1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



19 



working for an hour I finally got a 

 quart or two of the bees into my little 

 hive and gave the demonstration with- 

 out mishap. 



One traveling with a live bee demon- 

 stration will find more kinds of experi- 

 ence than he ever dreamed possible. 

 The janitor will often decide that the 

 crate containing the cage is full of 

 some new fangled window screens and 

 proceed to nail them to the side of the 

 building or raise some kind of rumpus 

 because he was not consulted before an 

 order for screens was placed. On one 

 occasion an express driver, who was 

 sent to transfer the outfit to another 

 building where the demonstration was 

 to be repeated before another audience, 

 took it to another railroad and shipped 

 it by freight. My address was painted 

 on the outside of the crate to avoid its 

 going astray. It so happened that they 

 were loading a car of freight at the 

 time the driver reached the depot, and 



was spread over the wire-cloth on top 

 of the hive to give as many bees as 

 possible access to it. Within a few 

 minutes it would all be taken up and 

 the bees w3uld be very quiet. 



To get young bees I usually went to 

 a hive, in the middle of the day, when 

 the old force would be in the field, or 

 moved the hive several feet from its 

 normal position for several hours. It 

 is the old bees which are most likely 

 to make trouble, and in this way it is 

 easy to avoid getting them into the 

 traveling hive. 



Persons who aspire to give public 

 demonstrations frequently ask what 

 price they should receive for such 

 work. That question can be answered 

 only in a general way. The beekeeper 

 who wishes to advertise his product at 

 his country fair may well aflford to give 

 the demonstration without compensa- 

 tion, for the advertising it brings him. 

 But when a man must carry his outfit 



CAGE FOR BEE DEMONSTRATIONS AND CRATE IN WHICH IT IS SHIPPED 

 FROM PLACE TO PLACE 



within a few minutes it was on its way. 

 !The particular railroad to which it was 

 delivered does not pass anywhere near 

 my home and I did not see the outfit 

 again for weeks. 



The cage method was finally abandoned 

 when the address was to be given before 

 an audience in a Chautauqua tent or 

 auditorium. At a fair some kind of cage 

 is necessary as the crowd is moving all 

 the time and in every direction. The 

 Chautauqua audience, however, is at a 

 sufficient distance from the speaker, so 

 that there is little annoyance from flying 

 bees if properly handled. It is some- 

 times difficult to gather all the bees 

 back into the hive and the speakers 

 who follow are often very timid about 

 standing among flying bees. 



At the last, my equipment consisted 

 only of the little hive with two dry ex- 

 tracting combs and two empty frames 

 to allow more clustering space and 

 better ventilation. In addition, a small 

 smoker was carried to show the audi- 

 ence how bees are controlled by the 

 jse of smoke. In order to insure that 

 the bees would be peaceable when the 

 live was opened, they were fed liber- 

 illy on honey an hour or two before 

 [he lecture. A small stream of honey 



for a long distance and take the time 

 from his work, it is worth something. 

 What one can get depends upon his 

 ability to entertain a crowd. At the 

 start I gave demonstrations for $25 

 each. At the last I was getting $60 for 

 each demonstration, and was offered a 

 much better price to continue through 

 another Chautauqua season. 



In general a man can make more 

 money in his own bee-yard at that sea- 

 son of the yearthan he can by traveling 

 from place to place giving public exhi- 

 bitions. From my own experience, I 

 can assure the reader that it is also 

 much more agreeable, and I am now in- 

 creasing my apiaries with the expecta- 

 tion that the added sales of honey will 

 more than make up the difference in 

 income from giving up the public 

 address. 



Ny Neighbor's Garden 



BY CHARLES DUFF STUART. 



THE advent on our premises of 

 honey-bees diverted all thought 

 from theproposed petition. Many 

 of our neighbors were in favor of set- 

 tling once for all a vexatious question 



by requesting the authorities to con- 

 demn as a nuisance and remove from 

 the public highway a hedge of euca- 

 lyptus trees, and an equal number were 

 for " peace at any price," in all things. 

 The proponents needed one more 

 "yea," and my seat on the fence was 

 not rendered more comfortable by the 

 knowledge that I held the balance of 

 power. 



Fortunately we were completely en- 

 grossed in our new possessions. We 

 hovered over them as a mother her 

 first-born, always deeply concerned 

 over the welfare of her Majesty, the 

 Queen, and when the bees flew away 

 and failed to come back immediately, 

 we started in a mad pursuit that all 

 too frequently came to an abrupt end 

 just outside the imposing iron gates of 

 my neighbor's garden, which were 

 locked against human intruders. We 

 wondered if the weather were too 

 warm for " our little friends," and not- 

 ing that the hives were stationed in the 

 shade of the much debated eucalyptus 

 trees, we fell to wondering if they were 

 warm enough, which again brought us 

 back to the question of that petition. 



It was 20 years ago that my neighbor 

 across the way planted the hedge all 

 round his 10 acre lot. That was long 

 before we became neighbors, and it was 

 also many years before the trees had 

 attained sufficient growth seriously to 

 compromise friendly relations with 

 other old residents near by. But later 

 arrivals were not so fortunate. The 

 trees towering more than 70 feet, not 

 only separated even more completely 

 from its surroundings the already 

 secluded 10 acres, but also divided the 

 community against itself. Those living 

 on one side claimed "too much shade," 

 and on the other, obstruction to 

 view." The fruit orchard of a third 

 had ceased to bear, owing to the sus- 

 tenance of the soil having been ex- 

 tracted by the long roots of the trees 

 that spread in every direction while a 

 fourth complainant was completely 

 mollified when the lower and more 

 dangerous of the overhanging branches 

 were sawed off and presented to him 

 for firewood. 



As for us, we admired the splendid 

 avenue bordered by the tall straight 

 sentinels, as did all newcomers; but 

 after paying a workman - third check 

 to clear away the long leaves that clog 

 the gutters of our cabin roof during 

 heavy storms, and numerous futile 

 efforts to free the yard of fallen limbs, 

 I grew thoughtful and wondered if the 

 rumors I had heard concerning the un- 

 desirability of that hedge were not 

 true. I remonstrated with my neigh- 

 bor's gardener who helped me rake 

 and burn the trash. Even my neighbor 

 himself came out and helped until 

 finally he declared he wished he had 

 never planted those trees; it cost so 

 much to clean up the rubbish. 



He was so emphatic that I wondered ' 

 if after all I would not be doing him a 

 real kindness to support the aforesaid 

 petition. I hinted that the cause of the 

 trouble might be removed, but he re- 

 fused to consider it. " What, remove 

 trees that had taken 20 years to grow! 

 Besides, they were too tall to cut. 

 There was no room for them to fall, 

 and no one would take such a job any- 

 way." I could have suggested our 

 anamic neighbor who would have 

 hazarded most any undertaking for 

 firewood; but I held my peace also to 



