.lANTARY. 1019 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



17 



pLFRb THE^FIELp 'of EXPERIE 



STAGE FOLK,TOO, ARE BEEKEEPERS 



How Hanson fie Drew Enjoy Their Vacations Keep- 

 ing Bees in Michigan 



' ' Stage folks. ' ' too, can enjoy bees and 

 succeed with them. In fact, their usual 

 summer vacation period just nicely meets 

 the time requirements for earing for the 

 bees. And what a joyous good time my hus- 

 hand and I have, caring for our pets in the 

 good old summer time! 



Our vacations are spent at East Jordan, 

 Mich., in a real bee country. We joined 

 the Michigan Beekeepers' Association four 

 summers ago while attending a foul-brood 

 demonstration at Fuch 's apiary in Wolver- 

 ine, Mich. F. Eric Millen of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College showed us how to get 

 rid of foul brood. We had played Cheboy- 

 gan the previous week, and beekeeper L. S. 

 Smith there told us of the foul-brood dem- 

 onstration to be held. We met Mr. Smith 

 while in Cheboygan, and he was more than 

 nice to us, exemplifying the generous spirit 

 of the beekeeping fraternity in general. 

 He invited us to his house on Sunday, when 

 we had a very pleasant visit and talked 

 bees and bees and bees. That was our first 

 season with bees then. We had just bought 

 two colonies about two months previously, 

 and he gave us a lot of most valuable in- 

 formation. 



This year we began packing our bees Sept. 



12, and used Ira Bartlett 's quadruple win- 

 ter cases. Mr. Bartlett could not furnish us 

 as many cases as we needed, so we made 

 three more ourselves. We have 20 colonies 

 of bees, and it took us five nights to pack. 

 We packed four hives (one case) each even- 

 ing, and got them packed Sept. 17. The 

 equinoctial gales arrived in full force Sept. 

 18, and raged for several days; so we were 

 fortunate in getting the bees packed just 

 when we did. We stayed for the Charlevoix 

 County fair, and took first and second prizes 

 for comb honey. We left that place Sept. 

 28, and hope to return about May 12, next 

 year. That was the date we returned to our 

 Michigan play-and-work ground last year. 

 It seemed just the right time to unpack the 

 bees. 



When Editor Boot visited East Jordan 

 last summer I think that Ira D. Bartlett 

 told him of one of our hives that had been 

 turned upside down during our winter 's 

 absence. It had evidently been that way 

 all winter long. Mr. Bartlett righted it for 

 us previously to our return in May (about 

 two weeks before our arrival), and the bees 

 still lived. The queen came thru in excel- 

 lent condition, altho there were only about 

 three frames of live bees found upon ex- 

 amination; but we frequently gave them 

 more brood, and that hive produced four 

 supers of comb honey. It was a colony that 

 originated in a late swarm and was packed 

 in a single packing case a year ago. I have 



Mr. and Mrs. John T. Carlisle, .stage arti.sts, and their apiary in northern Micliigan. 



