1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



793 



once in ordinary course without bother to 

 either bees or children. Generally every 

 day a dozen young folks would be playing 

 about, but never one got stung. 



Our honey-producing pets as a whole are 

 not offensive, but they are adepts in de- 

 fense. At present the writer has three doz- 

 en hives in a back yard in the residence 

 part of a city of 40,000 inhabitants; but so 

 far he has not had a single complaint from 

 a neighbor. There is only one colony of 

 wicked-tempered bees in the apiary, which 

 will be eliminated at the first opportunity 

 by replacing the present mother, generally 

 known as the queen, by one raised from a 

 gentler strain. 



As has just been stated, the queen of the 

 hive is, after all, merely the parent of the 

 vast family. A bee-hive is a form of society 

 in which there is apparently no govern- 

 ment, no direction, no correction. Each in- 

 habitant instinctively knows the right 

 thing to do, and does it. Hence inside this 

 magic chamber there is no immorality, no 

 vice, no crime, consequently no rules, no 

 government, and no overseers of any kind ; 

 and therein is the charm of a hive to the 

 business man who needs a complete change 

 of thought. It is not the little work essen- 

 tial to their welfare that makes bees a splen- 

 did hobby, because for weeks on end it is 

 better for the bees if the hive be never 

 touched; but it is the study of the social 

 economy. At first there is the fascination 

 that comes from watching the perpetual go- 

 ing and coming of its myriads — an attrac- 

 tion that tempts one to sit for hours in the 



A colony in a box hive which cost one dollar. This kind of thing had better be left 

 alone by the beginner. 



pleasant sunshine with eyes persistently 

 fixed on the alighting-board, all other things 

 being forgotten. Where do they go, what 

 do they get, and how is it carried? 



Then we are tempted out to the highways 

 and byways, the ojien fields and clumps of 

 woodland, to become acquainted with plants 

 and flowers we never before heeded. We 

 get literature to learn what others know, and 

 are led to further observation on our own 

 account. Lastly, we begin to appreciate the 

 value of little differences, and so day by day 

 we follow the changes that mark the prog- 

 ress of the bee year — the rapid increase of 

 population in the spring; the development 

 of the reproductive instinct, and its culmin- 

 ation by swarming; the advent of the hon- 

 ey-flow when nectar is so plentiful that the 

 supply is far ahead of the daily needs, and 

 so i^rovision can be made for the long sea- 

 son of dearth by a wondrous system of stor- 

 age; the ending of the season of plenty fol- 

 lowed by a rapid shrinking of the popula- 

 tion so that consumers may be few and not 

 endanger the life of the colony by eating up 

 the food supply when production is at a 

 standstill. 



It is hinted that some human beings, in 

 their efi'orts to maintain a certain standard 

 of living, are not averse to race suicide. In 

 untoward seasons, especially in spring, the 

 inmates of our hives are frequently face to 

 face with collective starvation due to sud- 

 den stoppage of nectar, and at once they 

 curtail consumption of food by child mur- 

 der, mercilessly throwing out of doors ev- 

 ery egg and undeveloped bee. Men may 



die, but man 

 must not, so 

 bees must be 

 sacrificed that 

 the life of the 

 colony may be 

 perpetuated. 



Knough has 

 been said to 

 indicate fee- 

 bly the fascin- 

 ation a colony 

 of bees has for 

 its owner. The 

 attraction i s 

 so great that, 

 in the case of 

 the average 

 man, his hives 

 are the first 

 objects to be 

 visited on his 

 return home 

 from business 

 any day from 

 the spring 

 thaw until the 

 late Novem- 

 ber frosts drive 

 the bees into 

 winter quar- 

 ters. But there 

 is a material 

 side, minor in 



