550 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in my article on page 486, and, as I 

 believe, is unanswerable. 

 Dowagiac, 9 Mich. 



ror the American Bee JoornaL 



A Visit Among Ohio Apiarists. 



GEO. W. YORK. 



After spending nearly a year and a 

 halt of incessant clerical labor in Chi- 

 cago, on Aug. 3 I started for a two 

 weeks' vacation at ray old country 

 home, in Randolph, Portage Co., O., 

 for the purpose of visiting relatives 

 and friends, and to recreate amid the 

 quiet scenes incident to a rural life. 



During my vacation I had the pleas- 

 ure of visiting several bee-keepers, 

 prominent among whom were two at 

 whose apiaries I spent considerable 

 time in witnessing their various 

 methods of managing bees in the pro- 

 duction of that most delicious of all 

 sweets — honey. 



:My first visit wps made on Aug. 11 

 to the apiary of Mr. Henry Crist, of 

 Lake, Stark Co., which county is ad- 

 joining that of Portage. Mr. Crist, 

 is one of the pioneers in bee-keeping, 

 having been engaged in keeping bees 

 for 34 years ; and for 20 years he has 

 been a constant reader of the Bee 

 .Journal. His age is 72; but judg- 

 ing from the vivacity which he mani- 

 fests in regard to tlie culture of bees 

 and the production of honey, one 

 would think that he was only in the 

 noonday of life. He is a pleasant 

 old gentleman, and one who seems to 

 delight in imparting that valuable 

 knowledge which can beobtained only 

 by years of experience. It was really 

 an inspiration to listen to his inter- 

 esting description of his methods of 

 manipulation in the apiary. 



For the past eight years his success 

 in wintering bees has been exceed- 

 ingly good, as lie has not lost a single 

 colony during that time. He win- 

 tered 11 colonies through the past 

 severe winter. They were in hives 

 that were placed inside of boxes 5 

 inches larger than the hives ; the 

 space around each one being packed 

 with chaff, and a G-inch chaff-cushion 

 placed over the hive, just filling the 

 box. Over this box was a cottage- 

 roof arranged so as to allow a quarter- 

 inch space for ventilation under what 

 might be termed the eaves. The 

 liive-entrances were ^4 of an inch 

 high, and were left open tlie whole 

 width of the hive, slanting boards 

 being placed over them to prevent the 

 accumulation of snow and ice at the 

 entrances. Mr. C, is a firm believer 

 in the pollen and hibernation theories, 

 and says that he makes his bees hiber- 

 nate, and thus winters them safely. 



The main honey source in his sec- 

 tion is white clover, and the quality 

 of his present crop is very fine. Mr. 

 Crist believes in tlie bee-keeper hav- 

 ing a home market for his honey. He 

 produces an excellent article, and 

 then finds no difficulty in disposing of 

 it all at a good price. On the very 

 day that I called, he liad sent a crate 

 of 27 pounds to one of his many regu- 

 lar customers at a neigboringtown,for 



which he was to receive 20 cents per 

 pound. 



Mr. C. described his method of con- 

 trolling swarming in strong colonies 

 during the honey-flow, which I will 

 briefly repeat : Suppose that the de- 

 sired strength of a colony consists of 

 30.000 workers ; and that the life of a 

 worker in the busiest part of the sea- 

 son is only 42 days ; consequentlv one- 

 half of the 30,000 (or 15,000) workers 

 will have perished at the end of every 

 21 days— the time required for a 

 worker to hatch from the egg. Now, 

 to replace these 15,000 workers will 

 require 300 square inches of brood, 

 which amount the queen is allowed to 

 produce during every 21 days, and no 

 more. Thus the colony will be kept 

 at the desired strength, and as it does 

 not become crowded for room, it has 

 no inclination to swarm. 



He also gave me a queen-cage, re- 

 questing me to have it placed in the 

 Bee Journal Museum, which is 

 done, and will, no doubt, there be ex- 

 amined by many visitors. It is in- 

 tended to be used for keeping queens 

 for a day or two outside of the hive. 

