1877, 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



26J] 



BEI3 SIlFK"Ti:ilTCr. I liave warned you 

 ■so often, my friends, a}.''aiu«t leavinj? sweets 

 *)£ any kind about the apiary, and about be- 

 ing careful not to let the bees get to robbing 

 •each other, tliat it may seem a little queer, 

 to be directed how best to encourage and de- 

 velop this very robbing propensity, iu these 

 little friends of ours. 



The only season in which we can tr ip bees 

 is when they will rob briskly, at home ; for 

 ^vheu honey is to be found in the tlowers ,in 

 plenty, they will hardly deign to notice our 

 bait of even honey in the comb. Before 

 starting <nit, it will be policy to inform your- 

 self of all the bees kept iu the vicinity, for 

 you might otherwise waste much time iu 

 following lines that lead into the hives of 

 your neighbors. You should be at least a 

 mile from any one who has a hive of bees 

 Avlien you commence operations, and it were 

 safer to be two miles. I do not mean by 

 this, to say that there are no bee trees near 

 large apiaries, for a number liave been found 

 within a half mile of our own, and an expe- 

 I'ienced hand would have but little trouble in 

 finding more, in all probability ; but those 

 who are just learning, would be very likely 

 to get very much perplexed and bothered by 

 domesticated bees mixing with the wild 

 ones. 



There are more bees in the woods than we 

 perhaps liave any idea of ; especially, in the 

 neighborhood of considerable apiaries. In 

 <i)ne of my first trials at bee hunting I started 

 a tine line, directly toward the woods, but I 

 looked in vain, for bees, after going into 

 them, and finally gave it up. A few days 

 ■afterward, I got an old hand at the business 

 to hunt them up for me, and he almost at 

 once pointed out a tree plainly visible from 

 "Where they were baited, standing in the open 

 lot. As the tree contained very thick old 

 honey, it had probably stood there unnoticed 

 tor years, and yet it was in plain sight. 

 The same hunter, very soon foimd another, 

 but a little distance from this one. And 

 within a few days, we have found two more 

 iu that same locality. Since these two have 

 been carried away and domesticated in our 

 apiary, we find the Italians apparently just 

 as thick on the wild flowers as they were 

 before. Indicating that there are more ti'ees 

 in the same vicinity. 



Perhaps the readiest means of getting a 

 line started, is to catch the bees that will be 

 found on the flowers, especially in the early 

 part of the day. Get tliein to take a sip of 

 the honey you have brought for the purpose, 

 and they will, true to their instinctive love 



of gain, speed tiiemselves home with their 

 load, soon to return for another. To find 

 the tree, you have only to watch and see 

 wliere they go. Very simple, is it not V It 

 certainly is on paper, but it usually involves 

 a deal of hard work, when carried out in 

 practice. You cm get along with very sim- 

 ple implements, but if your time is valuable, 

 it may p ly to go out fully equipped. For 

 j instance, a small glass tiunbler will answer 

 I to catch bees with, and after you have caught 

 j one, you can set the glass over a piece of 

 I honey comb. Now cover it with your haiul- 

 i kercliief to stop his buzzing against the 

 glass, and he will soon discover the honey, 

 and '"load up." Keep your eye on him, and 

 as soon as he is really at work at the honey, 

 gently raise the glass and creep away, where 

 you may get a good view of proceedings. 

 As sooJi as he takes wing* he will circle 

 about the honey, as a young bee does in 

 front of the hive, that he may know the spot 

 when he comes back ; for a whole '' chunk "' 

 ofbouey, during the dry autunni days, is 

 quite a little gold mine in his estimation. 

 There may be a thousand or more hungry 

 mouths to feed, away out in the forest iu his 

 leafy home, for anght we know. 



If you are quick enough to keep track of 

 his eccentric circles and oscillations, you will 

 see that his circles become larger and hu-ger, 

 and that each time he comes roinid, he sways 

 to one side ; that is, instead of making the 

 honey the centre of his circles, he makes it 

 almost on one edge, so that the last few times 

 he comes roiuid he simply conies back after 

 he has started home, and throws a loop, as 

 it were, about the honey to make sure of it 

 for the last time. Now yon can be pretty 

 sure, which way his home lies almost the 

 very first circuit he make.s, for he has his 

 home iiijuiind all the time, and bears more 

 and more toward it. 



If you can keep your eye on him, until he 

 finally takes the " bee line " for home, you 

 do pretty well, for a new hand can seldom do 

 this. After he is out of sight, you have only 

 to wait until he comes back, which he surely 

 will do, if honey is scarce. Of course if his 

 home is near by, he will get back soon ; and 

 to determine how far it is, by the length of 

 time he is gone, brings in another very im- 

 portant point. The honey the bees get from 

 the flowers, is very thin honey ; in fact, rath- 

 er nearer sweetened water, than honey, and 

 if we wish a bee to load up and fly at about 

 a natural" gait" we should give him honey 

 diluted with water to about this consistency. 

 Unless you do, he will not only take a great 



