80 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Now, the next class of bee-keepers which I have marked, down is 

 typiaal, and I am sure any of us who have had anything to do with 

 apiary inspection work will recognize them at once and I find it almost 

 impossible to give this class of bee-keepers a name. You will recognize 

 them, however. Usually — I am sorry to say this, not because it is 

 any reflection on farmers, but usually this class of bee-keepers is found 

 among the farmers and I have gone into apiary after apiary in different 

 vicinities and found this same class of bee-keeper existing. You go 

 into the apiary and ask him how many colonies of bees he has and he 

 cannot tell you whether he has one or two or three, or whether there 

 are a dozen. In many cases the bee-keeper has not seen those colonies 

 of bees for a long time, he may have passed by, but he has not examined 

 them properly and often times not for a year or two and usually we find 

 the bees in this case in some out of the way corner on the fram, some- 

 where near the outbuildings, but in a corner where they will not be 

 liable to attack the beekeeper himself, or the stock and where they will 

 be out of the way from any attention, in fact, he almost forgets them 

 entirely. Usually, we can find the apiary, but if it is in the summer time, 

 it is pretty hard to find the hives, because the weeds have growTi up 

 around them. In some cases where the bee-keeper has bought the 

 bees, and the hives happened to have removable combs, we can look 

 into them. In a great many cases we find, with the men who hive their 

 own bees, the combs are criss-crossed, they are really box hives and 

 often times we find one or more of those colonies which have died and 

 the wax moths have cleaned them out and there is nothing but a mess 

 of webs in the hives. Sometimes the men who own bees, in that class, 

 will place on a super, usually after the colonies begin to swarm, and 

 some times they will not look after them from year to year. I have 

 seen many bee-keepers of that kind who will have as many as 30 or 

 40 colonies of bees never attempt to catch a swarm, never attempt to 

 hive the bees or care for them in any way, with the exception of placing 

 on a super and in many cases I have seen bee-keepers who will start to 

 place on a super in the morning and not get it finished until night. 

 They have no smoker, no bee veil, and we all know that if one attempts 

 to handle the bees without these appliances, unless conditions are }ust 

 right, then if we jar off the cover rather quickly, we want to put on 

 that super in a hurry and leave. I have seen bee-keepers who will 

 start in the morning, the first step is to get the cover off, then they will 

 wait a while, then get the super, on perhaps not quite right, then go 

 away and later finish straightening the super and finally put the cover 

 on, usually get the cover on after dark. We can readily understand 

 that bees kept in that way are a source of trouble not only to the bee- 

 keeper, but also to the ladies, because for a few days after the supers 

 have been placed on the hives, the ladies of the house cannot go out 

 and hang washing, or do other necessary outside work, for the bees are 

 out hunting for them. One realizes that if the farmer bee-keeper of 

 this class succeeds in getting one super on each colony he is doing 

 well, he receives sufficient stings to last him until it is time to take the 

 supers off in the fall. 



Now, what is the trouble with those bee-keepers? The great trou- 

 ble is lack of interest. We have entered apiaries of that kind where the 



