February, 1910. 



American ~Bae Journal 



ttiinks back he can but admire the patience 

 of his teachers in tryine to get him to learn 

 the alphabet. 



Wlien 1; or 14 years of nee his health be- 

 came very poor. and. indeed, he has never 

 been verv well or strong since. When 16 

 to 20 he became interested in books and 

 wanted to study, but the doctors said he 

 should stay on the farm. So he graduated 

 at the old brown school-honse on the hill, 

 and. to make it possible to live on a farm at 

 the age of 26. he tried his hand at bee-keep- 

 ing:. 



At 30 he boufht a small farm, and moved 

 on it. and with his bees and a wife tried to 

 work out his salvation. It was uphill busi- 

 ness still, and after lo years he rented his 

 farm, and for the past 30 years has devoted 

 his time to bee-keepinir almost wholly. 



For many years Mr. Crane kept about 500 

 colonies of bees, but for the last few years, 

 since his son. P. E. has been in business 

 with him. he has kept more. Their lareest 

 honey crop was in 1006. when they shipped 

 of their own some 42.oo« pounds to market. 



They have marketed their honey, in years 

 back, all the way from Chicaeo to Liverpool 

 and London. England. 



Mr. Crane was instrumental, with some 

 others, in starting a State bee-keepers' asso- 

 ciation many years ago. that has held its 

 meetings regularly, and many semi-yearly 

 meetings. Of course, he has held all the 

 various offices in this association, and is not 

 without honor from the National Bee-Keep 

 ers' Association, as (perhaps in i8iJ3. it was 

 when he attended the meeting in Chicago of 

 that year, he found when it came to tlie elec- 

 tion of officers they were running him for 

 president with two others, and as he did not 

 care for the office, and the others seemed 

 very anxious for it. he asked those voting 

 for him to vote for one of the others, which 

 they were kind enough to do. However, they 

 had their revenge, and put Mr. Crane in as 

 vice-president, and the next dav. at a short 

 adjourned meeting, he had the pleasure, or 

 honor, of presiding over the Xational Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. 



Mr. Crane has never been much of a poli- 

 tician, but many years ago was elected to 

 the office of County Commissioner, whose 

 duty, under the old prohibitory law. was to 

 license agents to sell spirituous liquors for 

 medical and mechanical purposes, and to 

 look after them. When he came into the 

 office he found the agent in his town was 

 selling Sjboo value of liquor a year just for 

 medicine, you know. In two years Mr. 

 Crane succeeded in reducing those sales to 

 $1200. and he also compelled him to label 

 every bottle filled correctly, on a blue label 

 on which was printed in heavy type" Poison." 

 with a skull and cross-bones. Of course, he 

 was turned down at the next election, but 

 the man who succeeded him did not dare to 

 let the sales go as before. 



When the Prohibition party came along. 

 Mr. Crane found himself unexpectedly in 

 that, and has been nominated to many im- 

 portant offices in that party, and has just as 

 often been defeated at election time; but as 

 he considered it a greater honor to be de- 

 feated on that platform than to be elected 

 on any other, he has had a good many hon- 

 ors thrust upon him. 



Mr. Crane has preferred to w-ork for the 

 upbuilding of society through church and 

 Sunday-school work than through other 

 channels. He has never found it easy to 

 use a pen and express himself on paper. He 

 did. however, some years ago. write a series 

 of articles for Gleanings, entitled. "Uncle 

 Lisha's Shop." under the nom de t>lum( of 

 "Uncle Lisha." in which he tried to show 

 the value of careful breeding of bees, and 

 how other races of animal life had been 

 changed by the efforts of man. It was a great 

 surprise, when some 2 or 3 years ago Glean- 

 ings wished him to take up a department. 

 He begged off. but as its publishers seemed 

 much interested in having him do so. he 

 "gave in." He doesn't think it has been 

 much of a success, at least not so much as 

 he expected, or hoped it might be. Perhaps 

 nothing in this line has given Mr. Crane 

 more satisfaction than at a recent centen- 

 nial celebration of the dedication of his 

 church. He was one of six asked to prepare 

 a paper to be read at that time. 



Mr. Crane has many times wished he 

 might give the bee-keeping world something 

 to repay for the many inventions and other 

 helpful things hehas received, and by which 

 he has secured such success as he has 

 achieved: and he has been wondering In the 

 l^st year or two if the improved paper ship- 

 ping-case which he and his son the past sea- 

 son Introduced, would not in some measure 

 do so. They have now used these cases 

 for four seasons, with increasing pleasure. 



and rejoice that those who have adopted 

 them regard them of great value. They have 

 been adopted quite generally in the State of 

 Vermont. Dealers are still willing to give 

 them 5 cents extra per pound for honey in 

 those cases; and dealers who get them seem 

 to prefer them even at extra cost. Mr. 

 Crane believes as soon as their value be- 

 comes known they will be very generally 

 adopted. 



Mr. Crane has been invited several times, 

 during the past year or two. to speak at bee- 

 keepers' conventions in other States. He 

 was surprised to find himself nominated for 

 director in the National Association, and at 

 first thought he would write and have his 

 name withdrawn, but did not just see how it 

 could very well be done, and so let it stand. 

