1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



99 



structed a double walled hexagonal building 

 that we still have; then put a stove inside of 

 the building. The bees all had access to out- 

 doors, and, theoretically, the scheme looked 

 as if it might be a briliant success. The 

 stove would keep the inner room warm, and 

 also the colonies; but the experiment, like 

 some others, was not altogether a success. 

 The bees were over stimulated, and he final- 

 ly came to the conclusion that artificial heat 

 was worse than nothing. 



The m inufacturing jewelry-shop during 

 that time was being converted over into a 

 wood-working shop upstairs. First a foot- 

 power saw was put in operation; later a pow- 

 er siw was attached to a windmill; and many 

 and many a time did the writer turn in and 

 help while A. I. Root made bee-hives. Dur- 

 ing part of this time, at least, he was writing 

 for the American Bee Journal under the nom 

 de plume of "Novice." Ttiese articles in 

 both periodicals not only stimulated a demand 

 for a full account of his experiments, but led 

 to a call for bee-supplies. A modest little 

 catalog was gotten out in 1873 and '4, adver- 

 tising the "Simplicity" bee-hive, "Simplic- 

 ity" bee feeder, "Novice" all-metal honey- 

 extractor, metal-cornered frames, "artificial 

 comb foundations," and dovetailed one- 



Eound section boxes. But the demand for 

 eesupplies grew at such a pace that the un- 

 reliable windmill failed to keep up with the 

 orders, and a steam-engine was put into com- 

 mission. It was not long before the little 

 shop was running night and day. Larger 

 quarters were urgently needed, and it was 

 plain to be seen that the jewelry business up 

 town must be sold and a new factory put up 

 near the railroad track. But the new build- 

 ing, 40X100, two story and a basement, took 

 so much capital that it was rumored that A. 

 I. Root would be "busted" before the year 

 was out: that he had "bit off more than he 

 could chew;" and it was, indeed, a serious 

 problem as to whether he would be able to 

 make ends meet. But his honesty, a big as- 

 set in his favor, had never been questioned; 

 money came to his rescue from unexpected 

 sources, and you know the sequel. 



Most of this early experience that laid the 

 foundation for his manufacturing interests. 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture of to-day, and the 

 ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, occurred 

 durmg the early 70's. Indeed, we may say 

 that A. I. Root's best work occurred between 

 the years 187U and 1880. It would take a 

 volume to record all his experiments. It is 

 needless to say that many of them resulted 

 in failure, and the world knows that many 

 of them were successful. This early work 

 cost him thousands of dollars, but the money 

 was well invested. Fortunately for the writ- 

 er and Gleanings in Bee Culture, as well 

 as the ABC, we were an eye-witness to 

 practically all of this early experimental 

 work. To have seen it, to have been in and 

 around it, to have had knowledge of the fail 

 ures as well as of his succes&es, is a heritage 

 of which we feel indeed proud. While we 

 were only a lad then, it can never be forgot- 

 ten. It could not be otherwise, for^ A. I. 



Root's enthusiasm knew no bounds. Many 

 a time have we seen him throw up his hat 

 in the air from the very exuberance of his 

 enthusiasm, especially when some experi- 

 ment "panned out" well. Nothing would 

 do but that every member of the family 

 would have to go out into the yard and see. 

 He was a regular hobby-rider when he got 

 started, and sometimes his friends said of 

 him that the hobbies ran away with him. 



Many and many a time when answering 

 questions to-day we have used the knowl- 

 edge of this early experimental work of A. 

 I. Root's, some of it over thirty five years 

 ago. For example, a correspondent had 

 just patented a foundation having paper for 

 a midrib. He was very enthusiastic about 

 it, and thought it was going to work a revo- 

 lation. Remembering well that A. I. Root 

 had been all over this, that bees many times 

 would reject the foundation with a paper 

 midrib, we felt it our duty to tell our corre- 

 spondent the plain truth, and we did. At 

 another time our friend Danzenbaker got up 

 a valveless smoker, and even went so far as 

 to patent it. Going back in memory we re- 

 called the time when A. I. Root made just 

 such a smoker, and how he sold them by the 

 thousand. Then when Mr. Todd desired to 

 know something about giving bees nitroge- 

 nous food in the hive, those early experi- 

 ments came back to mind again, and a refer- 

 ence to the back volumes of Gleanings soon 

 brought the whole thing back vividly as if it 

 were yesterday. These are only samples 

 from the storehouse of those early days, and 

 Gleanings is profiting by it even to-day. 



Later. — A proof of this was sent to A. I. 

 Root for suggestions or corrections. In ref- 

 erence to the feeding of rye meal in the 

 greenhouse he says: 



Just a word in regard to the feeding rye flour in the 

 greenhouse, alluded to in the above. At that time I 

 was losing many colonies by "spring dwindling.' 

 and sometimes these contained valuable queens that 

 it was quite an object to save. I figured this way: If I 

 could construct a greenhouse that would enable me, 

 with protection, to feed up a weak colony and get it 

 to rearing young bees under glass, there need be no 

 spring losses. Well, I succeeded in feeding the bees 

 under glass, getting them to fly from the feeder back 

 to their hive safely and build comb; but, although the 

 queen laid eggs every day, none of the eggs were ever 

 hatched into larvae. Something was evidently want- 

 ing, and at this crisis I got them to working on rye 

 meal as well as the syrup. When the first bee loaded 

 up with pollen, and flew safely back into the hive, I 

 sailed my cap. Next morning the eggs were swim- 

 ming in the well-known milky food, and in three days 

 or less we had a patch of larvae growing as naturally 

 in the month of January under glass as we usually see 

 it in May. I declared then I was " out of the woods, 

 and henceforth there need be no more "spring dwin- 

 dling." Mrs. Root, however, suggested it was unwise 

 to " count chickens," etc. Well, after I had a lot of 

 young bees not only hatched under glass, but out in 

 the sun, trying their wings and having their natural 

 " playspell," then I called all the family to witness that 

 my " gold-mine " was a reality. I did build up several 

 weak colonies in this way and saved them; but it was 

 a lot of work, and when a warm day came and the 

 greenhouse had to be opened for ventilation, the bees 

 got out and didn't find their way back. We put wire 

 cloth over the ventilators, but the bees buzzled on the 

 wire cloth, and many were last. There are now bees 

 kept regularly in the large cucumber-greenhouse to 

 fertilize the blossoms. When one colony gets weak 

 from loss of bees another is moved in while the first is 

 put out to build up again. I at least fully demonstrat- 

 ed that bees can not rear brood on honey alone. 

 They must have pollen or a substitute.— A. I. R. 



