72 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



ers are, I think, as a rule, of more intellectual 

 cast of mind than men of any other industry, 

 and the possibilities of ours, more largely 

 than any other, have been and will be at- 

 tained through the medium of books and 

 journals ; and it is the men who bend the 

 best energies of their minds to its develop- 

 ment in that or any other channel that will 

 accomplish the best work. 

 Meohanicsbukg, 111., Jan. 30, 1892. 



Commfints on a Beginner's Day-Book. 

 No. 3. 



E. E. HASTY. 



lOCftlE extra supply of warmth which the 

 GW^ winter of '79- '80 had in her pocket 

 '^ threatened to run out with the close of 

 the winter months. March was as March 

 usually is, "up and down and crinkly." Yet 

 the current idea that abnormally warm win- 

 ter months must be paid for by abnormally 

 cold spring months, did not prove true. We 

 simply had an ordinary March, followed by 

 a warm April, May and June. 



" March 1st, 1880. Mild winter weather. Ther- 

 mometer 22° 38° 35° . Made waste box for tin 

 scraps. Overhauled 11, 9-7 and 10-3. Took the 

 we•^k, queenless colony 11-2 out of their chaff 

 hive, and put them on two Gallup combs— one 

 fresh from the house, and one with some brood 

 from 1-1. Put them down cellar." 



This is the first appearance of full temper- 

 ature records — morning, noon and bed-time. 

 They soon got to be the regular thing and I 

 have kept them up ever since. Their value 

 is not great, but then the task of keeping 

 them is trifling. A slate hangs under the 

 thermometer, on which the figures are tem- 

 porarily taken, to be transferred to the day- 

 book at convenience. I have the satisfaction 

 of thinking that my figures are about right, 

 while Uncle Sam's, at his costly observatory 

 a few miles distant, are often greatly in 

 error ; ( middle of a big city, and blanketed 

 with warm vapor from thousands of chim- 

 neys every cold, still night.) 



It is no disgrace to beginners to attempt 

 the impossible. I was pretty nearly attempt- 

 ing the impossible in trying to get some 

 utility out of a little queenless remnant on 

 the opening day of March. I must needs 

 try down cellar for them, as I was already 

 trying a warm room up stairs. They lived 

 through the month and a few days into 

 April. But my reader who is himself a be- 

 ginner will ask, " What shall a fellow do in 



such a case ? It isn't pleasant to throw up 

 the sponge and confess that nothing can be 

 done." Well, I'll tell you. You probably on 

 March 1st will have colonies in nearly all 

 sorts of conditions. Pick out a rather weak 

 colony that you hope will go through, but 

 which you have some fears about. Into this 

 colony run all your weak remnants as fast as 

 you find them. If the remnant has a queen 

 put her in a cage with a suificient retinue of 

 her own bees, and march the rest of them 

 into the " house of refuge." In this kind of 

 uniting smoke the colony where they are to 

 be run in enough to break their idea of resis- 

 tance : then run in your orphans ; then, after 

 waiting a few minutes, send in a little more 

 smoke. Thus you can avoid the loss of self- 

 respect, and the violation of one's sense of 

 duty, that would result from tamely letting 

 them die at their own stand. But don't 

 worry a good strong colony by running rem- 

 nants in. And don't unite two colonies in 

 early spring if you have hopes of both of 

 them. 



"March 2nd. Thermometer 29° .iO° 44° . 

 Went through eighteen colonies, mostly in fine 

 order. One queenless, and one in poor condi- 

 tion. Saw several moth worms." 



Yes, I "went through" them: and my 

 present judgment is that I went through 

 them rather too much, considering the earli- 

 ness of the season. The wonder is that I 

 didn't make more of them go clear through 

 into the regions beyond. 



The finding of moth-worms in March, al- 

 though of little interest to a veteran, would 

 naturally interest a beginner, and make him 

 think a good many savage thoughts against 

 the little apiarian Turk. The best way to 

 fight the Turk is to diligently destroy his 

 breeding grounds. The summer before I 

 bought the apiary the hives where several 

 queenless colonies dwindled out had been 

 left to become wholesale hatcheries of the 

 moth. 



" March .ith. Five clovers of No. 9, sown in a 

 pot Sept. 8th, are up this morning. Only a few 

 came up last fall." 



Great is enthusiasm ! If you don't want 

 to be a cabbage yourself don't require your 

 neighbor to be a cabbage. Let him have his 

 hobbies. In good sooth he probably knows 

 what he's at better than you do. Just been 

 reading of a man whose neighbors spake 

 against him because he went " booing about " 

 as he walked the fields. He was improvising 

 poetry; and he kept on "booing about'' 

 until he became the poet laureate of England. 