 It was invented by Mr. C. some 15 

 years ago, and has been in constant 

 use ever since. Although he had 

 heard of and experimented with a 

 number of cages constructed for a 

 similar purpose, yet none of them 

 equalled this one in point of conven- 

 ience and the accomplishment of the 

 object desired. The following is a 

 description of it : 



It is made of iqinch stuff, 3i2x3}4 

 inches, and fig inches wide, in the 

 similitude of a nailed section. One 

 side is entirely covered with fine wire- 

 cloth tacked on firmly ; the other side 

 is covered with a piece of glass made 

 movable by its sliding under small 

 wire pins which are driven into the 

 edges of two sides of the cage, and 

 then bent over the glass. The cage is 

 divided into two compartments, by a 

 wooden partition nearly as wide as 

 the cage, which revolves by means of 

 a pivot at each of its ends. At one 

 end the pivot projects about half an 

 inch, and is then bent so as to form a 

 handle with which to turn the parti- 

 tion from the outside. Each com- 

 partment is entered by means of a 

 half-inch hole at its end, which holes 

 are covered with movable pieces of 

 tin. In one compartment, and oppo- 

 site the partition, is fastened a piece 

 of honey-comb, into which the food is 

 placed ; and with this food are placed 

 worker bees. Into the other com- 

 partment the queen is put, and by 

 turning the partition slightly, the 

 workers can feed her ; or tjy turning 

 it far enough she may be allowed to 

 join the otlier bees. 



The other apiary which I visited, 

 was that of Mr. Benj. Harding, of 

 Kent, Portage county. Mr. 11. is 

 comparatively a young apiarist, hav- 

 ing recently begun keeping bees as an 

 adjunct to his regular occupation— 

 that of a butcher. He started with 

 14 colonies last spring, and now has 

 32 ; and 4 of the original number gave 

 no swarms. His object has been that 

 of increase rather than honey. 



He keeps them in his garden, and 

 the hives are partly shaded by berry 



bushes, com, etc. Nearly all of his 

 bees are pure Italians, and usually 

 very mild and gentle. It was aston- 

 ishing to see with what expertness 

 Mr. H. handled the frames, quilts, 

 etc., of hive after hive. But if it was 

 not more astonishing, it was im- 

 mensely more interesting (to me, at 

 least) to notice with what ease and 

 gracefulness one of the apparently 

 tired workers reposed on the back of 

 my bare hand. Fearing that it might 

 become rested too soon, and perhaps 

 leave a rather " pointed " impression, 

 in a manner not desirable to myself, 

 I requested Mr. H. to blow some 

 smoke upon it, and thus perhaps 

 cause it to forsake its favorable posi- 

 tion. But instead of flying away, as 

 I had anticipated it would, to my sur- 

 prise it merely moved up my arm 

 seemingly on an exploring expedition 

 in quest of honey. Foolish bee ! it 

 was not aware that however much 

 one might read, write, talk or think 

 about honey, these would not tend to 

 make that person one whit sweeter. 



All at once, judging from the pecu- 

 liar sensations passing through my 

 arm, I imagined that that little, tired 

 worker had certainly discovered some 

 new field in which to work, and was 

 forthwith planting upon it the 

 " colors " of its " colony," and " tak- 

 ing " the new territory in the name of 

 the Queen of— the hive. A few hours 

 after this little episode occurred, my 

 arm presented the appearance of a 

 portion of land upon which the Mound 

 builders had erected one of their 

 famous mounds. However, at the 

 time, notwithstanding the hearty 

 laugh of the jolly fat butcher (at my 

 expense), we continued to investigate 

 the workings of the hive, until we 

 had examined nearly every colony of 

 the apiary. 



Mr. H. had 4 acres of Alsike clover, 

 this season, on which the bees fairly 

 swarmed. He cut it with a mowing- 

 machine while it was still in bloom a 

 little, and while the bees' were work- 

 ing upon it, and they never offered to 

 sting either the horses or the men. 

 Surely, I thought, if bees would not 

 attack anything under such circum- 

 stances, they certainly would not 

 molest sheep, while the latter were 

 quietly pasturing, as is claimed by 

 that Wisconsin shepherd ! 



Since reflecting upon the valuable 

 ideas which I gained while visiting 

 these two bee-keepers, I have been 

 impressed with the thought that if 

 bee-men (and all farmers as well) 

 would be more neighborly, and fre- 

 quently compare their methods of 

 operation, much greater advancement 

 could be made ; and perhaps the bene- 

 ficial relations of bees to fruit and 

 flowering crops in general, would be 

 more commonly understood, and thus 

 cause each one to respect the natural 

 rights of another. 



I feel amply repaid for the effort 

 made in visiting the above-mentioned 

 apiaries ; also for making the trip to 

 my native State ; and I now feel suf- 

 ficiently recuperated as to again re- 

 sume my work in the Garden City of 

 the West— Chicago. 



Chicago, d Ills., Aug. 20, 1885. 



