120 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



No. 5.— Among Eastern Bee- 

 keepers 



BY THE EDITOR. 



ON Aug. 23, I again started from 

 Albany with Dr. Gates, although 

 the field meets were all over. 

 This time we were bent on visiting 

 leading beekeepers around Syracuse. 



Starting at 9:00 a.m., we traveled the 

 entire distance, 150 miles, before 6 :00 

 p.m. Fine roads, no dust, no mud. 



Coming to the outskirts of a city, 

 about midway, we noticed two police- 

 men who signaled for us to stop. We 

 looked at each other, wondering which 

 one of us had committed a crime. As 

 we neared the agents, they glanced at 

 the occupants of the car and at once 

 signaled fqr us to go on, as if we were 

 not the parties they were looking for. 

 So our curiosity was aroused and 

 we asked what was the matter. " In- 



He is five years my senior, and like A. 

 I. Root, L. C. Root, and myself has 

 taken a back seat in the work of the 

 apiary. In his case it was unavoidable, 

 for he has been for years giving his 

 entire time to an invalid wife. This 

 must strike a sympathetic chord in the 

 heart of his brother beekeepers. He is 

 fulfilling a duty. 



P. G. Clark. Doolittle's partner, helped 

 by Mrs. Clark, has the care of some 175 

 colonies of bees and 250 nuclei for 

 queen-rearing. They live within call- 

 ing distance from the Doolittle home. 



In the nuclei, the frames run cross- 

 wise instead of lengthwise; that is to 

 say parallel to the entrance, so that the 

 current of air is excluded from all but 

 the front comb. This is what the 

 Europeans call the " warm comb sys- 

 tem." 



The queens are reared by the Doo- 

 little method, of course. We examined 

 a few that were beautiful. I remarked 

 that I did not care for the looks of a 



ALONG THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



queen if she was prolific and her bees 

 pure and good honey producers. Doo- 

 little replied, with a chuckle, " You like 

 to look at a pretty girl, why not at a 

 pretty queen ?" That is true, and pretty 

 queens are not to be despised. Mr. 

 Clark showed me a shipping-cage of 

 his own contriving, arranged for ship- 

 ment to foreign countries. It seems to 

 be the prevalent opinion that queens 

 are often stifled to death in the mail 

 sacks. His cages are square and have 

 openings for air on all four sides and 

 the top and bottom, which lessens the 

 chances of sufifocation. 



He has a simple way of preserving 

 combs. We all know that moths rarely 

 lay eggs in a comb which is exposed in 

 the open air. So he has racks under 

 the projecting eaves of his honey house 

 and the combs are hung there winter 

 and summer. A few were there, when 

 we came, and I examined them. They 

 were perfectly free of moths though 

 they had been there since the previous 

 fall. The outside ones looked rather 

 weather-beaten, but sound. 



For the benefit of those of our read- 

 ers who think it is unworthy of a bee- 

 man to wear a veil, let me say that 

 although their bees are very peaceable, 

 Doolittle wears a veil all the time in 

 the apiary. His veil is fastened to the 

 rim of a straw hat and is held at the 

 bottom by weights at its four corners. 

 In this case the weights were iron nuts 

 of 34 -inch size, a very simple fastening. 



The crop was good and we saw a 

 fine lot of clover honey. There as else- 

 where it was white and alsike clover. 

 Buckwheat is plentiful in the fall. 



I learned there that bee eggs could 

 be safely shipped quite a distance with- 

 out hatching if kept on ice. They 

 shipped eggs in this way to Dr. Gates, 

 and he reported that they had arrived 

 safely and hatched well, after four to 

 six days. 



We were entertained with great hos- 

 pitality by Mrs. Clark. Before leaving 

 we visited the Doolittle sugar-bush, a 

 grove of fine hard maples interspersed 

 with basswoods, only a few rods from 



fantile paralysis," was the reply. At 

 that time this dread disease was raging 

 in the large cities, and they were on 

 the lookout for children coming from 

 infected spots. Farther on we noticed 

 the same solicitude, also warning signs, 

 and when I left Syracuse three days 

 later, half a dozen hospital nurses 

 labeled " Inspectors of Health," were 

 awaiting the arriving train to examine 

 all suspects. It is by such methods 

 that this terrible scourge has been re- 

 stricted so as to cause comparatively 

 little damage. It is by somewhat simi- 

 lar action that the bee diseases may be 

 lessened and overcome. The few bee- 

 keepers who object to apiary inspec- 

 tion should understand that such in- 

 spection, if managed by practical and 

 well informed officials, is not only 

 advisable but indispensable in these 

 days of active traffic in both bees and 

 honey. 



Syracuse, located in the center of a 

 fertile valley, has successful beekeep- 

 ers in all directions. We could not 

 hope to visit them all in three days, 

 and this was the limit of my time. We 

 began with Doolittle and Clark, about 

 30 miles away. 



Our old acquaintance and contribu- 

 tor does not need any introduction. 



MR. DOOLITTLE DISCUSSING BEEKEEPING WITH MR. AND MRS. P. G. CLARK 



