1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



73 



that a man will not get poor in following 

 Christ's teachings. I have been many times 

 surprised myself to see how ([uickly these 

 things swing around and shape themselves. 

 The one who follows Chrisfs teachings, and 

 who tries to do it in the real spirit in which 

 Christ gave it, seems to have strange streaks 

 of luck, as it were. It hits people a little un- 

 expectedly ; and by some strange law that 

 is past divining by our feeble intellects, the 

 evil spirit is driven away— the enemy is dis- 

 armed, and hostilities are at an end. You 

 just try it some time when you get into a 

 discussion in regard to a small matter about 

 the justice of a thing. When you see your 

 opponent is honest, but mistaken, good- 

 naturedly give up to him, or give him twice 

 what he asks, if necessary, for peace and 

 hai'mony. If he insists on your going a mile 

 out of your way, say, "Why, yes, my friend, 

 come to think of it, I will go two miles. I do 

 it gladly, too, because it is according to the 

 Savior's teachings.'' A certain class may 

 laugh at you, and call you a fool. They 

 may tell you that, if you undertake to go 

 through life following out that plan, you will 

 get into the poorhouse, and such like talk. 

 But I tell you, yoii will not do any thing of 

 the kind. There is a text in the fortieth 

 chapter of Isaiah, that hits the point. It 

 reads thus : 



But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew 

 their strength; they shall mount up with wings as 

 eag-les; they shall run, and not be weary; and they 

 shall walk and not faint. 



&n^ 0WN ^?inw. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST 



POSITIONS AVHEN AT WORK OVER HIVES. 



a ID you, dear reader, ever have the back- 

 ache when at work over the hives, 

 lifting heavy combs, in a position some- 

 what cramped ? Did you not some- 

 times indulge in a good stretch of the 

 body to its fullest height ? I have wished 

 once or twice that the hives were on stilts, 

 so that I could work at the hives when 

 standing erect. If I remember correctly, W. 

 Z. Hutchinson, when 1 visited him, did have 

 his nucleus hives elevated. Our readers will 

 also remember that some years ago we illus- 

 trated Dr. O. M. Blanton's apiary. A nota- 

 ble feature about it was that his hives stood 

 on stilts. I believe, however, the majority 

 of the bee-keepers prefer to have their hives 

 on the ground, for reasons vvhich I will not 

 take space to enumerate here. 



I sometimes examine, or " go through," 

 1-50 colonies per day. To accomplish the 

 work as easily as possible, and at the same 

 time relieve myself of the tedium of one pos- 

 ture when at work over the hive, I have re- 

 course to a frequent change of position. The 

 one I usually prefer is the one illustrated on 

 page 31, last issue. Perhaps you think that 

 such a seat as a liive-cover would hardly be 

 stable enough. .Just as much, and more so, 

 than the ordinary milk-stool. You will see, 

 by referring back to the cut, that it permits 

 of an erect posture of the back. When it is 

 desirable to get at or lift out a frame on the 



outside of the hive, an inclination of the 

 body, together with the hive-cover, puts the 

 operator within easy reach of said frame. 

 As far as possible, I aim to avoid any curv- 

 ing of the back, or the stooping-over of the 

 shoulders. The inclination of the hive-cover 

 one way or the other, as you will see, regu- 

 lates the distance to any desired frame with- 

 out the necessity of bending the back. A 

 regular tool-box, or stool of four legs, will 

 not permit this rocking motion, as you will 

 notice. 



When I feel as if I should like a change of 

 posture I kneel in the soft grass (if not wet), 

 my knees almost touching the side of the 

 hive. After I have taken out a frame I drop 

 back on my heels, if 1 desire to examine the 

 frame for any length of time. About half 

 the hives in bur apiary are chalf hives. I 

 can work over these best in a standing pos- 

 ture. As the chalf hive is two stories high, 

 it is rather inconvenient to work with it 

 while sitting or kneeling. However, I do 

 sometimes sit on the edge of a chaff-hive 

 cover ; but as the rims of the latter are made 

 of only I stuff, I generally stand. 



Perhaps some one of my readers will say, 

 '' I can't afford to sit down when at work 

 among my bees." I reply, that it depends 

 upon what kind of work in the apiary you 

 are doing. If you are running for honey, 

 then I think I can agree with you for the 

 most part ; but if your apiary is' devoted to 

 queen-rearing, as is ours, then it becomes 

 necessary to spend some little time over a 

 hive ; as, for instance, hunting for a virgin 

 queen, cutting out choice queen-cells, etc. 

 In any event, we ought to avoid curving the 

 back "any more than is necessary, whether 

 sitting or standing. I believe the instruc- 

 tion of the writing-teacher to his pupil, to 

 " hold the body erect," is equally applicable 

 to the bee-keeper engaged in rearing queens. 



HOAV TO HANDLE FRAMES. 



To look at one side and then the other of a 

 comb, becomes almost a necessity in queen- 

 rearing. To revolve by the corners a frame 

 full of honey, requires some little strength of 

 the wrists— that is, if the top-bar as the 

 axis of revolution remain horizontal. By 

 turning the top-bar to the perpendicular, the 

 frame may then be easily revolved. I throw 

 out this hint for the benefit of beginners. 

 The veteran bee-keeper will in all probabil- 

 ity have acquired the knack intuitively from 

 his long experience. The engraving on page 

 31 shows the operator in the act of revolving 

 the frame. He is hunting for a queen which 

 had been introduced a few days before. 

 Having loosened the cage, wherein the queen 

 was confined before the bees gnawed to her, 

 he has thrown it upon the ground, which 

 striking with some little force has jarred out 

 a few bees that always collect inside. The 

 bees thus shaken uj) take wing and return to 

 the hive. Desirous of noting how well 

 the queen has laid, he is in the act of revolv- 

 ing the frame, as I have before described, 

 that he may see whether the queen has filled 

 the other side of the comb with eggs also. 



OUR OWN APIARY AT THIS DATE. 



At this writing we have had a week or ten 

 days of steady cold weather, the mercury 



