AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



367 



by water until late in the season this 

 year, and as a consequence a great many 

 bees were lost in the water. 



Mr. Warner keeps from 250 to 300 

 colonies of bees, all of them elevated 

 from 8 to 12 feet above the ground. — 

 Rural Press. 



Grizzly Flats, Calif. 



Eastern Kentucky for Bee-Keepins. 



W. W. DUFFIELD. 



I am not a professional bee-keeper, 

 but have kept a few colonies for the 

 pleasure of studying their peculiarities, 

 and to this end have given all the time I 

 could spare from the somewhat active 

 profession of a civil engineer. My 

 present apiary is limited to 2 colonies of 

 five-banded Italians, and one nucleus of 

 the new black, or Punic, bee. 



This mountain region of eastern 

 Kentucky is admirably 4idapted to bee- 

 keeping. The latitude of Pineville is 

 36^ 44' north, but it has a much milder 

 climate than its latitude warrants. At 

 the base of the mountain both flora and 

 fauna are subtropical. The pecan nut 

 and scuppernong grape both ripen in the 

 valley, but the summits of the mountains 

 are covered with the sugar maple and 

 balsam fir of Lake Superior. The opos- 

 sum, wild cat, large glow worm and 

 black scorpion are found in the valley, 

 but on the summit of the mountain the 

 lynx and porcupine live among the rocky 

 cliffs. 



Between the flora at the base and the 

 summit of the mountains, there is an 

 interval of nearly three weeks in the 

 matter of bloom. The white clover at 

 the base of the mountain blossoms as 

 early as April 10, but is not found in 

 bloom at the summit prior to May 1. 

 The mountain sides are still covered 

 with a heavy growth of forest, with the 

 poplar or tulip tree, the basswood or 

 linden, the service berry, the persimmon, 

 wild cherry, wild plum, maples, and 

 chestnut, all of which furnish abundant 

 forage, and as they blossom successively 

 for a period of three weeks between the 

 base and summit of the mountains, this 

 gives a much longer period in which to 

 gather this rich harvest. 



The mild climate of the Upper Cum- 

 berland Valley is due to the peculiar 

 topography of that region. The valley 

 lies nearly east and west, and thus 

 receives the early morning and late 

 evening sun of Winter, and the high 

 peaks of the Kentucky Ridge— the divid- 



ing crest between the Kentucky and 

 Cumberland Rivers — interpose their 

 broad shoulders between the cold winds 

 of the north and this sheltered valley, 

 and turn them westward to bear their 

 ice and snow down the Missis'sippi Valley 

 as far south as the plains of Texas. 



I have frequently, in a ride of thirty 

 miles in the saddle, passed from mid- 

 winter to midsummer, leaving the Red 

 Bird (a tributary of the Kentucky 

 River) still covered with snow, and with 

 eight inches of ice upon the streams, 

 but on crossing the Kentucky Ridge, 

 and descending its southern slope, have 

 found the Cumberland Valley not only 

 free from every vestige of ice and snow, 

 but the air mild and warm, and filled 

 with the insect life of Summer, dancing 

 in the bright sunshine. 



Bees abound in this region, both wild 

 and domesticated. Every settler has 

 them, and some settlers have several 

 hundred colonies. Their method of bee- 

 keeping is of the most primitive charac- 

 ter. Except my own, no movable-frame 

 hive is known in this region, and the 

 bees are all the common black bee, 

 captured originally in the forest. 



The hives are the hollow log of the 

 sweet gum tree, with a plank cover on 

 top kept in position by a heavy stone, 

 and plastered about the sides with clay. 

 Whenever honey is desired the bees are 

 subdued with smoke, the stone removed, 

 the top taken off, and the required 

 honey cut out from the upper portion of 

 the hive. This, in mountain parlance, 

 is known as '' robbing the gum." Living 

 among these people, but not with them, 

 occupying my own tent and camp, and 

 constantly on the move, I have always 

 procured honoy at all seasons of the 

 year, and while watching this primitive 

 method of robbing the bees, have gained 

 two valuable items of knowledge, to-wit: 

 the correct width of bee-space, and a 

 safe method of wintering on the summer 

 stands. 



Whenever a " gum " was being " rob- 

 bed" for my benefit, I have carefully 

 measured the distance separating the 

 sheets of comb. No matter whether 

 these sheets were in a straight or curved 

 line, they were invariably parallel with 

 each other, and never greater than 

 7/^16 of an inch, nor less than 5/16 of 

 an inch apart. The mean of these dis- 



tances IS 



ot an inch, and as this 



interval permits bees while crawling 

 over two adjacent combs to pass without 

 colliding, I am very confident that % of 

 an inch is the correct bee-space. 



In the Kentucky River Valley the 

 Winter is more severe, and the cold more 



