946 



GLEAIJINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



when they fly backward and forward over 

 the hives with almost incredible speed, 

 snapping up a bee at every turn. They 

 appear in gangs of ten or twenty, and it is 

 heartbreaking to stand and lis en to the 

 rapid succession of little clicks n;ade by the 

 contact of beak and bee. I supiJcs? there is 

 not a faster flyer than the swift among all 

 the birds of the world, and well he knows 

 the fact. Secure in their speed these birds 

 are nothing daunted by noise, objects waved 

 at them, or things thrown at them. Shoot- 

 ing, of course, is equally futile. One might 

 as well attempt to shoot a flash of lightning, 

 and the only plan that might be effective 

 would be to stretch wires at intervals from 

 poles over and across the rows of hives, and 

 even then I believe these keen-eyed folk 

 would dodge the wires with a swerve at the 

 moment they were almost on the danger. 



In my case I considered an honorable 

 retreat more fitting than any aggressive 

 measures: and as my apiary was located in 

 too open a situation, and on a piece of stone 

 and sand where there was little shelter and 

 many ants, I resolved to '' trek " the whole 

 outfit. I pondered long and deep before 

 deciding on my new choice, but eventually 

 chose a sunny clearing in a pine-wood. 

 Here I am sheltered from the worst winds; 

 the only ant at present in the neighborhood 

 is a variety which lives in quite small fam- 

 ilies under stones, and keeps very much at 

 home. The swifts cannot pursue their dash- 

 ing tactics among the thick growth of high 

 timber, and at present I can congratulate 

 myself upon the move. 



When winter comes, however, I shall have 

 to plan against floods ; nor, I dare say, will 

 that be the end of my troubles, as my apiary 

 is situated most conveniently for honey- 



tliieves, and these folk, I regret to say, are 

 far from uncommon in this country, for 

 the native seems totally unable to resist two 

 delicacies — rijje watermelon and comb hon- 



But it is of summer difficulties 1 am 

 writing, and I think 1 have now done all 

 that 1 can at present to overcome these by 

 finding such a site for my apiary as 1 have 

 mentioned above. Even with this protection 

 the mortality among the foraging bees must 

 be exceedingly' heavy in summer. When one 

 hears the " click, click," as the swift snaps 

 u}) his victims, and the sad wail of the 

 pirate-captured bee, and sees the ants 

 swarming everywhere, ready to pounce upon 

 any tired worker that fails to reach home, 

 and when, again, one watches the wonder- 

 fully courageous struggles of the laden bees 

 coming home from the distant veld against 

 a terrific southeast gale, one ceases to feel 

 surprise at the fact that even the most pro- 

 lific queens can hardly bring their colonies 

 out of summer as strong as they were at 

 the end of winter. Still, beekeeping is about 

 as pleasurable and probably as profitable as 

 elsewhere, and we do not intend going out 

 of the business, even when foul brood ar- 

 rives, as I suppose it will some day. The 

 bee is only just beginning to be known as 

 an item of commerce in this country, and 

 we are hapi^y to be among the i^ioneers of 

 the industry and of many problems hitherto 

 undiscussed in the great bee-journals of the 

 world. Perhaps the unburdening of some 

 of our own particular difficulties, besides 

 relieving us, may interest the I'eaders of 

 Gleanings on the score of novelty if for 

 no other reason. 



Groot Drakenstein. Gape Province, South 

 Africa. 



SHOULD ALL THE NECTAR BE SAVED ? IF SO, WHERE SHOULD WE 



BY E. S. MILES 



Every now and then a man a^apears in 

 the beekeeping ranks (usually posing as an 

 apostle of advanced beekeeping) who makes 

 it his hobby to infoi"m the general public 

 how profitable the business of honey pro- 

 duction is, always basing his estimates on 

 some certain phenomenally good season. Men 

 who have made honey production a success 

 as a sole business do not, as a rule, become 

 affected by this " good season " microbe. 

 When a man has raised enough honey to 

 bring an adequate income to support him- 

 self and family, and accumulate a little for 

 the " rainy day," and has sold the same, he 



begins to see tliat he must have a consider- 

 able area of territory that does not produce 

 honey, in which to sell his iDroduction. It is 

 self-evident that, if a man raises his own 

 honey (as some claim every farmer should), 

 you cannot sell him any ; and if one-half or 

 even one-fourth of the farmers of Iowa 

 raised their own hone,y in ordinary seasons, 

 a good season snch as 1913 would find a 

 large part of them, as Avell as nearly all tlie 

 honej'-specialists, with a lot of honey that 

 there would be no market for. It is not 

 hard to see that some of this honey would 

 be forced on sale at any price; for any 



