T 



r)e (Dee- \^f peps 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers. 

 $L00 A YEAR. 

 w. z. HUTCHiNSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL. XVI. FLINT, MICHIGAN, DEC. 10, 1903. NO. 12. 



HE THREE STAGES 

 OF SUCCESSFUL 

 BEE-KEEPING. BY 

 R. L. TAYLOR. 



^^ ^^ e^^ 



T here a re three 

 stages in successful 

 bee-keeping, initiation, 

 expansion and fruition. 

 Initiation is, of course, 

 the first steige. In it 

 the ground work is laid, and if done 

 thoroughly and nothing intervenes to 

 turn the tyro aside, is a guaranty of 

 success. In it comes, first, the puffed 

 fiice, the fear of stings and the dread 

 of opening the hive to give a colony 

 some needed attention. At this point 

 comes the first vital struggle. If by 

 the exercise of courage, and the giving 

 of every attention necessary and im- 

 agined, the dread is overcome, every- 

 thing promises to go well; but if there 

 be a failure here, if dreiid causes neg- 

 lect at the outset, it is liable never to 

 be overcome; and this beginner is like- 

 ly to go through his bee-keeping ex- 

 perience believing that the moths de- 

 stroy his bees, that the time to put on 

 supers is when spring opens, and that 

 the time to tiike them off is when snow 

 Hies; not knowing, till then, whether 

 the bees have deposited itny honey in 

 them or not. In short, he will find 



bee-keeping profitless, and his continu- 

 ance in it is likely to be brief. But the 

 one who conquers dread will find it the 

 beginning of knowledge. Now the hum 

 of the bees in their first flights in the 

 balmy spring air, and in their gather- 

 ing the early nectar from the willow 

 and the maple, will have a charm for 

 him that no other music ever had. Now 

 he will give the bees no rest in his 

 eag^erness to watch the queen, and the 

 progress of the colony. Soon he will 

 have a yellow queen and begin practic- 

 ing introducing; and then will watch 

 anxiously for the first hatching of her 

 progeny. After that he must rear some 

 queens from her, iind he will be found 

 forming nuclei to secure their fertili- 

 zation, and in due time will be found 

 reclining on the green sward in front 

 of the nuclei, watching for the queens 

 to come out for their first flights, and 

 waiting their return to discover evi- 

 dences of their success. Then some 

 more experience in introducing queens, 

 and in counting the days from the egg 

 to the emerging bee, and from the 

 emerging bee to its demise. These are 

 the times when, in visions of the night, 

 he will see queens stalking about, and 

 endless swarms passing through the 

 air. This may be at the expense of a 

 crop of honey, but he who has not been 

 through all this and much more, is not 

 likely to be successful in bee-keeping. 



