264 



THE BEE-KEEPEKS' KEVIEW 



took the eg-g-s in a certain comb to hatch 

 into larvae and to mature into perfect 

 bees. Then I used lo look with wistful 

 eyes on those nice chunks of honey in 

 the corners of the hive. I often wanted 

 some of them to sell to my neig-hbors, 

 so I had a blacksmith make me a knife 

 (I have it yet in the shape of a stove 

 poker) so I could cut across the in- 

 side of the top of the hive and get out 

 those precious chunks of honey, and 

 still leave enough in the hive to carry 

 the bees safely through the coming 

 winter. This is the way I got my first 

 surplus honey; and if we took 10 or 15 

 pounds a year from a colony, we 

 thought we had done exceeding well. 



PKIMITIVK F.XPKRIMKNTING. 



One day it came into my head to find 

 out how many bees there were in a 

 large swarm, so the first swarm that 

 came out 1 hived it in an empty box, 

 then, at night, when the bees were all 

 in, 1 sunk the box in a barrel of water, 

 drowning the bees so I could count 

 them the next day. That swarm con- 

 tained almost 39,000 bees. 



And so I went from one thing to an- 

 other, destroying many good colonies 

 in trying to learn all 1 could about 

 them. In fact, this was my only 

 way, as there were no bee journals at 

 that time, and I could not get track of 

 any books on the subject. 



OLD-TIMK SUPEIiSTITIONS. 



I never can forget the long walk I 

 took one day in search of knowledge. 

 A neighbor told me of a man living 

 about eight miles from father's house 

 who had his garden full of bees; and, 

 certainly he must know all there was 

 to know about them. That was enough 

 for me; the next morning, before sun- 

 rise, I started a foot and alone to see 

 that man. I got to his place about ten 

 o'clock, a. m., and found him and his 

 whole family hiving a swarm. He was 

 pounding on a big drum, his wife also 

 blowing the dinner horn, seven children 

 were hammering on tin pans, and the 



old grandma had a looking glass in 

 her hands throwing the reflection of the 

 sun on the bees. There was nothing 

 unusual about this hiving of bees, as I 

 had seen some of our neighbors do 

 nearly the same thing. I told him 

 father never made any such noise when 

 his bees swarmed, and he got along 

 just as well. He then told me if my 

 father died, I must go to every hive, the 

 first night, and tell the bees all about 

 it; for, if I did not, all the bees would 

 die in less than a year. "Then," he 

 said, "you see that wax the bees are 

 carrying in on their legs, the king bee 

 makes that into comb." I told him I 

 knew that was not so, for they carried 

 that stuff into their hives when they 

 had been full of comb a number of 

 years. He told me one thing to be sure 

 and remember, "when you take your 

 honey in, in the fall, take it at the new 

 moon in October, and you will find 

 that it will weigh more than when the 

 moon is past full." He then went on 

 and said, "When you take your honey, 

 if you don't have brimstone enough 

 you will find sulphur is just as good." 

 He told me that down cellar was a 

 good place to keep honey. I told him 

 it would not be as handy for the boy 

 as up garret. He said "If my boys 

 helped themselves to honey I would 

 thr;ish them." 1 then told him my 

 father never whipped his children, and 

 always said that a child could not love 

 a father that whipped him. 



BARBAROUS ME;TH0DS. 



The almost universal way at that 

 time to get surplus honey was to dig a 

 hole in the ground, put some live coals 

 of fire in it, then throw on some brim- 

 stone, and set the hive over the hole, 

 thus smothering the bees. That is the 

 way the lightest and heaviest colonies 

 were treated. The colony that filled 

 its hive with honey to overflowing, 50 

 years ago, stood in the same light, be- 

 fore cruel man, as did the man who 

 dared to think aloud two or three 

 hundred years ago. The guilotine and 



