July, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



415 



yet when the sides of tlio big box were re- 

 moved, the leaves stood there stiff and firm 

 and hard and self-reliant. Anyway, as the 

 Editor advocates, we are going to give it 

 another trial next winter. Yet honestly, 

 Mr. Editor, why wouldn 't a quadruple case 

 be as effective in a small yard as in a large 

 one? The details you mention — entrances, 

 wind protection, stores, strength of colony, 

 and age of queens — would not enter into a 

 comparison between the packed hives and 

 the unpacked ones at their sides, as these 

 conditions were practically identical thru- 

 out the yard. 



Yes, indeed, I'm going to try it again, be- 

 cause my judgment saj^s it ought to be worth 

 while — in spite of the insistence of my ex- 

 perienced and successful beekeeping friends, 

 who affirm that strong colonies with young 

 queens in good hives need be packed "in 

 this locality ' ' only with generous quantities 

 of honey and young bees. There 's a story 

 going the rounds here this year of a hive 

 that a horse kicked over in the early win- 

 ter, and that was never righted, but lay 

 there on end, bottom board and cover both 

 fallen off, thru all our cold, snowy, blizzardy, 

 below-zero weather, and then met the spring 

 strong and chipper and ready for business. 

 * * * 



I smiled when I read, under the caption, 

 "Making a Start," "It is best to buy a 

 good colony of bees in a standard hive. 

 . . . . It has sometimes been advised to 

 start by buying bees in a box or any old 

 hive, and transfer them to a modern hive 

 'for the experience.' It is the sort of experi- 

 ence to dampen the ardor of the most en- 

 thusiastic, and an experience which the wise 

 and thrifty veteran avoids as he would a pes- 

 tilence." That interested me particularly, 

 because recently some dear friends of ours, 

 after buying a good colony in a standard 

 hive for $10.00, had a chance to pick up a 

 supposed bargain at $6.00. Soon they ad- 

 mitted they would appreciate some help, as 

 the second purchase quite evidently needed 

 to be transferred, and the inside of the 

 brood-chamber looked forbiddingly solid. 

 So we went to the rescue. It was a home- 

 made eight-frame hive. Of the eight combs, 

 three fell to pieces when tugged out — a 

 sticky conglomerate of comb, brood, bees, 

 and honey. The remaining five we put over 

 an excluder to save the brood, but later sev- 

 eral of them may well be discarded. The 

 old hive, made of %-inch lumber, was thrown 

 on the kindling pile. So after all, the $6.00 

 bought not much more than the bees them- 

 selves. 



* * * 



I am sure our courteous editor won 't mind 

 my correction of a mistake in this depart- 

 ment last month. As a matter of fact there 

 were two, but I wouldn 't have mentioned 

 merely the use of the phrase "bee escape" 

 instead of my own words, "bee space"; al- 

 tho it did change the meaning. I know 

 mistakes will happen, espeeiall}^ in these 

 days of shift and change in the personnel 



of offices. But I can not let the mistake in 

 the verse go by unnoted. I had planned 

 ever since starting tlie little bee verses to 

 do one on the swarm, for it is such a big, im- 

 portant incident in bee life. And I wanted 

 the very form and fashion of the lines to 

 suggest the interwoven rhythm and swing 

 and gleam and romance of a swarm in mid 

 air. Of course, the result didn't even ap- 

 proach the aim, but like Dauber (do you 

 know Masefield's Dauber?), thru the work 

 of doing it, I knew for a little space the 

 "joy of trying for beauty." So I just hurt 

 all over when I found two lines transposed 

 in the fourth stanza. For one thing, the 

 very grammar thus went wobbly, and left 

 one hunting for the subject of the verbs in 

 the line ' ' Draw close and fold over and un- 

 der"; and then, anyway, the way it got 

 printed isn 't the way the swarm really goes. 

 Look at the splendid June cover page. Not 

 until the bees had drawn close and folded 

 over and under, did the wonder of the com- 

 pleted cluster hang there on the tree. So the 

 fourth stanza should read, as my carbon copy 

 does: 



Like sun-motes they hover suspended, 

 Aquiver, ecstatic and singing ; 

 Then slowly go swaying and swinging, 



To a restful old cherry tree near, 

 Draw close and fold over and under— 

 Till there on the tree hangs the wonder 1 



The song and the shimmer are ended 

 And only the silence I hear. 



But we all make mistakes, don't we? And 

 transposing two lines in a verse, even about 

 a swarm of bees, isn 't like pulling the 

 wrong switch, or getting orders mixed in bat- 

 tle. 



One beeman may work while another is lollin' — 

 Still bees gather nectar and baskets of pollen. 

 One beeman is poor, one in riches in rollin' — 

 Still bees gather nectar and baskets of pollen. 



How about it, Mr. Editor? I know what 

 Worcester and Mr. Allen and I say, but 

 there 's a heap o ' folks agin us. And for 

 that matter, how about this? 



One beeman whose yard is quite near a metropolis 

 Complains because hives are so sticky with propolis. 

 Be the. name of the beeman Smith, Johnson or Hollis, 

 Bees will make hives sticky, somewhat, with propolis. 



We ought to pronounce such common 

 words as propolis and pollen alike, we bee- 

 keepers — main liners and side liners all. 

 But we don 't. Won 't you say something, 

 Mr. Editor? 



WAR DESOLATION. 

 Tlie homes are gone — the little farms 



Are. plowed with shells — there are no tree.s. 

 No grass, no flowers, no ripening grain. 



No gently humming bees. 



Strong men arose, breathed hard, and marched; 



And came not back; by night and day 

 Were flame and roar — dazed women fled — 



The bees all flew away. 



The land is torn and brown and bare 



And death screams down the gha.stly hours ; 



Where once wei'e garden plots with bees 

 Humming in the flowers. 



When peace shall come at last, and bring 

 Her gifts to tired landsi overseas. 



Once more may orchards and green lanes 

 Be murmurous with bees. 



