206 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 16 1905. 



as the shepherd and the herdsman winter his flocks and 

 herds. In this respect what one can do another may. Shall 

 we then say that the past winter was a winter in which bees 

 could not be wintered with success? We must admit it 

 was the most disastrous for many years. To my recollec- 

 tion we have had none like it for 23 years, but both in reposi- 

 tories and outside bees were, during the time under discus- 

 sion, wintered with success. Such a line of argument must 

 then fall to the ground. 



Shall we then say that a great many do not know the 

 conditions under which bees can be wintered with reasonable 

 safety? If we can judge from what we see and hear, we 

 may surely make this assertion with safety. There are 

 many who do not know, who can not know, the conditions 

 under which bees can with reasonable safety be wintered. 

 They have begun bee-keeping through the acquisition of a 

 stray swarm, or the microbe of bee-fever has taken root 

 in their mind through the success of one who has devoted 

 his time to the work. They see the returns, but not the 

 labor. No literature upon the subject is sought; they have 

 no proverbial "long-felt want," or short either, for knowl- 

 edge. An old hive is bought, perhaps with foul-brood germs; 

 this neglected hive may be a breeding-place for this disease, and 

 the moth. During their short career as bee-keepers, if 

 product they have, it is oftener than not, taken in such a shape 

 that when sold it depresses the market. They sell at a sacri- 

 fice. This class of bee-keepers is a menace to apicultural 

 society, and cannot be too strongly discouraged. With the 

 beginner who sees in it a business and desires to engage in it 

 in a business-like way, we as individuals and especially as an 

 association having a Government grant, entrusted with public 

 money, should have every sympathy. 



Let us state the truth, that bee-keeping is an occupation 

 full of problems, which multiply to our view as we gain ex- 

 perience and rise in it. 



The occupation we know nothing of is the one which 

 appears simple and easy to understand. Let us take home the 

 wholesome lesson in spiritual as well as temporal life, im- 

 parted when man fell, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 

 eat bread" ; to produce good, evils must be resisted and 

 difficulties overcome. We can easily recognize this class who 

 do not know the conditions under which bees can be win- 

 tered with reasonable safety. There is, however, under this 

 head another class, perhaps not as numerous, but more dan- 

 gerous, who can do an immeasurable amount of harm in in- 

 fluencing the less experienced and less thoughtful bee-keeper. 

 I refer to the blind leaders of the blind. It is a well-known 

 joke among the veterans that when a bee-keeper has a little 

 experience he knows more than he ever will again ; he can tell 

 you all about it; this he realizes he never can ;t a later stage 

 of the game. 



I am fairly familiar with the various branches of agricul- 

 ture, having been brought up on a farm, worked on a farm, 

 taken a course at the Ontario Agricultural College, and kept 

 in touch with the developments of modern agriculture since. 

 Seeing from that standpoint, it seems to me that no class 

 of agriculture is handicapped as bee-keeping is with such 

 inefficient instructors and experimenters in one way and an- 

 other. Anything and anyone is good enough to take the 

 bee-department, when in other lines it would not be offered 

 or tolerated. These agencies, be they Government or private, 

 by their action endorse the thought that it requires no train- 

 ing to keep bees, and these agencies help to swell the ranks 

 of those who increase the percentage of winter loss, and who 

 are a menace and a detriment to the agriculture of a country. 



Our world's governments, if we except some countries 

 in Europe, our public institutions, our press, in the develop- 

 ment of our various branches of agriculture, remind me 

 largely of the unjust father who had a large family to pro- 

 vide for, and found it impossible to give to every child a 

 first-class education and position, so he sent some to school, 

 college and university; they became noted men; others, how- 

 ever, instead of educating them at school and university, he 

 set at breaking stones on the road; the children became 

 marked contrasts; the former in time looked down with 

 scorn upon the latter; the stone-breaker as the eminent 

 man's carriage drove by, justly despised and perhaps envied 

 his rich brother because he had been elevated by having given 

 to him what was justly the stone-breaker's share, and the 

 head of the family was judged for his partial action, and 

 condemned by every just and thoughtful person. Some 

 branches of agriculture are rolling by in their carriages, whilst 

 apiculture and apicultural markets are still in the stone- 

 breaking stage. 



