GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



household, wlio were then tlie active bee- 

 keepers of tlie family. He loved a bee- 

 talk as he loved nothing else, and declares, 

 "to talk of bees to those Avho love them 

 not is like music i:ilayed out of time, and 

 harsh, or a ] leasant tale to the soiTowful." 

 He joined small lots, "as when there is a 

 gi'eat eompanie they generate heat better, 

 and therefore thrive better." The chief 

 source of honey he looked on as a thick 

 and gummj' dew made by the influence of 

 the "starres," and falling from heaven. 

 He believed in a "master-bee," and tells us 

 of the "generall guard of souldiers" attend- 

 ing him, and also of "commanders, gener- 

 alls, lieutenant-generalls, marshalls, ser- 

 geant-majors, colonells, and captains." 

 The master-bee had a sting, but more for 

 ornament than use. He practiced driving 

 bees. His manner of killing oif these bees 

 was a barbarous one, being no other than 

 crushing them to death beneath a broad 

 board. 



Rev. Charles Butler (1609) was one of 

 the princes of beedom, and his work is a 

 classic for all time. He lumself i^redicted 

 that it would "travel to the most remote 

 l^arts," and this has been literally fulfilled, 

 as no work is more sought after than the 

 scholarly "Feminine Monarchy." Purchas 

 said of it, "Butler wrote singularly Avel," 

 and I fully indorse the statement. The 

 very title of the book shows he was ahead 

 of his generation. If he did not fully re- 

 alize that the queen bee is the mother of 

 the hive, he tells us jlainly that young- 

 queens were begotten of old ones, and that 

 the drones "serve for generation and for 

 the presenation of their sweet kind." He 

 was thus at least on the verge of compar- 

 atively modern discoveries. He used a 

 "hood of boultering," the original of our 

 bee-veil. He taught that the best time to 

 manipulate is when the bees are out in the 

 fields; ard le advised handling them gen- 

 tly. "For cleanliness and neatness," he 

 says, "they are a mirror to the finest 

 dames." Further, "Among all the creat- 

 ures God hath made for the use and service 

 of man, in respect of great profit with little 

 cost, bees are the most to be admired; for 

 with little care which need be no hindrance 

 to business, but, rather, a delightful rec- 

 reation, they bring in a store of sweets 

 fit for meat and medicine." Of this 

 "quintessence of all sweetness," he has 

 much to say. The best prize samples 

 should be "clear, odoriferous, yellow like 

 pale gold, sharp sweet or jjleasant to the 

 taste, and of mean consistency." xVll honey, 

 however, was not like tliis. "Some make 

 one work of all — pounding and compound- 



ing honey, wax, bees, and works all togeth- 

 er; then with a press they violently wiing 

 out all that will run." 



In 1618 William Lawson published 

 "Country Housewives' Garden with the 

 Husbandrjr of Bees, being the Experience 

 of 48 Years' Labour among the Bees." He 

 counts no orchard or garden complete 

 without some hives of bees; and no house- 

 wife is a good one "that wanteth bees and 

 is not skilful in handling them. They yield, 

 rightly managed, great pleasure and large 

 profit. Stings are not to be ai:)prehended, 

 because they know their keeper, who ought 

 to be familiar with them." Many use 

 smoke in handling bees, but he utterly dis- 

 liked its application. Ringing in time of 

 swarming is a "meare fancy." Violent J 

 handling of them is "simply evill." Bees, I 

 of all creatures, love cleanliness and peace; 

 therefore handle them leisurely and cj[uietly 

 and they will not hurt. A drone-trap was 

 used ; and for mice, then very troublesome, 

 the best remedies are "cats, rats, traps, 

 bane, and watching. Contract entrance to 

 exclude such vermine; but do not stop up 

 close, as bees require a flight in -winter." 



"The profit of bees is great." He does 

 not give the price of honey ; but it must 

 have been Mgh, for he asserts that forty 

 stocks will yield more profit than forty 

 acres of ground. The sisterhood should 

 be interested in Lawson's work, as it was 

 written specially for the gentle sex, and 

 he all but asserts that a good "bee woman" 

 must be a good housewife. 



Following chronologically we next come 

 to Richard Remnant, 1637, who insists on 

 the "great i^rofits" to be derived from bees. 

 Apparently he found the pursuit a paying 

 one, as he asserts he bought and sold to 

 the value of a thousand pounds a year. In 

 uniting and handling bees Remnant used 

 smoke. He unhesitatingly sets the queen 

 down as a female and the drone as a male. 

 He, however, confounded pollen and wax, 

 as most writers did long after his time. 

 "The wax is gathered of the flowers or 

 bloomes." Pollen was then looked on as 

 "animable matter" from whence the bees 

 were generated. The bees gathered it, car- 

 ried into the cells, whence the king dealt 

 with it, and it became a "maggot" out of 

 which workers were evolved. He fed by 

 cutting out a comb from a full hive over- 

 supplied, and inserting it in a poor hive. 

 "In all these operations, still the bees with 

 smoke (but not too much). Be not fear- 

 ful, but patient and gentle, and in time 

 with ex] erience you will become readie in 

 all these things,'' which is sage advice even 

 to-dav. 



