148 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 7, 1901. 



I Contributed Articles. | 



A Successful Roof-Apiary in Cliicago. 



BV G. E. Pl'KPLE. 



TO relate 'my experience in keeping: bees in the city, and 

 how the idea occurred to me to keep them on the roof, I 

 will have to go back a few years. 



Like a great man)' others, my boyhood days were spent 

 on a farm. When a boy 16 j'ears old my father took some 

 bees to keep on shares. It was not long before an interest 

 in the little creatures was aroused in me, and I became 

 quite a student of their ways, studying- them as best I 

 could while using a box-hive. After keeping them about 

 two years in box-hives, having the usual failures one has 

 when he works with them blind (one may say), I secured a 

 copy of the " A B C of Bee-Culture." I began reading it 

 and could not bear to drop it until I had read and reread it 

 all thru, and from that day to the present time my enthusi- 

 asm has not abated. Not being blest with an over-abun- 

 dance of this world's wealth, I made hives and frames, so 

 by the next season I had all the bees in movable-frame hives. 

 I had six or eight colonies at the time. 



Let me say here that before this we had returned to the 

 original owner his share of the bees, so all we had then 

 were our own. 



The next two seasons were very favorable ones, and by 

 the end of the second we had 30 or more colonies 

 and succeeded in getting over 2,000 pounds of honey from 

 20 colonies, spring count — an unheard of amount in that 

 country (northwestern Missouri). 



The next three or four years were either entire failures 

 or only a very little surplus. Having a very good position 

 offered me in Minneapolis, I concluded to accept it, and 

 leave the farm and bees to father's care. Father all this 

 time had left the care of the bees entirely to me, and when 

 the responsibility fell to him he was little prepared for it, 

 and, as a consequence, the bees were more or less neglected, 

 and gradually dwindled. 



During my stay ill Minneapolis I made the acquaintance 

 of persons who kept bees, and we spent many an hour talk- 

 ing over our experiences, and enjoying ourselves as only 

 enthusiasts can. 



Owing to the financial disturbances of 1893, I found it 

 necessary to change my residence from Minneapolis to Chi- 

 cago, and have lived here since. While riding home from 

 work one evening I saw a man sitting opposite me in the 

 car reading the " old reliable" American Bee Journal. < )f 

 course I knew he was a bee-keeper, and knowing all bee- 

 keepers are jolly good fellows, I ventured to speak to him, 

 and he proved to be our friend Mr. Mead. I afterwards 

 called on him, and we together examined his bees. I 

 learned they did not disturb his neighbors, and that there 

 were many nectar-yielding plants in the vicinity. That call 

 revived in me the " bee- fever " again, and I determined to 

 get one or two colonies as soon as I could find a place to 

 keep them. 



Soon after that I moved farther out, and while on the 

 roof one day I thought it a capital place to keep bees, and 

 the next spring I sent down home for one colony, and tried 

 it. The colony father sent was not a very good one, so I 

 bought two frames of brood and a queen from Mr. Mead to 

 build them up. They did far better than I expected, pro- 

 ducing over ISO pounds of extracted honey (borrowed the 

 extractor) that season. The bees wintered well on the roof, 

 packt in planer-shavings, and the next spring I sent for all 

 there were left on the farm — only four, and one was dead 

 when it reacht me (starved out). So I started with four 

 good, strong colonies. That summer they increast to 

 seven, and I got an average of ISO pounds per colony. 



In the fall I moved to the present location, and the fol- 

 lowing winter (ISMJS 9'i) was very severe on the bees. The 

 long-continued cold weather prevented their moving to their 

 stores, and one colony died with plenty of honey in the 

 hive. Only two came thru strong, and four were very 

 light. We had a very early spring, and I never before saw 

 bees build up so rapidly, so by the time the honey-flow came 

 on, they were all good and strong. But it was the first sea- 

 son I ever had reason to complain of my luck ; I lost queen 

 after queen, both old and young, and only increast to nine 

 colonies, these producing over 900 pounds of honey. 



