90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



"Yes, this bird which you describe is quite 

 familiar to me." 



' ' Well, a king-bird is a great big overgrown 

 pee-wee, about three times as large as the 

 pee- wee, or nearly as large as our robin; but 

 in shape, color, and general make-up it looks 

 and carries itself almost exactly like a pee- 

 wee. But instead of building its nest about 

 buildings, and using mud and moss in nest- 

 constrvxction, it usually builds in apple or 

 other low-down ti'ees, using fine grass or 

 straw, mainly, for material." 



"Yes, I know the bird now, and I did see 

 one or two sitting on old dead branches of 

 trees about the apiary during the summer." 



"And did you notice that, every few min- 

 utes, or at times as many seconds, this bii-d 

 would leave its perch in rapid flight, and in 

 a moment return and appear to be pounding 

 something which it held in its beak, against 

 the old dead perch on which it sat or stood?" 



"No. I do not think I noticed that part, 

 for I did not observe close enough for that, 

 as I was not interested in this bird or any 

 other." 



"Well, these birds are insectivorous, and 

 thus it comes to pass that they often feed on 

 the bee; and when you see one perched on 

 some old drj tree near the apiary, going from 

 and returning to the same every few moments 

 or seconds, and pounding its beak against 

 the old tree, you may rest assured that a bee 

 perishes with every flight fi-om the crag." 



"What makes you think this?" 



"I have a rifle with a telescope sight on it, 

 the telescope being strong enough so 1 can 

 see the toe-nails and whiskers of a squirrel 

 ten rods away, and with this I can see what 

 a bird has in its mouth at that distance." 



"That is plain, I should say " 



"Yes; and this telescope has told me that 

 the king-bird catches bees, and lots of them, 

 especially when a pair or more of them have 

 nests near or about the apiary; and as this 

 bird is one of the late comers in the spring 

 it nests late, so that the time for feeding its 

 young comes right in the time when most 

 queens are taking their wedding-flight, or at 

 about the time after-swarming is at its height, 

 where natural swarming is allowed. One 

 year there were three nests of these birds 

 near the apiary, when I allowed natural 

 swarming, and before I commenced the rear- 

 ing of queens as a business, and that year I 

 lost fully forty per cent of all queens from 

 the parent colonies and after-swarms which 

 were saved. I noticed that these birds were 

 about the apiary very largely from one to 

 three o'clock in the afternoon, and from this 

 I conclude that drones and queens, in pro- 

 portion to their numbers, are more often 

 caught than worker bees. The next year I 

 killed every king-bird as soon as I saw one 

 perching about the apiary, and my loss of 

 queens since then has been only a small per 

 cent of what is was previous to thus killing 

 all these birds which insisted in hanging 

 around the, apiary. " 



"Well, I will look after these birds in the 

 future. But you do not think these birds 

 cause all the loss of queens?" 



"No, by no means. If your hives are close 

 together, of the same color, and stand in a 

 row side by side, so that all of them except 

 the end ones look and appear alike, you will 

 have trouble in the matter of losing queens 

 at mating, no matter whether there are any 

 birds around or not." 



"How is this ?" 



"While bees mark their location on their 

 first flight better than it would seem possible 

 for them to do, yet if you observe only casu- 

 ally you will find that there is much mixing 

 of bees when returning from their first riight, 

 where hives ai'e of the same color and set 

 close together. Now, if it happens to be a 

 worker bee or a di'one which enters a hive 

 other than its own, no harm cOmes from such 

 an entrance; but if it happens to be a queen 

 she is soon balled and killed, where the hive 

 into which she enters has a good queen al- 

 ready. And in any event the hive from 

 which she came will soon be beeless unless 

 the bee-keeper finds out about this loss and 

 gives them a new queen or some means of 

 producing one." 



"I see. But how is this to be remedied?" 



"First and best by locating the apiary 

 about buildings or scattering trees, so that 

 no two hives shall be in a nearly like position 

 as regards these trees or buildings, in which 

 case the queens take these things as a sort of 

 landmark, and by these know just which is 

 their own hive, thus making no mistake when 

 returning from their wedding- flights." 



"But suppose one has no trees near or 

 about where the bees are wished lo stand." 



"Then we must do the next best thing, 

 which is, to locate our hives in such a posi- 

 tion that no two of them appear the same 

 fi'om the outside." 



"How can this be done ? " 



' ' By setting them in twos, threes, or fours 

 about the beeyard, and having the entrances 

 to each lot face in different directions; by 

 painting each hive a different color, and by 

 having a dissimilar object near the entrance 

 of each hive." 



"Which is your choice ? " 



"Where I could occupy all the ground 1 

 wish with any apiary I would locate the hives 

 on the hexagonal plan, having the rows ten 

 feet apart, and the hives ten feet apart in the 

 row; and under no consideration would I 

 have the hives closer than five feet apart each 

 way; and I would have a few trees or build- 

 ings in and about such an apiary, if possible. 

 If not possible, I would put something out 

 in front of every other hive of a different 

 nature from the other hives, thus giving every 

 other hive a different appearance." 



" How is this best done ? " 



"Lay a few flat stones down in front of the 

 second hive from each end of the row. then 

 skip a hive, and in front of the next one lay 

 down a wide board or two, twice as 

 long as the hive is wide; skip a hive again, 

 and at the next put down more stone, and 

 so on till all the apiaiy is gone over. Then, 

 if you put in a few sunflower seeds near the 

 entrance of every fourth hive, or allow some 

 weeds to grow near the entrance of an oc- 



