.TiLV, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



545 



up in Louisville, cookin'. Mammy she 

 cain't read nor write, but somebuddy done 

 the writin' fer huh, an' she say she don' jes 

 know luiliself how old T is; but she know my 

 birthday's in July, kase slie remember when 

 I wuz bohn hit wuz blackberry time, an' 

 there wuz honey in the gums." 



BIRDS THAT W^RE NOT INVITED BACK. 



Mr. Allen saj'S the weatherman, the bugs, 

 the cats, and even the birds are in 

 league with the enemy. (Think of us 

 "Americans talking about "the enemy"!) 

 The weatherman has nearly mined the 

 hone,y crop and has utterly demoi'alized the 

 newly recruited and largely untrained 

 " Army of the Furrows;" cutworms, potato- 

 bugs, and their allies have overwhelmed and 

 devastated many a promising garden ; cats 

 have crossed the boundaries and thinned the 

 peaceful ranks of young chickens; while the 

 birds have been conducting air raids in the 

 apiary, with many a fatality resulting 

 among the bees. 



It was the poor little mutilated remains 

 that fii-st betrayed these unsuspected at- 

 tacks. One morning I discovered on the 

 top of hive after hive bits of dead bees — 

 never the whole bee. There were heads and 

 abdomens with wings and leg's galore, but 

 never once a thorax. I brushed them off 

 clean, and looked again after supper. 



There they were again. Again I brushed 

 them off, but the next morning found others. 

 We started watching. For several days we 

 saw one bird, a colorless sort of specimen, 

 with a yellowish breast, hanging around the 

 beeyard, sometimes perched on top of the 

 hives and then darting out and down toward 

 the entrance, evidently catching a home- 

 coming bee and returning to the hive-top 

 to eat it. After several days we saw anoth- 

 er early one morning— a beautiful bright- 

 red bird. Then we knew the one first seen 

 was the female; indeed, she soon appeared 

 and joined in the sport. The brilliant and 

 dashing newcomer made a spirited attack; 

 he not only darted and caught and slaugh- 

 tered and ate, but, as not many bees w^ere 

 flying so early, he finaily dropped to an 

 alighting-board where he stood helping him- 

 self to one or two bees within easy reach, 

 and at last quietly poked Ins head right into 

 the entrance! How I wanted that picture! 

 But it lasted only a minute; and, tho he 

 came back several other times, we never got 

 another chance at that particularly guilty 

 attitude. The. marauder seems to have 

 registered in Reed's Bird Guide as the sum- 

 mer tanager and wife, or Mr. and Mrs. 

 Piranga Rubra. As they were in our yard 

 for only about two weeks, I judge they were 

 merely visiting tourists. In spite of their 

 great beauty they received no invitation to 

 stay. " Handsome is as handsome does." 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE 



AL R E A DY 

 com muni- 

 cations are 

 coming in from 

 the large dealers in honey, and honey is in 

 demand, in big letters. We would advise 

 beemen of the state not to sell too early 

 nor too low. Most of them are apt to be 

 " jewed down " by the wholesalers, who take 

 advantage of the fact that we fall under 

 the class "Southern Honey;" and as that 

 has always had to take a lower price in 

 past years, beemen have not been prompt 

 generally over the state to awake to a real- 

 ization that "honey is honey" this year, 

 and stiffen in their demands. The latest 

 authorities say that nobody can telk now 

 what the crop of 1917 will be, but advise 

 beemen to gather and save all the avail- 

 able nectar possible, and ask a good price 

 for their honey in the bargain. All of this 

 is good and timely advice. 

 * # * 



We wish to repeat a dictum of Dr. Phil- 

 lips here; it is worthy of world-wide pro- 



E. G. Baldwin, Deland, Fla. 



mulgation. H e 

 Av rites : 



" The present 

 emergency offers 

 a great opportunity to the beekeeper, not 

 only to increase his business so as to make 

 it more profitable, but especially to pro- 

 vide a valuable food product for the nation." 

 * * * 



Reports the past month from interior 

 sections of the state indicate that many bees 

 have died from starvation. It is just as 

 we predicted. Many were short of stores 

 at opening of orange-bloom period, and the 

 cold weather killed that source of honey ; 

 consequently the usual replenishing of hi\ es 

 was lacking, and loss resulted where proper 

 attention was not given to the bees. The 

 " honey-makers are money-makers," where 

 properly managed; but letting them starve 

 is only killing the goose that lays the gold- 

 en egg. 



^ * 



.Just to hand comes the timely bulletin 

 from the Co-ojaerative Extension work in 



