7=<S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



fact, several of I hem. Nay, rather it looked 

 exactly like a wholesale case of robbing; 

 but it was neither. An inspection of the 

 apiary showed that large streams of bees 

 were going into e^^ery one of his hives. We 

 never saw such a furor of bees before in so 

 small a yard — 92 colonies, spring count. 

 While the apiary was small, there was an 

 immense force of bees in every hi\e, and 

 on every one of them there were anywhere 

 from, two to live comb-honey supers well 

 on to completion. The honey the bees were 

 getting at the time was apparently from 

 heartsease. While Dr. Miller had taken off 

 a small crop of fine clover honey he feared 

 that -^vhat was still in the hives might be 

 flavored with heartsease; and heartsease 

 does not improve a fine clover. 



We had a great curiosity to see what the 

 bees were working on. There were acres 

 and acres of white clover in bloom. Was 

 it not possible the bees Avere working on 

 that ? But (here did not seem to be many bees 

 on these blossoms; so we took a stroll all 

 by ourself, leaving the two doctors — the M. 

 D. and tlie Ph.D., to discuss the problems 

 while we were gone. We went over the 

 hills, through patches of woods, through 

 barbed-wire fences galore; through corn- 

 fields; got lost, but finally got back, after 

 a wide detour, to the home of the Millers. 

 The women feared we were lost, and began 

 to think seriouslj' of sending some one after 

 us; but, like the proverbial penny of un- 

 certain quality, we turned up. 



They Avere all eager to know what we 

 had found — that is, what the bees were 

 working on. We had to confess we did not 

 know. There was occasionally a bee on 

 the clover — perhaps one to every radius of 

 TOO feet. There were quite a number of 

 bees on sweet clover, and occasionally a bee 

 on the heartsease — perhaps one for every 

 radius of ten feet. Heartsease — there was 

 lots of it just coming into bloom. It gi'ows 

 as a weed in the cornfields, and corn is 

 grown extensively about the Miller apiary. 

 While the heartsease was only just coming 

 into bloom with only a few bees on it, it 

 did not seem possible that such a great roar 

 in the yard could have come from that 

 source, and yet there was an odor of fall 

 honey about the hives. Tt might have been 

 from the asters: b:it the asters were negli- 

 uible, for but few of them were in sight. 

 There was some Spanish needle, but there 

 were no bees working on it. There was 

 considerable sv.'eet clover, but apparently 

 not enough to make such a showing. What, 

 therefore, could the bees be working on? 

 Dr. Miller began to figure — one bee for 

 pverv radius of ten feet on the heartsease. 



and tliere were many tens and tens of acres 

 of it in the cornfields tliat were numerous. 

 The bees on the white clover, on the sweet 

 clover, and the heartsease, if they were 

 scattered over a radius as large as II/2 or 2 

 miles, might, according to Dr. Miller's fig- 

 ures, account for that tremendous roar of 

 bees. 



Although Dr. Miller is in llie habit o£ 

 taking a midday nap, he was bright and 

 alert all the time we wei'e there from 11 

 o'clock until 7 at night. We could not 

 imagine any kid beekeeper more enthusias- 

 tic than ihis veteran of 84 summers. Of 

 course. Dr. Phillips and ourself gave him 

 some hard question. Always modest, he 

 frequently said, " T don't know." 



A striking feature of Dr. Miller's make- 

 up is his modesty. He does not seem to 

 know that he has discovered methods that 

 make for success. He claims no originality, 

 and yet he certainly is original in making 

 up a combination of methods that is unique 

 in the production of comb honey. 



By the way, we forgot to mention one 

 thing, and that is Dr. Miller's strain of 

 leather-colored Italians. While his methods 

 and his locality have done much to contrib- 

 ute to his success, careful selection of 

 queens of his own breeding has been an 

 important factor. No mistake about it, 

 they are hustleis, ei^ery one of them. Those 

 queens ought to be worth from $10 to $25. 

 With those queens Dr. Miller is successful- 

 ly combating European foul brood. They 

 are not much inclined to swarm if his meth- 

 ods are used, and they certainly get there 

 with the honey. 



We do not know that Dr. Miller has anv 

 queens for sale: but he said, " At our ages " 

 (referTing to himself and his family), "we 

 have more bees than we can handle. We 

 may be compelled to cut the force down." 



Dr. Miller does not know that we are 

 giving him a free advertisement ; but we 

 suggest tliat some of the queen-breeders of 

 'he country get some of his stock and cross 

 it with their own before it is too late and 

 the genial smile of the owner is forever 

 gone so far as this world is concerned. 



But, to return. When we left Dr. Miller 

 at the electric station to go back to Chicago, 

 and from there on to Hamilton, there was 

 the same smile that doesn't come off. but a 

 look — a far-avi?ay look — as if he thought 

 that possibly he might not see us again on 

 this side of the river that separates us from 

 the world beyond. We hope we shall see 

 liira every year till he is 100. If careful 

 living will do it, he will reach the mark. 

 Indeed, he looks as young as he did ten 

 years ago. 