 It was well that Mr. Crane did not withdraw 

 his name, for bee-keepers need the wisdom 

 and influence of just such men as he in their 

 National councils. 



No. S. — Director E. F. Atwater, of Meri- 

 dian, Idaho. 



Mr. Atwater was born in Decatur. Nebr.. 

 and started with a few bees while attending 

 school in Yankton. S. Dak., in 1806. In i8m7 

 or 1808. there appeared in the .American Bee 

 Journal a report something like this, as near 

 as. he can remember: 



" We started the season with 4 colonies. 



increased to 8. and secured 300 pounds of 

 honey."— E. F. Atwater. 



In 1001 Mr. Atwater moved to his present 

 location, bought some bees, and for years 

 past has oiierated from 500 to 700 colonies, 

 last year having increased from 750 to oso 

 colonies. He has now bought more, so his 

 company now has over loco colonies, and 

 hopes to start the season of mm with 1200 or 

 more. 



No. 6 — Director R. A. Morgan, of 'Ver- 

 milion, S. Dak. 



Mr. Morgan is 54 years of age. and has been 

 in the bee-business since 1870. when he be- 

 gan in Buffalo County. Wis. He owned and 

 operated 435 colonies there in 1884. and has 

 had more or less bees ever since. He lias 

 been in South Dakota for 22 years, and now 

 has 140 colonies, about one-half of which are 

 Caucasians. When Mr. Morgan went to 

 South Dakota there was not a head of clover 

 to be found there, and he has livetl to see 

 the Southern part developed into a beautiful 

 clover-producing section. 



Mr. Morgan has had considerable experi- 

 ence in making bee and honey displays at 

 fairs, has often been superintendent of such 

 exhibits, and has held various official posi- 

 tions in the South Dakota Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation. He was elected Secretary. //-c /£■;/;. 

 of the National convention held at Sioux 

 City last September. 



rficlc: 



Shaking Energy into Bees— 

 [Cliunk Honey, Etc. 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



The October (1909) number of the 

 American Bee Journal is so full of in- 

 teresting bee-matter to think and talk 

 about, that I hardly know where to 

 strike first. Referring to shaking en- 

 ergy into bees, the Editor asks, " Has 

 any one else made it a success?" I 

 jump up and say, Yes, sir; I have. 



When the idea of shaking bees for 

 that purpose was first brought out in 

 our bee-papers, undoubtedly it made 

 some of the older bee-keepers smile, 

 and I confess I was one among them. 

 But after considering the matter a little 

 more, and taking an investigating re- 

 view of the past. I find that I have 

 actually practiced the same thing for 

 many years — not for the sole purpose 

 of shaking, however, but severe shak- 

 ings were necessary to perform certain 

 operations. To explain just what I 

 mean, I will give a brief review of last 

 summer's mana,gement. 



When the season of actual work in 

 the apiary opened — about the middle of 

 May— I found that I had from 12 to 15 

 weak colonies, the rest being medium 

 and strong, about .50 percent of each. 

 The rule I adopted for classifying was 

 something like this: Two to 4 combs 

 of brood — weak ; 4 to 6 combs — me- 

 dium ; and 6 to 8 — strong. With the 

 exception of one or two examinations 

 to determine their supply of honey, the 

 hives of strong colonies were not 

 opened for spring-management pur- 

 poses, but the other two classes were 



niani[)iii:[t(M| every week, and some- 

 times at intervals of from 5 to 6 days. 



The weak colonies I kept for rob- 

 bing purposes ; I took from one comb, 

 sometimes two of their most mature 

 brood, weekly, giving them full sheets 

 of foundation instead. These combs 

 of mature brood I used to strengthen 

 up the mediums, to prepare them for 

 the coming honey-flow. Of course, all 

 bees on those combs, taken from the 

 weak colonies, were shaken off in front 

 of their respective hives, and by so 

 doing it gave them for about 5 or 6 

 weeks a continual shaking. The result 

 was surprising. In spite of all this 

 robbing and shaking, these weak colo- 

 nies grew stronger from day to day, 

 and by the time the white clover flow 

 was in full swing, nearly all of them 

 were in fair shape for the supers. Be- 

 fore the flow was over, they stored 

 quite a little surplus honey — the weaker 

 ones extracted, and the better ones 

 comb honey. 



In building up the " mediums," it 

 was almost the same affair in regard to 

 shaking. To make room for the combs 

 of brood taken from the weak colo- 

 nies, I took out such combs (generally 

 side combs), that were the least desir- 

 able for brood-rearing. Here, too, the 

 shaking process had to be resorted to, 

 for all combs thus removed were more 

 or less covered with bees, and had to 

 be shaken ofT. I hardly need to say. 

 that these colonies grew rapidly 

 stronger, and were ready for the har- 

 vest when the flow began. 



And did the remaining "strong" 

 colonies have any shakings? Not for 

 the purpose of shaking energy into 

 them — they were doing their level best 



