1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



957 



• Mr. Fixter g-ives statistics to show the re- 

 sults of exvieriments with different sizes of 

 the Heddon and Langstroth hives. The 

 figures given tend to prove that the latter 

 are preferable; and of these the ten- frame 

 size, he says, will be better for the farmer, 

 with whom bee-keeping is but a side issue, 

 and who has only a limited amount of time 

 to devote to it; and the eight-frame size 

 more serviceable in the hands of the compe- 

 tent. Eight colonies were used in making 

 the experiment; and of these, four were in 

 Heddon and four in Langstroth hives. 



A report was also given of some experi- 

 ments made in order to ascertain the best 

 kind of clover for the farmer apiarist to 

 sow— one that would be equally good as 

 fodder, fertilizer, and honey-producer. The 

 one recommended is a species known as 

 saitifoin. Says Mr. Fixter: "It has been 

 generally thought that the little white clo- 

 ver or alsike produced more honej'; but I 

 have found that the sainfoin clover gives, I 

 am safe in saying, a greater amount of 

 honey than the white clover will; and it 

 gives also a good amount of fodder per acre. 

 This plant . . . never gets too woody 

 to be used as fodder. . . When we can 

 get farmers to sow sainfoin as fodder, bee- 

 keeping will have a boom, and will be far 

 more successful." 



Some interesting notes were given of the 

 relative amount of water in ripe and unripe 

 honev'. Investigation showed that the un- 

 sealed contained from 4 to 5 per cent more 

 water than that which was sealed. It was 

 proved, also, that honey kept in a damp 

 cellar absorbs moisture, and ferments. Mr. 

 Fixter was strong in his protest against 

 bee-keepers putting unripe honey upon the 

 market, and rightlj' declared that it was 

 just as injurious to the hone^'-trade to do so 

 as it would be to the fruit-trade if fruit- 

 growers were to offer immature fruit to the 

 public. 



Perhaps the experiment that will be of 

 most interest to our readers is one made to 

 determine whether bees injure our orchard 

 fruits. The test was made with peaches, 

 pears, plums, grapes, strawberries, and 

 raspberries. The question of "bees and 

 fruit " has been a vexed one for years, as 

 we all know; and a certain class of fruit- 

 growers has been persistent in its denunci- 

 ations against the honey-bee. The results 

 of Mr. Fixter's experiments have been, like 

 those of all others, fairly made; namely, 

 that bees can not and do not injure good 

 sound fruit, but simply take the juices from 

 those already punctured. 



For the observations along this line, four 

 colonies of equal strength were taken; and 

 on each was put a super divided into three 

 compartments. In one of these compart- 

 ments was put sound fruit; in another one, 

 punctured fruit; and in the third, sound 

 fruit besmeared with honey. The bees be- 

 gan at once to work on the hone3'ed and 

 punctured specimens, and apparently both 

 were going to be demolished. At the end 

 of six days the hives were examined, and 



it was found that the punctured specimens 

 were destroyed; those dipped in honey were 

 thoroughly cleaned but uninjured; and those 

 not treated were in sound condition. Fruit 

 dealt with in a similar way was also hung 

 about the apiary; but in every instance the 

 bees were unable to feed on them. More 

 weight is added to the results of these ex- 

 periments from the fact that they were made 

 during the summer when no honey was 

 coming in from natural sources. Some of 

 the colonies were even depleted of their 

 stores in order to make the tests thorough; 

 but manj' of the bees died of actual starva- 

 tion while luscious fruit lay appetizingly 

 around. That thin covering provided by 

 nature formed an impenetrable barrier be- 

 tween them and the coveted sweetness — "so 

 near and yet so far." 



House apiaries were recommended for 

 those living in cities or other places where 

 a good plot of ground could not be obtained. 

 The colonies kept in the same were said to 

 do better during severe weather than those 

 in the yard, as they were greatly protected 

 from the inclemency. 



ANOTHER bee-suit; NEGLIGENCE OF BEE- 

 KEEPERS. 



Somewhat over a year ago a valuable 

 pair of mules vsere stung near Millsboro, 

 Delaware, so seriously that they died. 

 The bees that did the stinging were inside 

 the village and the mules were driven along 

 the common highway within a comparative- 

 ly few feet of the bees. The owner of the 

 mules has sued the bee-keeper for $500.00 

 damages, alleging that their owner had 

 no right to keep them so near the common 

 highway. A lawyer has been working up 

 evidence, and it is possible there will be 

 some interesting developments later. A 

 bee-keeper (not the one whose bees did the 

 damage) who has written us in regard to 

 the matter thinks that his neighbor should 

 pay at least one-half of the loss of the mules. 



The lesson in this case is that bees with- 

 in corporated limits should not be kept up 

 close to the general highway without at 

 least a high board fence, shrubbery, or 

 something that would cause the bees to fly 

 high in the air. Our bees are located with- 

 in 100 feet of the highway but a row of 

 thickly matted evergreens with an average 

 height of 50 ft. causes the bees to fiy high as 

 they pass over the road before they can get 

 to their hives. The result has been that we 

 have never had any trouble with the bees 

 attacking horses along the way. But 

 whether the bee-keeper in question were a 

 member or not, it is my impression that, 

 when he himself is negligent, either from 

 letting the bees get to robbing or because 

 he has had them too close to the highway 

 and has failed in some way to raise the 

 flight of his bees above the common high- 

 way, the Association would advise him to 

 settle on the best terms possible. Where 

 the bee-keeper is plainly negligent, the As- 

 sociation, as I understand it, does not at- 

 tempt to defend him. 