The next winter, not having them fixt properly, I lost 

 two, and doubled others up. I started with five of my own, 

 and bought li> more, increast to 21, and produced nearly 

 3200 pounds of extracted honey. The engraving shows 

 the apiary one Saturday afternoon in August, when Editor 

 York called with his photographer, and took our pictures af- 

 ter we had (as an old friend says) " climbed Jacob's ladder 

 to the bee-heaven." (See first page). 



When one keeps only a few bees, more for the pleasure 

 than the profit, and does the work connected with them at 

 odd times, he can keep close watch of each individual col- 

 ony, and get better results in proportion to the numbers 

 than with a large apiary, and they will amply repay him for 

 the small outlay at the start, and for the time spent in tak- 

 ing care of them. 



The roof as a place to keep bees has its advantages as 

 well as disadvantages. Things in its favor are that the 

 bees are up out of the way, and there is no fear of 

 their disturbing any one. (I have never heard any com- 

 plaints against mine). The roof being nearly level, and 

 covered with clean gravel, there is nothing to hinder the 

 bees, and when they swarm it is easy to find the queen. (I 

 clip all my queens.) While the drawbacks are, getting ev- 

 erything up there, as well as getting the honey down to ex- 

 tract and handle, and some days the wind blows so hard 

 that the bees can scarcely get to the hives at all. Many 

 think it quite a novelty, but the novelty has worn off wit* 

 me, and I derive a great deal of pleasure as well as profit 

 from my bees, tho kept on the roof of a modern flat-build- 

 ing in a big city. Feb. 1, 1901. 



[We might add to the foregoing that Mr. Purple's honey 

 source is principally sweet clover. Hi^ apiary is located 

 about five miles west of the Lake, and is a very neat one. 

 He reaches the roof thru an opening directly above one 

 end of the porch at the rear of the third flat in which he 

 lives. 



Mr. Purple is a very pleasant gentleman to meet, and 

 thoroly understands bee-keeping. He would be successful 

 almost anywhere with bees, provided there was plenty of 

 nectar for them to gather. 



We spent a delightful hour at his roof-apiary, and were 

 surprised to see how abundantly the bees had rewarded his 

 efforts during the summer. — Editor]. 



A Review of " A B C of Bee-Culture." 



BY I'KOF. A. J. COOK. 



IT has been a pleasure to review " Dadant's Langstroth " 

 and "Cowan's Honey-Bee," as there is so much to com- 

 mend and so little to criticize in these volumes, each of 

 which is a credit to our nineteenth century bee-culture. 

 The)' are books which deserve to live and which will live. 

 I come to the pleasant duty of reviewing " A B C of Bee- 

 Culture " with no less of gratification. Without doubt this 

 book has exerted a wider influence upon the bee-keeping 

 world than any others ever written. Even its rivals can 

 only be joyous in its extensive sale, as they know that 

 wherever it goes it goes to help and to bless. I am the 

 more pleased to do this as I have received several letters 

 thanking me for the reviews of the other books. These re- 

 views certainly call attention to mooted questions and will 

 be almost certain to incite criticisms. I shall criticize no 

 point except in such cases as I have good reason to believe 

 that there is an error, but it is quite possible that in some 

 cases I may be in the wrong. 



Page 2 — Mr. Root says, "Candidly, I don't know any 

 better way to prevent second swarms than to watch care- 

 fully when they are to be expected and then chase after 

 them, climb tree, etc., until they are gotten safely into the 

 hive." I believe that the experienced bee-keeper will rarely 

 be troubled with second swarms. One is enough for the 

 best results, and some of the many vpays will, and should, 

 be used to prevent the second swarms. I think the way first 

 suggested by Mr. Heddon is certainly the best. The prin- 

 ciple of this is in placing the new swarm close beside the 

 parent colony, and the day before the second swarm would 

 be expected remove the old hive to another part of the api- 

 ary. Of course, the older bees will go back to the old loca- 

 tion, to join and strengthen the swarm, while the old colony 

 will be so thinned out that very rarely a second swarm wiU 



