph. J. Baldensperger ; and we feel equally sure that our younger readers will not be sorry to be 

 introduced to this interesting author, traveler, and beekeeper. He has been a constant reader of Gleanings 

 for 33 years, and from 1880 to 1890 was a frequent contributor to our columns, from the Holy Land. His 

 articles were always welcome and instructive. Since Mr. Baldensperger's residence in Nice, Prance, we have 

 not heard so much from him ; but this article leads us to believe that the pleasant acquaintance of years ago is 

 about to be renewed; and if so, our readers are to be congratulated. The first photo represents the father 

 of this interesting family. One brother was drowned at .Jaffa, in the Mediterranean, July 26, 1891. — ^Ed.] 



Years ago, when father Langstroth tried 

 his new bar-frame hives, and the beekeep- 

 ers were getting away from old methods, 

 my father owned hives of the most old-fash- 

 ioned shapes, under archways in the castle 

 above the Gardens of Solomon — the Ain 

 Rimmon of the Bible — the modern Urtas, 

 near Bethlehem. The Bedouin incursions 

 forced the inhabitants of the exposed village 

 to hide behind the walls of the Saracenic 

 castle, where a soldier or two lived to guard 

 the water, which ought to have been con- 

 ducted to the Dome of the Rock, on the site 

 of the Temple at Jerusalem. The pear- 

 shaped hives, prepared in the potteries of 

 Hebron or Jerusalem, were the only ones 



then known to us. Born in the Holy Land, 

 we knew nothing of the great strides made 

 in more civilized countries till English and 

 American travelers in the seventies showed 

 us the new methods. Till then, beekeeping 

 consisted in buying ten-a-cotta hives in the 

 markets, gathering the swarms, and cutting 

 out the honey. A terra-cotta smoker filled 

 with manure, into which a burning ooal was 

 introduced, was used, the beekeeper blowing 

 on the manure and on the bees. The hives, 

 placed above each other, and plastered to- 

 gether under an arch to protect them against 

 rain and sunshine, remained for ever so 

 long a period — perhaps centuries — undis- 

 turbed. 



