1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



711 



looked healthy and well, for the outdoor air 

 and the enthusiasm of flying- through it, as 

 it were, proved to be a wonderful tonic. 



MR. FKANCIS DANZENBAKER AT MEDINA. 



Mr. Francis Danzenbaker, of Washing- 

 ton, D. C, inventor of the Danzenbaker 

 hive and system, is here again on one of 

 his annual visits. He appears as active as 

 he did a year ago, and looks more the pic- 

 ture of health to-day than 1 ever saw him. 

 He believes in plain food, in scientific physi- 

 cal culture, and all his life has been an 

 abstainer from anj' kind of narcotic, drink- 

 ing neither tea nor coffee, and tobacco he 

 never used. He believes that he has his hive 

 as nearl}' perfect as possible, and expects 

 to devote the remainder of his days (and he 

 is good, the doctor says, for twenty years) 

 to the production of fancj' comb honeys for 

 he practices what he preaches — uses his 

 own hive and system. 



Speaking about physical culture, I was 

 surprised to see how easily our friend at 

 6b was able to go through with the simple 

 exercises. His mind is as clear as the av- 

 erage man at the beginning- of his prime; 

 and he attributes this good health to his 

 abstemious habits, and bathing. 



stray runaway swarms at MEDINA, AND 

 HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT. 



Nearly every season, when swarming is 

 on, farmers will bring word that a swarm 

 of bees is hanging from a tree on their prem- 

 ises, some two or three miles out, and that 

 if we will go after them we can have them. 

 Or word ma3' be telephoned in, with the po- 

 lite intimation that we can have the bees 

 for a small "consideration." As a gener- 

 al thing we are rushed with work at our 

 own yards, and do not care very much about 

 chasing around the country for stray 

 swarms. But they must be taken care of, 

 especially if they are blacks or hybrids, 

 for we can not have swarms of either with- 

 in half a mile of our own yards. It hardly 

 pa3's to send a man in a buggy, so of late 

 years we have been sending out one of our 

 boys with a potato-sack, a pair of pruning- 

 shears, a smoker, bee- veil, gloves, etc., on a 

 blc3cle, to go after them, bag, and bring 

 them home. And right here the bicycle 

 serves a very excellent purpose. The trip 

 can be made quickly; and as the weight of 

 the bees themselves rarely exceeds eight or 

 nine pounds, they can readily be carried. 



One of our men, Mr. Geisinger, had just 

 returned from one of these trips. I told 

 him to wait till I could photograph him, 

 and the result is shown on page 723. The 

 bicj'cle he rides is a regular chainless, 

 having a carrier attachment over the front 

 wheel. The bees, when bagged, can be 

 set down in this carrier, or can be held 

 with one hand while the other is used for 

 steering. But if the swarm is a heavy one, 

 it would be more practicable to carry it 

 resting on the handle-bars. 



There is nothing better for the purpose 

 than an ordinary potato-sack made of bur- 

 lap. It has a wide mouth, and can usually 

 be slipped around the bees, and the mouth 

 of the sack tied before the limb is even cut. 

 And right here the pruning-shears are 

 brought into requisition. It will be noted 

 that one of these implements, as well as a 

 small-sized Cornell smoker, is hooked into 

 the belt. When so equipped with bee-veil 

 and long-sleeved gloves one is prepared for 

 almost any emergency. 



GETTING SWARMS DOWN FROM TALL TREES 

 WITH A SHOTGUN. 



One of our subscribers, Mr. Isaac Al- 

 exander, of Waldenburg, Ark., a view of 

 whose shedded apiary will be found on p. 

 720, noticing what I said on p. 623 about 

 getting swarms down from tall trees, wrote 

 he had been very successful in the use of a 

 shotgun. One swarm had clustered up a tall 

 tree, near the crotch, where the limbs were 

 large. After a good deal of efiFort he man- 

 aged to reach them and scoop or scrape 

 them off. But they took wing and clustered 

 still higher. Again he took after them and 

 shook them off. Again they clustered high- 

 er still, until they got up beyond his reach. 

 The idea finally struck him to use a shot- 

 gun. This he did by sending five charges 

 up among the bees. Whether there was 

 any mendacity in this act or not he does 

 not say; but the effect of the bombardment 

 fired up titeir- mendacity, and they stung 

 every thing in sight. But he says they 

 finally clustered lower, and he then hived 

 them. 



Mr. W. F. Marks, of Chapinville, N. Y., 

 had a similar experience. The bees clus- 

 tered too high for him, on a big tree, or, 

 rather, he did not care to climb after them. 

 As a matter of curiosity he fired a charge 

 of shot up among them, with the result that 

 they were completely disorganized, and 

 came down. He subsequently hived them 

 from a more get-at-able position. Of course, 

 it is perfectly plain that the shot would 

 kill a good many bees; but it is better to 

 lose a few bees, perhaps, than to lose them 

 all. 



CANDIED HONEY IN PAPER BAGS IN HOT 

 WEATHER. 



Our readers will remember that we se- 

 cured a small kegful of candied alfalfa 

 honey, put up in bags by R. C. Aikin, of 

 Loveland, Col. When these were first re- 

 ceived they were as hard as bricks, the 

 honey so stiff and bricklike that it was 

 difficult to run a case-knife down into it. 

 The question was raised last winter wheth- 

 er or not honey put up in this form would 

 not become soft, leaky, and dauby during 

 warm weather— that is, left on the shelves. 

 To determine this point I put one sample 

 up on a shelf in my office. It faced a north 

 window, and of course the direct sunlight 

 could not by any possibility get on to it. 

 To-day, July 30, as I was looking over some 

 of the other stuff on the shelves I noticed 



