July, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



413 



clover bloom broke over our fields, following 

 our bail weather and starvation period in 

 April, that we felt we could not afford to 

 lose even one swarm. And as we belong to 

 that smaller class of sideliners with most of 

 their bees away from home, saving swarms 

 looked difficult. 



It has worked out a bit unexpectedly, 

 however. The sideline out yard has so 

 many lovely features that the habit of com- 

 ing out here has grown upon me till now I 

 am spending more time here than at home! 

 There's the getting to the yard — coming out 

 in the morning^ before the freshness is gone, 

 by roads that lead under cool green trees, 

 along fields white with clover, where stone 

 fences and gate posts are hung with cluster- 

 ing roses, where the locust and honeysuckle 

 scents of May give way to the sweetness 

 of rose and magnolia in June, and where one 

 lifts up one 's eyes to the everlasting hills 

 and thanks God for them. Not one hive 

 have I opened today, yet here it is three 

 o'clock, and I have been out at the country 

 yard ever since nine this morning. Let a 

 swarm come out now, if it will! At this 

 moment I am sitting on a hive seat in the 

 honey house, with my little typewriter on a 

 chair. Thru the window streams the June 

 sunshine and the hum of the bees. There 's 

 a row of low hills circling the distant south 

 and west — and orchards, some of them with 

 alsike for a cover crop, in bloom now for 

 the second time. And birds — red birds like 

 a flame, blue birds like a scrap of sky, 

 mocking birds like a fount of song, brown 

 thrush, darting wrens, bobwhites across the 

 fields. Perhaps it is a little too easy just 

 to lie back against all this beauty, like a 

 swimmer on the water, and let its sustaining 

 power hold you, without effort of your own. 

 And isn 't that one of the sideline privileges, 

 even tho claimed in an outyard? Need we 

 always rush around and be forever doing 

 things? I wish the world might learn again 

 the flavor of leisure. Out here there are 

 only the quiet-filling hours with their gifts 

 of silence and birdsong and humming of 

 bees. One forgets committee meetings and 

 organizations and that one is to preside over 

 something day after tomorrow Cthe joy of 

 being away from a telephone!). One takes 

 one's rest in a hammock swung across the 

 honey house, and slips off to sleep, things 

 are crooning so. And waking, one tiptoes to 

 the window and surprises a lizard sporting 

 around the nearest hive. I had forgotten 

 there were such things as lizards. I really 

 didn't know we had them in Tennessee. T 

 always think of them as in Florida, after 

 the visitors have gone back north, basking 

 in the sun on the sand, catching flies. They 

 do catch flies, don't they? Do they catch 

 bees too? I did not see this one do any- 

 thing so inconsiderate today, tho it did 

 glide around and under the row of hives 

 where this year's fine nuclei are ranged. 



More and more I like these shallow supers. 

 Perhaps if our crops averaged hundreds of 

 pounds, that would make a difference. The 



larger unit, both in comb and super, might 

 be more convenient. But for here, we both 

 like the shallows. By the time they are 

 full, they are quite heavy enough, too, 

 thank you. As part of the brood-chamber 

 they work admirably, tho it pays to get the 

 little combs drawn straight and solid to 

 the bottom-bar. Then, with good full-depth 

 combs, the queen seems not to balk at all 

 at going from one to the other. After the 

 flow is well on, however, they often crowd 

 her down out of the shallow, putting in 

 honey as fast as the brood emerges. When 

 I find she has abandoned the upper story, 

 I usually raise it above the excluder, treat- 

 ing it like any other super, in deference to 

 the prevalent idea that the bees don't store 

 as enthusiastically when there is consider- 

 able honey immediately over the brood. 

 But if the queen continues to occupy both 

 chambers, she is allowed the run of them 

 thruout the flow. 



What an important thing the tiering up 

 of the supers becomes! Nearly every bee- 

 keeper has had the experience of putting 

 on new ones rapidly — wisely, he has sup- 

 posed — keeping well ahead of storage needs, 

 when all his plans would be spoiled by a 

 turn of the weather. I think it was iti 

 1918 that the end of May saw supers piled 

 rather high here; then June was all rain, 

 and many beekeepers were left with un- 

 sealed honey spread over several supers, 

 foundation gnawed down, and general dis- 

 appointment. More conservative ones, who 

 never give new supers till the bees begin to 

 seal those on the hive, came out better. 

 Yet had June fulfilled the promises of May, 

 they would have secured smaller crops than 

 their more optimistic brothers. Eight now 

 it is interesting to notice the same differ- 

 ence between different yards. May June 

 live up to May! 



At last we have five "Long Idea" hives 

 started. They came too late to try out last 

 year, and this year will scarcely be a test. 



You know the painless, tidy, gradual 

 method of transferring that is so popular 

 now? You fit a nice new hive over the old 

 one, close the lower entrance, and, because 

 bees object most seriously to a brood-cham- 

 ber below the entrance, they will prompt- 

 ly come up. It does sound so good, we 

 wanted to try it. We have dodged trans- 

 ferring up to now. Well, among Mr. Al- 

 len's colonies ( we have a merry and elas- 

 tic division of hives into yours and mine 

 and ours) is now a keg of bees he paid 

 two dollars for this spring, to transfer them 

 by this polite and painless and alluring 

 system. He now has his third super on, 

 but the queen, unless indeed she has swarm- 

 ed out, still rears her young in the rotund 

 recesses of the keg. "^ "Why should I 

 worry?" Mr. Allen laughs down thru his 

 honey to the queen below. "You've paid 

 for yourselves ten times over. And when 

 I get good and ready I'll transfer you 

 anyhow by the old-fashioned as-and-kiiife 

 method." 



