234 



July, 1914. 



American Vee Journal 



experience under us. I only keep a 

 lazy man long enough to find out that 

 he is lazy, and then he hunts another 

 job. Every man who has come to me 

 with e.xperience has made a complete 

 failure and liad to surrender his job 

 and go. 



Some, on learning our methods and 

 tasks of carrying them out, never went 

 on the job. Some made the start, 

 stayed for a while, but did not stay until 

 the first flow was over. Such help 

 usually wants ?(i5 or $7r) per month and 

 expenses, and an apiarist cannot go 

 into a new field and earn this much per 

 month. The failure in such help usually 

 lies in the e.xpression, "Can't carry out 

 your methods." 



Well, we go for help away out in the 

 country, and get boys from the farms, 

 who have never lived in a town or city, 

 and have never had but one job, and 

 that was right with their parents. 

 When such a boy is given a job, that is 

 the only one he knows of, and he sticks 

 to you and works regularly. Being ac- 

 customed to hard and constant labor 



on the farm, he never murmurs at any 

 task, early and late. Such boys, as a 

 rule, have no bad habits, and are hon- 

 est. A boy who has been reared in 

 town or city is often the reverse. He 

 is in and out, and does not " stick to 

 his bush." 



I have a large number of applicants 

 all the time. By and by such help will 

 be left in sole charge of bees, some- 

 times working them for a salary, but 

 usually on shares. We give a man em- 

 ployment for a while, say for four or 

 si.x months, then let him work 200 col- 

 onies on shares for a season, then let 

 him increase them or give him more 

 near-by bees. 



Satisfy your men in the business and 

 let them prosper, helping them as their 

 needs may demand. A good business 

 man once seeing the diligence of one 

 of my hands, offered him twice as much 

 wages as I was paying him for his ser- 

 vices, but it was no inducement. Once 

 in a great while a good hand will quit 

 without cause. The secret of success 

 lies in the proper handling of labor. 



four beekeepers, one of whom, Mr 

 Walther, is an amateur photographer, 

 and to him we are indebted for many 

 photos of apiaries, some of which we 

 have already given and others which 

 are yet to appear. Two ladies came 

 along, daughters of Mr. Ruffy. At the 

 second station we landed and had but 

 a couple hundred yards to go to find 

 the finest and most carefully kept api- 

 ary I had ever seen. Everythini; was 

 in " apple-pie order." The owner, Mr. 

 Mahon, an old bachelor, is a genius. 

 We reproduce a cut of his feeder which 

 is somewhat on the principle of the 

 Miller feeder, with a section in the rear 

 into which the feed is poured without 

 disturbing the bees. Feeders are great- 

 ly used in Switzerl nd, because there is 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



Bv C. P Dadant. 



On Aug. 18, we took the train for 

 Delemont, accompanied by our kind 

 friend. Mr. Gubler. We were to visit 

 two of the most practical beekeepers 

 in the country. 



Mr. Rufify, of Delemont, an active 

 man, has had long experience with 

 many races. His preference is for a 

 mixture of Carniolans and Italians. He 

 was for years employed in queen- 

 breeding apiaries of Italian Switzer- 

 land. He imports his Italians from 

 there, buying small swarms shipped 

 with three or four caged queens in 

 each. It is but a few hours' journey 

 from there, and no losses are to be 



feared. It was he who gave me a clue 

 to the cause of the preference of the 

 Swiss for their bees over the Italian. I 

 saw, from his explanation that, for the 

 cool hill lands, the Italians breed too 

 early and too late in the season, and fly 

 too early and too late in the day. 



Ruffy does his winter feeding much 

 earlier than any one I ever heard of. 

 His bees had already been fed for win- 

 ter, at that date. They have no fall 

 crop, and there was no expectation of 

 any further harvest. The crop had 

 been poor. 



Early in the afternoon, we took the 

 train again, accompanied by three or 



One ok the Wartman Apiaries at Bienne. 



Filling the Mahon Feeder. 



such a long fall season without har- 

 vest. The Swiss, like our Canadian 

 neighbors, believe in feeding heavily 

 for winter. 



I spoke of the neatness of Mr. Ma- 

 hon's apiary. He took first prize for 

 the best kept apiary in Western Switz- 

 land in 1'.I02. His honey room is on 

 the second floor of his home. The only 

 thing I could criticize about it was its 

 remoteness from the apiary. But I 

 have never seen so neat an establish- 

 ment anywhere, except at Mr. Penna's, 

 at Bologna, Italy. But that is another 

 story, and I must not spoil it by telling 

 a part of it out of its turn. 



Mr. Mahon condemns the Carnio- 

 lans because of their swarming pro- 

 pensity. His bees are hybrids of Ital- 

 ians and Swiss common bees. They 

 behaved finely, while we had our pic- 

 tures taken in front of the hives (see 

 cut). In regard to diseases, he ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the greater or 

 less vitality of the queen has to do with 

 the existence of both May diseases, 

 which we call here paralysis, and foul- 

 brood. 



On our return to the station, we were 

 introduced to the station agent who 

 smilingly pointed to half a dozen hives 

 of bees in a little shed a few yards 

 away. It appears that a number of 

 Swiss station agents are beekeepers. 



