1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



433 



SOME 



EXPERIENCE WITH A 

 BEE-KEEPER. 



Cutting Bees out of a Side of a Building. 



BY LOUIS F. WAHL. 



On the 6th of last May I was in Delta, 

 Col. My eyes were always open and alert, 

 especially to every thing pertaining to bee- 

 keeping, and it wasn't long before I noticed 

 flying bees at the side of a steam laundry. 

 The very first discovery led me to inquire 

 of the laundrymen as to the ownership of 

 the building. They told me that Leung 

 Chung (or Lon, as everybody called him), 

 the Chinaman two doors from there, bought 

 them for $2.50, and was trying to get some- 

 body to help him take them out. I then 

 went to Lon's place of business. He was 

 there with another man fixing up a hive 

 ready to put them in. I told him my mis- 

 sion, and he looked with smiles, full of en- 

 couragement, and said, "I fix a big hive a 

 big swam. Seven year ago they wint .in 

 1 had a hose, 

 and tried to 

 stop 'em goin 

 in, an' the more 

 wet I make, the 

 more they pile 

 in. The honey 

 been 0. K. ev- 

 ery year. I pay 

 for them. I 

 make a big hive 

 to hold all. I 

 wanta go Chi- 

 na. I want ex- 

 p'rence." 



The descrip- 

 tion of his hive 

 was 11 Hoffman 

 frames with a 

 space for the 

 4iX4J beeway 

 sections on the 

 bottom. I tried 

 to get him to 

 cut the hive 

 down to natural 

 depth. He in- 

 sisted with a 

 " los, los o' 

 bees; I want 

 exp'rence. " 



Well, I en- 

 couraged him 

 by saying it 

 would do no 

 harm in that 

 country, where 

 bees need no 

 winter protec- 

 tion, and it 

 could be cut oiY 

 at any time. 



Right here 

 permit me to 

 say I have seen 

 hives with 



CHINESE cracks out of which bees were coming 

 at all corners, and on top, with eight 

 Langstroth frames of solid brood, the 

 first of May. It was about the 1st of Au- 

 gust before I could spare time to help him 

 take them out. The day was set, when he 

 prepared a good platform scaffold about six 

 feet from the ground, and then with a short 

 ladder we managed to reach the top board 

 and begin sawing, he one side and I the oth- 

 er, taking off each in order till they were 

 all off. A crowd gathered on the sidewalk, 

 a safe distance away, and asked all sorts of 

 questions, some trying to jolly Lon, who 

 was witty enough to ignore their foolish 

 jokes. After the boards were off and the 

 picture taken we proceeded to transfer. We 

 got five full Hoffman frames of brood and 

 50 lbs. of chunk alfalfa honey. We were 

 lucky in finding the queen; and by smoking 

 the bees after all the honey was scraped 

 out of the building they settled down in the 

 hive contented, which stood on the plat- 

 form. 

 Just a few days before I left Colorado to 



CUTTI.XG BEE3 OUT r>p A 9]VE OF A BUILDING. 



