54 



" NOVICE'S" OLEANINU5 IN BEE CULTURE. 



with the simple tool given in March num- 

 ber, no trouble will be experienced from 

 the causes mentioned antj we certainly, 

 at this date, have no cause to change our 

 decision. 



A i-'kikn"i> hands us a circular from X. 

 C. Mitchell, 308 Race street, Cincinnati, 

 O., from which we make the following ex- 

 tracts : 



We guarantee all our students who 

 come to our apiary and remain with us 

 eighl days — long enough to take sixteen 

 lessons in bee culture — can return to 

 their homes and take from any good stand 

 oi bees they have, from one to three hun- 

 dred dollars' worth of honey annually. 

 There are some agents that can learn all, 

 or enough to commence business, in two 

 days, but all had better remai" with us 

 nne week. No agent will be allowed to 

 teach any nne our mode of making arti- 

 ficial comb without our consent. They 

 may sell hives and rights and everything 

 else, but they must keep our mode of 

 comb-making to themselves. The one 

 that, sends their money to us Grst is the 

 lucky one. 



Now if Mr. M. is equal to the task of 

 managing an apiary of one hundred col- 

 onies, why don't lie keep quiet and have 

 an income of $.".0,000 all himself? We 

 presume //':■ could make them produce the 

 highest figures, of Course. 1( that would 

 be too selfish and he is willing to share 

 his great discovery with the world, why 

 does he charge forty dollars for just two 

 days tuition? (Qltr readers could all 

 learn in two days if any body else could). 

 Onr Agricultural Colleges are certainly 

 behind the times. Again, Mr. M, and 

 event I other advertisers should remem- 

 ber that there is no law by which any 

 person can be prevented from teaching 

 all they know if they choose. We don't 

 know about our foreign friends, but we 

 think our American Bee Journals are 

 anxious to give every valuable process 

 to their renders as soon as known, and 

 the subscription paid entitles them to all, 

 even if" we "have spent days, months, and 

 hundreds of dollars, to accomplish it.' 

 When we look over the old numbers of the 

 National Bee Journalanc] notice the dis- 

 coveries for artificial fertilization , etc., 

 that would be sent for ten or twenty dol- 

 lars and the queens that were to be given 

 subscribers, we must confess to a feeling 

 uf doubl about who the "lucky" person 

 will be. We have given Mr. M. the bene- 

 fit of a free advertisement and propose to 

 'help all we can, if our readers will only 

 send us all such circular.-, emanating fluid 

 any source whatever. 



* ROM ONE OF Ol* It FEMININE NOV- 

 ICES, 



HAM only a beginner. I commence 1 

 i with one colony in lsTl, in box hives, 



had three swarms; first one decamped 

 and third one froze ; they were wintering 

 on their summer stands, In 1872 I com- 

 menced with two colonies, had three 

 swarms, one of which lost their queen 

 two days after hiving. I stopped them 

 up (till they became reconciled, giving 

 them two frames' of comb with eggs, larvae 

 and brood of all ages) a few days, and 

 felt sure they would rear a queen; did 

 not examine them again till they began 

 to decrease in number, when I found they 

 had no queen, but one or more workers 

 laying drone eggs. I examined them 

 very carefully and know they had, no 

 queen. Now the query comes, why did 

 they. not rear a queen ; first, there was a 

 failure in honey at the time; secondly, 

 the laying workers might have prevented 

 their rearing a queen. 1 have commenc- 

 ed using the Quinby hive and think it 

 about as good as any. I obtained sixty 

 pounds of box honev the past season ; 

 will entirely discard boxes in the future 

 and use only an extension, or two story 

 hi\e or both combined, so as to get the 

 full benefit of the extractor. Owing to 

 the bad luck, I have been forced to ex- 

 periment with my bees this winter or 

 lose my weak colonies. 1 commenced 

 to winter them on their summer stands. 

 Examined them December '21th and 

 found my strongest colony in a box hive 

 nearly all smothered and frozen for want 

 of ventilation, the queen among the num- 

 ber. 1 obtained a queen from a swarm 

 found in the woods, which was also near- 

 ly all frozen, being apparently dead, but 

 after careful warming two or three hours 

 the queen revived with a few bees: they 

 were introduced to the queeoless hive:; 

 making probably a pint of bees in all. 

 They are now in the family room with 

 another very weak colony that 1 have 

 been feeding since that time. Both 

 are doing well February 0th, and 

 have commenced breeding. Noise does 

 not disturb them in the least hut the light 

 does very considerably. 



They become restless and uneasy when 

 too hot or too cold. When [..commenced 

 bee-keeping I hardly knew a queen from 

 a drone; consequently failed to make it 

 pay, not realizing one-fourth the amount 

 which 1 might hare done. This set me 

 to thinking how I might succeed better; 

 so 1 began to post up in Apiculture. I 

 got Quinby's Bee Book, Colman's Rural 

 World, North American Bee Journal, A. 

 V. Moon's forty Years' Experience, and, 

 lastly, Novice's "Gleanings," which, t 

 hope, will be the best of them all, and 

 think it fills a very important place. We 

 need some one to criticise and expose the 

 various humbugs. 1 intend to get every- 

 thing else that I can on apiculture, hop- 

 ing that by diligence and perseverance I 



