366 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



enemy? Saw a lialf-dozen bees acling' thus 

 over a clump of grass. Couldn't bear any 

 "cawing" nor any scolding chatter; so, be- 

 ing sure they were neither crows nor king- 

 birds, I investigated. Discovered that all 

 tlie bees were not in the air. One was tail 

 up under the palm of my hand as I put it 

 down. Ako discovered a clipped ciueen 

 crawling rapidly about. Guess she was tir- 

 ed of housekeeping or else was a sui¥ragette. 

 Belonged in a baby nucleus about six feet 

 away." She had filled things with eggs, and 

 gone forth for a larger world to rule over 

 or for some otlier near reason. No, the 

 bees had not swarmed out. She had just 

 ambled forth on her own account. She was 

 returned to her hive, and a week later was 

 found in another nucleus ten feet away 

 and around a corner of a building. She 

 had destroyed a fine queen-cell and gone to 

 housekeeping again. Tickle jade! Are. 

 you good at guessing f Go ahead. 



» * * 

 There are two trees which do not make 

 good neighbors to a beeyard — "balm of 

 Gilead" poplars and pines. Too much and 

 too sticky propolis. Recently I went from 

 a yard close to the seashore and far from 

 trees to one among pines. I was very much 

 stuck on the hives of the latter, so was 

 eveiything else that got next to their insides. 

 My! but wasn't that propolis soft and 

 sticky that hot August day? Ever notice 

 how it runs down combs and accumulates 

 along the bottom edge? Bees are not al- 

 ways directly to blame for the thick gum- 

 med-up bottoms of combs. Don't blame 

 everything on them. Sometimes you do not 

 give tliera enough entrance. Why do you 

 per.sist in ignoring Dr. Miller's good ad- 

 vice ? " " 



* * * 



"Hello! Are you the bee inspector? 

 Say, sorry to have 'phoned you so late 

 (woke me from my sound beauty sleep), 

 but what does foul brood smell like?" 



"Tt has three kinds of smells — that is, 

 there are three kinds of foul brood with 

 three diiferent smells — one smell for each 

 kind. One smell is real rotten; the next 

 is almost as rotten,- and the third is only 

 sour; and this is not foul brood, only 

 pickled. Some folks don't agree as to how 

 rotten the smell should be to be really truly 

 .foul, and the descriptions of the strength 

 of the smell vary all the way from that of 

 a bad cigar to that of an egg which ex- 

 plodes Avhen you shake it close to your ear. 

 You remember that, of course. How does 

 yours smell?" 



"Pretty much like sour swill. The yard 

 is full of the smell, and it's just pouring out 



of every \n\<\ Had I belter l)urn them 

 right up?" 



"My friend, that is the odor of new gold- 

 enrod honey. You just let that smell keep 

 pouring out. Congratulate yourself that 

 things are as they are. At the present rate 

 the bees will not only pack things solid for 

 winter, but give a surplus as well. No, the 

 lioney will not smell like that when it is 

 I'ipe. Good night." 



I have that lesson by heart now, for 

 about two or three times a day or night I 

 get the question. And here is one for you. 

 How do you suppose the bees can gather 

 such smelling stujt' and keep it down, even 



for a time? 



* * *■ 



DIFFERENT RESULTS FROM APIARIES CLOSE 

 TOGETHER. 



Item — sixty colonies of hybrid bees on a 

 gently sloping hillside — a Rliode Island hill 

 if you please, Vv'here the highest mountain is 

 only about eight hundred fe?t. Twenty of 

 said colonies were moved half a mile, as the 

 crow llies, southeast, over the crest of that 

 hill which was exactly one hundred feet 

 above the first apiary. Forty feet below 

 the crest of the hill, on the side opposite 

 the first apiary, the twenty colonies were 

 placed. That happened in the spring of 

 1915. The forty colonies stored not a 

 pound of Avhite nor even light honey, or 

 leastwise all they got was submerged in 

 dark bitter honey-dew from scrub oak. The 

 twenty-colony yard put up a big crop of 

 the very best light honey and not a drop of 

 honey-dew to be found in it. And they put 

 up more pounds i^er colony than the other 

 yard. Does memory sei-ve me right, that 

 some one or two or three or more have said 

 that apiaries should be at least three miles 

 apart? 



Another item: Two apiaries of pure 

 Italians, all of the same breeding, are on a 

 ridge — just a little Rhode Island hump — 

 the yards being less than a quarter-mile 

 apart — one on the crest of the ridge, one 

 about thirty feet below the crest on the 

 east slope. One yard gave a fine crop of 

 fairly light-amber honey while the other 

 put up a lesser crop of darker honey. 



Will some one (say from near Marengo) 

 tell us how to pick a "location" and define 

 what "location" means? 



How do you pick up workers for filling 

 queen-cages? Most persons reach for a bee 

 with its head in a cell, and with thumb on 

 one side of the bee and forefinger on the 

 otlier, "i^inch" at the wings. A bland and 

 amiable gentleman commonly called "Char- 

 lie," living not a thousand miles from 



