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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15 



mete out justice on the theory of each bee- 

 keeper owning his own territory. More 

 than 60 years aero my grandfather had an 

 apiary of 100 colonies, or thereabout, where 

 my home apiary is now established. Right 

 across the road, about a quarter of a mile 

 away, his brother, my great-uncle, had a like 

 number of colonies. If I remember my 

 grandfather correctly, he started with the 

 bees a year or so before his brother did, and 

 I want Dr. Miller to note this fact, for this 

 means that I should have prior rights to the 

 field. In course of time both of these men 

 died, and my father kept bees at the home 

 yard while a son in-law of my uncle now has 

 bees in the yard across the road. As already 

 stated, my home yard is where my grand- 

 father's bees were standing 60 years ago; 

 and while, in .ormer years, there was no ap- 

 parent overstocking, yet now in the matter 

 of spring feed there are entirely too many 

 bees on the range. To get around this diffi- 

 culty I have for the past few years been 

 moving away part of the apiary in the fall, 

 bringing them home again at the opening of 

 the alsike flow. This, of course, means a 

 lot of work, and, from a selfish point r>f view, 

 I might wish that my relative across the road 

 would reduce the number of his own colo- 

 nies, or else that a law were passed giving 

 me, as the exclusive bee-keeper, the rights 

 to the range. As r.e has a farm as well as 

 the bees, it is not at all likely that he will 

 '^ver move away nor yet discontinue keeping 

 bees; and, indeed, under the circumstances 

 I have never considered such a thing in the 

 least probable. What do I intend to do in 

 the matter? Why, some time I expect to 

 get a new location and move to it, even if it 

 does cause me considerable expense and in- 

 convenience. That course, or putting up 

 with present conditions, is my only alterna- 

 tive, and really I do not feel like blaming 

 anybody about it either. But suppose both 

 of us decide to stay on the job, ana go on in- 

 creasing these two apiaries— how would any 

 legislation regarding the control of territory 

 work out in our cases? It certainly would 

 need the judgment of a Solomon to decide 

 the matter. To complicate the case further, 

 there are, at a conservative estimate, at least 

 forty farm ers on the range in question, 

 most of them owning their land and grow- 

 ing alsike. Suppose the majority of them are 

 keeping a few bees, which in the aggregate 

 make up quite a number on this already 

 stocked locality, how would the proposed 

 legislati'>n work in their case? 



The illustration given is not at all an exag- 

 gerated picture, as there are many cases just 

 as complicated as this that would be reveal- 

 ed if ever such a thing as legal control of bee 

 territory were thought of. The more I think 

 of the matter, the more it appeals 1o me as 

 being utterly impossible that such a law as 

 advocated by Dr. Miller would ever be work- 

 able; and this being the case, I too would 

 end this article with the same words as he 

 did his. and warn all prospective bee-keep- 

 ers that "No bee keeper in this land has a 

 legal right to his bee territory;" and may I 



be pardoned for appending the proph»>cy 

 that he is not at all likely ever to have such 

 an assurance? 

 Mt. Joy, Ont. 



STRUCTURE OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



A Lantern Lecture by C. P. Gillette, of the 

 Colorado Agricultural College. 



Delivered before the Annual Meeting of the Colorado 

 State Bee-keepers' Association, December, 1909. 



[Bee-keepers are often surprised to find that the 

 subject of apiculture is so interesting: to the members 

 of farmers' institutes, or even to a popular audience. 

 We have mentioned a good many times that it pays a 

 bee-keeper well to eive talks on the subject of bees, 

 and many have followed our advice with both plea- 

 sure and profit. We have had a number of requests 

 for scientific data arranged in an easily understood 

 form, and we are very glad to place this article by 

 Prof. Gillette in the^e columns, knowing that it sup- 

 plies this information in a popular form that can be 

 easily made use of by those who desire to give prac- 

 tical talks on apiculture.— ED.] 



Without the pictures this address can be 

 given only in part. The following is a brief 

 extract from what was said. 



The honey-bee is, with the possible excep- 

 tion of the silkworm, the most important 

 commercial insect. Although the bee is 

 handled and cared for throughout its life by 

 man, it can hardly be considered a domesti- 

 cated animal. A colony of bees in the apiary 

 differs from a colony of wild bees in a bee- 

 tree or a ledge of rocks only because of the 

 difference in the home they dwell in. The 

 insect intellisence is not capable of being 

 taught as one might teach a dog or a horse. 



Bees do wonderful things to provide for 

 their home needs and the care of the young; 

 but they do all from instinct, and not from 

 education received from others after they 

 are grown. 



The social habits of the bee are greatly to 

 be admired. The family, though very large, 

 numbering thousands, live together in the 

 utmost harmony The bee colony is often 

 referred to as a true commune where each 

 colony is a single family, and each family, 

 consisting of one mother and her children, 

 will oppose to the death the intrusions of 

 neighbors, although these neighbors maybe 

 of the closest blood relationships, perhaps 

 first cousins, or even full sisters that left the 

 home a few weeks before to start a home of 

 their own. So, between families the bee is 

 not a communist at all. 



There are many species of wild bees that 

 are not used for commercial purposes, and 

 many species of ants that, like the honey- 

 bee, live in colonies, but in no case do these 

 social insects permit members of other colo- 

 nies to enter the home and disturb the prop- 

 erty there collected. 



There are a great many fossils of insects 

 found in rocks of the earth's crust that must 

 have been formed at a time long before man 

 inhabited the earth. It is altogether proba- 

 ble that our honey-bee was present upon the 

 earth gathering nectar and pollen, cross-fer- 

 tilizing plants,_and caring for its^ home, be- 



