1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTJLTUKE. 



299 



MEL SAPIT ETTA.. 



JOTTINGS FROM AMATEUR EXPERT, OF ENGLAND. 



"E have been holding the annual meeting of 

 the B. B. K. A. at Jermyn Street, London, 

 during the past few days, so I thought I 

 would send you a few particulars. Hither- 

 to no one has been eligible for election on 

 the managing committee unless he subscribed 10 

 shillings per annum. Each member was entitled to 

 one vote for every 5 shillings subscribed, and a life 

 member by paying £5 down was entitled to 4 votes 

 per annum as long as he (or she) lived. This may 

 seem strange rules to you, and I will not go into 

 the why and wherefore, but pass on with the re- 

 mark that these rules are common to similar socie- 

 ties in England. For three years we have tried to 

 alter this, and, inch by inch, we are fighting the 

 ground. This year we have carried the point that 

 all and any members are eligible for election on the 

 committee, whether they subscribe 5 shillings or 

 more. The one-man one vote we could not carry, 

 the rich subscribers having outvoted us. But we 

 shall sharpen our swords for another year, and re- 

 new the conflict. I may say all this is done without 

 party feeling; we manage to flght these battles and 

 not lose our tempers. 



Manufacturers of and dealers in bee-appliances 

 are not eligible to act on the committee. How 

 would that suit you? Hitherto we have kept them 

 off by not voting for them, but now they must not 

 be nominated. I protested strongly against such a 

 rule being made, but it was, as the majority was 

 strong for it. 



County associations affiliated to the B. B. K. A. 

 have hitherto sent a representative each to the 

 quarterly meetings of the B. B. K. A., but these 

 representatives have had no vote, and could only 

 make suggestions, which the committee of the B. B. 

 K. A. could please themselves about carrying out. 

 We have now made these couuty representatives 

 rx-officii) members of the committee of the B. B. K. 

 A., with full voting powers. I have enumerated 

 these points as you have recently been altering the 

 constitution of your N. A. B. K. A., and I thought 

 they might interest some at least of your readers. 

 There were several other matters considered at the 

 business meeting, after which we had a " conversa- 

 zione," and Mr. Cowan, who came over from Swit- 

 zerland to attend, read a paper on 



THE BEST HIVE. 



Of course, he was in favor of the hive he has so 

 long used, which bears his name, and is known as 

 the " Cowan " hive. It certainly is the best for our 

 climate and circumstances; but as I may say some- 

 thing about hives on a future occasion, I will pass 

 on, to say the discussion that followed was most in- 

 teresting. It is seldom that we get a subject so ru- 

 dimentary for discussion as this; and for myself I 

 am pleased that Mr. Cowan brought it on. Our usu- 

 al bill of fare is some abstract theory or scientific 

 problem that has some remote bearing on bee-keep- 

 ing, while practical bee-keeping is left out in the 

 cold to shiver, on such occasions. 



WINTER AT LAST. 



During the past month we have had a few cold 

 spells, with snow and sharp frosts. In the day 

 time on clear days the sun has shown out very 

 warm, and drawn out the bees for a fly. Stores are 

 getting very low in some of our hives, and breeding 



has been carried on all winter, I believe, in many of 

 them. Many scores of colonies kept by the poor 

 are dying. One old lady, who is over 75 years old, 

 and has kept bees all her life, and her mother ana 

 grandmother before her, cried to me last week as 

 she told me all her bees were dead, and she had 

 never known such a thing as to be without bees, all 

 her life. She felt "quite lonely," she said. I fear 

 many will be in the same position before June 1st, 

 as bees went into winter quarters so very short of 

 stores. 



LADY BEE-KEEPERS AND WRITERS. 



We are getting an exchange of bee-writers, it 

 seems. Mrs. L. Harrison is to write for the B. B. J. 

 monthly, Mr. Cowan tells us. Her name seems so 

 familiar to us all on this side that she is counted 

 one of us, and does not come at all in the guise of a 

 stranger. We have several very successful lady 

 bee-keepers in England. I beg pardon— I mean the 

 United Kingdom. I must not forget that, especial- 

 ly as one from the Emerald Isle has recently sent 

 me a most flattering invitation to pay her a visit. 

 Would you like to hear something about our lady 

 bee-keepers? If so, I must get their consent and 

 go on a " ramble " and tell you what I may see 

 while on my rounds. I must first ask permission, 

 though; it is rare fun sometimes, let me tell you, 

 when I go to see my bee-keeping friends. They 

 will first say, "Well! is it A. E.?" If I say, "No, 



only Mr. S ," (ah ! you thought I was going to 



write it, did you?) they then know what is said is sa- 

 cred; but if I, on the contrary, say, " You had bet- 

 ter beware," then they are sure to look keenly in 

 the bee-papers. But our lady bee-keepers, allow 

 me to say, are not like yours. It is not that they 

 are more modest— the bare suggestion would rouse 

 a storm about my ears among your ladies— but un- 

 til very recently, at least, it has been the fashion 

 for our women to be kept out of any thing that 

 savors of publicity, and our customs are so deep- 

 rooted that very few indeed can be induced to step 

 out into the arena of criticism and tell us what they 

 know about bees, much less about themselves in 

 any other sphere. In 



MRS. CHADDOCK 



you have a contributor who is unique; her easy, 

 original style of dealing with personal matters is 

 very charming to English readers who are not over- 

 fastidious about conventionalities. But her cour- 

 age in fighting the " professors " and some of their 

 wild theories about evolution is especially charm- 

 ing to many of us who know how to rightly estimate 

 much of what has been written in the name of 

 science. 



A BEAR-STORY. 



I wonder how the grizzly bear knows where to 

 find honey, and whether he is led by color or scent. 

 Talking about bears and honey reminds me about a 

 tale I heard the other day from Central Asia. It 

 having been observed that several of the telegraph 

 poles were dug up, a watch was set to catch the 

 depredator, when it was found to be the work of a 

 bear. This lead to an inquiry as to the reason for 

 the bear wishing to lay the telegraph poles to the 

 ground. They were iron poles, and he could not 

 climb them; and hearing the humming noise made 

 by the wind in the glass insulators, it is supposed 

 he imagined there was a bees' nest on the top of 

 the pole, and so he dug the pole down to get at the 

 honey. Perhaps Mrs. Chaddock can say if that was 

 instinct or reason. 



