Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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WHAT A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE HAS 

 TAUGHT ME. 



Some Advice for the Especial Benefit of the Be- 

 ginner. 



BY ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST. 



Born on the even half-century mark, Jan- 

 uary, 1850, it is now over sixty years since I 

 first opened my eyes to the beauties of this 

 diversified world, and began the study of 

 nature. Among my earliest recollections is 

 a row of Week's patent hives. My father 

 kept them in his front yard suspended be- 

 tween horizontal pieces of scantling attach- 

 ed to posts, the lower end of each hive being 

 cut on a slant, and its bottom-board sus- 

 pended at each corner by a wire hook, the 

 idea being to facilitate the removal of litter 

 of all kinds, and to prevent the bee-moth 

 from gaining entrance. At the top was a 

 surplus-honey chamber, about one-fourth 

 the size of the brood-chamber, opening at the 

 side, and furnished with two square surplus 

 boxes, each having glass ends in front, and 

 four communicating-holes through which 

 the bees entered from below. These boxes 

 held about ten pounds each of comb honey; 

 and whenever a colony filled them during 

 the season, it was considered a record or 

 maximum yield. 



As soon as old enough I began to take 

 charge of the bees, and to study their habits. 

 I bought and read the works of Quinby, 

 Kidder, King, Langstroth, and others, and 

 subscribed for the American Bee Joiumal, 

 for which I became a frequent contributor 

 in the early seventies. Quite recently I pur- 

 chased a copy of Dr. Miller's "Forty Years 

 Among the Bees," and was surprised to note 

 that he gives me the credit of being one of 

 his early teachers. In those days I thought 

 I knew it about all; but a half-century has 

 passed, and I am still learning. 



Being fully convinced of the superiority 

 of the Italian race of bees, I bought my first 

 queen of father Langstroth, successfully in- 

 troduced her, and kept her for several years. 

 I closely read the exploits and achievements 

 of "Novice," in the Bee Journal, and well 

 remember the first issues of Gleanings. 

 Yet bee-keeping was never my main busi- 

 ness. For twenty-five years I was editor 

 and publisher of Seedtime and Harvest, in 

 which I maintained an apiarian department, 

 conducted by James Heddon, yet gave most 

 of my time and attention to growing and 

 selling seed. 



During the last ten years I have traveled 

 quite extensively throughout the Union, 

 and have visited many of the most noted 

 bee-keepers. At the same time, at home I 

 have kept more bees and produced much 

 more honey than I ever did in my younger 

 days. 



WHY KEEP BEES? 



First, because the honey-bee is one of the 



cogs in the wonderful mechanism of nature, 

 and is as necessary to the successful produc- 

 tion of fruits as are the birds and showers. 

 Nectar was placed in the flower by the great 

 Designer to attract the bee, for the purpose 

 of carrying the pollen from the stamens of 

 one blossom to the pistils of another, in or- 

 der to cross-fertilize them and render them 

 fruitful. It is a mutual arrangement. The 

 bee is for the flower as much as the flower is 

 for the bee; and the very life and existence 

 of many kinds of fruits, vegetables, and 

 other plants, depend as much upon the bee 

 as does the life of the bee upon the flowers. 

 The bee-keeper is, therefore, a public bene- 

 factor. 



Secondly, there is pleasure and profit in 

 bee-keeping if conducted by modern meth- 

 ods; and as a hobby or diversion for business 

 men I would place a few colonies of bees far 

 in advance of chicken-raising or any other 

 outdoor home industry. 



I believe that there are few localities where 

 many more bees could not be jirofitably 

 kept; and the amount of honey that is con- 

 tinually going to waste all over this country, 

 if known, would fairly astonish the world. 

 Indeed, it could easily be proven that the 

 honey-flows, as they come along from differ- 

 ent sources, are far more abundant, yet i)er- 

 haps shorter in duration, than most people 

 suppose; and a knowledge of this fact, cou- 

 pled with ability and proper facilities for 

 caring for them at the proper time, consti- 

 tutes the greatest factor of profit on the part 

 of the up-to-date bee-keeper. 



It is my purpose to show how to manage 

 bees so as to secure the proper share of this 

 great waste. In proof of the assertion just 

 made, that in few if any localities are there 

 bees enough to secure all the honey that na- 

 ture so lavishly supplies, let me cite the case 

 of Mr. E. W. Alexander, of Schoharie Co., 

 New York, who, for several years before his 

 death, kept an average of 750 colonies of 

 bees in one yard, all on about one acre of 

 land. By knowing the nature of his field, 

 and about when to expect the honey-flows 

 from different sources (buckwheat being 

 his most important one) , and by seeing 

 that each colony was supplied with empty 

 combs at the critical moment, when needed 

 for storage, he succeeded in securing an 

 average of over one hundred pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey per colony, the aggregate of 

 which would amount to over 37 tons. Now, 

 if it was possible for this great amount to be 

 gathered from within the area of a circle 

 covered by the flight of one bee, whatever 

 distance that may have been, how much do 

 you suppose may go to waste, for the want 

 of bees to gather it, in thousands of other 

 localities where not even one hundred 

 pounds is secured and saved within an equal 

 area? Are not the possibilities great enough 

 to warrant a study of this subject, with a 

 view to determining what may or may not 

 be accomplished along this line in your lo- 



