GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



General Correspondence 



IMPRESSIONS AFTER ONE YEAR'S EXPERI- 

 ENCE IN BEEKEEPING 



BY ANDREW J. MONTGOMERY 



Through no plan or preference of my 

 own I became a beekeeper in a small way. 

 Some months before, inflammatory rheu- 

 matism had sent me to the hospital. There 

 the " hot air " treatment was successfully 

 given; and when I returned the rheumatism 

 was gone, for the time being at least. That 

 fall Two men in my congTcgation (I am the 

 pastor of a suburban church) made me a 

 present of a colony of bees. Antecedently 

 I had no more use for bees than for rattle- 

 snakes, and would have given both the 

 equal courtesy of keeping at a safe distance. 

 But with a hive located on one's own back 

 lot he is confronted with a condition, not 

 a theory. Fortunately, winter was at hand, 

 and that gave time to make the necessai-y 

 mental readjustments. Several times dur- 

 ing the early winter I observed the bees tak- 

 ing a flight, but it was done in the same 

 manner Moses saw the land of promise — 

 afar off. When spring came, one of the 

 donors opened the hive and initiated me 

 into the mysteries of caring for the colony 

 of bees, the first year was successful. I 

 have three colonies now, and secui'ed 72 

 sections of honey. That is good enough for 

 a beginner. 



The first year taught a good many les- 

 sons. Some of these, no doubt, will be 

 modified to a greater or less extent with 

 more real experience. But there is a vivid- 

 ness about first impressions wliich rarely 

 ceases. It is said that, if a man gets print- 

 er's ink well rubbed into his hands, he is 

 r.ever able to wash it off. Is not the same 

 true of beekeeping? Can propolis ever be 

 removed from the hands, especially if one 

 1-as been inoculated, in a generous fasliion, 

 with the virus of bee-sting-s? There is a 

 finality of fatalism about the business. 

 Whoever would not be a beekeeper had 

 Ijctter never allow himself any experiments 

 with the art. The disease of melissitis (peace 

 to the shade of Noah Webster) is in most 

 cases incurable. 



For the ordinary professional man the 

 care of bees ought not to be despised as a 

 form of health insurance. The mental re- 

 laxation, the employment of a different set 

 of brain cells, and the attempt to solve the 

 liundred and one different and also difficult 

 problems which arise during the brood and 

 honey season are a perfect God-send to the 

 man ' the greater part of whose working 

 houi-s is spent in the office. I have some 



friends who are physicians who sniff when 

 the sting cure for rheumatism is mentioned. 

 May be they are right. But since I have 

 been stung generously by the bees there has 

 been no recurrence of the dreaded rheuma- 

 tism. I notice that many of my beekeeping 

 friends are in the habit of saying that a 

 nervous jDerson ought not to go near bees, 

 nor should such a person ever tiy to take 

 care of them. It occurs to me that the 

 nervous man is the vei'y pei'son who should 

 learn to handle bees. He is most likely to 

 learn liis lost art of deliberateness, which 

 is the secret, very largely, of self-control. 



The mode of life of a colony of bees is a 

 first-hand experiment in socialism. They 

 have the social sense developed to the last 

 degree. They have the community sense in 

 an exaggerated form, so that the self sense 

 is altogether lost. Therefore I was intensely 

 interested last fall in watching the outwork- 

 ing of some of their socialistic principles. 

 First, I saw young husky workers drag out 

 bees that had grown gray in the service, fig- 

 uratively ; summarily eject them from the 

 eommunit3% and leave them to their fate, 

 which was death. Then I noticed the fate of 

 the drones. A small worker like a little tug- 

 boat would appear on the landing-board, 

 hitched to the wing of a big drone, and 

 headed out. Well, that is not the spirit of 

 Tennyson's " Crossing the Bar." The bees 

 have relentlessly followed socialism to its 

 logical outcome ; and that is, the destruction 

 of the non-producers. After my first sum- 

 mer's experience with the bees I am less in- 

 clined toward socialistic measures than ever 

 before. If our chief aim in life is to pro- 

 duce producers only, then the elimination 

 of the non-producer is. of course, required. 

 That may be the implication of theoretical 

 socialism, but it is not the spirit of Chris- 

 tianity. 



The perennial freshness of the interest in 

 the keeping of bees is, I fancy, largely due 

 to life and mysterj'. A hive bursting out 

 with bees is a sight to gladden the heart of 

 any one. There is life abounding, exuber- 

 ant. The ancient Egyptians used the bee 

 as a hieroglyphic sign to indicate royalty. 



As the Egyptians used their bees 

 To express their ancient Ptolomies. 



— Hudibras. 



Incidentally, no doubt this is the origin of 

 that odd expression, the " king bee." The 

 • bee was the royal symbol, we are told, be- 

 cause the king had honey to give as a re- 

 ward, and a sting as punishment to the un- 

 worthy. But it seems to me that the real 

 reason why this insect was chosen as the 



