Tmm M^mmmiemM mmw j&u^nmi^. 



327 



scription that go to make and build up 

 the apiary, I always Insisted that the 

 bees must pay their way each year, 

 even in the poorest seasons. Evcui 

 when I bought bees — which I some- 

 times did — it was with the expectation 

 tliat the surplus from sucli colonies 

 would pay back the purchase money 

 at the end of the season. 



Improvement in everything pertain- 

 ing to bee-culture has kept pace with 

 the inventions and improvements in 

 the other industries. .1 have endeav- 

 ored to keep well up with the times in 

 the use of every useful invention or 

 improvement for the apiary ; and it 

 would be only reasonable for me to 

 expect my honey-production to keep 

 pace with the means employed. But 

 it is a little humiliating to have to 

 "own up," that with all tlie useful 

 help that ingenuity and invention have 

 given us, my honey-yield has been 

 diminishing each year, and this is the 

 universal experience of Ohio bee-keep- 

 ers. The result, of the three seasons 

 previous to the last, could be fitly ex- 

 pressed thus: " Poor, poorer, poor- 

 est ;" and the last season has culmi- 

 nated in failure, or very nearly so. 

 This demonstrates clearer than any 

 argument, that hives and fixtures, 

 however ingenious or useful in their 

 way, do not produce honey. 



In view of the foregoing, let me ask 

 the representatives of the bee-keeping 

 industry of Ohio, What is the question 

 that interests us as bee-keepers more 

 than all others ? Is it the style of hive 

 that we shall use ? The race of bees 

 that we shall keep ? Is it reversible 

 hives, T supers, or thick top-bars ? Is 

 it bee-escapes, drone-traps, queen- 

 cages, hone}'-boards,or bottom-boards? 

 Is it all, or any, of these and a hundred 

 and one other useful things? No! it 

 is, How shall we be able to secure a 

 crop of honey, or even a certainty of 

 an increase in the yield ? I think that 

 you will agree with me that this is a 

 question worth your consideration. 



Once I thought that just the right 

 style of hive would give me the key to 

 success. I have worked out a hive 

 that satisfies me in every respect. It 

 has not increased, for me, the produc- 

 tion of honej'. I said, " Perhaps the 

 yellow bees are the thing to make suc- 

 cess complete." I procured a j-ellow 

 queen from Sunny Italy, and tilled my 

 hives with yellow bees, and still my 

 coffers were not fllled. 



Then the wintering problem came 

 to the front, and I snid : If I only 

 could winter my bees successfully and 

 certainly, I would surely be on the 

 high road to fortnne. The Increase of 

 my colonies each year would enable 

 me to increase and extend my apiaries 

 all over northern Ohio, until they were 

 numbered by hundreds, and the help I 



would employ would be as numerous 

 as the workers in one of my colonics. 

 This great system of apiaries should be 

 known as — let mo see — " Northern 

 Ohio and Lake Erie Apiaries." I 

 should have a special agent in all of 

 our principal cities, whose exclusive 

 business it would be to sell the best 

 and choicest honey the world could 

 produce, from the "Northern Ohio and 

 Lake Erie Apiaries." I would be able 

 to "fare sumptuously every day," and 

 the banks would bo plethoric with my 

 lucre. 



Successful wintering is, with me, no 

 longer a problem. I have learned to 

 winter my bees as successfully as I 

 could desire, and yet my apiaries are 

 not numbered by hundreds, nor are 

 the banks plethoric with my lucre. But 

 like the ever tempting waters around 

 the thirst-tortured Tantalus, Fortune 

 has kept provokingly just beyond my 

 reach. 



The notable changes affecting the 

 honey-yield, are the destruction of the 

 forest trees, by the advance of civiliza- 

 tion — more especially the basswood 

 and whitewood, or tulip trees — both 

 prolific in nectar for the bees. This 

 destruction, especially of the basswood, 

 bee-keepers are thoughtlessly helping 

 on, by the use of supplies made from 

 that timber. 



