342 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 11, 190S 



What we may properly consider a further support of this 

 belief is, that not many years ago many bee-keepers began 

 reducing the size of the brood-chambers of their hives and 

 calling for smaller hives. Their queens were not keeping the 

 10 Langstroth frames properly filled, and the size of the hive 

 was blamed. Perhaps the blame was rightly placed, and then 

 again perhaps it was not. 



Most of such reports came from bee-keepers following 

 well-defined lines of instruction and practice. The spread of 

 diseases and the gospel of small hives have followed not far 

 behind the heels of the " transferred-larvaj " system of queen- 

 rearing ; just far enough behind to give strength to the sus- 

 picion that they are related. The system was well exploited, 

 judicious advertising increased the sale of queens reared by 

 the system, and the evils have increased also. 



It is idle for the advocates of that system to say the 

 queens are as fine as any that can be produced by any method, 

 until they can show that the above-mentioned evils have no 

 connection with that system. 



The system as taught and practiced, together with the 

 confining of the young queens in cages on candy food, makes 

 impossible the fulfilling of the natural laws of developing. I 

 make this statement knowing full well whereof I speak, and 

 knowing also that it will probably raise a storm of contradic- 

 tion. Now and then queens may be found reared by this 

 system, that are all that could be desired, and it would be 

 strange if among the thousands reared some were not found 

 which chanced to dodge the evils. But they are the excep- 

 tions. Providence Co., R. I. 



# 



Ezera Thrasher and His Bee-Keepin' 



Br WALTER S. POUDER 



MY name is Thrasher — Ezera Thrasher — and I drove to 

 town to look after some of your gums and other fixens 

 made for bees. My boys is gettin' big enough to work, 

 and I am going to take it easier. I am nigh SO years old, and 

 I am going to make a business of keepin' bees. I believe I 

 like the business better than anything that I know of, and I 

 have found out that bees work for nothin' and board them- 

 selves, and that is the kind of help that I have been wantin'. 

 The boys is now big enough to tend the place, and they are 

 good workers, 'specially when Manda — that's my wife— gets 

 out and helps 'em. I have 'leven swarms in good box-hives, 

 and I 'low to make just as many more swarms this season as I 

 kin. You see, some time ago they dropped our post-office 

 where I used to go to rest up, and now they have a rural route 

 through my neighborhood, and I was so lonesome for a while 

 that I hardly knew what to do, but since I g-ot in the bee-busi- 

 ness I am glad to stay around with my bees. I've been told 

 that Tim Smith, our old postmaster, was about to be fired 

 anyhow for closing the office on Ground Hog Day. You see 

 he 'lowed it was a holiday, but he found out afterwards that it 

 was no holiday at all." 



In this manner Ezera Thrasher introduced himself to the 

 clerk in a bee-supply store in Indianapolis. He purchased no 

 supplies on this trip, but took home with him a quantity of 

 honey, both comb and extracted. He explained that the 

 neighbors seeing his bees, often wanted to buy a few pounds 

 of honey, but that he had none on hand. Returning, he con- 

 tinues thus : 



" Well, I now see my way clear to handle the honey-busi- 

 ness in Indianapolis, both wholesale and retail next year. 

 This coming winter I will buy a good many sections and an 

 extractor. Say, you fellers told me that beatin' on tin pans 

 did no good towards stopping- a swarm. I want to say to you 

 that it does bring 'em down, for I have tried it. Why, I could 

 tell by the way the bees acted that they intended to lite out, 

 so I runs for Manda's dish-pan, and as soon as I commenced 

 to beat they began to lite on an apple-tree. Manda scolded 

 like everything about having her dish-pan beat up, but I 

 saved a fine swarm. 



