GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



hanging frames, as we found the side motion 

 of the car, which at times was very con- 

 siderable, killed quite a few bees. We ar- 

 rived at Flint with every colony alive, and 

 upon examination found only three queens 

 missing out of 184 colonies. The bees were 

 successfully moved to two yards in the sub- 

 urbs of Flint, where they are now working 

 nicely on clover bloom. 



The writer's bees are in the vicinity of 

 Flint; and so, including the bees Mr. Griggs 

 had before his recent purchase, we now have 

 nearly 700 colonies in all directions from 

 Flint. E. F. Townsend. 



ONCE A BEEKEEPER ALWAYS ONE 



Stiles Finds More Real Enjoyment in Bees than in 

 a Professorship 



There 's no use in arguing the question 

 any longer, a man who has once successfully 

 kept bees will never be happy without them. 

 Chas. F. Stiles of Stillwater, Okla., exem- 

 plifies this fact to a T. 



When he was a lad of thirteen his father 

 made him a present of six colonies of bees 



Corner of Stiles' aiiiary that put him thru college. 



hived in old box giitiis. The boy was de- 

 lighted, but how was he going to do any- 

 thing with them ' ' put up " in those old 

 boxes'? Young as he was he saw the neces- 

 sity of modern equipment and he thought, 

 dreamed, and talked it until he got it. 



The first year he sold enough honey to 

 buy two modern hives, and just as soon as 

 those bees found it out two of the strong- 

 est colonies swarmed. Of course, it would 

 iKit do to disappoint them, so they were 

 placed in the new hives. 



They looked so "nifty" and worked so 

 hard that the boy decided to speculate a 

 little and borrowed enough money to buy 

 modern hives for all the rest. His debt, 

 however, was not of long standing, for he 

 sold almost enough honey and wax, from the 

 old boxes to pay for the new hives. 



Each year the number of colonies increas- 

 ed until he had fifty colonies and had sold 

 enough honey to pay his expenses in college. 



The next four ^ear? college kept him 



away from home and during that time the 

 apiary was neglected until it was no longer 

 profitable. Consequently in 1914 he sold all 

 but a few colonies which he kept to supply 

 the home table. 



Just out of college! He thought he would 

 be a professor and get a few feathers in his 

 cap, and it actually took him four years 

 to see the emptiness of that humdrum life. 

 He was neither healthy nor happy — he 

 wasn't healthy, because he wasn't happy. 

 Under the strain of that nerve-racking con- 

 finement he grew paler and thinner until 

 the doctor told him he must go West and 

 seek outdoor employment. 



What could he do? He had to go. Well, 

 he just rambled around imtil one day he 

 landed, plunk, right down in the middle of 

 Oklahoma. Just about that time Dr. Phil- 

 lips was looking for a man to be Special 

 Field Agent in Bee Culture for the State of 

 Oklahoma. Eight then Stiles woke up. The 

 very mention of bees set his pulse throbbing, 

 his blood began flowing the right direction, 

 and that hazy mist cleared away from his 

 brain. He got the position and held it suc- 

 cessfully for over a year. He grew strong 

 and happy, but there was something lack- 

 ing. He just couldn't be satisfied seeing the 

 other fellow have all the pleasure of owning 

 the bees. Hadn't he been a beekeeper once 

 and didn 't he know all that it meant to be 

 a beekeeper? Yes, and he was going back. 



The next thing anybody knew he had 

 bought an agency for bee supplies and now 

 calls his firm "The Stiles Bee Supply Com- 

 pany. ' ' He has an apiary, too — yes sir — 

 that 's the moral of the story. 



Stillwater, Okla. Lottie Altizer. 



COLONY MORALE AND ROBBING 



Nothing Depresses Colony Morale Quicker than 

 Robbing 



That 's a good article in the June number, 

 page 357, on "The Spirit of the Hive." I 

 have noticed one or two other factors which 

 influence this spirit quite a little. 



Nothing depresses colony morale quicker 

 than robbing in the apiary. In large api- 

 aries, particularly on ranges like alfalfa, 

 part of the yard is robbing all of the time 

 or trying to. Everyone knows that in a 

 yard of Italians there are nearly always . a 

 few bees in front of each hive trying to get 

 in and steal and occasionally doing so. This 

 keeps the colony always upset and nervous. 



Any one can illustrate this point by set- 

 ting a number of average colonies off from 

 the main apiary in isolated locations, where 

 their entrance is not exposed nor their hive 

 conspicuous. I have noticed that such 

 colonies average at least 20 to 25 per 



