1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



311 



method of returning svvarras to the parent col- 

 ony, 48 hours after hiving. He rears queens, 

 from imported Italian mothers, by Doolittle's 

 transposition cell-cup process, but he has the 

 cells built out in queenless colonies, or nuclei, 

 instead of in upper stories. He showed me 

 with enthusiasm a lot of such cells just started, 

 and others further advanced. 



Although this was the:.'Sth day of September, 

 and there was apparently not a drop of honey 

 coming in, the bees ready to rob upon a mo- 

 ment's notice, and no feeding was done, still the 

 queen larvti? were swimming iu an abundance 

 of roval jelly, and the young queens, just 

 hatched, were well formed, and of fair size. 



His secret of success under such unfavorable 

 circumstances is, that he does not depend very 

 much upon the bees to feed the queen larva?. 

 He just tills the cell-cups about half full of the 

 jelly l)efoi'e inserting the larvte, and the bees 

 have but little to do about it except to seal the 

 cells at the proper time. 



He winters all in one cellar, with good suc- 

 cess. He leaves the bottom -boards on as in 

 summer, but removes the covers. A warm mat 

 of woolen carpet is placed over the frames and 

 tucked down closely, confining the bees, except 

 at their summer entrance at the bottom. A 

 free circulation of air over the mat is provided 

 for. This mat is removed, or a board is placed 

 under it. before the bees begin to gnaw much 

 in the spring. 



Friend S. reports that, from about 170 colo- 

 nies, springcount, he received, during the past 

 very poor season, 12,700 lbs. of honey, nearly 

 half of which was in sections. Not counting 

 about 2500 lbs. on hand, and sold at home, what 

 he shi|)ped to dealers brought him |;1276.93. He 

 has :3.30 heavy colonies in the cellar. 



Aside from the bee-business, Mr. S. runs a 

 thriving watch, clock, and jewelry business 

 down town, where he spends his evenings, and 

 where he has a skillful jeweler in charge. 



I prize the many practical suggestions I re- 

 ceived during my visit, and the aspirations 

 they awakened; but the cordial hospitality 

 with which I was entertained prompts the kind- 

 est regards. God bless my friend and his home 

 circle. Oliver Fostkr. 



Mt. Vernon, Linn Co.. Iowa. Mar. 28, 1893. 



Ourselves and our neighbors. 



Therefore take no tlioug-lit, saying-, What sliall we 

 eat'/ or, Wliat sliall we drink? or, Wherewithal sliall 

 we be clothed V (for after all tViese things do the 

 Gentiles sees); for your heavenly Father knowetli 

 that ye have need of all these thing-s. But seek ye 

 first "the king-dotn of God, and his rig-hteousness, 

 and all these thing-s shall be added unto you.— Matt. 

 6:31—33. 



For almost the first time since our business 

 was started, we found it advisable last fall to 

 stop our wood-working machinery for about 

 three months. Heretofore we h:ive kept our 

 machinery running the year round, making up 

 work during the dull season, in anticipation of 

 the rush during the busy season: and even after 

 doing this, we have, during several seasons, 

 found ourselves sold out before spring was fair- 

 ly here. In such cases we have, as you know, 

 by means of electric lights, run our works day 

 and night in order to keep up. Of late, how- 

 ever, we have had several poor seasons for hon- 

 ey, in succession. Others have come into the 

 field, until it has seemed that the supply busi- 

 ness in some of its branches was rather over- 

 done. This state of affairs, however, does not 

 belong particularly to our industry. Ithappens 

 now and then in almost all kinds of business. 



especially in any kind of business that has been 

 growing and developing as has the business of 

 producing honey. Other establishments in our 

 vicinity have had th(dr periods of lying still at 

 certain seasons, liut I do not know but I have 

 boasted a little that ii'c kept ouc business going 

 the year round, and kept our hands at work 

 right along— that is, a large proportion of them 

 — winter and summer. Not only that, but by 

 means of our exhaust-steam heat, and well- 

 protected comfoitable looms, we have given 

 our help comfortable places to work in. even 

 during the most Inclement weather. Of course, 

 a good deal of our help was inconvenienced by 

 onr stoppage last, fall: and the more so because 

 we could not tell them how long we should be 

 obliged to shut down. At first we thought it 

 might be for only three or four weeks. At the 

 end of that time, however, the prospect was no 

 better, and so the time of starting up was put 

 off from time to time, until many of them be- 

 came discouraged. A great part of them, it is 

 true, found something to do elsewhere, and a 

 good many lost scarcely a day. Some people 

 seem to have a faculty of making themselves 

 useful, and are, therefore, always wanted; but 

 others do not have such a faculty. You know 

 how it is. I think, however, that a good many 

 might cultivate this talent of being useful 

 somewhere every day, a little more if they tried 

 to. But this, however, is outside of our line of 

 talk to-day. 



This spring we have had a fairly good trade. 

 I believe we sold as many goods during the 

 months of February and March as we ever did; 

 but notwithstanding this, there were conjec- 

 tures among our help as to whether we would 

 shut down this year as we did last; and as the 

 matter was talked over from one to another, a 

 general uneasiness seemed to get started. Quite 

 a few came to me. and wished me to give them 

 a promise of work right straight along through 

 the season as usual. I do not mean that they 

 wanted a projHise as usual, for of late years I 

 have been careful about making such promises; 

 and, in fact, I sometimes say, "' Why, my good 

 friend, there is not a man, nor woman either, in 

 my employ, who has a positive promise of work 

 every day in the year, no matter what the fu- 

 ture may be." Perhaps I might add here, that 

 I have found by experience that it is, as a rule, 

 very unwise to make such business engage- 

 ments. Of course, when we have good men or 

 a good man. it is an excellent thing to let him 

 know what to expect; and under many circum- 

 stance-i you can give him a writing to that ef- 

 fect—that is, that he is to have work the year 

 round. This agreement should include that 

 your helper is to give good and faithful atten- 

 tion to his business, etc. I have many helpers 

 who have been with me for years, and who ex- 

 pect steady work unless some unforeseen disas- 

 ter should hinder: but at the same time there is 

 no written or verbal agreement, that I know of. 

 The reason why these people do not become un- 

 easy, and hunt up a job elsewhere, is because 

 they have known me" long, and have faith in 

 me, and I have known them long, and have 

 faith in them. 



Well, when this uneasy feeling got started 

 among oui- people, and when I told one after 

 another that I could not make them any posi- 

 tive promise, as usual various reports got afloat. 

 Several came to me, wanting to know if it were 

 true that we wei-e going to shut down on the 

 first of June; and on (> good friend had reported, 

 so I am told, that we were going to shut down 

 during 1894, and not run at all: and he became 

 so uneasy in i-egard to the future that he finally 

 gave up his places entirely, and went away hunt- 

 ing work somewhere else. Of course, he was 

 not a very valuable man, for these uneasy ones 



