1510 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec 15 



ing entirely around the building. I set the ex- 

 tractor and capping-cans so that the operator 

 faces the hives so that his eyes can glance out 

 across the bee-yard. A woman or even a child 

 can manage the swarms from 200 or 300 colonies 

 if they have a good equipment of catchers; and 

 they can sit in the shade and sew or read most of 

 the time, no matter how fast the swarms come 

 out. There will be no mixing. In some large 

 apiaries it is often that a small-sized swarm may 

 issue, and by the time it clusters it will be the 

 size of a bushel basket. It happens more often 

 in California than it did in the East, unless the 

 East has changed since I lived there. It is be- 

 cause the flying bees coming from the fields join 

 the swarm. It makes trouble with the queens 

 when these strange bees " mix in," and perhaps a 

 very valuable queen is lost. It injures a queen to 

 be balled or attacked. 



I have 150 drone or queen traps, and have used 

 them several years to control swarming, but I 

 consider them a hindrance to the bees. If I wish 

 to leave home for a day or two I go through the 

 apiary early in the morning, and put traps on 

 those colonies which are roaring loudest. If the 

 entrances are large there will be no roaring. My 

 traps are arranged so as to hook on nearly the 

 same as this swarm-catcher. It takes only a few 

 moments to arrange a hundred colonies so that 

 we can safely leave the apiary. I have kept from 

 fifteen to forty colonies for lour or five years hav- 

 ing no bottom-boards at all, and those colonies 

 on the average have swarmed first and as frequent- 

 ly as any of the other colonies. 



Chatsworth, Cal. 



BEE-KEEPING A FASCINATING PUR- 

 SUIT. 



An Enthusiastic Report of a Beginner's 



Experience; a Good Earning on the 



Original Investment. 



BY CHARLES STEWART. 



I am only a recent recruit in the lowest ranks 

 of the army of bee-keevers; but if I could say 

 any thing that would induce even one other re- 

 cruit to engage in bee-keeping I should be amply 

 repaid, and feel, too, that I had conferred a great 

 favor on said recruit. Of all rural industries 

 (and I have had more or less experience in many) 

 bee-keeping is the most fascinating; and, if prop- 

 erly conducted with suitable fixtures, the money 

 profit will average fairly with any other, to say 

 nothing of the pleasure derived from the study 

 of the faithful little pets. I am only a private, 

 and almost any one having a fancy for bees can 

 engage in their keeping to even a greater extent 

 than I have, without interfering with other cares. 



I bought two colonies to start with, and never 

 have owned above 23. In the late fall or early 

 winter 1 subscribed for your paper. That prov- 

 ed to be the virus that inoculated me with the 

 microbe of bee-keeping. The long winter eve- 

 nings, and access to a library well stocked with 

 bee literature, was favorable to the " culture," 

 and by spring I knew theoretically as much about 



bee-keeping as the Moses who had been in the 

 wilderness forty years with the bees. 



I bought my first two colonies from a neigh- 

 bor who had some surplus colonies for sale. He 

 was one of God's own noblemen, and I am led 

 to believe there are many such in the bee-keep- 

 ing fraternity — not alone a sayer but a " doer of 

 the word " — one of those whose religion it is to 

 do more than bargained. After having sold me 

 the two colonies at a moderate price he said: 

 " There's a little weak colony; if you have a mind 

 to fuss with it, take it along for nothing; but I 

 judge it will need feeding to pull through." 



I took it along. This was in March, after a 

 winter of entrancing study of all phases of bee 

 literature. I then had two moderately strong 

 colonies and a nucleus — so to speak — of common 

 black bees — all in boxes such as may be picked 

 up in the back yard of a grocery store. 



The first problem for the would-be bee-keeper 

 that comes up for solution is the choice of a hive; 

 and, in my opinion, it is an essential one. If a 

 mistake is made here it is attended with serious 

 consequences, as a change is not made without 

 much loss, both in time and money. It is a 

 problem that each should solve for himself only 

 after mature deliberation. I selected the Danzen- 

 baker hive, and I am vain enough to state freely 

 that the choice was a good one. I winter out- 

 doors on the summer stands and have never lost 

 a colony, although severe winter weather is the 

 rule, with temperature frequently 20 to 25° be- 

 low zero; so I think I have no necessity for chaff- 

 packed or air-spaced hives. Neither do I feel 

 the necessity for a non-swarmer hive. My bees 

 never yet have swarmed, so that, for me, the Dan- 

 zenbaker has proved to be a non-swarming hive. 



After the hive problem is solved, the next ques- 

 tion likely to come up, but not so important as the 

 hive, is the strain of bees to keep. For myself I 

 settled this question by choosing leather-colored 

 or red-clover Italians. 



I brought my boxes of bees home March 18, 

 covered them all snugly with tarred paper and let 

 them stand till fruit-trees came in bloom, and 

 then transferred to the Danzenbaker hives. The 

 nucleus was a mere handful of bees, with a nice 

 young queen, which, with some care, I built up 

 into two rousing strong colonies, and later sold 

 them for just $50 more than my initial outlay. 

 The two moderately strong colonies I ran for 

 surplus comb honey. They gave me 256 finish- 

 ed sections 4X5X1^), some of which I sold for 

 20 cts. each, some 18, 15, and a few of the least 

 perfect and darkest as low as 10 cts. Of course, 

 I did not sell it nearly all. Ourselves and near- 

 est neighbors ate a fair share; but if all had been 

 sold at the lowest price it would have netted 

 $25.60 on a net investment of nothing — yes, 50 

 cents less than nothing. Many do better than 

 this. I have done better myself since; but the 

 money returns to an amateur bee-keeper, while a 

 source of some satisfaction, are not the only satis- 

 faction. Without any monetary reward the 

 pleasure derived from a study of the energetic 

 little pets is itself a reward as pleasing as the 

 opening scenes of life. It is like the entering of 

 an unexplored paradise. Any person not already 

 a bee-keeper, who wants to add new zest to life, 

 should keep bees. 



Toledo, Ohio. 



