1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1511 



HONEY-THIEVES AS WELL AS CHICKEN- 

 THIEVES. 



The honey erop is very light here. Some 

 one stole the surplus honey oft' all my hives, 

 amounting to about 200 lbs.; and as this is a 

 line warm clay I am feeding them some hon- 

 ey 1 Ijought. I have found eight bee-trees 

 this year, and some had a good liit of honey 

 in, but none of them over 50 lbs. I had hives 

 pvit at every tree we cut down, but every 

 time somebody took bees, hive, and all. 

 Honey is selling at 20 ets. per 11)., No. 1, fan- 

 cy wliite. Robert Akchibald. 



New Straitsville, Ohio. 



[Why, friend A., it is really a shame to 

 have the thieves come and take the honey off 

 your hives so you have to go to work to feed 

 the bees for safe wintering. If things are in 

 such a shape as that in your locality it is no 

 wonder that they steal your l>ees out in the 

 woods after you have gone to the trouble of 

 getting them out of the trees. The above 

 suggested to me that you probably had plenty 

 of saloons and drinking men in your town 

 or near there. Referring again to Dun and 

 Bradstreet, I find that New .Straitsville, Per- 

 ry Co., Ohio, has aliout 3000 inhabitants; and 

 I find, also, that there are a dozen or more 

 saloons and places where liquors are sold at 

 retail. You will either have to put your bees 

 under lock and key or go to work and arouse 

 public indignation until they will banish the 

 saloons as other towns are doing all over 

 Ohio. Then when you get the saloons out, 

 or before, get these honey-thieves and chick- 

 en-thieves into the churches and Sunday- 

 school — especially get hold of the boys before 

 the saloon men get them, if it is a possible 

 thing. Don't you think I am right about if? 

 —A. L R.] 



WHAT TO DO WHEN NEIGHBORS OBJECT TO 

 THE BEES. 



I have come to you for a little information 

 and advice. 1 have bees, and they sit beside 

 a division wall between me and an adjoining 

 tenement, the occupant of which is somewhat 

 peculiar in that he wants all of his rights and 

 some of other people's, and, of course, my 

 bees go on to his land and he wants me to 

 move them 4 or 5 rods on to the other side 

 of the field. I am willing to move them, but 

 I tell him that to move them now will make 

 matters worse, for they would come back to 

 where the hive did stand, and, not finding it, 

 would be very apt to be cross and sting any 

 one near. 



Another thing, when I take off the surplus 

 honey they will be cross, and lial)le to sting 

 people. Is there any way that I can use so 

 they will not? Would the use of a small 

 amount of chloroform or ether be of any ad- 

 vantage over the use of smoke? If so,' how 

 much would it recjuii'e? How much would 

 kill the colony? I don't want any trouble 

 about the bees, and I don't want to destroy 

 them either. D. E. Washburn. 



Felchville, Vermont. 



[It is not difficult to move bees three or 

 four rods. This past summer we moved 



some forty odd colonies that distance, and 

 did not lose a bee. How did we do it? We 

 "hitched" them along a few inches every 

 day, gradually working the hives toward the 

 location they were to occupy permanently. 

 Another plan that involves just as much 

 work is to move our bees to an out-yai\l or 

 to some location two miles from their pres- 

 ent one, and leave them there about two 

 months. After that you can bring them back 

 and put them where you please. A better 

 plan is to move the bees after they have been 

 taken out of the cellar, or if wintered out- 

 dooi's after they have been confined three 

 months in the hives without a fiight. WMth 

 regard to the use of chloroform, it would he 

 very unwise to use it. Too much of it will 

 put a colony out of commission, with the re- 

 sult that robbers, or bees from other hives. 

 will be liable to steal their sweets, bringing 

 on the vei'y condition that you seek to avoid. 

 Of course, your bees do not do your neigh- 

 bor any harm; and we suggest that you 

 sweeten him up with a section or two of hon- 

 ey and a fine sample of extracted. If you 

 do this every year we do not think you will 

 hear any thing from him about your bees 

 being a nuisance. When it comes time to 

 take off your surplus, do it toward night. 

 Blow quite a little smoke in at the entrance; 

 pry up the super a little way, and blow in 

 smoke at the crack; then lift the super up 

 and put under a bee-escape. By using the or- 

 dinary Porter escape you will have no troul)le 

 w'lXh cross bees afterward. If you have no 

 bee-escape, take off the honey toward night, 

 after smoking the bees, then shake the super 

 in front of the entrance. By next morning 

 they will have quieted down, so there will be 

 no confusion nor crossness. — Ed.] 



MANUFACTUKRD COMB HONEY; CONSUMERS 

 WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE FOOLISH STO- 

 RIES so MUCH IF MORE PROPOLIS 

 WERE LEFT ON THE SECTIONS. 



In regard to manufactured honey, I would 

 say that, while in a grocery in a large 

 city last winter, I heard a lady ask one of 

 the clerks for some honey. The young man 

 behind the counter, with his hair parted in 

 the middle, asked her if she would have 

 manufactured honey or l)ee honey, at the 

 same time handing down a section of fine 

 clear honey with not a particle of bee-glue 

 on it, and a section of dark honey pretty 

 well smeared with bee-glue. The lady said 

 she would take the bee-honey. After the 

 customer was gone I asked the young man 

 if he did not know there was no such thing 

 as manufactured honey, and he said that he 

 ilid know it, l)ut that they took that way to 

 sell the dark poor honey. After that was 

 gone they could then sell the nice idover hon- 

 ey. But he said if bee-men would not keep 

 the sections so clean they coukl not fool the 

 people, for a section daubed with bee-glue 

 would show for itself that it was made by 

 bees, and that it was the fault of the bee- 

 men sending such clean sections. He said 

 he had sold tons of honey at retail, and 