" Well as soon as they commenced to lite I sent one of the 

 boys over for my neighbor, Silas Alfing. Silas and I had 

 always been good friends, and he had never seen a swarm set- 

 tled in a tree before, but, blamed me, if Silas and I didn't 

 have a fall out right there about those bees. It was this way ; 

 I got up in the tree and tied Manda's clothes-line around the 

 limb, and I was to saw the limb off and let bees and limb 

 down to Silas. Just as I hollered for Silas to be ready, the 

 limb swung down and brushed off most of the bees, but the 

 limb was not cut clear off. The first thing I did was to push 

 away the leaves so I could look 'down and see what Silas was 

 doing, and what I see just beat all, for there was Silas run- 

 ning just as fast as he could right through Tom Jamison's 



wheat-field. By this time them bees was getting thick around 

 my shoe-tops, and climbing right straight up. I climbed 

 down as fast as I could, and then I started after Silas, he 

 being heavy-set and me not very limber, but I soon caught up 

 with him, and you just ort to seen us a fightin' them bees — 

 seemed like we both got excited, and I hate to say it, but from 

 that day to this Silas has not spoke to me. Nexi year I a,m 

 going to belong to that big bee-association and have some 

 protection." 



Mr. Thrasher called on us again in November, and his 

 enthusiasm had not subsided in the least. 



" I know three fellers that are makin' a heap of money off 

 their bees ; one at Alexandria, one at Peru, and one at Win- 

 chester, and I reckon that there are plenty others doin' as 

 well, and it they can do it I can, too. Some of my bees are 

 pretty weak, and some are scarce of honey, but I 'lowed that 

 a swarm that don't make enough to keep 'em is no 'count. I 

 have 2 or 3 hives that have no queens yet, but I thought I 

 would get queens for them next spring." 



Mr. Thrasher called on us again in the following Feb- 

 ruary. 



"Here, you fellers, is 6 pounds of beeswax; give me what 

 it is worth and that settles the bee-business with me. The 

 hogs upset some of my best hives during that last cold-spell, 

 and the weak ones, too, are all dead. I am goin' back to 

 farmin' again, and will keep one or two more cows, for Manda 

 likes to help with the cows. My oldest boy is coming to town 

 to get on the street-cars as mo'torman, and this will leave a 

 heap of hard work for me. Recollect that last crate of honey 

 you sent me? Well, I did not do well with that crate. It was 

 put off at stop No. 13 on the Interurban Line all right, but it 

 'peared like everybody in our deestrict went and took a look 

 at it, and when I went to sell it they all wanted to know if I 

 didn' buy that honey in Indianapolis instead of gittin' it from 

 my own bees. I was stumped, and I have a good deal of it on 

 hands yet. Y'ou will find that wax all right, but Manda has 

 scolded a heap about me spoiling her copper-bottom wash- 

 boiler. Manda is always pokin fun at me, too, and asking me 

 what I am going to do next year !" 



The last we heard about Ezera Thrasher he was down at 

 the State House making an effort to lobby against a whipping- 

 post Bill. Marion Co., Ind. 



(£onr>cntton 

 Proccebtngs 



The Illinois State Convention 



J^ 



The 14th annual session of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was held in Springfield, Nov. IS and 16, 1904. The 

 proceedings of that meeting are published in a pamphlet, as 

 mentioned on page 324 of the American Bee Journal, from 

 which we take the following : 



REPORT OF THE STATE INSPECTOR 



To the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association I submit the 

 following report : 



In making this my first annual report of State inspection, 

 I will say that the work to be done in this State is far 

 more important than the best-informed on this subject can 

 imagine. Bacillus alvei (foul brood) I have found to exist 

 from the counties bordering on Lake Michigan to the banks 

 of the Mississippi River. 



In my work I visited bee-keepers in 32 counties, and found 

 foul brood in most of them. I also found the infection had 

 been brought by buying bees and queens from diseased api- 

 aries and careless dealers. Any one buying queens should be 

 very careful. The trouble may be avoided by removing the 

 queen from the cage upon arrival into a clean cage, and burn- 

 ing the cage and attendant bees that came by mail. I believe 

 that the best way to get rid of the disease is to educate the 

 bee-keepers through the bee-papers, agricultural and horti- 

 cultural publications. 



A great many mistake chilled or pickled brood for foul 

 brood. It can be easily distinguished from foul brood, as 

 pickled brood, or chilled brood, occurs after the larva has 

 passed the 13th day from the egg. The young bee takes on 

 the nymph form, that is, the formation of legs, wings, etc.. 



