16 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



roofs tight has never yet arrived on this 

 sublunary planet. Out upon that unceasing 

 loss, that hidden snare, that lying perverter 

 of apicultural facts, the leaky roof ! 



And now, to put the preface last, I was 

 going to have the first article a preliminary 

 one, telling how and why I became a bee 

 keeper — and all that sort of thing, but La 

 Grippe came along and batted me out of it 

 — nearly batted me out of time, too. So 

 here comes at last a January article made 

 out of the first January entries. 



RiOHABDS, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1892. 



Out-Apiaries a Partial Remedy for Poor Sea- 

 sons. — Raising Fruit and Selling Bees, 

 ftueens and Supplies a Still 

 Further Aid. — Good Seasons 

 Will Come Again. 



E. T. FLANAGAN. 



HAVE just finished reading your edito- 

 rial in November Review, on a subject 

 that is of more than ordinary interest to 

 me, and I have no doubt of like interest to 

 very many bee keepers situated as I am. 

 The question is a serious one. What shall 

 we do ? My experience has been very simi- 

 lar to yours, as I have had but one partial 

 crop for the last four years. It is hard for 

 one who has wife and children to support, 

 debts to pay, and a home to make, to be so 

 often disappointed : and that, too, after the 

 closest attention to business, conducting it 

 as it should be done, sparing neither mental 

 or manual labor, hardship or exposure, or 

 the necessary outlay, to have everything done 

 at the right time and in the right way to 

 insure success. The risk, and loss of interest 

 on capital invested, too, when one has as 

 many as 300 to 400 colonies, is no small mat- 

 ter either, when one has to use the closest 

 economy to make '• both ends meet." 



Surely one must be in love with his chosen 

 vocation to continue in it year after year in 

 the face of such results. My friends have 

 been for years urging me to give up bee 

 keeping, believing, as they say, that I could 

 do far better in almost any other business 

 than my present one. But I don't want to 

 give it up, and intend to fight it out on this 

 line, as Grant did, until I win, as I feel sure 

 I will, sooner or later, if life and health are 

 given. 



In the meantime, however, what must we 

 do ? Two years ago I thought very seriously 



of moving all my bees to Colorado, where we 

 are assured of a fair crop of honey every 

 season — (just the thing I most greatly desire) 

 — but all of us cannot go to Colorado. Try 

 out-apiaries, then. That is exactly what I 

 have been doing, and from my present 

 standpoint, that is a partial remedy, a honey 

 seldom fails to be gathered in some quanti- 

 ties, in some places. ( As an instance I can 

 say that I secured some 4,000 lbs. extracted 

 from out-apiaries this past season, but had 

 to feed over 2,000 lbs. of it back again to the 

 home apiary of 100 colonies. ) But then, the 

 distance and location of out-apiaries are to 

 be considered. My nearest out-apiary is 

 nine miles from home, while the others are 

 twelve, fifteen, eighteen and twenty miles 

 resi)ectively, and that distance, even with 

 good roads, involves an immense amount of 

 travel and loss of time going and returning, 

 not counting bad roads, rainy and stormy 

 weather. 



Speaking for my own locality, I feel al- 

 most sure the principal cause of the failure 

 of our honey crop has been owing to the 

 sevete drought that has prevailed for the 

 past three years, and if I am correct, when 

 normal seasons occur, as they are sure to do, 

 we may look for a return of the old time 

 flow of honey. I have, perhaps, been some- 

 what more fortunate than some other bee 

 keepers in that I have a nice little fruit farm 

 and a fair trade in bees, queens and bee sup- 

 plies, and I may as well confess but for them 

 I would have been compelisd to give up bee 

 keeping, or, as you advise, as to the last re- 

 sort, go7ie to the floivers. But where would 

 that have been ? I have read the bee jour- 

 nals carefully for years, and I have not yet 

 heard of a locality where there has not been 

 a partial or total failure of t le honey crop, 

 except it is in localities, where irrigation is 

 practiced, and that area, it must be remem- 

 bered, is a very circumscribed one, in which 

 they are even now beginning to complain of 

 overstocking. My advice, to all who are for- 

 tunate enough to have an apiary of any con- 

 siderable size, and in good order, is, hold on 

 to your bees, don't give them up yet ; do 

 everything in your power to hold your own, 

 for the seasons will certainly change for the 

 better soon, and if they do, we may look for 

 the old time flow of honey that will amply 

 recompense us for the hardships, trials and 

 losses of the past. 



Bellville, Ills., Nov. 28, 1891, 



