THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



174 



his bee-prodnce. At the same time his 

 occupation never becomes stale and 

 flat; his interest in the wonderful lit- 

 tle creatures never abating, while he 

 keeps on learning more about bees and 

 their ways. For years I took the same 

 pleasure in bee-keeping, and but for 

 altered circumstances and surround- 

 ings, would do so still. 



In ray childhood the old country su- 

 perstitions of Devonshire amused me. 

 The bee-master would arrive, making 

 a great racket with pots and pans to 

 mesmerize his bees. He would not al- 

 low us to purchase any, (with money) 

 as being unlucky. He installed a new 

 swarm with incantations, insisting on 

 one of the family repeating the name 

 of all the rest to them, "Or else," he 

 explained, "It's In high dudgeon, that 

 they'll leave ye!" They were to be in- 

 formed too of a wedding or a .death, 

 or "there never be no luck about the 

 house!" 



The colony looked very picturesque 

 each on its own stand in straw "keps," 

 and straw thatch over them surmount- 

 ed with a top-knot. 



Some years later Ave had Sir .Tohn 

 Lulibock for a neighbor. He was liv- 

 ing at the time on familiar terms with 

 the bees, a glass window from their 

 hive being right in his study, where 

 his scientific observations were made. 

 It was then that our gardener always 

 kept a hive in his forcing houses for 

 apricots, nectarines and peaches. "It 

 saves me a sight o' time and trouble!" 

 he would say. "for it's the bees what 

 does ray fertilization for me. I don't 

 'ave to bother with Addling little camel 

 hair brushes!" Yet for fear they 

 should not get enough for their bee- 

 liread, I used to put out peaflour for 

 their use; and it always managed to 

 disappear. 



In the early days of our Oregon 

 rai'jh, we had an Englishman with us 

 wno had a regular bee mania. He was 

 too scientific to be practical, and the 

 queens from Palentine, Cyprus, and 

 Italy ate up the profits that we should 

 have made. The bee experiences 

 that he poured into my delighted ears 

 from time to time were most enter- 

 tainng as well as startling. I studied 

 my "Root" and took the greatest inter- 

 est in the wonderful little sprites. Aft- 

 er he had left us, and during the rent- 

 ing of our beloved ranch, the foreign 



August, 



treasures went off on their aerial hon- 

 ey moon with "burnt wood" scrubs 

 obedient to "the call of the wild!" 

 Our sons are now forever coming upon 

 wild bee-trees in snug canyons or on 

 the open hill side, of evident mixed 

 breed. 



One can always get a pleasure out 

 of bees, realizing what others have 

 witnessed, viz., the order of the little 

 community; the regulated activities- 

 even to the watchman, and the hot-. 

 Aveather gate fanner,— the indefati- 

 gable nurses, the makers of the se- 

 cret "royal jelly' for the embryo 

 queens; the carrying off dead bodies 

 to "without the camp" and many oth- 

 er Avonders! 



And yet the bees are said to work 

 only four hours a day, and live only 

 six" weeks. Clever as they are, a good 

 bee keeper knows hoAV to deceive and 

 circumvent them Avhen necessary, 

 keeping them under his scientific con- 

 trol. 



In proportion to time wisely spent 

 on them, more financial profit can, I 

 think, be made on most things. Of 

 course knoAvledge and facility in hand- 

 ling them is needed; the locality be- 

 ing adapted to their supplies, and the 

 climate to their constitutions! With us, 

 they work first on the vine maple, 

 theia on orchard and wild bloom. La- 

 ter on the much abused fox gloA^e 

 takes their fancy, and Avhite clover 

 first and last and all the time. Buck- 

 wheat makes a good special crop as 

 we shall not be likely to take them 

 punting up and down stream, as did 

 the Sctotch folk, in search of pastures 

 neAV. Until he has become "immune" 

 the bee-keeper must have ammonia 

 handy in case of stings, for, as the 

 Chinaman says, "'Melican butterfly, 

 him bad! Him prick heap hard." 



Editor R. L. Pender, of the Austral- 

 asian Bee-Keeper, West Maitland, N. 

 S. W., is now in America and recently 

 paid our business office a short visit. 



Bees Killed Horses. 



Mishawaka, Ind., July 19.— A team 

 of horses belonging to H. W. Grant, a 

 rural mail carrier, were stung to death 

 yesterday by a swarm of bees. The 

 horses, while grazing overturned a bee- 

 hive. The honey gatherers attacked 

 the horses and stung them until they 

 both dropped dead. 



