NOVICES GLEAWiNGG III BEE CULTURE. 



01 



OUR PHOTOGRAPHS, ANR A t HAT 

 WITH OUR READERS. 



M FTER waiting until the 17th of July 

 ^Au for our grape vines to get "presenta- 

 ble," we now respectfully offer a view of 

 "our home to our friends, with the. sin- 

 cere wish that it may be of value to them, 

 as the place wherein our "successes and 

 reverses ' of the past seven years have 

 been made in the science of bee culture. 

 In front of the bee house door, Mrs. N. 

 appears so intent on having the "blue 

 eyed baby" deport herself properly that 

 she doesn't consider bee culture very 

 much, and, in fact, in one of the best of 

 thi' negatives, the Lombard plum tree in 

 the fore-ground obscures her face entirely, 

 which she excuses by saving, aforesaid 

 baby had pulled her sun bonnet over her 

 eyes and she was assisting her to extricate 

 herself, for like all babies, she wanted "to 

 see the whole performance." Miss Maud, 

 and Master Ernest, (Novice Jr.,) of ages 

 nine and eleven, stand at her left, and 

 have demanded so much attention in 

 time past in the endeavor to have their 

 young ideas "shoot" properly, that Mrs. 

 N. has never been, practically, much of 

 an apiarist : besides, Novice has never 

 yet succeeded in persuading her to get 

 stung once every day during the season, 

 or oftener, that she may get over the "dire 

 effects" that follow from being stung only 

 once. 



"P. 0." appears on the left of the pic- 

 ture and insists on being passed by with- 

 out "note or comment," trusting that she 

 may be able to assist in the cause of bee 

 culture notwithstanding. Novice is so 

 well known that nothing need be said of 

 Mm, and in fact it is the apiary rather 

 than the dramatis persona' with which 

 we have most to do. 



To digress a little: "i'was butyesterday 

 we visited the apiary of one of our sub- 

 scribers who we hope will pardon us 

 when lie sees litis. As he was away we 

 took notes as follows: A very serviceable 

 bee house had been built, bur we did not 

 go inside; around its door, some near, 

 some more remote, were scattered hives 

 of diverse sizes, shapes and colors. We 

 believe none stood square east and west, 

 or north and south, and we remember 

 none that were perpendicular ; a few con- 

 tained bees, but more, none; those thiit 

 did were so covered with grass and weeds 

 that the poor little forlorn looking black 

 fellows bad to dodge and twist to get out 

 or in. Many of the hives were made with 

 much care and .skill, but we tear our 

 friend had become discouraged. Ameri- 

 can hives lay around all sides up, and the 

 movable side seemed always anywhere 

 but in place, whether thej contained bees 

 or not. A tine looking new hive made 

 something on the "Adair idea," revealed 

 when the cover was raised, nothing but a 

 heap of dead bees and some shreds of 



moth-eaten comb. And this was the 21th 

 of duly. 



How many of our readers have discard- 

 ed or empty hives lying around ; and we 

 wonder, too, if they have ever resolved to 

 waste no money or time on new fixtures 

 and experiments ? 



Our friend's apiary certainly was not a 

 pleasant place, and we fear he had avoid- 

 ed it for that reason, and because the sea- 

 son for honey here is very poor. 



Now this is nothing new — it is almost 

 an old story in bee-keeping — and we rec- 

 ognized it when we took up bee-culture. 

 The plan of our apiary has been changed 

 many times since we started it, and the 

 hives have been changed, too, when 

 'twould have have been better to have "let 

 well enough alone." 



About five years ago we recognized the 

 value of shade in the hottest weather, and 

 planted sixty Concord grape-vines. They 

 were planted according to "Fuller on the 

 Grape," and the trellises were made as 

 he directs. The vines did finely, but the 

 arrangement of trellises, which can still 

 be seen in the foreground of the picture, 

 made rapid work with the hives very in- 

 convenient; also eight feet between trel 

 lisses was farther than was needed between 

 the hives, and so caused useless steps. 

 With the present arrangement work is 

 much facilitated, and we have as yet 

 found no inconvenience from hives being 

 too close. Each hive has a precise place 

 assigned it, and the simplicity hive can 

 be leveled up with a spirit level if desired. 

 As but little ground is occupied, but little 

 labor is requisite to keep it clean and 

 free from weeds, which we think most im- 

 portant, for then rubbish is more apparent 

 and you will be more likely to keep it 

 gathered up. We first used the Lang- 

 stroth, but soon was led to think the 

 frames difficult of removal, and so made 

 fifty American hives, besides tryiiijj, a 

 ^reat variety of patent hives. Every 

 frame now goes nicely in every hive in 

 our apiary, we are happy to say. On the 

 right of the picture may be seen our 

 "spring balance," which suspends a mod- 

 erate c liny. So far we have not had 

 more than two weeks that the hand on the 

 dial has shown increase this season, and 

 now it is going the "wrong way" at a rate 

 t hat admonishes us to see that there be 

 no colonies that may need feeding, for 

 starvation may happen even in July and 

 August. 



In front of the "balance" may lie seen 

 one id' the open sections id' the "dollar 

 hive,' and we feel more, than ever satis- 

 fied that nothing more cumbrous is ever 

 needed in the shape of a bee hive; as to 

 whether their appearance is so "very 

 homely," can be judged from the row of 

 them on the left. Jt will he observed that 

 our old style Langstrotb hive s hows a bad, 

 ventilator, these we have thought, from 

 the experience of late year-; to be worse 

 than useless and so have fastened them 

 up permanently. If they are opened in 