I do not feel warranted in attributing 

 the shortage in the honey crop en- 

 tirely to this cause, as there are always 

 two conditions necessary during the 

 season for honey-gathering, after we 

 have got the workers ready for the 

 field, viz : Abundance of hone3'-pro- 

 ducing bloom, aud favorable weather 

 — and the most important is the 

 weather, for with unfavorable weather, 

 bees may, and indeed sometimes do, 

 starve and die in the hives, while the 

 breezes waft the fragrance of the nec- 

 tar-laden flowers in at their " doors." 



The most important conditions, 

 then, the weather, is one over which 

 we have no control. There is in the 

 West, a vast domain where these two 

 favorable conditions nearly always ex- 

 ist during the honey season, whei'e 

 almost perpetual sunshine and un- 

 bounded bloom combine to make it a 

 " bee-keepers' paradise." 



It is where artificial irrigation is 

 substituted for the natural rainfall — 

 where the alfalfa clover grows in lux- 

 uriance. I predict for those neglected 

 desert plains, future possibilities for 

 the bee-keeper yet undreamed of. In 

 the not very far distant future, if I am 

 not greatly mistaken, this land will 

 literally " flow with milk and honey." 

 To the young bee-keeper, with high 

 aspirations, I would point to this vast 

 and undeveloped domain, and repeat 

 Horace Greeley's advice^" Go West, 

 young man." 



But as we are not all expected to 

 accept this advice, we must turn our 

 attention to the other necessary con- 

 dition for honey-gathering — the flora — 

 aud strive to improve our honey-yield 

 through its means alone, and take our 

 chances with the weather. But as 

 " Bee-Forage " is a special topic on the 

 programme, I will only say, in conclu- 

 sion, that I would recommend careful 

 and patient experiment with the 

 alfalfa clover by liee-keepers. It may 

 yet find congenial soil in Ohio — it cer- 

 tainly grows in luxuriance much further 

 North. We have, at all events, a very 

 near relation of this olover,and equally 

 as good for honey, I am certain — it 

 grows luxuriantly on all kinds of soil, 

 even on our hardest, poorest clay — it 

 is the much-talked-of sweet clover. I 

 am deeply interested in this plant. I 

 have hopes of seeing farms devoted to 

 its cultivation expresslj' for its honey, 

 aud with patient experience I should 

 expect to see its luxuriant foliage 

 finally turned into beef and the dairy 

 products. 



East Townsend, Ohio. 



PAINTING HIVES. 



Is Time and Material AVastcd in 

 Painting Bec-Hive§ ? 



Wi-itten fur the American Bee Journal 



BY W. L. BACKENSTO. 



On account of sickness and bad 

 weather I have not as yet made a start 

 in bee-keeping, but I am still working 

 to that end. But since the receipt of 

 the Bee Journal for March 29, I have 

 been in somewhat of a quandary as to 

 the advisability of painting my hives, 

 as on page 217 Mr. C. Theilraann's e.K- 

 perience of 15 years has convinced 

 him that unpainted hives are the best ; 

 and now comes Prof. Cook, on page 

 260, who in a certain souse agrees with 

 Mr. Theilmann. Now, if unpainted 

 hives are the best, I do not wish to 

 waste the time or material in painting 

 my hives. 



As regards the ventilation of hives, 

 Mr. Theilmann's theory, which he says 

 he has proven by 15 years' experience, 

 may stand good in that altitude, where 

 long cold winters and a great amount 

 of rain prevail ; but in an altitude like 

 this of Colorado, where we have 

 months of dry 'weather with scarcely a 

 drop of rain, and the winters (except 

 in the mountains) are not severe, but 

 on the contrary very mild, I think that 

 part of his argument in respect to ven- 

 tilating hives is not applicable here. 



In respect to the durability of hives 

 painted, or not painted, I think that 

 Mr. Theilmann must enjoy the pleas- 

 ure of a nice, comfortable and commo- 



