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dious bee-house, where his hives have 

 been in out of the weather for 15 years. 

 Novv I never had much experienoe in 

 keeping bees, but I have seen a great 

 many hives that other people liept 

 bees in — some painted, and others not 

 — those that were not painted, or that 

 the original paint had all been worn 

 off by the weather — and it always im- 

 pressed me in a very forcible manner, 

 that the owner was not fully up to his 

 business, or was careless, and was 

 losing money by not keeping his hives 

 thoroughly painted. I formed my 

 conclusions from these facts — I noticed 

 that the unpainted hives were full of 

 season-checks (or cracks), that the 

 corners of the hives were pulled apart, 

 and, in a great many cases, the boards 

 were warped, and where they were 

 not, they were falling out. 



As I understand it, the bees stop up 

 all the cracks and open places in the 

 hive that they can get at, with propolis; 

 and as it takes time to collect the pro- 

 polis, and more time to apply it to the 

 damaged places in the bee's home, 

 when, if the bees so employed would 

 very probably, if collecting honey, 

 gather enough to more than pay for 

 keeping the hives painted, after once 

 being painted, to say nothing about 

 portions of the hives having to be re- 

 placed, having become so full of 

 cracks, and so badly warped as to be 

 of no further use. 



I write this for information, more 

 than anything else, and I hope to see 

 more on the subject in the Bee Jour- 

 NAX, from practical bee-keepers. 



Denver, Colo., April 24, 1890. 



BEE-CULTURE, 



Will It Pay?— The Terrible 

 Kentucky Cyclone. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



How often this question has been 

 discussed, I could not venture to say, 

 but I have seldom seen it discussed in 

 print in its proper sphere and under 

 proper comparison. 



Bee-culture is a branch of agricul- 

 ture ; it is a rural pursuit, and in com- 

 puting profits, the comparison must be 

 drawn between it and kindred pur- 

 suits. The matter of capital and all 

 risks must be considered. Looking at 

 the matter in this light — its legitimate 

 light — I say, without any hesitation, 

 Oee-cuUure jjai/s. 



Do some men fail to make bee-cul- 

 ture pay ? Certainly they do, and 

 quite a "some" of them fail, and 

 would fail at almost anything else. 

 Some men lack energy, and fail for 

 want of "push;" they are slow, and 



let the opportunities slip. Others are 

 visionary, and push their business to 

 destruction. But the man or woman 

 who is willing to study, work and wait, 

 can and will succeed. 



Bee-culture is not a royal highway 

 to wealth — all who immagine such a 

 thing, will be disappointed. It co"mes 

 under that class of industries that only 

 bring a comfortable living. Cast about 

 you and see how many hundreds of 

 families barely make a support. A 

 little sickness, a little drouth, a little 

 mishap, brings them to want. When 

 you stand here and ask. " Does bee- 

 culture pay ?" the answer is " Yes ;" 

 but if you stand in " Wall Street," in 

 the banking house, in the halls of 

 merchandise, or if 3-ou walk in the 

 great farming districts where great 

 farm-houses are to be seen surrounded 

 by broad acres of waving grain, and 

 sleek cattle browsing the grass-carpet- 

 ed fields beside pools of cool waters, 

 the vision pales, and bee-culture 

 dwindles to a little business. 



We must judge everything from a 

 proper stand-point, if we would arrive 

 at proper conclusions. To make bee- 

 culture pay, we must learn the busi- 

 ness, and we must learn to be econo- 

 mists ; good, plain hives and fixtures, 

 as cheap as is consistent with utilitj'. 

 with as little expense as possible con- 

 sistent with ready supplies, which 

 means avoid all expensive patent hives 

 and patent devices that are untried, or 

 that promise nothing for the extra 

 price set on them. Good fixtures and 

 plenty of supplies to meet all the needs 

 of the apiary, will always paj' ; but the 

 apiarist who fails to judge rightly in 

 this respect, will fail in the end. 



NEW BEE-DEVICES — EXCLUDERS. 



Move cautiou.sly here. I tried a few 

 perforated queen-excluders at the start, 

 and learned how to manipulate them ; 

 then I added more of them, till I have 

 a supply, anti yet they are not used in- 

 discriminately in my apiar}*. To use 

 them profitably, they should not be 

 used blindly, but used only where 

 needed, and when needed. I have not 

 the space here to point out how and 

 when to use the excluders to the best 

 advantage — a little experiment will 

 aid the apiarist to use the excluders to 

 the best advantage ; 1 only add here 

 that the best and cheapest excluder is 

 a plain sheet of perforated-zinc, framed 

 with wood. The wood-and-zinc ex- 

 cluder is clums}', and nearly impossible 

 to keep clean, besides it costs more 

 than the full-sheet excluder. 



THE SWAEM-HIVER. 



This is not as new a device as some 

 seem to think, but this matters not — 

 Will it work ? is the great question. 1 

 have experimented largely in the past 

 with swarms, and the tendency of the 



swarm to return to the old hive has 

 been so stronglj- marked that I am 

 prepared in advance to say that the 

 " swarm-hiver " will never be auto- 

 matic in its performance. Only a part 

 of the swarm will go into the new hive 

 with the queen ; and if the old hive 

 must be opened, and the swarm re- 

 plenished therefrom, nothing will be 

 gained over the clipped-wing plan. 



THE BEE-ESCAPE. 



Perhaps I am the "daddy" of the 

 bee-escape, though no doubt some 

 will be ready to smile at the hint. By 

 referring to page 333, of the American 

 Bee Journal for 1881, it will be seen 

 that 1 exhibited a bee-escape at the 

 National Convention held at Lexing- 

 ton, Kj'., in 1881. The committee 

 does not call it a " bee-escape," but 

 the model had "Bee-Escape" printed 

 on it. I still have the model in my 

 collection of bee-traps. 



John S. Reese, however, first applied 

 the device to the inside of the hive. 

 Mr. Reese and myself have been in 

 communication with each other for 

 several years, and the first 1 ever 

 heard of the application of the device 

 to the inside of the hive was in a com- 

 munication from Mr. Reese. He sent 

 me a model at first of his cone device, 

 and afterwards of his horizontal de- 

 vice. 



Well, now, I have experimented as 

 largely with bee-escapes as any other 

 bee-beeper, having used them in every 

 conceivable form as an outlet to my 

 " dark closet," and also in the hive, 

 since Mr. Reese made the suggestion 

 to me, and in my opinion the horizon- 

 tal device will never work reliably, as 

 does the perpendicular device. Bees 

 do not move as promptly iu the dark 

 through a liorizontal pass-way as they 

 do in a perpendicular direction. Time 

 will show if I am right in thus con- 

 cluding. 



the great cyclone in KENTUCKY. 



Though grand and appalling outside 

 of the cyclone, on March 27, it did no 

 great damage except to fences and 

 other light structures. My apiary was 

 not injured, though it looked consid- 

 erabl}' wrecked. Many of the hives 

 were unroofed, but the bee-glue held 

 the upper stories in place. How is that 

 for square-joint hives ? 



The cyclone passed west of this 

 place, but it was quite near enough to 

 send out a terrific sound like great 

 freight-trains running at full speed in 

 the upper regions. From where I 

 stood, I could see the cyclone battling 

 with the opposing forces as it would 

 swing down in the form of an inverted 

 cone, from the great storm-cloud, fill- 

 ing the upper regions with a hollow, 

 unearthly, indescribable sound. Night 

 had just clothed the earth in darkness. 



