1306 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



the way, friend Manley is not only a comical ge- 

 nius, but he is a first-class humorist. It would 

 not do to say that he held his audience " spell- 

 bound," for, on the contrary, they were hooting 

 and yelling a good deal of the time at some of 

 his sallies of merriment and huge jokes. In fact, 

 had not the good pi^esident gently told him that 

 he really must stick to his subject I fear he might 

 have occupied nearly the whole forenoon with 

 his queer speeches and antics. When he first 

 started out I feard he was not going to be able to 

 handle his subject; but, oh dear me! what a revela- 

 tion when he " got down to business!" It was 

 worth the whole trip there to see him and to hear 

 his talk; and yet both Ernest and Huber missed it 

 entirely. They were both continually called on 

 to explain about the large display of implements 

 and other things connected with bee culture. By 

 the way, this exhibition of bee-keepers' supplies 

 ought to be in a room by itself; and . the presi- 

 dent should lock this room up during the hours 

 of the convention — at least it looks that way to 

 me. 



Mr. Manley said there were many winter loss- 

 es in his locality. When questioned closely he 

 said he thought it was likely owing, to a great 

 extent, to the aster honey that is gathered clear 

 up till freezing weather. This honey is unseal- 

 ed, and, of course, not ripened. It gives the bees 

 dysentery, and in many apiaries the bees are all 

 dead by the time blossoms open in the spring in 

 his locality. He said he thought it very likely 

 that taking this poor honey away and giving 

 some stores of sugar syrup would save the bees. 

 But how are you going to make them take the 

 sugar syrup when there is honey to be had in the 

 fields? He said he thought it very probable that 

 taking away all combs outside of the cluster con- 

 taining unsealed stores, and replacing them with 

 combs of good sealed honev, or, better still, su- 

 gar syrup fed and sealed up early in the season, 

 would make a success of wintering. But this 

 was a good deal of trouble, and many found it 

 very much " easier " to let the bees take care of 

 themselves: so that, year after year, when spring- 

 time came, there were hives of dead bees all over 

 the land. 



One spring a few years ago he told his wife he 

 did not believe there were live bees in a dozen 

 hives, out of a hundred or more that were cover- 

 ed up with snow. When somebody asked why 

 he did not put them in an up-to date bee-cellar I 

 can not remember exactly what his reply was; 

 but I think it was to the effect that, in his locali- 

 ty, where bees can winter outdoors they are gen- 

 erally ahead of those wintered in the cellar. 

 Well, last spring he told his wife that a hundred 

 colonies or more were dead. She was bright 

 enough and wise enough to suggest that it did 

 not matter very much any way, as it would give 

 them a good chance to start over again with 

 things in better shape; and in due time he and 

 his wife went to work to get the wax and honey 

 out of those empty hives. The combs were 

 mostly old and heavy, and he got so much wax 

 out of them that they had one of their " happy 

 surprises." The honey was also saved, and sold 

 to good advantage. If I remember correctly, 

 some of it went to the baker's. But his greatest 

 success came by changing his whole apiary over 

 into modern hives with the bees all on frames of 



wired foundation. The advantage of working 

 with new up-to-date implements compensated, or 

 more than that, for the value of the bees that 

 died. Of course, this change might have been 

 made with bees that did not die; but had they all 

 lived they probably would have worked along in 

 the old-fashioned way. 



Well, after friend Manley and his wife had 

 really gotten into the business he thought he 

 would see how low he could buy the hives and 

 combs of his neighbors where the bees had died. 

 He found them generally glad to have them take 

 the things off their hands at his own figures; and 

 he finally scoured the whole country, gathering 

 up the hives that would probably breed moth- 

 millers or perhaps, in some localities, foul brood. 

 By the way, friend Manley's scheme of clearing 

 up the remnants of "blasted hopes" throughout 

 the country all roundabout is one of the best rem- 

 edies, both in the way of prevention and cure of 

 foul brood, and he made money by it too. And 

 his neighbors also made money. He said they 

 were always glad to see him, because he took a 

 disagreeable job off their hands. I have not the 

 figures in dollars and cents that he gave us; but 

 when you come to see them you will be aston- 

 ished. 



Now, here is a point that was brought out by 

 his talk: He suggests, if I have it right, that it 

 would pay any bee-keeper to melt up his combs, 

 especially the brood-combs, every four or five 

 years, and fill the frames with new sheets of wired 

 foundation. If there has ever been any foul 

 brood in the region the frames and hives should 

 be treated in boiling water to banish effectually 

 all traces of the contagious disease. 



A report of friend Manley's plan of getting 

 out the wax will be found on page 1313 of this is- 

 sue; however, as this article was written some 

 time ago, we think friend Manley will give us 

 something for our pages that will bring the mat- 

 ter fully up to date. 



I do not know of any subject of more impor- 

 tance to bee-keepers than this very thing that 

 friend Manley has opened up to us. Old, dilap- 

 ilated, run-down apiaries are a curse to any com- 

 munity or neighborhood; and friend Manley goes 

 about through all his region doing missionary 

 work in "gathering up the fragments that noth- 

 ing may be lost." The man who has sold out 

 every thing clean, and gotten rid of his old traps, 

 will be very much more likely to start anew with 

 nice up-to-date fixtures than he would if the old 

 traps were left lying around loose. By the way, 

 would it not be a fine thing if some such mis- 

 sionary would go around and buy up the old im- 

 plements and other truck lying around in the cor- 

 ners to disfigure many farm homes.'' Years ago 

 T. B. Terry astonished the people of Northern 

 Ohio by having every thing unsightly cleared 

 away from around his home and even from around 

 the barn; and I did not understand how he did it 

 until one day when I went over the hill back of his 

 house. Every thing unsightly was carried off to 

 a sort of " boneyard " back of the hill. Friend 

 Manley has been doing for bee culture exactly 

 what Terry did for the average farm home. The 

 ^vomen-iolks will enter into this work most heart- 

 ily. In fact, Mrs. Root will hardly let me go to 

 sleep nights with unsightly rubbish left around 

 in sight, especially in the front yard. — A. I. R. 



