470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



sun set to prevent the bees from scattering. 

 It gets cool here as soon as the sun sinks 

 behind the mountains. 



After the swarm has been shot down 

 once, there seems to be no danger of al)- 

 sconding. When the foliage is so thick that 

 the branch to be cut otf can not be seen I 

 lake the shotgun, loaded with coarse shot, 

 and clear out all the rubbish in the way. 

 A shotgun loaded with coarse shot will, in 

 many cases, bring down the cluster without 

 the use of the rifle. After the brush is 

 cleared out so I can see the limb the cluster 

 [angs on, I send a bullet in the center of the 

 limb, then shoot on each side of the first 

 bullet so the bullets will strike about two 

 inches apart. This will cut very large 

 limbs. 



Once in a while a swarm will cluster in a 

 crotch or on the trunk of a tall tree. I then 

 shoot coarse shot a few inches above the 

 cluster. Fragments of bark and the powder 

 smoke will invariably make them move, and 

 I keep on shooting above them until they 

 are on a convenient place for either hiving 

 or Clotting the limb with the rifle. I remem- 

 ber one swarm that had settled very high on 

 a live-oak tree. When I commenced to clear 

 off the branches with goose-shot charges the 

 cluster tumbled down to the next limb re- 

 peatedly till the whole tree looked like a 

 toboggan slide. If the limb is thick it will 

 take three or four bullets to cut it off; but 

 generally one or two are enough, as the 

 weight of the cluster helps very much in 

 breaking the limb. 



My bees are wild ones caught in the hills 

 They seem to be a mixture of all races. 



Only a few are black. They are very sav- 

 age at times. I have had a handful of them 

 meet me forty rods from the yard and sting 

 furiously. When hiving a swarm of this 

 disposition during a hot day I dump the 

 whole swarm that has been shot down into a 

 big bucket partly filled with water; shake 

 them up a little; dump bees and water in 

 front of the hive on an extra bottom-board, 

 and it seems to take both the fight and the 

 wanderlust out of them. 



Paso Robles, Cal. 



[The only objection to your plan is that 

 there is only one man in a hundred thou- 

 sand who is enough of a marksman to cut 

 a limb with a rifle bullet. Some years ago a 

 taxidermist friend of ours desired to get an 

 oriole's nest overhanging a body of water. 

 As we had been out shooting squirrels we 

 volunteered the suggestion that we might 

 cut the twig that held the nest. The first 

 shot brought it down, gi-eatly to the sur- 

 prise of ourself and the taxidermist. We 

 then tried to cut off other limbs in the same 

 way, but failed every time. We concluded 

 that our first shot was born of inspiration 

 or luck. 



Some have reported shooting into swarms 

 with a shotgun, but in most cases but little 

 has been accomplished, and the result has 

 been that a great many bees ha^'e been kill- 

 ed. We have been " mad " enough to use a 

 shotgi;n many a time; for there is nothing 

 in all bee culture that is more annoying 

 than for a fine swarm to settle upon an in- 

 accessible spot 40 or 50 feet above ground, 

 especially when you are busy with other 

 work. — Ed.] 



DOES BEEKEEPING PAY BETTER THAN FARMING? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



An Indiana correspondent writes: 

 " I have the ' bee fever ' bad, and would 

 enjoy beekeeping; but as I have a good 

 chance at farming, and as this is not a good 

 country for bees, I am afraid to give up 

 farming. The white clover sometimes fails; 

 but there is always a fall flow. If ore man 

 gives his entire time to bees in two yards, 

 from 100 to 150 in each, how much per 

 colony could be expected one year with 

 another'? " 



The easiest way to answer your question 

 would be to say, " I don't know." It would 

 be the truth too. Yet to so many the same 

 questions are occurring tliat it may be worth 

 while to talk a little about them. One rea- 

 son that no clear-cut definite answer can be 

 given is that localities differ so much. It 



is possible to find a locality specially adapt- 

 ed for some line of farming, but with little 

 pasturage for bees. In such a place, of 

 course, the average person would choose 

 farming. In a place below the average for 

 farming purposes, yet rich in bee pastur- 

 age, the case would be different. 



Of still greater importance is the differ- 

 ence in people. There is such a thing as 

 special talents. A man who cannot tell one 

 tune from another is not likely to make a 

 brilliant success as an operatic singer. That 

 almost any one can make a living at farm- 

 ing is proven by the many who do make a 

 living at it. Comparatively few are making 

 a living at beekeeping, from which it would 

 seem not so very unreasonable to conclude 

 that few can do so. 