Then we see those who know how to prepare their bees, 

 but are too busy, too careless, and too indifferent to put that 

 knowledge into practice. We know of many who undertake 

 too much, who have too many irons in the fire ; the return 

 they get for the capital they have invested is a loss, a repu- 

 tation for lack of thoroughness, to say nothing of added worry 

 and annoyance. The person who is constitutionally a little 

 behind should never keep bees. The "too many irons in the 

 fire" man never reaches the degree of success where that suc- 

 cess gives him a stimulus and pleasure of which the ordinary 

 man knows nothing. We are in the days of the specialist; 

 no man is competent to lead in a variety of agricultural 

 subjects. 



My last deduction is that last winter's experience, and 

 years of experience, teach us that bee-keeping is a branch 

 of agriculture which punishes sooner or later the careless, 

 inexperienced bee-keeper, and the person who cannot give it 

 due attention. And it rewards liberally the careful, ener- 

 getic, thrifty and studious performer; in other words, it is 

 worthy the attention of our brightest minds and dispositions. 

 This last deduction is sound, and the more we blazon abroad 

 this fact, the better for bee-keeping, and the better for the coun- 

 try. The more successful bee-keepers' will we have, the less 

 of the dangerous elements. Bee-keeping is an occupation 

 peculiarly dangerous to one of a slothful or improvident dis- 

 position. Action has to be taken when present circumstances 

 would not spur us to that action. To prepare for a honey- 

 flow weeks, yes, months, before, when cold would rather 

 draw us to the fireside ; to prepare for a rush of honey when 

 scarcely a bee is stirring in the apiary, requires energy and 

 foresight. The life history of the bee, a knowledge of the 

 best implements, mechanical training, botany, chemistry, en- 

 tomology, physics, and meteorology, the nature of soils, physi- 

 cal strength, mental endowments and business acumen pos- 

 sessed and applied, all will be rewarded when one engages 

 in bee-keeping. This is more or less true of all branches 

 of agriculture. 



In choosing a life profession the parent and child often 

 choose a calling where the means financial, mental and other- 

 wise, can give no hope of being in anything but the vanguard 

 of the profession. Desire in this should be governed by solid 

 sense. The careless and thoughtless, and the poorly-equipped 

 and shiftless, better not follow agriculture as a business, and 

 select something which does not require so wide a range of 

 information and powers. It would be better for him to be- 

 come a lawyer, a doctor, a merchant, a politician, or the like. 

 Strictly speaking, my subject ends here, and yet I ven- 

 ture an addition to what has been said, to say a few words 

 upon the additional prevention of these winter losses. See- 

 ing that every colony has a fertile queen, of the best wintering 

 strain, and 30 pounds of winter stores, would reduce the per- 

 centage of winter loss very much. The colder it is the more 

 compactly bees cluster. If stores do not reach the cluster 

 they may not be able to break the cluster to reach the stores, 

 and starve. This is frequently the case during prolonged 

 cold-spells, and only a moderate amount of stores in the hive. 

 The moisture given off by the bees should be expelled 

 from the hive. After allowing in outside wintering sufficient 

 packing to protect from cold, there are two methods advo- 

 cated. By means of one, the fresh air is brought in at the 

 entrance of the hive, and the air laden with moisture and 

 carbonic-acid gas carried off at the same opening. 



The other method is to bring in the pure air at the en- 

 trance and carry the foul air by the pressure from the fresh air 

 entering the hive, and the natural tendency for the warmed 

 air to rise, by these means to carry the exhausted air through 

 the packing above. 



Arthur C. Miller, in the Review, lays down in no uncer- 

 tain tones that the entrance is the proper opening for fresh 

 air, and also the outlet for foul. In a stove we have the 

 place where the fresh air enters, as in the hive we have the 

 entrance to the hive. In the wood and fire we have combus- 

 tion and oxidation, as with the bees and honey we have com- 

 bustion and oxidation. When the fresh air entrance becomes 

 the natural outlet for the smoke and carbonic-acid gas, then 

 the entrance to the hive will be the natural outlet for the 

 exhausted air of the hive. 



In the common entrance and outlet we have what is 

 known in science as a friction of air currents, the bees wast- 

 ing energy in expelling it, as they do, in forcing the warmed 

 atmosphere down. Another objection is that more or less of 

 the exhausted, impure air, must be drawn back into the hive 

 by what is known as diffusion of gasses. But what makes this 

 advice so dangerous in colder climates — and I have no doubt 

 that this advice has led to the loss of many a colony of bees 



