134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb.. 1 



stop thieving is excellent. Still, the plan of 

 offering a reward will, in many cases and lo- 

 calities, serve to give notice to the parties 

 who are trespassing that you mean business 

 and will prosecute to the fullest extent of 

 the law. There is another plan that would 

 work better in your case, and give you im- 

 mediate notice of the night marauders, and 

 at the same time give you a chance to bring 

 into play a shotgun loaded with very fine 

 shot— not coarse enough to kill but large 

 enough to serve as a means of identification. 

 Even if the parties were not identified, one 

 warm reception like this would probably pre- 

 vent them from taking the same chance 

 again. The plan, briefly stated, is as fol- 

 lows : Run a black linen thread through screw- 

 eyes attached to stakes in the ground, clear 

 around the bee-yard. One end of this thread 

 must be made fast, while the other should 

 be secured to a wooden plug separating two 

 brass springs. These should be nicely ad- 

 justed so that the plug, when jerked out by 

 the black thread, will allow the two ends of 

 the brass spring to come together and com- 

 plete the circuit of an electric bell, the bell 

 being stationed at the head of your bed. 

 This plan has been tried in stopping tres- 

 passers in chicken-yards and other places, 

 and works successfully. The black thread 

 should be so stationed that it will be about 

 two feet above the ground, and the screw- 

 eyes should be so placed as not to cause any 

 friction on the thread. The legs of the 

 trespasser runs into it, because he can't see 

 such a fine black thread at night, thus caus- 

 ing the plug to be pulled out, allowing the 

 two ends of the battery wires to come in 

 contact. Even if only a blank load be fired 

 at him he will be so scared as not to try it 

 again. 



Any electrician can furnish the necessary 

 outfit at a very small cost. 



By a "bee-house" I suppose you mean a 

 house-apiary in which the hives are located, 

 with free access to the outer air through a 

 tube reaching through tlie house-wall to the 

 entrance proper of the hive. It does not 

 make much difference how the hives are ar- 

 ranged. In any case, use outdoor hives and 

 place them together as closely as possible, 

 and yet permit of handling. There should 

 be two rows, one about two feet above the 

 lower one and on each side of the house. 

 The outer entrance or doorstep, we will say, 

 of each colony, on the outside, should be 

 painted different colors. To help the bees 

 further to distinguish their entrances, make 

 each alighting-board or entrance different 

 from the one next to it. —Ed.] 



SHAKING OR BRUSHING TO KEEP DOWN 



SWARMING ; TWO IMPORTANT 



REQUISITES. 



I have six colonies of bees, five of which 

 are last season's swarms. The coming sea- 

 son I wish to make honey rather than in- 

 crease; that is, I do not care for more than 

 three or four swarms (or new colonies) . I 

 am unable to be at my bee-yard all through 



the day to watch for swarms, so I should 

 like to know if there is not some way I 

 could discourage swarming, and, instead, 

 make such increase as I wish by "shook" 

 swarms, or some similar method of artificial 

 swarming. Please state the proper way to 

 do this. In this section the honey-season is 

 usually of short duration; and, while the one 

 old colony I had last year gave me two good 

 swarms (one the day after the other), it did 

 not make one pound of surplus honey. We 

 had a moderate honey- flow last season, and 

 white clover stayed in bloom longer than 

 usual, though it did not seem to produce as 

 much honey as it generally does, our main 

 dependence appearing to have been the pop- 

 lar, locust, and fruit-blossom. 

 Nashville, Tenn. , Jan. 10. Tennessee. 



[The shaken or "shook" swarm method, 

 as some prefer to call it, will, I think, solve 

 your difficulty if you follow carefully the 

 directions. There are two very important 

 requisites to make the plan a success. First, 

 wait till the bees begin to show signs of 

 swarming before shaking or brushing ; sec- 

 ond, just before shaking, smoke the bees 

 thoroughly and get them to fill themselves 

 with honey, and otherwise give them a good 

 jouncing or bumping ; and then when the 

 bees are run into a hive they are full of 

 honey just as they are when they swarm 

 out naturally. Without this filling-up the 

 bees are liable to swarm out for want of 

 food, even if the act be performed when the 

 bees are preparing to swarm. — Ed.] 



CLEANSING FLIGHT WHEN SNOW IS ON THE 

 GROUND. 



1. When bees are wintered in the cellar, 

 will it do to take them out for a cleansing 

 flight while there is snow on the ground? 

 Some tell me that the bees will alight on the 

 snow and become chilled, even if the atmos- 

 phere is quite warm. In Doolittle's Conver- 

 sations he says it is all right; but while 

 that might do in New York I should like to 

 know if it will hold good for Minnesota. 



2. I have been thinking some of sowing 

 buckwheat among the corn when we culti- 

 vate the last time. Do you think the bees 

 would get enough out of it to make it pay? 



Albert Lea, Minn. C. M. Jenson. 



[1. It would be all right to let your bees have 

 a cleansing flight, even if snow is on the 

 ground, providing the temperature is up to 

 60, and it is thawing rapidly. If you are 

 reasonably sure of having a warmer day, 

 wait till it comes up to a higher tempera- 

 ture. 



2. You will have to sow a great deal of 

 buckwheat to make any showing in the hives. 

 The plant does not yield very much honey, 

 so far as I know, except in New York. If 

 the crop will pay you aside from the honey, 

 you would be warranted in sowing it in the 

 manner suggested. It takes an immense 

 acreage of buckwheat to produce any sur- 

 plus. We have had from 10 to 25 acres 

 within two miles of our home yard; and 

 while the bees worked busily on the plant in 



