804 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Interior of one of the straw skeps at the bee market at Veenendaal, Holland. Photographed by J. C. 

 Mason, London. Another picture of the bee market appears on our cover for this issue. 



Bee 



worked so well that I expect to take a long- 

 strip of paper next year and stretch it from 

 one end of the row to the other to keep the 

 arass down. The hives are on concrete 



blocks. I use a Ditmer bottom ivith a two- 

 inch opening- in both sides. These are extra 

 good for ventilation. 

 Fall Creek, Wis. 



BEE = MARKET AT VEENEMDA4L KLOMP, HOLLAND 



DY IIAXS MATTHES 



The village of ^v'eenendaal is situated in 

 the center of Holland, in the so-called "Geld- 

 ersche Valli," one of the most picturesque 

 parts of the country. For hundreds of years 

 this village has been noted for its market 

 of swarms in straw skeps. Every year, on 

 the second Tuesday of July, bee-farmers 

 from all parts of the country come here, 

 together with their wagons loaded with 

 round skeps. Although the world over the 

 modern wooden cases are in use, it is curious 

 10 note that, uj) to the present, the old models 

 of round straw skeps are seen exclusively on 

 the market at Veenendaal. The exhibition 

 is held on a part of the heath, the so-calicd 

 Nieuwe Weg, near an old church and a livvie 

 tavern, the sign-board of which shows of old 

 a round straw skorj. 



At this market ihe bee-farmers of the 

 southern sandy ^arts of the country sell 



their stocks that they have wintered over to 

 those living on the clay grounds. The 

 farmers, with a view to early profit, obtain 

 early swarms by heavy feeding, which are 

 put together into new round skeps. These 

 swarms being rather small, and with small 

 combs, are brought to the market, where 

 they are put on rows of straw behind hedges 

 of faggots, as is seen in the engravings. 

 Some two or three thousand swarms, or even 

 more, come yearly to this market. 



The principal buyers are the bee-farmers 

 of the Veluwe, living near buckwheat-fields 

 and the heath. When the season is favor- 

 able, and the buckwheat gives honey (which 

 it does not do always), the skej^s may be 

 tilled in two or three weeks. In ease they 

 are entirely filled up with buckwheat honey 

 they are emptied before the heath begins to 

 flower. If not, the partly filled skeps are 



